Help. I had a heavy metal challenge test done on my youngest two children. I was particularly worried about my youngest who has many symptoms similar to mine that developed in the last year. He will be 6 on Sunday, and last year he developed food allergies, gastritis, and I noticed hand tremors that seem worse when he gets the gastrointestinal symptoms. A lymph node in his neck swelled up last summer and is smaller now but still more noticeable than before. At one stage, he had night sweats. Last October, I had a stool test done on him - and he had no lactobacillus and an overgrowth of klebsiella bacteria. He did not come up high for yeast, but seems to have yeast symptoms and did test as allergic to yeast. He is intolerant of carbohydrates. I had a filling replaced (before I knew any better) while I was pregnant with him. In the months that followed, I was very ill and had an ER visit for vomitting and had to have a full cardiology workup for irregular heartbeat symptoms and dizziness, all while pregnant with him. When he was one month old, he was hospitalized for a fever and at the same time, I went to the ER for chest pain and was diagnosed with pleurisy (not the first time). I was breastfeeding him for the first 7 months, not knowing that I had mercury toxicity or that it is transferred in breast milk. So, today I got the results and he did test high for mercury. My middle son was in the normal range, but just on the border of being elevated.

My doctor who ran the test has closed his office quite suddenly. So now I have to find a new doctor. I am wondering if anyone has suggestions as to what I can do for him until I find a new doctor. I used oral DMPS for myself and infrared sauna. It is difficult to put him in the sauna - he doesn't sweat much for the time he is able to stay in so I don't know how much good it is doing. Does anyone know if the clay baths are really helpful and if so, what kind do I get and from where? I have been giving him Epsom salt baths which seem to help him overall. Also, I have read people on this site talk about Algin. I have not tried it for myself. Is it safe for children and does it need to be used with DMSA or DMPS to make sure the mercury is excreted or can it be used alone? Any advice on this or supplement suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I will probably try to find a DAN! doctor who has experience with chelation. And I am going to hold off on vaccinations for now as I think it could be a trigger for even worse health.

You might want to consider giving him a round of colon cleansing. Colon cleansing for mercury poisoning (and yeasts) is really important and helps as much as chelation, should accompany chelation as a matter of fact because chelation without colon cleansing is not a very good idea, Being that he's young he's probably not real dirty down there but some extra help should help a lot. there's a website at http://www.humaworm.com , the owner is suppose to be real easy to talk to, will do a brief phone consult I think, their colon cleanse stuff is suppose to be real good, and he should be able to give you a oretty good idea abot how to approach that with a 6 year old, doses etc.

Chelation helped me a lot, colon cleansing helped me a lot too. If you can keep the stuff moving on out without congesting down there his lymph glands should clear right up. Several months of chelation did not help my lymph glands near as much as regular colon cleansing.

Algin is a deriviative of kelp, it is safe for children.

KCB,

Join the following two Yahoo groups:

http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/Autism-Mercury/

and

http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/Williss/

On the second one you can directly ask questions to Willis Langford who has helped a lot of people get their kids back.

You should hold off on vaccines forever (at least no vaccines until 3 years old), maybe what started this in the first place. I'm sorry to hear what you are going through. I thank God for my three healthy children only one of whom has had any vaccines. Keep the mercury fillings out of the kids mouths (VERY important). I can only imagine what you are going through.

You should become acquainted with the name Andy Cutler. You can find him on the Autism Mercury yahoo group. He has written the book (literally) on Mercury Chelation.

Thank you for the great links. I have added them to my favorites and will do my research. (There are not enough hours in the day!)

Sosick - I agree about the colon cleansing. Before I knew I had mercury poisoning (thought it was all just candida), I was able to keep my symptoms at bay through frequent enemas (coffee, aloe) - not everyday, but at least a few days a week. It made a huge difference for me - and I think that is why the two rounds of chelation with DMPS that I have done went pretty well - not much in the way of side effects and significant improvement. I didn't want to do an enema on my young son - but I had not thought of oral colon cleansing. Is this product safe for children - the side effects sound scary. I wonder if anyone has had any adverse effects. I am willing to try a lot on myself, but am wary when it comes to my children. Has there been any liver toxicity associated with this? One of the tough things with my son is that he often does not tell me when he doesn't feel well (we had a blood draw at our last doctor visit - maybe afraid of that or afraid I will go very strict on the diet.) So I worry that if he is having an adverse reaction to something he will not tell me. I have given him natural antifungals. I will definitely look into this.

