Why These Behaviors? And How to Help 

Well, I've written down a few like things that popped into my head, well, first, we're expressing because it's an expression of originality, right? So a lot of times, you'll see kids like, hey, look at me, look, look what I'm doing, I want to show you who I am. So that's, you know, a basic expression, and behavior we do. And there can be steps in learning.

A child stuck in a developmental stage

When someone has echolalia, and they're repeating the same thing back to you, or maybe they're scripting from a video, um, there's a place in our neurological development, where that's actually a stage. And so they're stuck in that stage. So it could be a learning process, right? learning something. And it could be also an expression of what's going on inside their body.

 So just think about how you feel when you have a cold or the flu, think about when you get the flu, and you like kind of feverish and you feel lethargic, you're really tired. You don't want to do anything, you're kind of crabby, and you're irritable. So think about you know, maybe you don't want to eat a lot. Think about how you as a person as a parent, Express. And I feel like the expressions that we have fall into some of those categories. Maybe there's more, I'm not covering, but there it's an expression of what could be a pure joy that we're feeling that we want to express to another. So I just want to start by saying let's just take a step back and think about why we express

Why do we do behaviors? Um, so what I tend to see in my practice, the people that come to me, I focus on what's going on internally, from a functional nutrition point of view or a functional how's the body working on the inside? And if we think about these different behaviors that our kids have or any neurodevelopmental issue, the brain isn't Developing on time.

I once interviewed Dr. Robert Melillo, he's he started the Brain Balance. And he has a really great book called, I think it's called Brain Balance, it might be, they might have some other words in it. And he was talking about how the brain areas develop at different times. So for three months, maybe this area of the left brain will develop. And then after that's done developing, an area on the right side will develop for six months. So if we have an injury or insult, or maybe we hit our heads, or maybe we, you know, are exposed to something during that time of development of that particular area of the brain, it won't develop up to par, like what it's supposed to, because there are things in the way, right, maybe we hit it, we got a concussion, there are toxins in it for whatever reason.

So, so if we have uneven brain development, a lot of times we see really, really I see in my practice, for sure, really, really bright, intelligent kids, but then maybe they can't speak or they can express a certain way like there's a certain intelligence there, but that certain areas of the brain aren't developed. Or as another one of my mentors, Dr. Neubrander, has spoken to me, there's what he sees like, there's this area in the back of the brain that is related to speech, where it's like, imagine you have a seven-lane freeway condensed down to one lane because there's lots of traffic. So there's all this input wanting to get out through the speech, but the pathway that it has to go through is so limited and so narrow that, you know, sometimes I'll talk to parents who, who hear their child, like they're really, really trying to get a word out, or you know, they're thinking, but it just, it can't come out, or they're really trying hard, but it's just like it's stuck in there.

So, these are brain development issues, and some of the things that can affect our behavior, or our behavior and our child's behavior. I mean, I want to kind of generalize this because we have this too. So think about the food we eat, right?

I had one person write in with some questions and said, My child's behavior improved when I took dairy out. So there are offensive foods that our body doesn't like. And I don't want to go off into a tangent, but I'm just going to go off into this one. And you may know this, or you may not know this, but you know, most of our food, what we call food today isn't really food. It's processed stuff. Right? And, all the nutrients have been taken out, or, or most of them, and then put back in an artificial way. So if we think about flour or bread, they put folic acid back in, they put different things back in, they put vitamin D into the milk.

But if we actually think about drinking milk, or having cheese or having dairy, I like to think, well, where did that come from? The milk, the cow that produced that milk? How was that living? Was that fed genetically modified food that is normally supposed to eat grass a cow, but was it fed, you know, grain pellets of corn? So it can fatten up? Was it given hormones? Was it given antibiotics, all of that stuff that makes up the animal goes into what the animal produces, whether it's the meat or the milk, so I just asked you to think about the back, you know, the origin of where our food comes from? So in my opinion, not a lot of food is food. And then, so kids can be really sensitive and you know, you as an adult might be sensitive.

So I know a lot of people have gone gluten-free, dairy-free, soy-free, egg-free, and corn free. And then there are really wonderful foods like blueberries that have salicylates, or you know, probiotics, or leftover foods, or fermented foods that are high in histamine, so people can have different sensitivities. And this is all a sign that something is disrupted in the body.  

So when you see, let's say you give your child sneaks a cookie that has flour in it that has wheat, and then you see this, you know, odd behaviors afterward. Maybe hyperactivity. I've heard from a lot of parents that their child will get a hold of a cupcake or sugar or you know, something with colors in it. And then they're hyper for the next two hours, or they can't fall asleep that night. So think about how food influences behavior. And, why should food influence our behavior? Well, maybe if it's not really food.

If, if we're eating whole good foods, and we're still having issues and reactions, and it's creating behaviors, then we have to look inside and say, Well, why is the body not handling this the way it should be? So that's one of the things that I geek out on fun for me.

Environmental Exposures

And then think about what your child might be exposed to. So in school, there's, you know, especially nowadays, there's probably a ton of chemicals that people are using to constantly disinfect. And mold schools notoriously high, have high levels of mold. mold is very common in the house nowadays.  

You know, I remember once going out to target with my son, and we had his friend with him. And as soon as we went near, like the laundry soap aisle, he just kept getting red eyes, his eyes were watering, he would get itchy, and I thought, wow, you know, just being near those smells, he's having a reaction.

So, so think about those kinds of exposures, and not just, you know, what we might be exposed to at the grocery store. But also, like, Did you buy new furniture, what's in the bedding that your child is sleeping on, a lot of times, they put fire retardants which are pretty toxic to the body, you know, what's your floor, the glue in your floor and walls off-gassing or your new furniture or the fire retardants on your carpet or your or your sofa, your furniture.

So there's kind of a lot to think about what's in your cookware, you know, what's in your food, what's in your storage containers. So it's a lot to think about. But those things can be if someone's really sensitive, and there's dysfunction inside the body, those things can affect them. And that can create behaviors.

And when I say behaviors, I say the whole range of things, and I'm just speaking generally right now. We can have emotional reactions, right? So we all want to be treated well, and we all want to be loved. And, you know, I'm the first to admit, I wasn't always the most common parent, I did yell at my child once or twice. And, you know, we get frustrated, we get angry. And anyway, and it's not just us, it's therapists, it's teachers, it's kids. And, so, you know, there's an emotional sensitivity. So emotion, you know, we can be emotional that from our behaviors can be from feeling our emotions, we our kids can be sensitive to, you know, EMF, so that cell phone tower, I just moved into a new place, and I have a smart meter. And I bought these EMF readers. And it was like, off the charts when I went near it to read it. So I'm still trying to figure out what to do about that. But there are protective things. I like I bought my meters from a site called less EMF calm. And I've talked to parents who will turn their Wi-Fi and you know, turn things off at night, electrically, so their kids can sleep better. So that can be a big help. And they say it makes a difference. So think about, you know, cell phone towers and electrical wires and things like that. Could that be amping up your child? And what goes hand in hand with that is we tend to be sensitive to those things. If we've got mold, mold toxins in the body, and metals, so think heavy metal exposures. I've worked with kids who have huge levels of uranium of mercury of different things and have different organic compounds like dry cleaning chemicals and MTBE which is a gasoline additive. And you know, parents never dry cleaned. They don't we have no idea how they got them. But this is getting in.

So anyway, just that's to say, though, that EMF sensitivity can go with other toxins in the body. Let's see, I think about people's energy. So um, you know, are is your child's therapist or you know, speech therapy, occupational therapist, teacher, are they having a bad day that can, that their energy can affect a child also, what I've seen, whatever, okay, I'm copping to it.

