By Dr. Andrea Maxim, ND
I know in my last video I shared with you some Screening For Autism to look out for but today I want to share with you even more information on testing that is great for Autism, Asperger, Down syndrome and any sort of learning disability. I want you to know benefits of each testing and why they help!
Check out the video here!
The Importance of Testing For Autism
It is so important and I can’t stress this enough how important to rule out as much as we can and access as much as we can with regards to weakness with your child. If we are not doing that we might miss a piece and that could be detrimental, especially when it comes to there ability to learn, their cognition, their social skills and their ability to grow up without having any sort of inability to weaknesses. It is incredibility important to rule everything out as quickly as you can.
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The List of Testings You Must Do
As a parent myself, I want the best for my child and so I understand that you want to find out the most effective testing for your child and also the best possible care. I want you to know about them because these test are not well known and it is so important to look into them because they could help with the missing piece of the puzzle. Not every doctor will mention these test to you and so it it is very important to look into these test and see what testing will work for your child.
Hypothyroidism Testing
The first test that I would like to mention is Hypothyroidism and this is a very interesting, this came from Dr. Erica Peirson a Naturopathic doctor in the United States. It has shown mothers who have especially had issues with there thyroid, specifically hypothyroidism, can actually give birth to children that have birth to children that have slower digestive tracks, slower learning function because they in turn will have signs of hypothyroidism. So watching for the thyroid antibodies, watching for the thyroid levels and you want to be testing for the thyroid stimulating hormones. It is very important.
Iron Testing
As a child is being reared from birth, typically if they are having formula they are having more iron in there diet. However, once they start having whole food a lot of those nutrients start to fall by the wayside or at least get less and you do need to make sure that they are getting the adequate nutrients. So it goes much further than just iron, B vitamins, Coleen, DHA, all wonderful things for the neurological for the brain and these all the need to be adequate for these children. This bring me to the next testing, MTHFR Gene test.
Testing for the MTHFR Gene
The MTHFR gene is a major methylating gene and what that means is it helps the body to detoxify things that are being exposed to. The key nutrients that helps to promote that gene is Folic Acid. For these children it has to be the active form of Folic Acid, it can’t just be plain old Folic acid. It has to be the 5-Methyltetrahydrofolate, so that absorbs well and helps the body do what it can’t do on it’s own, B12 is huge here and vitamin B6. These kids if there Methylation gene is low or not working at all you having to be giving them these key nutrients to help with the MTHFR gene.
Testing for Oxidative Stress (Environmental Toxins)
Oxidative Stress is huge factor here, as I mention in a previous article, a lot of parent blaming , a lot of parent shaming and mom guilt comes into play when you are dealing with children of Autism or ADHD. You have to remember that the environment that we are now living in is so counterproductive when it comes to healthy thriving children that the pesticide, the air quality, and how long they were in the hospital for. Were they exposed to antibiotics as a child or as an infant? All these things will displace there ability to handle the Oxcidative Stress they’re being exposed to. So keeping the liver functioning well and adding those extra nutrients will really help.
Testing with a Comprehensive Stool Analysis
On that topic a Comprehensive Stool Analysis is incredibly important because it gives not only an idea of how well the good bacteria is but is also going to lend to some of the bad bacteria that they could be exposed to. Again, if the child is sick or with fever, or for whatever reason need these antibiotics early on in life it tends to wipe out the good bacteria. Then the only thing the body knows how to colonize is what is being exposed too. In the hospital setting there is a lot of bad bugs. Yeast another big one that you need to rule out in any child that is displaying any sort of health issue because candida overgrowth can skrew up a whole lot of things. Digestion, brain function, skin issues and Candida is a big issue as are parasites.
My Favorite, The Organic Acids Test
This is one of my Favorite test that I like to recommend with my patients. It’s a urine test and let’s us get information, number one, yeast markers are there, fungal markers, bacteria markers. As well as giving us ideas how there neural transmitters are working, serotonin and dopamine. How is there detoxification system working? What sort of nutrients that they are lacking in? Are there amino-acid out of whack? All these things can be analyzed just through this one test.
These are the best comprehensive test that I can certainly lend to you as a place that you want to at the very very minimum rule out a lot of these things because I do find children the way were are presenting or the way we are wanting are kids to act is not necessarily the way we want them to act. If all these things come up fine your child may not have a learning disability, perhaps it’s just there way of communicating with the world, perhaps, they are a little bit slower at advancing. We jump so quickly at diagnoses and we don’t take the time to rule out other key things that have to be ruled out.
If you have any questions on this topic about autism, please leave me a message here or you can email me directly.
Source Information: Dr. Erica Peirson, Peirson Center for Children