Sregan - the vaccines may very well have contributed to his health problems - I obviously wish I had known more about vaccines at the time. I had to get very sick myself to find out how the world of medicine really works. My oldest has already had shots through age 8 and my youngest two had shots through age 4. I at least stayed away from the flu shots thank goodness. I may be done with vaccinations - I have my hands full trying to find out how to detoxify them right now, and don't even have time to look at the issue. I don't think I will ever make a health care decision again without investigating it thoroughly myself rather than relying on my doctor. I think I will get a lot of information from those forum links you gave me, so thank you so much.

Sorry for what you are going through. We live in a world where instead of admitting mistakes and helping people get better we deny everything. The dollar is running this world and into the ground.

I would start giving them lots of Vitamin C, you might use Ester C which is supposed to be PH balanced. Normal C (and buffered) is acidic. Natural sources of sulfur should help detox (MSM, Garlic). Selenium in small doses to protect the brain. You might do well giving them a protein supplement to help detox. I've also had some success with Chlorella. I believe it deals a harsh blow to Candida from my own experience. Algin and Bentonite should also help remove mercury. You need to keep very alert (again from my experience) for weak adrenals during the process then back off.

I think you are aware that Candida is supposed to methylate Mercury making it very bad. For me getting Candida under control is helping a lot. Candida may be what makes Mercury toxicity so unbearable. (See Candida's Fire in http://www.cfspages.com/). I agree with most of Jeff's site and his conclusions.

I agree with this. Candida, when it overgrows enough, becomes a menace inside the body and makes a bad situation much worse. Sometimes it can even overtake and cause many or most of the symptoms. Though it is usually a symptom rather than a cause, it is something one should always look at as a big part of the problem because it takes advantage of any challenging/toxic situation and creates havoc. Typically with mercury, candida is often a part or a big part of the symptom profile, mercury and candida often go hand in hand.

I don't believe that candida is anybody's friend when it overgrows. I have never yet found it has been a help to me, though some claim it overgrows in response to metals as a way of protecting the body (buffering).....perhaps to a certain degree it does, but feeding it any further (sugars of any kind, high carbs, gluten/wheat/grains, etc) allows this already overgrown problem to go right out of control. It does not take much either to cause this and for me it has caused me horrific symptoms. Even with mercury, getting this beast under control was a life saver for me, even though the underying problem was mercury.

In fact, treating candida can aid the body in detoxing and healing from other problems. Reducing candida allows the body to better fight other issues inside and helps the body to heal much more. Candida poisons the body with its toxins (gut, liver, brain etc) and allows mercury to do much more damage. You also cannot detox as well when your gut and liver are being overloaded and poisoned by yeast and its byproducts.

I remember when I had amalgams and was very toxic, just treating and reducing candida alone made such a difference to me. Not just outside appearance, but also inside functioning. I was a much happier person when I changed my diet. No it didn't cure me, because obviously it wasn't the "cause", but the difference was well worth addressing it. If you cannot address the cause, or don't know what it is, sometimes you have no choice but to address this opportunist organism in the meantime to help you function, help with symptoms. Even if you know what the cause is, and you can and are addressing it, candida should still be treated regardless. Either way, nobody should ignore the role pathogens play in toxic situations. Whether it's caused by mercury, virus, infections etc.

Sregan - I did not know that chlorella was effective against candida. I have gotten rid of a lot of my symptoms, but candida is the last to go (although not nearly as bad as I was before I got my amalgams out). I thought I read some negative posts about it redistributing mercury. I am not too worried about that - I did not follow Andy Cutler's protocol (had not heard of it at the time) - I took one dose DMPS at night with replacement minerals in morning and I did fine - significant improvement - no redistribution symptoms. I would be worried about my children though. The bentonite - is that the clay? Is that oral or a bath? I am wondering if the clay baths really work - I imagine that would be a gentle way to detox my boys if it does work. I will definitely try the Algin for both myself and the boys. Thank you.

Bex - I agree with you about the candida. That is where I started my healing - I read 'The Yeast Connection' and said bingo. I went on the diet and natural antifungals and had significant improvement in my health. Along with all of my other symptoms, I had developed a rare blood disorder. Well when I treated for candida my blood went nearly back to normal. This blood disroder was supposedly incurable. I have to have my blood checked again since I got my fillings out, but if I were to guess based on the symptoms I had associated with the blood disorder, I would say it may be in the normal range again. I have read many theories that you should not kill the candida as it is protective, but I can tell you that I would be dead right now if I had not treated the candida - I was having warning signs of a stroke which I was at risk for with my blood disorder. But I had to stay on the diet and continually take the antifungals for years until I got my fillings out. I still struggle with the candida, but it is mild compared to before. I if I stray from my diet I get mild symptoms, but am much quicker to get back on track. I need to do more chelation. I have only done two one month rounds, but each time my candida improved significantly. My son did not show yeast, but I think he does have it. He had very high klebsiella bacteria and I have read that sometimes you need to clear one thing, before the other shows up on tests. He has no lactobacillus so he is on probiotics. The same foods apparently feed klebsiella as yeast so I have him on the candida diet anyway. Last summer, he broke out in a rash from head to toe, got a mild fever, bloating of the stomach, and swollen lymph nodes. I did a healthy diet of just veggies and veggie juices for a few days and when I gave him bread again he got the rash back. That is when I started the diet. It was too familiar to my own experience. When I tested him for food allergies, the interesting thing is that all of his allergies were things that I gave him that week. One of the foods I had never given him before that week. So I believe food allergies can happen quite suddenly when that gastrointestinal is compromised. He probably had leaky gut.

As I get better, I am trying to figure out which of my symptoms were caused directly by the mercury and which were caused directly by candida (secondary to mercury of course). But I agree with you that treating candida is crucial - I don't think I would have had such an uneventful chelation experience if I had not already been on the diet for years.

Bentonite clay, marvelous stuff!!

I haven't done baths with it but the idea works for me, for the kids. I have been using it in enemas and after several weeks of that I feel great. The enemas in the themsleves are very beneficial I know but I think I am going to give a lot of credit to the bentonite on this one.

Very healing just like it says at all the wbesites that sell it, very healing. Traps heavy metals, even kills parasites. I read somewhere in the not too distant past that clay is even helpful to stop the spread of that flesh eating bacteria that has been hitting hospitals so hard lately.

Great stuff, definitely do not hesitate to use it in baths.

I have given my daughter small doses of DMSA from time to time. She does pretty well with that, really uplifts her mood, a telltale sign of something going on think. I do keep it to a minimum, she hasn't had any in months I should give her some again.

Do you give her DMSA without doctor supervision. When I read the links to the autism chelation forum, I saw that a number of people were chelating their children on their own following the Cutler protocol. I am debating whether to do this for my boys at very low doses following his protocol. These doctor visits are so costly and I don't want to expose them to unnecessary blood tests. Since my children are not autistic or ADD, I think I can go slowly. They do have poor attention (but not to the degree of being diagnosed ADD), but most of my youngest's symptoms are gastrointestinal. I was thinking of doing very low dose DMSA with significant breaks and then adding in ALA to try to improve attention problems. They handled the DMPS challenge without any reaction, so a very low dose might be okay. Any info would be appreciated.

Hi KCB
Welcome to the forum and I just wanted to say I am so thankful to you posting all of this. My grandson has been having swollen lymph glands off and on for about 8 months since his last vaccine(which I strongly urged her to avoid). I have been trying to convince my daughter that he is in fact mercury poisoned. She has 5 leaky fillings herself and also lost our first grandchild due to incompitent cervix which I think is was caused because of the mercury in her mouth.
Well I had her read your thread and she also told me he has been having night sweats too. That same day she read this his lymph nodes were swollen too and we also discovered he is also having some runny bm's on the days his lymph nodes are swollen. I just wanted to tell you that I have been beating my head against a wall with her for months trying to get her to believe the whole mercury issue and when she read your post a light clicked on in her head. I just thought it might help for you to know you have already helped someone by posting your sad situation....my grandson!!! Thank You!!!
Rachel

Hi Rachel, how is your cleansing going? Been wondering about you.

KCB, I have given her the dmsa without doctor supervision. Basically my history with doctors and dentists is not real good so I can't really say I trust the lot of them, I usually get sicker not better after asking a doc or dentist for help... usually but not always, finding a good doc is difficult. I did find a good one to do the chelation however but then he's not a regular doctor either. I was using the dmsa myself at the time, gave her just a small dose the first time, 25mgs, to watch for any reactions then i think I gave her 50 mgs, at bedtime for a few days in a row here and there, just small doses like that. She doesn't really have any health issues, but I figured she must have some mercury and whatever else because I had plenty of fillings when I was pregnant with her and then nursed her, um hmm. then of course she had vaccinations.. she gets pretty tempermental now and then, everytime she's had the dmsa the tempermental disappears for a while, your guess is as good as mine... I'd say she simply feels better the next day.

but anyway she does ok with it, I do not give it to her on a regular basis and there's absolutely no way she would would put up with the cutler protocol.


Just start slow and watch for reactions, I wouldn't overdo anything with the kids. Give them adequate mineral supplements the day after.