What I've experienced is, when my son was younger, I might tell him one thing with my words but have a whole different like anger, energy going in my body and kids are gonna pick up on that energy. And then think about there are chemical imbalances in the body. I mean, this is what I focus on, there's inflammation, right? It can be in the brain. It can be in the gut, and it can be elsewhere in the body.  

I mentioned already uneven brain development, and then that can throw neuro chemistry out of whack.

Brain Inflammation

Also, toxins and inflammation in the brain can throw off neural chemistry, genetics, or epigenetics, some of you might have, might have heard of the snips, and single nucleotide polymorphisms as a way to look at genetics and what mutations your child has and that correlates to how they function helpings in their body function. So we can have things in the epigenetics means over the genes epi means over. So if there is an environmental toxin sitting on top of your gene, it can affect whether that gets expressed or not, and then affect function in the body. So think about chemical imbalances, and inflammation, there's a lot of oxidation. So sometimes we take antioxidants to help the body. It's because our cells normally do these processes and they produce oxidized chemicals, which are kind of like burn and fire, you know, they're, they need to be taken care of, it's kind of like, we need to put water on the fire of those oxidants. That's why we use antioxidants to quench those. And then and then they're not as harmful in a regularly functioning body, there's a process for doing that, naturally, there's a balance with that. So just this is, this is where it comes from all these things that can be creating behaviors. And ultimately, you know, the brain is controlling a lot of, you know, the brain is controlling function. So if we can't, I worked with a young man, who, couldn't control his hands, and he would constantly he would pull his mom's hair. So that's the brain not telling the hands to do the proper thing. So that's a neurological issue. And that's really, to me the definition of autism, it's a set of behaviors that involve the brain and its neurodevelopmental. Okay.  

  So the way that I look at the behaviors, and what is inside that causes them is, I see things that don't belong in the body. So think about if your child's bodies are like a house, and think about your house, if you haven't taken your trash out of your house for a year, what might it look like?  

Right, you might not be able to walk around, you might not be able to bring your groceries and get them into the refrigerator, so maybe they'll spoil, and you might not be able to get to where you need to go. And it's certainly difficult to take things out. 

So I see a child with autism with a body that has a lot of trash in it. And when you take the trash out, the body can function better, you can get to where you need to go. But that's a process. And you need to do it in a certain order. So if you have trash in the back bedroom, you're not going to try and move that out. First, you're going to try and move the stuff out that's closer to the door, the entryway. 

This process in the body is called drainage. And what we want to do is open up the entire body so that all that garbage in the house comes out so that toxins can leave the body. But there's a specific order and a specific sequence to do it in because like I said, if you're trying to move that trash out of the bedroom is just going to get stuck somewhere else in the house, it's not going to be able to flow through. 

And so I see this process a lot like I see the body a little bit like a machine with gears, right picture those old clocks with the gears. And I'm just going to pause for a moment because I keep hearing a noise I'm going to mute everyone.

  If the body is a machine with these gears, there are wrenches in the gears and so what we want to do is pull the wrenches out in a gentle way and then the gears just move.  

Great, I see that someone made a comment behavior is communication that is absolutely true behavior is communication. Okay, so what I want to do is start answering your individual questions and Oh, hi, three meats I didn't just see you know, and see why. Awesome for you guys to be here. 

Someone else's situation might be similar to yours. Oh, there it is zinc copper imbalance.  I think you need testing. And I think I don't know what you've done in regard to that. But that's a tricky one. And have you done testing?   

Parent: Low zinc

Parent: Ah, so my son was, he had low zinc. So he was given a zinc supplement. And then once he was given the zinc supplement we just did the test last month and this month, and it's very off, the zinc was high, and the copper was high. Instead of copper getting less, it increased. So that was surprising. And the doctors couldn't figure out what to do with high zinc and copper. So what do you do to address this?

Unknown Speaker  21:30 

Look at Pyroluria there, it's the way the body handles copper and zinc. So I've also had like a child, we put on zinc, and it just seems to not be getting in. So that's more of a biochemical thing happening in the body. So you can, like for instance, you can be giving your child a lot of B 12, and have a high b 12. On the test, it just tells me things aren't getting in. So what that tells me is there's a huge imbalance and it's, you need to look deeper. Are you working with a functional doctor? 

Um, so he should be able to handle that he should be able to give you some other nutrients to balance that because it's something underlying, actually, he, when I had the thought to say, b 12. And you know, you have high levels in your blood, I was thinking of his lecture during my training. So I think you're in good hands there. And there's, you know, there's something called Pyro Lauria and involved. Also vitamin B six, he'll probably know about that. But I would suggest going deeper down that rabbit hole. I want to get to some other questions. It's more complicated is what I'm trying to say than just doing that. And I think also, for that, I'm probably gonna say this for everything. But for that, I would consider different toxicities, not just copper and zinc, but I would look at what other metals are toxic and what other toxins are in there. And maybe you guys have done a panel like that already. Like if you know something from Great Plains or whatever labs he uses, I would look at other things that are in the way. Okay. I'm going to go to an email question I got because my teen son is high functioning. PDD nos have access to energy, which are his words for many years where he has to run back and forth, usually with a particular head tilt and making certain utterances he seems unable to regulate. One doctor said it was stimming and using ABA did that for a long time with no improvements. Another doctor said it's ADHD and wants to prescribe medication. I think it's sensory processing disorder, which would also account for things like anxiety attention issues, and picky eating, what can I do to help them regulate? Well, I'm one of the people that I interviewed at my summit. Carol Gardner Houston has the brain harmony program. And maybe some of you know it is safe and sound it's a it's a listening thing where it puts certain brainwaves in the brain and helps to really calm so those kids who are more stuck in that anxiety fight or flight it can actually balance their autonomic nervous system so bring the rest and digest up. But for this particular thing with this excess energy, I feel like I personally wouldn't do medication I would dig deeper and I would in it definitely be sensory processing disorder but that's just a label. So what's been what's beneath the sensory processing issue? So I anxiety and attention picky eating. So I would look at balancing minerals and vitamins but I would really look at taking toxins out. And probably there's some neural inflammation, there's probably some toxicity, there's probably some neurotransmitter imbalance. So, for anxiety, this is for everyone, for anxiety you can look at, I'm going to grab a book just a minute I, there's my book. So this is an awesome resource. It's called the mute mood cure by Julia Ross. And if any of you guys tuned into the anxiety summit with Trudy Scott, I think it was just about a month ago. She has a lot of solutions for anxiety. So if you google Trudy Scott, she uses the methods that Julia Ross has here, but she really zeroes in on anxiety. She uses certain amino acids like Gabba Gabba amino butyric acid, that's a calming neurotransmitters for the brain. trip to fan and five hydroxy, tryptophan, and five HTP. And possibly, so that's there's a combination of amino acids that can be used, and to help immediately with calming and while you're digging to the deeper issue. But I really feel like metals are a big issue like lead, mercury, and cadmium, so we have to get these out in a safe way. And next question, my son constantly picks calluses on the bottom of his feet and pulls hair from his legs, he also seems stuck in fight or flight or these symptoms of sensory processing disorder. That sounds a little steamy to me too. And I would say the same thing I said for the previous question, the with the stuck in fight or flight, right just to find some calming techniques, whether it's amino acids, or whether it's the safe and sound, the brain harmony, or there are other, you know, calming listening programs. And, again, sensory, you know, when I hear sensory processing disorder, what does that mean? It means something's not working right in the brain.

So we have a sensory-motor system, the sensory means the brain is getting input from the rest of the body and saying, hey, here I am in space, hey, this is this, I have an itch here, or you know, I have pain. So that's a signal going to the brain. And then processing that could be an issue. And the motor part is where the brain says, Hey, um, you know, finger move like this, or stomach squirt out, you know, hydrochloric acid right now, or whatever it is, you know. So it's a, it's a direction from the brain, to the rest of the body. And there's a lot of coordination that goes on. So I find what gets in the way are toxins, there can be neural networks that are tangled, right? Because they didn't develop properly. So there are all these tangles and I think of like, a brown overgrown tree with all these branches, right, there just are weeds, you know, they're all tangled, and then the brain is so smart, it finds a way around that to do things. So that's what I see a sensory processing disorder, again, wrenches in the gear, so to help with a fighter flight, again, you know, the amino acids, for listening programs, breathing is a great one, if kids will listen to that, and then the picking and pulling it sounds really steamy. And I think STEMI behavior can be because of, again, a toxic situation. But I think we make these neural networks, right, we find these ways to comb and to make ourselves feel good, right? So that could actually make him feel good in a certain way. So let's think about why the behavior is. Well, maybe that feels good, and that's calming, and that that's a consistent thing that happens. And then this is where I kind of, I'm not a super huge fan of ABA, applied behavior analysis, or maybe all the methods they use, but I think that we can retrain the brain. Not sure if we do it through ABA or just certain, you know, really, we need to retrain certain things. So whatever neurological program or, or method you use for that, do tests from places like 23andme to provide any useful information on neurotransmitters detoxification, etc. How do I find someone who will interpret the test for me? What's his name? Bob? Miller. Check Bob Miller, snips epi genetics. I can't remember the name of the place. I'm not sure 23andme provides that but what Bob Miller's company does is they take a genetic profile and correlate different sorts of behaviors that can come from that or like let's say they find an MTHFR mutation, and then say, oh, you're 60% down in your level of ability to detoxify. And then they can give you clues as to what nutrients to help with that. My, you know, my, my first step would be to get the stuff out in the first place, right? that's causing the mutations. So I would start with his organization, I'm going to come back to zoom and go to the top and see, let's see, chewing hair, aggressively holds paper, always.

Anxiety and Holding Items

So I think the holding is an anxiety thing. So think about that. Think about why. Why does your child hold? aggressive, I really feel like okay, if anybody's constipated if any child is constipated. When the feces sit in the colon for a long time, even if they're not constipated, let's say you're doing some kind of nice Staton or killing something that's going to produce toxins. What we want to do is not have them, you know, the liver, they go through the liver, and they process and then they're going out through the digestive tract. And what we don't want them to do is reabsorbed into the body. So a lot of times with aggression, even anxiety. I'm not sure about the chewing hair, that could be a sign of anxiety, too. You know, I don't have a full context here. But these kinds of things can be related to constipation and toxins just getting reabsorbed in the body. So I don't know if you've heard me speak before. I'm a big fan of binders and binders are like, you know, things you take orally like activated charcoal, and they bind like they're like sponges, they bind up toxins in the gut. So they actually go out in the bowel movement and don't get reabsorbed. And some kitzur I'm seeing are on tons and tons of binders because they're letting go of a lot of stuff.  

And this is making sure it leaves the body.

How do we know drainage is working?

How do we know practically that drainage is working? Well, what I see when drainage is working is I see behaviors tend to settle down. And a lot of times parents will tell me that their poop, their child's poop is stinky. Black Tari looks metallic and has flecks in it. Lots of different signs, maybe have parasites in them. The urine is cloudy and smelly, I had one mom who would tell me that she would have to go turn on the bathroom fan after her son urinated because it was just so stinky. So that's a sign that things are coming out in the urine, things are coming out in the feces and bad breath is another sign right that things are coming out through the breath. So yeah, I'm trying to think if there are any other signs that you know, drainage is working. I also hear from my clients that they like their kids just seeing more with it more attentive kind of more life. interactive with the family interactive with siblings. I'm seeing that a lot. So it's really improvements. I would say keep going with drainage, whatever you're doing Maria with your practitioner, or for yourself, keep going just keep going. It's a process.

Parent: Son laughs for no reason upon waking

Ruby says my son wakes up laughing no reason. Is he eating something that's causing this? If so, is there a test to figure out what foods to avoid? There are food sensitivity tests, so you can talk to your practitioner about getting one of those food allergy tests. Waking up laughing my sense of that is if it's in the morning, you know we detox at night when we sleep and so if there's a lot of toxins leaving the body you know roofie I would use binders for him at night. So activated charcoal and chlorella I love the binders from cell core bio sciences biotoxin binder is a good one to start with. And even increasing apples if your kids eat apples, you know the pectin from apples will help. So it might be a toxin overload in the morning waking up laughing It's possible.

Parent: Daughter pulling hair

Virginia My daughter is 28 years old with seizures and autism finally she is responding to detoxing using Hulda Clark we did drainage first and we are on parasites removal but for years she is very aggressive towards me only I were monitoring her constipation but she will not stop hugging me very hard and pulling on my hair yeah so you guys might have some certain entanglement like a neurological network that you like a habit that she's formed, right. So partly is I would say to you know really work on changing like to consciously outwardly to And give her different directions which you've probably done is my guess after the years. You might want to increase binders but it sounds like you have a good  

It sounds to me like it's a behavioral emotional entanglement thing.

I've seen this before where this boy I was working with would constantly kiss I've seen it with a lot of kids constantly, hugging, grabbing, and kissing the parents and I think it's a real attachment thing with parents and kids. And that you need to just really kind of a train I mean, in a good way, your daughter that this is inappropriate, and this is what's appropriate. 

So however replacement behavior that's my best guess. If I were working with you, I would clear a bunch of emotional stuff and entanglements. So look, that's a clue to look for those things. Maria, excuse me, the reason for high b 12 without supplements, is the test result is 1978, and the high cholesterol 242 That's HDL. He also has a potential pathogen Klebsiella. And another one mo l arella. Wisconsin senses. Okay, so some bugs in there. Um, obviously some dysfunction in his gut microbes producing b 12. Without supplements. So the microbes in our intestines make the 12. So, it sounds like he's got some imbalance with pathogens. So Gosh, that's what I would think of the cholesterol I'm not a super expert in the cholesterol, but um, what comes to mind is that he might have some bile blockage. So bile ducts, I might think parasites I might think a lot of toxicity, liver bile, not flowing liver and gallbladder and bile ducts not flowing. Because cholesterol is a big part of making a bunch of hormones. And if it's high and blocked, they're there. They're not going down the pathway to make our hormones to make things so you might have some hormonal issues, I don't really know because you didn't mention it. So I would work on getting his liver and bile open. And there are a bunch of good supplements for that. There are castor oil packs, you can do a physical, clockwise. Sorry, I'm thinking colon, you could do a liver compression. So you can actually put my screen now. You can actually right under the right side, you can just compress and, like help to squeeze out the bio. You can also do coffee enemas. So I would look up how to do that online. Those are some things that'll get the bile moving this product from cell core bio sciences tedco t udca. It's a bile acid that helps move things through ox bile. Also, there are a lot of supplements that are ox, ox bile I would get I think it's natural factors uses cows from New Zealand that tend to be cleaner. So I would use that ox bile. So just anything to get that moving. And then probiotics. Okay.

Parent: Son with sensory issues

webelo Oh, I had an email from you. My son is very sensory and recently his sensory needs have increased he is always humping on soft pillows, soft toys, and cushion hands. He humps on it so intensely until he becomes hard and erect. This has given me concern and I was wondering what I can do to get his sensory overload under control. So I feel like sensory seeking is the brain needing input. You know, it's it feels good in some way to seek sensory things. Um, I've had parents who have told me about priapism. So priapism is when the penis becomes hard for no reason. But it sounds like he is stimulating that. I think it's toxin related. And so I would definitely, definitely for this I would, you know, seek some help with drainage and detox. I mean, all your kids actually but Excuse me. I think that he's seeking something right. He wants to feel good. So maybe give I think,

Let me pull up your email. There it is: sensory processing disorder, learning and communication difficulties, amongst other challenges. He has allergies, you've tried a lot of diets and protocols, and he's currently taking a bunch of supplements. You gave me a lot of information. It sounds like you've done some really amazing things, so that's awesome. And it sounds like he's still pretty toxic, and his gut still has issues. He has leaky gut. Is that you unmuting?

Parent: Can you hear me? Sorry. He was diagnosed when he was three years old, and he's nine now. I've done so much with him, any tests I could do. He's come a long way in terms of imbalances, because he's suffered with so many different things, and one thing triggers another. What I was asking is, I have tried quite a few things to redirect him and discourage behaviors that are not positive, but it's not easy, especially as he's growing. Some people think it's just the onset of puberty, but even so, I feel it's inappropriate, especially when people are around. As I said, he really gets erect, so he's definitely stimulating to get some type of input. How do I help him or redirect him?

Right. I'm going to tell you a little story that might be somewhat related. When my son was one or two, he went to a male daycare provider, a really compassionate man. I said, "Noah likes to play with his penis. When does this stage stop?" And he grew this big smile on his face and said, "Never." He was about 50 years old. Boys have a penis, and they're always going to play with it. That's my point: it's just there. What I would do to redirect him is take him to a private place when he does that, like his room, and say it's okay to do that in here.

Parent: He does that already. He knows that Mommy discourages it, so he takes his pillow, goes to his bed and does it there. Sometimes when I don't see him, I open the door and find him in his room doing what he's doing.

Maybe the men on the call can weigh in. We're women; we don't fully understand it. But it can also be a developmental phase. Kids are at different developmental stages for different things, so he may be in a stage where he's exploring his penis and is just stuck there, not exploring it as a pubescent boy. As long as he does it in his room, I think it's going to happen whether someone has autism or not. And I think you're doing a great thing. I want to applaud you for your journey, for doing all the tests and all the things.

In my summit, I spoke on the key that most practitioners miss. I've been trained by the MAPS doctors and been through all these trainings, and I remember leaning over to a doctor in the seat next to me and asking, "What do you do for drainage?" He said, "I can't do everything. Someone else has to do that." I think drainage is the key.

There's a drainage funnel. The colon is at the bottom. You've probably got him not constipated by now; he's probably pooping every day. It's like a hair clog in your sink: the water won't drain until you take the plug out. The colon is the first plug area. The next one is the liver and gallbladder, and a lot of times parasites can be in there. You've probably done a lot of that already. Above that in the funnel are the lymph and the cellular waste, and the brain is at the top, so it drains last. A lot of practitioners miss this. I would put a lot of focus on the liver and gallbladder. That's where I see almost everyone blocked or overwhelmed, even healthy adults, even myself. Does that make sense?

Parent: Yes, definitely.

Thanks for jumping on.

How long and how often should you use binders?

Good question, Roxy. There are different binders for different things. Some binders hold on to metals, for instance chlorella, spirulina, maybe barley grass. If any of you listen to Medical Medium, he has those detox recommendations. Those green plants take the metals, and that takes a lot of burden off the kidneys. If a child is peeing a lot or wetting the bed, it's because the liver is really overwhelmed and says, "I can't handle this, I'm sending you over to the kidneys." Chlorella helps with that and pulls the metals out.

Activated charcoal pulls anything, including medications and vitamins, and it can be constipating for a lot of people. There's pectin. I love the CellCore ones, like BioToxin Binder, because they're fulvic and humic acid based, and they're functionalized with different things that pull lipopolysaccharides from bacteria and some of those really nasty mold and Lyme toxins. They also have one called ViRadChem, for viruses, radiation and other chemicals. A lot of us have radium in our water, and that gets stuck in the body, especially if we're not good eliminators.

If it's activated charcoal, I would give it at night, away from everything else. Chlorella you can give any time with food. Some kids love it and some don't like it at all. The CellCore ones you can give with food any time. I usually have people give them in the morning and evening. That's the general binder information.

A student who punches her jaw and bites her hand

"I'm currently working with a student who has recently started to punch herself in the jaw. She also bites her hand. The team believes she does this when frustrated. A behavior analysis was completed. We have asked the parent to look into whether there are any dental issues, TMJ or wisdom teeth. Any suggestions?"

It sounds like an older student. Our nerves are a great repository for viruses. I've talked to people about dental work and anesthesia, and I think it sits in our nerves. I've had so many clients with anesthesia issues. If a child has ever been anesthetized for dental work or anything else, I think toxins can sit in the nerves. There's obviously something bothering your student right there, and they want to make it better. The hitting makes it feel better. Then it can become a habit, and then it becomes more than just trying to feel better. I would definitely look into toxicity for that one.

What about zeolite?

Yes, zeolite is another really great binder. There are different ones out there. It's more for metals.

Liver and bile support: TUDCA and ox bile

"Could you please repeat the liver bile detox? Is it TUDCA from CellCore and ox bile?"

Yes, TUDCA from CellCore. It's an acronym for a bile acid, and I think it's the only water-soluble bile acid we know of. Then ox bile. There are a lot of places you can get it, but I like to make sure the bile comes from oxen that lived in New Zealand, in a relatively clean environment. Natural Factors is the company I know of that used to use that kind, at least.

The idea is that the liver is overloaded. The liver produces bile, which helps us digest fats, but it also holds on to all those toxins, and we want to make sure it keeps moving. Cholestasis means the bile is standing still. A lot of times we're just overwhelmed, or there can be parasites in the bile ducts and then the bile isn't moving. But mostly we're overwhelmed.

"BioToxin Binder is out of stock at the moment. Is there anything to replace it with?"

Hi Marta. I think ViRadChem has about one third BioToxin Binder in it. I think that's what the docs say.

Biting, pressure seeking and not wanting to wear clothes

I'm going to go back to my list, because I skipped ahead. "My child, six, non-verbal autism, started biting a few caregivers, mostly when told no. He also requests lots of pressure to his head, face and mouth. What could this be?"

We talked about seeking sensory input because it feels good. Biting is a reaction to something the child doesn't like, and she needs to be taught. That's a retraining thing. It must be easier to bite than to do the proper thing, whatever you would want her to do instead. I think it's human nature: once we find something that bothers someone and gets a big reaction, we think, "Oh, that really worked." The brain is really smart, so that could be a piece of it.

About not wanting to wear her clothes: she'll keep her shirt on downstairs but not upstairs, so obviously you've taught her she needs to do that. I really think it's a sensory thing. Imagine putting a match on your finger. How would that feel? That might be what the clothes feel like to her.

Or something else intense. I think it's a sensory processing thing. Again, the more you get the toxic waste out, and since she's a little older, really retraining the brain, doing some re-networking of the brain. Brain Harmony could help, neurofeedback could help, and NMT, the NeuroModulation Technique I do, can help.

Getting through puberty

There are a lot of hormones raging and changing. This is a time of great change. Some kids actually settle down during this time, and some kids flare in their behavior. Again, it's disruption in the body. I would work on getting the toxins out more than anything, and work with a practitioner specifically for the hormonal side. You need directed help from someone who's good with that. I did an interview on puberty with Dr. Jerry Kartzinel, and there are a lot of good autism doctors who work with puberty.

Waking at night and talking for hours

"What may be causing my son to wake during the night and talk to himself for hours?"

So many things are flooding into my head. Definitely neurochemical imbalances. I don't know what you do to help him sleep, but I would try sleep remedies like melatonin and GABA. There's one from Source Naturals called Theanine Serene. It's a combination of theanine, B6, melatonin and a few other things. Sometimes I take one at night and it just zonks me right out, and you can take one in the middle of the night too. It could also be really sensitive hearing; something can wake them up.

This might not be a popular thing to say, but my personal belief is that it's hard for some kids on the autism spectrum to be in a physical body that's loaded with toxins, so they're still a little bit out of their body, or still connected to wherever we come from before we become humans. I call it oneness. These are my own personal beliefs, and you don't have to share them. I believe we all come from one thing, a bit like a Buddhist philosophy, or God, or whatever you call it, and these kids are still a little bit attached to it energetically, because we're more than our physical bodies. We're also energetic and emotional bodies. I've had clients, adults and kids, who speak to beings in other dimensions. We might think of them as imaginary friends, but in their mind they're really connected to something else. I think in our dream world too, when we go to sleep, our mind goes somewhere else, to different states of consciousness. That might be going on. But definitely a neurochemical imbalance is going on.

Complete meltdowns

"What strategy can be used when my son is having a complete meltdown and he seems unreachable when I try to get him to calm himself down?"

First, I would try to prevent the meltdown, because once a child is in it, it kind of has to run its course. I remember when my son was about nine, he had a big tantrum over the littlest thing, and he bit me. When it was over, I could tell he'd come out of it, and I was talking to him about what happened. I said, "It's not okay that you bit me. I didn't bite you." And it really hit me that in that moment he was out of his mind. He wasn't in his front brain, his cognitive brain. He couldn't talk to me cognitively because he was in his reptilian brain, his fight-or-flight brain, and communication wasn't possible.

So sometimes when the meltdown happens, it just has to happen, and you have to give it space. We also need to express our emotions. It's actually a relief to the body to get that out. Samantha Moe is really great with this. I interviewed her in my last summit, and she has a program called Mad to Glad. She talks a lot about these behaviors, what leads up to them and what to do with them. I would use her as a resource; she's an amazing person. If it's over a small thing, it shouldn't be happening, so I would try to prevent it in the first place, and again, dig in deep and find out what's creating it.

Hand biting, repetitive questions and constant movement

"In the email you sent, you described most of the behaviors my daughter has: little toys in her hands, stimming, biting her hand when overwhelmed, excited or happy, laughing so hard she's almost crying for no apparent reason." She writes, parasites or toxins? Yes, or yeast, microbes.

"Asking me the same thing over and over when she's already received an answer numerous times." That's a developmental thing, something stuck in the brain that hasn't developed. I had a client like this who kept saying the same thing again and again, and the more toxins we pulled out, the better he got, until he stopped doing it.

"Moves around constantly and has trouble sitting still." Again, discomfort in the body. When something's in you and you feel uncomfortable, what are you going to do? You move and try to make it feel better. I've also had kids who felt like there were things crawling in their body, literally, like parasites.

"Quick to get upset but also quick to get over it." Some personalities are like that. "Anything I could do to minimize these behaviors would be amazing, especially the hand biting." I would do redirects. For me, it's always detox, detox, detox. Get the stuff out so the body works better.

Finding a functional medicine doctor in New York

"Holly, East Coast, New York: Where can I find a functional medicine doctor for my daughter? I don't know where to begin. She has many challenging behaviors. So far we've only tried removing dairy, with no improvement."

You might need more time on that. I would remove gluten as well, because that's a big offender, and I would keep going and removing things, because it might not just be dairy and gluten. I just got off a call with my colleague Zendy Moldenhauer of Arbor Health in upstate New York. She works a lot with kids with PANS and PANDAS, and she's a nurse practitioner in developmental and psychiatric care, so I would check her out. In New York City there's Mary Coyle, who does homotoxicology, which is opening up the body and getting the toxins out. And Dr. Bock, in upstate New York, wrote the book on allergies, ADHD, autism and asthma, the four A's of childhood.

Pressing on the eyes

"My son has bad eyesight, a reading of 10 and 12 in each eye. We noticed that despite new prescription glasses, he keeps pressing on his eyes."

There are developmental optometrists. I don't know if there are any near you, but there's a directory website for developmental optometrists you can search. The pressure on his eyes could be sensory, and the way he looks through his eyes. I really feel it's toxins, and that he's trying to normalize his vision somehow. Something is in the way.

Parent: Exactly. This is his second prescription, and he loves the glasses. He puts them on; they're like part of him now. But he still always presses on the side of his eye, both eyes, as if he's still struggling to see. They think it's sensory, but I don't think so. I think there must be something underlying, because he's definitely looking through the glasses but he's still trying to get some input.

Yes, he's still trying to optimize his vision. To me there's something in there. Someone mentioned seizures earlier. I had a girl with seizures, and we kept finding parasites in the brain. I feel there can be parasites in our other areas, not just the gut.

The doctors at CellCore Biosciences say that when people do nasal irrigation with some of their herbal products, they see stringy things coming out. It's not mucus. So I'm suspicious about that. I wouldn't put the CellCore anti-parasitic products in the eyes, but I would use them systemically if you haven't already.

CellCore has one called Para 1, which is mimosa pudica seed; it gets the bigger organisms out of the gut. Para 2 is herbs that go systemic and help get certain organisms out. And Para 3 is the liquid. Para 3 is the one that's been clearing people's sinuses. It's a thought, and it's a process, so check it out and see what makes sense to you. I would also look for a developmental optometrist who might be able to help. You approach it from different angles.

Parent: Thank you.

You're welcome. Roxy, Samantha Moe is the name of the woman who put together Mad to Glad. Thanks, everyone, for adding in the chat: Kenneth Bock is the upstate New York doctor. The other two in New York: Mary Coyle, C-O-Y-L-E, I think she has a child wellness center, or just look up Mary Coyle homotoxicology. She's in New York City. And Zendy Moldenhauer, Z-E-N-D-Y, M-O-U-L-D-E-N-H-A-U-E-R, at Arbor Health. I want to say Buffalo, but she's upstate somewhere.

Thanks, Lou, for posting the Parents Active for Vision Education site. They changed their name, and that's where you can search for behavioral and developmental optometrists. Also, one of the people I interviewed in my most recent summit in May is Dr. Randy Schulman, S-C-H-U-L-M-A-N. I think she's out of Connecticut. You could look on her website for resources too. She did an awesome presentation and had so much to give. She told me personally that with vision therapies, kids can improve their vision by up to 30 percent. Visual input, auditory input and body input are so coordinated that by working on vision, you can work on a lot of that other stuff too. It might help sensory processing and sensory-motor issues.

"Will doing a parasite cleanse orally clean parasites from the whole body?" It depends on the herbs you use.

Extreme shyness, aggression and high anxiety

I'm going to go to Facebook and see some questions. Bernarda from Europe: "I'd like to ask about my son: autism, ADHD, speech delay, mental delay, sleep problems, constant hunger." When I hear constant hunger, I think parasites. Sleep problems could also be parasites, but it could be a lot of things.

"The biggest issue is he's so shy. When we go to school and he sees the teacher, he collapses, hides, throws himself on the floor and becomes very aggressive when someone approaches him. It might take up to an hour to get him into the classroom. High anxiety, everywhere."

That high level of anxiety makes me think toxins, huge toxins, neurotoxins. "We tried to calm him and speak to him; we tried almost everything." Remember, when you try to calm him and speak to him, he's in his reptilian brain, his fight-or-flight brain. He's not in the upper cognitive area, so it's going to be really hard for him to even hear what you're saying.

There's something from Brain Gym, I believe: put one hand on the back of the head, cradling the skull, and the other hand on the forehead. Somehow it helps with the electricity in the brain and helps your child come out of the reptilian brain and into the cognitive, higher-level functioning. That could be helpful when he's all over the place, aggressive or super anxious.

"We bribe him, we try being more harsh, we try all the love, and we still have trouble." Like I said, it's because he's not hearing you in a rational way. "He's very aware of things around him. He's not in the autism world. I help him with everything, but this behavior and the aggressive behavior seem to be progressing even more. I co-sleep with my son so I can get some sleep, which is why I didn't join on Zoom." That's totally fine, Bernarda, no worries.

Brain Harmony could be really helpful, some kind of really calming listening program. You want to get him out of fight-or-flight, because it sounds like he's stuck there. And a detox protocol, getting the toxins out. It could be metals; it could be so many things.

Early next year I'm planning to put together a program for people who can't work with me personally, because I can't work with everyone personally. You'll be able to follow a step-by-step protocol for how to open the drainage, how to get things out and how to help with different behaviors. Every parent I talk to and every session I have, I think of new things to add, new tips and new parenting ideas. It might get really big, but I'll include as many tips as I can.

Adult sons who can't sleep

Ola: "Two adult sons with autism. They have many issues, including speech and communication. My main issue for my elder son is sleep. He has a major sleep problem, which affects his mood and concentration. We tried melatonin, but it didn't really help."

I'm not sure whether that means he doesn't fall asleep or doesn't stay asleep. GABA and amino acids can be helpful, and again detoxing, and there might be some inflammation.

This tip is for everybody. If your kids wake up in the night, around three in the morning, it could be a liver issue, but it could also be blood sugar. I sometimes advise parents to give their child a protein snack before bed. Protein or fat breaks down more slowly than a carbohydrate, so it sustains the sugar in the blood for longer. If we run out of blood sugar, the body wakes up, because the adrenals give us a push of cortisol. Cortisol feeds the brain when there isn't enough food for it, but it also wakes us up.

If he can't fall asleep, try relaxation techniques. I sometimes listen to a guided meditation called yoga nidra, N-I-D-R-A. A really calm voice, usually with nice music in the background, leads you through every body part, and you pay attention to it and relax it. That works really well. There are different meditation techniques like that.

He's up at night, you said. See if it correlates with the full moon. On the full moon I see a lot of behaviors from kids: they're more hyper, they can't sleep. I would suspect parasites. For the anxiety, again, amino acids and brain-calming support.

Energy techniques: body sweeping

Esther: "Why Your Child Is Hyperactive is a book I used about 40 years ago. Sometimes if I visualize my hand on his hand, that calms him down." That's an awesome energy technique. Our kids are so sensitive energetically that they respond really well to energetic techniques, so let me give you another one.

I like to do something called body sweeping. Ola, you might want to try this. When your child is lying down, especially at night, keep your mind completely on your child. Don't think about what you're making for dinner tomorrow, or "I can't wait until my kid falls asleep so I can go do this." Be completely present. Then sweep from the top of their head, down their chest and all the way down through their legs. In your mind, imagine you're sweeping all the negative energy out of their body. You can do it on the front and on the back. This feels so good. If you get someone to do it to you, you'll feel it.

Sweep all the way down to the feet, then gather all the energy in your hands, put it in a little trash bin and close the lid, so that energy doesn't swirl up in the room again. I know it sounds out there, but this stuff is real. You're pulling the scattered, negative energy off and getting rid of it, and your intention is to bring calm. Thanks for that, Esther. That's a really great tip.

Or you can imagine putting a hand on their heart, or wherever their calming places are.

What testing do you use to find specific toxicity?

Shelly asks what testing I typically do. I use muscle testing with my clients and look for specific things. But there are definitely diagnostic tests. You usually have to be working with a practitioner for almost any of the testing labs. I like Great Plains Laboratory. Their OAT, the organic acids test, tells you different things about neurotransmitters and how different areas of the body are functioning, and gives you information about potential pathogens your child has. They also have a glyphosate test and other toxin tests.

Esther adds that she meant visualizing her hand on his head, not his hand. I think it'll work anywhere. Whatever works best.

Sleep remedies for a two-year-old

The body sweeping can help. There could be melatonin; I would use a small amount, maybe one or two milligrams. Health food stores have small dissolvable ones that taste good and dissolve in the mouth. There are a bunch of sleep remedies. I think Bioray has one called Sleepy, or something similar; they might have changed the name. I love their products. They're herbal, and that one is actually sickeningly sweet for me, but kids would love it. GABA is always a good one. I have chewable PharmaGABA tablets, I think from Natural Factors. They're big, but you chew them and they taste good.

Thanks, Roxy: there's a good app called Calm, with stories, music and meditations. There's also one called Insight Timer, with a ton of guided meditations, kids' stories and nighttime stories.

A child who doesn't understand routine

"My ten-year-old son doesn't understand routine and doesn't seem to get the connection that we do certain things every day at similar times. How can I help, so I'm not always fighting to get him to do things? I find this so exhausting."

I would say it's a developmental lag. He's not there yet developmentally. The first thing is to know that he's just not that coordinated in his brain yet. I don't know if he works with therapists on this, but some families use a visual chart with pictures of when we're going to do what. Think of it as teaching a two-year-old, and have the compassion and patience to go slower, because that's what he's capable of right now. I would say there's probably some inflammation and toxicity, and I would work on that.

Startle, a shriek and a few seconds of lost awareness

Catherine, an adult, writes: "When startled, around the age of seven, my mind couldn't seem to process fast enough. I would let out an involuntary, escalating shriek and lose conscious thought for a few seconds. It didn't seem to make anything worse, but it may help someone else if you talk about it. After reading your info, I'm guessing this was because my primitive reflexes were not integrated. It was like a reset switch, because the electrical activity was unbalanced. Am I on the right track, or is this indicative of something more sinister, like an absence seizure?"

That's quite possible. Anything like a reset in the brain is obviously due to electrical activity that isn't consistent, like there's a break in it somehow. I would suspect metals, or something in the way, so again I would look at the detox route. Thank you, Catherine, for bringing that up. It wasn't painful or harmful to you, but for some kids it's a sign that brain activity is a little out of whack.

Tantrums, hitting siblings and the whole family on edge

Rebecca: "How do you help a seven-year-old boy who throws tantrums most of the time at home? He's highly anxious, very intense, hits his younger siblings for no apparent reason and gets out of control. We can't talk to him or reason with him."

Of course, because he's in fight-or-flight, in his reptilian brain. Samantha Moe's work is good for this. "No calming techniques help him in the moment." Again, that hand-hold technique might. There's another one too. Let me get my little anatomy doll; I use her with clients. Have your child sit or stand in front of you and cross their arms. Then come up behind them and hold them. It makes them feel safe and secure. You can even put a hand on their forehead, so you're hugging them from all around, and somehow it lets the body relax. You can try that while a tantrum is going on if you can manage it, but I would practice it before the tantrums, the aggression and the anxiety happen.

"The whole family is afraid of what he'll do next." Definitely get him checked for toxicity. We probably need to do some neurotransmitter rebalancing too. He might have a lot of glutamate, and GABA might help with that.

