Myomancy ADHD, Dyslexia and Autism

Comments on: Do Antibiotics Causes Autism?

1. Another aspect of the paper is that what some believe are co-morbidities of autism are in fact the cause of autism in some cases, namely gastrointestinal issues that result from use of Augmentin.

   Thanks for the info on Medical Hypotheses, I was wondering what type of review, etc. they have.

   Posted by: Brett November 1st, 2005 at 8:18 pm

2. The interlinked issues of co-morbidities, symptoms and causes of autism are very complex. To my mind nothing has been proven to be the cause autism. Certain conditions are very strongly linked to with autism such as gastrointestinal problems but cause and effect has not been established.

   Posted by: Chris Tregenza November 2nd, 2005 at 8:10 am

3. Medical Hypotheses are just that, and do not claim to be more than that. However it is important to remember that autism is a complex problem, which appears to have a genetic base.

   Having received thousands of emails and calls etc. about regression after the use of Augmentin after the paper was published makes it clear that a study needs to be done.

   Posted by: Joan Fallon December 7th, 2005 at 4:00 pm

4. Thanks for the comment Joan. You receive the distinction of the being the first author of a paper to comment on its coverage on Myomancy.

   Do you know if there will be a full study on Augmentin?

   Posted by: Chris Tregenza December 7th, 2005 at 4:33 pm

5. There appears to be significant interest in Europe, as I have received many calls especially from the UK, about the regressive symptoms of autism after Augmentin use.

   I will keep you posted

   Posted by: Joan Fallon December 22nd, 2005 at 2:06 am

6. After reading the Time article, “New Insights Into the Hidden World of Autism” on May 15, 2006, my 17 year old son commented that my theory that Autism was triggered by antibiotic use might be valid. He felt the enlarged areas of the brain could be due to anitbiotic use; comparing it to giving cattle antibiotics to increase growth. I’m wondering if there is any work being done to further pursue the antibiotic link?

   Posted by: Jyl Coats May 13th, 2006 at 2:07 am

7. My son was high functioning pdd-nos and regressed to the level of moderately autistic at the age of 4 years AFTER THE USE OF AUGMENTIN to treat an ear infection- we have ruled out all medical causes with an MRI, genetic testing, blood testing, and even a 48-hour EEG – all were normal. All specialists have said that they don’t understand why this happened and that this form of regression at this age is unheard of– I believe it was the antibiotic that caused it.

   Posted by: Teresa Taylor July 18th, 2006 at 9:27 pm

8. Teresa – I’m very sorry to hear about your son and it sounds like a very strange case.

   Most, if not all, experts would say its impossible for an antibiotic to have such an effect. Though experts do get it wrong sometimes.

   However, it is very easy for parents to fall for the ