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Practitioners that
specialise in the Biomedical treatment of a child on the autism spectrum
vary in their treatment protocols. There are those that are trained DAN!
practitioners, Pfeiffer doctors and other health professionals that have
a specialist interest in treating ASD children. Depending on the
background of the practitioner their treatment protocol will reflect
their training and continuing research into new and emerging treatments that are available. Therefore treatment protocols will continue
to evolve to keep up with the research that is being undertaken in this
area.
As
a Medical Scientist and Naturopath, the Biomedical model sits
comfortably with using integrative medicine testing to know the
pathology behind the symptoms a person may be exhibiting. If you don't
know what you are dealing with, then it is harder to treat successfully.
I strongly believe that to treat any child there are three issues need
to be addressed first. These being addressing dietary issues, sleep
disturbances and gastrointestinal issues. By correcting these
fundamental issues, the child is will be much happier and life is a
little less stressful for the parents. Especially if they are able to
get a good nights sleep!
Sleep issues
– if a child is not sleeping well, then their
behaviour and concentration the following day will not be the best.
Parents are also tired and are less likely to give their child the time
and support that they need.
Dietary issues
– apart from the recommended removal of gluten and
dairy from a child’s diet, initially removing artificial additives and
refined foods from a child’s diet can be very beneficial. Behavioural
improvements have been shown consistently in studies of neurotypical
children which have had artificial additives removed from their diet.
Further these obvious benefits have been widely promoted by people like
Jamie Oliver, Sue Dengate and Stephanie Alexander. Common sense would
deem that children on the autism spectrum would similarly benefit from
dietary modification.
Gastrointestinal issues
– it is unfortunate that the link between
gastrointestinal issues and behaviour have been ignored by mainstream
medicine. If a child is in pain, either because they have loose,
offensive stools or chronically constipated, their behaviour will be
significantly be worse. Behaviours like screaming, biting, head-banging,
etc that have been seen as “autistic traits”, can be significantly
addressed and often eliminated when the children are no longer in pain.
Most children are unable to convey to their parents that they are in
pain.
This has now been acknowledged by
the American Academy of Paediatrics in their consensus paper published
earlier this year.
Evaluation, Diagnosis, and Treatment of Gastrointestinal Disorders in
Individuals with ASDs: A Consensus Report.
Pediatrics
2010;125;S1-S18.
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