Getting stuck on the first word of a sentence

Carmen Lucia: "He gets stuck with speech when beginning a sentence. He has a hard time getting the first word out. Once he does, he can complete his full sentence, sometimes a long sentence or two together, but getting the first word out takes a lot of effort, like a stutter at the beginning. This is new and a bit concerning, because he's currently improving his speech, but he's having difficulties he wasn't having before."

I think of a freeway that's gone down from seven lanes to one lane. It's not quite getting out, and then it breaks through. I know you're doing a lot of detox, with the CellCore and parasite protocols, so I would say this is a developmental stage, or a stage of going backward a little, because things are moving around in the body. He's probably going to move through it. Any change you see shows that things are moving, so I would be heartened, know that this stage will pass, and try not to get stuck on it. As parents, when we stay stuck on something, it can help our kids stay even more stuck on it.

The Autism Expressions card deck

"I saw on your Facebook page that you have some unique communication cards. How do I get them in the UK?"

Yes, I'll show you. This is my card deck, the Autism Expressions Card Deck. I was inspired by books I was reading, mainly Ido in Autismland, written by a 13-year-old about how he was really feeling, even though people were making assumptions about what was going on. The cards are different expressions, like "Please help fix me so my body works better," "Hold off your judgments and see that I am a unique, intelligent being in a body that is not working well," "Banging my head makes me feel better," and "Please see me with your soul; then you can really understand what I'm going through." They ask for compassion. My original plan was that they'd work like tarot cards, and your child would pick one, like "I need to move my body because it's uncomfortable inside," but people use them in all different ways. There are 52 cards in the deck. International shipping is expensive, so if a few parents get together, I could ship them all at once and the shipping would be a lot less.

Coffee to calm them down?

Esther, I'm not so sure about that. I've never used it as a strategy and don't have any experience with it. I can say that a coffee enema isn't necessarily going to rev them up, because it's about stimulating the liver, so that's different.

EMFs and 5G

"What about EMF, which causes hyperactivity in adults and children? What about 5G? Google suggests things to buy for the house and to wear."

Yes, LessEMF.com has things like that. The research shows that different Wi-Fi signals and 5G affect our cells, our cell membranes and our proteins: letting things in that shouldn't come in, and breaking proteins down. I don't have all the research off the top of my head. Nick Pineault, P-I-N-E-A-U-L-T, wrote The Non-Tinfoil Guide to EMFs. I would go to him. I don't know a ton about it, but I think EMFs affect a lot of things in our bodies.

Late walking and toe walking

"My son started walking at two and a half and walked properly at about 13 months after that. Any holistic treatments you can recommend? He's almost six, wearing AFOs to keep his heels down, and we keep ranging his feet."

I would definitely keep ranging his feet. It could be a reflex thing, so I would look at reflex integration. It could also be toxicity, so I would look at all the detox strategies I talked about.

A child who scratches other children

From Paula, and we're almost done: "I'm currently supporting a child who scratches other children. It comes out of the blue. For example, he'll be hugging a child to say thank you, then claw with both hands, and he has caused some nasty scratches. I've tried pressure activities at intervals throughout the day, given him alternative materials to scratch, and put gloves on him. That stops him hurting the other child, but he still seeks to scratch, and at times pulls hair instead."

It sounds like you're a teacher or therapist, Paula. Again, a child tries something, finds they get a reaction, and thinks, "This gets a reaction; I'll keep doing it." That's one idea. I think you're doing great things. I think it's a sensory processing issue, something in the brain in the way, like a wrench in the gears, and I'm not sure there's anything you could do as a therapist that you're not already doing. I would also look to Samantha Moe. She has some great strategies, and her reasoning behind what she does is amazing. And I would encourage the parents to detox the child.

Overwhelmed by every request

From Sherry, who signed "one tired mom": "What can I do for my eight-year-old: ADHD, mildly autistic, food sensitive, meat texture intolerant, high anxiety, seizure and tic disorder? He's actually a really sweet, super smart kid. He reacts like he's overwhelmed by having to do anything, from getting clothes on to eating meals to, heaven forbid, schoolwork. His response is whining, wailing, running, hiding, generally melting down. I've tried taking pressure off by reducing environmental stimuli, teaching him deep breathing (he hasn't got the hang of it yet), homeschooling, feeding and medicating him. He's much calmer and not so oppositional, but he's still lacking basic life skills."

We haven't covered this yet, Sherry, but it sounds like there may be some mitochondrial dysfunction going on. If everything seems like a big effort, I would get his mitochondrial function checked. One of the key things I check in kids now is how their mitochondria are functioning. A lot of toxins can prevent the mitochondria and cells from making energy. Our brain and liver cells have tens of thousands of mitochondria. If they're operating at only 60 percent, you've got 60 percent power in your factory, and you don't have much energy to do anything. You're just getting through.

You didn't mention low muscle tone, but that could be another sign. Parents, if you feel your kids aren't motivated to do things, or it's a real struggle to get them going, look at the mitochondria.

"His executive functioning is pretty slow in some areas, and it seems he lives in sympathetic activation. Why does asking him for output cause panic?"

Asking for more when he already feels at his upper limit is stressful, and that puts him in sympathetic mode. I think the root might be the mitochondria. That won't immediately solve everything, but when you help the mitochondria function better, it helps everything overall.

Thanks, Maria, for the resource: for EMF and grounding, check out the Earthing movie on YouTube.

Recovering doesn't mean changing who your child is

Cheryl, a grandmother, has a grandson with autism, and his mother is opposed to the idea of curing or recovering. I want to say that "curing" doesn't mean anything to me. My goal is not to change who your child is. My goal is to help them function better in their body. That looks like changing behavior. Behaviors just change. I see kids come out of their fog. They pay more attention, they get off the iPad, they have less anxiety, they're able to be with other people. But they're still who they are. Their basic personality stays, and we're not trying to change that at all.

Cheryl also writes that she doesn't see recovery and appreciating kids the way they are as opposing ideas. She appreciates her grandson for the gifts he brings to the world, and she wants to help if he suffers from physiological or neurological problems. He goes to OT skills classes, and her daughter is fine with that, but resists anything more. You and I are thinking the same way, Cheryl. I just want to help the body function better, so there are better strategies for dealing with life, and the person is who they are.

Spitting, ear on the belly and humping

Melanie: "My son spits, and I'm not sure why he suddenly started. He also always puts his ear on my belly, is very anxious, and does humping. I ask him to control his body."

We talked about the humping and keeping it to a private space. The spitting could be a new thing he learned and wants to practice, or he got a rise out of you, or something feels uncomfortable in his mouth. Without more context it's hard to say. Putting his ear on your belly may be comforting, like being back in the womb. For the anxiety, we talked about that a lot: toxicity and amino acids.

Seeking pressure on the face and head

From Harsandeep: "My son wants pressure on his cheeks, chest and stomach. I'm not sure why. He's not in pain. He only wants pressure from the forehead, and Dad can't use his hand." We talked about sensory seeking: it feels good. I would also think there may be pressure on the inside, and pressing that particular way helps him feel better. So I would think neuroinflammation.

For those of you with kids who may have neuroinflammation, one thing you can try, which I learned from Dr. Kartzinel, is a therapeutic trial with ibuprofen (Advil, or whatever it's called in your country), not Tylenol. Ibuprofen is an anti-inflammatory. If your child is doing the head pressing or similar behaviors and you give a little ibuprofen and the behaviors come down, you know there's brain inflammation, and that's your target. Check the dose with your child's doctor first.