My daughter would even balk at foggy clay colored bath water so getting her to pop a dmsa or two now and then is quite an achievement here. She has one really good habit and that is that her favorite meal is a great big bowl of salad.

I'd check around for any info on gastrointestinal problems before mixing that one with DMSA though, dmsa might help cause some issues there possibly. also, I think there is some evidence that too much dmsa can increase yeasts so be careful there too. Grapefruit seed extract will keep yeasts under control.

We never do whole bunches of stuff at one time here, a little of this a little of that at various times. And lots of fresh greens and salads when possible too.

essentially, I think it's safe to say that dmsa is safer than vaccinations so I wouldn't even bother asking a doctor about myself since it's adverse to their way of thinking, just go slowly.

Personally, I wouldn't put a child onto the cutler protocol unless absolutely neccessary. Strips the body of too many minerals, along with the heavy metals, and they are growing so they need their nutrients.


Basically i watch my lymph glands here too. they have been going up and down since I was posioned bigtime by a dentist with the amalgam. they don;t get real swollen anymore but will go up and down slightly on the right side of my neck these days, sometomes not swollen at all sometomes slightly swollen, about 50/50 there. I think the bentonite clay has been very beneficial for that, and also i have been eating a lot of dandelions salads to help clean my liver. The liver gets real dirty from the mercury so pay attention to that too because from there your lymph glands kind of kick in to deal with the toxin overload too. Milk thistle supplements are very helpful for your liver too.

ALA should also be very helpful for them, it definitely helps but watch for foggy head, don't overdo it.

Fresh tomatoes have a ot of natural ALA and I do well eating lots of them (of my own that is, not supermarket tomatoes which can make me quite ill). I am growing some chem free tomatoes in the garden. time to go pick bugs... <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Rachel, I have read your posts and I am so glad that my story was able to help your daughter. I am here to learn, but am so glad to help someone else. I think it is very fortunate in a way that my symptoms were so severe. If they had been more mild, I probably would not have searched hard enough to figure out what was wrong with me and then I would not recognize the symptoms in my own children. You may tell your daughter too that after my first child, I had a miscarriage followed by a year of unexplained infertility. The miscarriage happened just a few months after an amalgam (or two?) was removed. I know the miscarriage was related to the rise in mercury levels that occurs after having removal. I believe that I was not able to get pregnant again until the mercury levels had decreased somewhat. She may want to follow a candida diet for him and give him probiotics to start. This alone has made a big difference for my son. The rest I am still learning. As with me, I think my son will continue to struggle until the mercury is out. God willing we will all have a happy ending.

Yes, Sosick I am worried about the DMSA with his gastointestinal issues. I had read that DMSA has more gastrointestinal side effects than DMPS and that transdermal DMPS has the least gastro side effects. So I thought maybe I should go to a DAN doctor to at least see if I can start off with transdermal DMPS until the gastro problems are more under control. I don't know. It is so confusing. I did find a doctor nearby who from his website appears to be very good. He is a DAN doctor (and a yogi). He promotes things like Epsom salt baths and has plenty of great testimonials on his site. Maybe I will do the DMSA/ALA combo (low dose) with my oldest who has no gastro issues (only attention) and take my youngest to that doctor. I will keep reading. I know what you mean though about being wary of doctors. I saw a number of them who took me lower and lower at each visit (more antibiotics! - the answer to everything). But I think there are a few good ones out there. They are the doctors that you have to pay for because God forbid insurance cover a doctor or therapy that actually gets to the bottom of your problems.

I wouldn't do rounds cutler style pretty much with issues like that but small doses here and there probably would be worth a try and safe without a doc if you need to save the money. Just 25 mgs DMSA to start. maybe with 25 mgs ALA, and plenty of water. Just one time and watch for reactions. If his tummy hurts a glass of milk should sooth it and make the dmsa rather useless too.

I hadn't given my daughter any in a while... your post reminded me so i gave her 50 mgs DMSA the other evening before bed... about 3 days ago. Yesterday the kid lets out a bm so big it took 3 flushes to get the monster down the toilet and the smell of metal in the bathroom was alarming. I asked her how she felt when i got a whiff of it, because really a major metal smell, and she said it felt like she was going to get her period, slightly achy down there... but she just had it a couple weeks ago... I know metals can make me feel that way too... but anyway i gave her a bunch of mineral supplements last evening... today she comes home from school and tells me she ran 10 times around the track at school today. I asked her how she felt she said she felt great, no cramping nothing.

10 times around the track ! ... that's great. She never used to be able to do even once or twice around without cramping.