Laughing and talking to something we can't see

Michael: "Our daughter is three and non-verbal. We refuse to take her to a traditional doctor." We've answered similar things already. "Holding toys, tantrums, crying and laughing for no reason. It's almost like she sees something we don't. I recently put up a vision board, and now she comes to it and stares at it, laughs and talks to it. It's almost like she's playing with angels." I would think of that connection to other realms, or imaginary play. It could be. "She barely sleeps." That's a neurotransmitter imbalance, and I would have it checked. "Obsessive behavior." That can be related to brain inflammation, like PANS and PANDAS. "Won't sit still, picky eating." Zinc is always a good thing for picky eating. "It's all new to us." Listen to the whole recording.

A 15-year-old with worsening OCD

Mary: "My 15-year-old daughter has worsening OCD, lots of anxiety and repetitive thoughts. She gets stuck on thoughts, events or interactions at school or camp that happened years ago, and obsesses over her feelings about them for days."

I would really think brain inflammation and a PANS/PANDAS flare. I hate to say antibiotics, but that could be a course of action, or IVIG, which is intravenous immunoglobulin, or low dose immunotherapy. Dr. Darin Ingels speaks really well on this; he's in Southern California, and so is Dr. Karima Hirani, who I've heard give several presentations on low dose immunotherapy. In PANS and PANDAS there's brain inflammation and autoimmunity, because something in the brain looks a lot like a microbe the body has encountered, and the brain has gone a little haywire. Low dose immunotherapy helps with that.

Vaccines for a child with autism and PANS

Carolyn: "Should a child with autism and PANS get the COVID vaccine? And can they handle the flu vaccine?" I'm not going to tell you yes or no, Carolyn. But think about what's in the vaccine. Has it been tested over time? What else is in it? How toxic is your child, and can they handle much more? Ask yourself those questions, and talk them through with a practitioner you trust.

Can anxiety increase during detox?

Diana: "My child has all the behaviors you're describing: tactile sensitivity, anxiety, overreacting. He's now eight. Over time, all this decreased after removing dairy, and he also reacted well to adding omega-3. Now I'm trying chlorella and castor oil packs, but I'm not sure I'm doing the right thing. Can his anxiety increase during this kind of treatment?"

Yes, anxiety can increase when you're doing chlorella, castor oil packs and omega-3s, because the body is letting go of toxins. You probably need more binders along with it.

Tantrums over being told no

Winifred: "When my son is told no to something he really wants, he has a bad temper tantrum and tears up everything in the house."

I know this one. Try to cut it off at the pass, before it happens. I would look at neurotransmitter balancing, and probably parasites, with all that anger. There are a lot of calming nutrients: GABA, vitamin B6, and fish oil, the omega-3s, which are very calming. I don't know what you're already doing, but I would pump up that support. And I would try to stop it before it happens. I don't know how able he is to talk cognitively, but explaining about not getting

his way. I just don't know what level he's at.

Non-stop clapping

"He has a non-stop clapping problem." I think that's a stim. He may want to hear the sound, or feel how it feels. Redirect him, and again, look at toxicity. I know I always go back to that, but I think it's so key and so important.

Back to Facebook. Ola says he reacts to the full moon. There's a clue: parasites. For the GABA, it's PharmaGABA; I think Natural Factors is the one I use.

How do you check for toxicity?

"How do you check for toxicity? Can you recommend a doctor in New Jersey?" I think you've already worked with Dr. Neubrander, and I can't think of anyone else off the top of my head. You can check for toxicity through the Great Plains tests, but you need to work with a practitioner.

A 27-year-old who can't sit down

Ghassan: "My son is 27, with autism. He keeps moving around the room, holding and lifting things. He doesn't sit down." That's like toxicity, and we talked a lot about it, so go back and listen to the recording. Most everything comes down to toxicity and parasites. And parasites are there because it's a hospitable environment, because the toxins are there.

Rocking, eye bulging and hands in pants

Cheryl: "My son is 17, with Down syndrome and PDD-NOS. He rocks forcefully while he walks, bulges his eyes and usually looks to the side. He can come out of it if I get his attention and redirect him, but he goes right back to it. Is there also any way to help a kiddo stop constantly having his hands down his pants? We say 'hands' and he stops for a bit, then goes back to it. We keep him on an anti-inflammatory diet."

Again, it's partly habit. I would look at drainage and detoxing for sure, Cheryl, and we talked a lot about that already.

Aggression, plucking leaves and chewing hair

Akbar: "My four-year-old son sometimes has aggressive behavior. He also holds newspaper in his hand, plucks leaves and flowers and chews hair." Anytime there's aggressive behavior, I always think neurotransmitter imbalance: too many excitotoxins in the brain and not enough calming factors. There could be genetic components too, but environmental toxicity and parasites really contribute.

A high-functioning daughter and an unclear cause

Lilia: "I'm the parent of a six-and-a-half-year-old daughter who has had many interventions, through a relentless effort on my part to seek out people in Austin, Texas, who could help us." Good for you, Lilia. Congratulations; it's an effort. "My daughter is so high functioning that when I read about autism behaviors, I can identify behaviors she expresses in different ways depending on the situation. I've also read about PANS/PANDAS behaviors. I'm grateful for the interventions she's had, but my big challenge is still not knowing exactly what has impacted our lives."

In Austin, I'm thinking mold right off the bat, and maybe Wi-Fi. "So many healthcare providers have, in my opinion, a limited understanding. I still have so much to learn. I continue to advocate for my daughter as a single parent and a widow. It's a very big challenge, and I count my blessings every day."

I think you're doing an amazing job, Lilia. I know you've done a lot. Like I said, the key I think a lot of people miss is the drainage part, so I would work on the liver and gallbladder, and then on detox even higher up, in the lymph.

Where to learn more about drainage

I think we got through all the questions. Thank you, all of you who are still here. You're amazing. This went much longer than I thought.

Parent: Can I ask a quick question? Is there a video you've done on drainage?

Yes. I did an interview on drainage in my summit, with Maria Rickert Hong interviewing me. I also did an interview with Trudy Scott in her Anxiety Summit. It's similar but slightly different and more research based, and it was later, so I had it down a little better. Either one will give you some hints about drainage.

I'll also share a page that goes through all the things I look at in an assessment. Even if you never work with me, these are the things your practitioners should be looking at, like mitochondria and methylation. When both of those work better, it's like you've upped your factory output from 50 percent to 75 or 80 percent, and hopefully up to 100. We want the body working at 100 percent, without all those dysfunctional pieces, so there's more energy to do everything. That's why I focus on those things, and of course drainage and detox. Since I started focusing on drainage, I've seen much faster changes.

I've also seen faster changes since a few of my clients started Brain Harmony, the Safe and Sound Protocol, the listening program that works with brain waves. Those families have made quicker progress, and I've been surprised. I'm really excited about it. Carol Garner-Houston from Brain Harmony explained to me that when the brain waves become more coherent, the brain is able to dump the toxins that are in the way. So it really works with dumping toxins, but then you want the rest of the body open so they actually come out.

What about the Andy Cutler protocol?

"What do you think of the Andy Cutler protocol for detox in adults?" I like CellCore Biosciences. I think it's easier and not as invasive, and their products are amazing. CellCore is where I learned a lot about the drainage funnel. I learned it just like you're learning today, and then I started doing it, and lo and behold, it really works. Trust me, I've worked with tons of supplement companies. What I've found is that when you take the toxins out, the body works better, hands down.

If you want to start on your own, I think a safe place to start is their BioToxin Binder, and TUDCA is also very safe to start with. For anything else, work with somebody who knows what they're doing, whether that's me or your own practitioner. These products are super strong; a little bit goes a long way. In a training I did with them, they said the most expensive supplement is the one that doesn't work well, because you're paying for nothing but expensive urine.

Thank you all for being here, for watching, for coming and for staying. Any feedback is welcome. Have a great weekend.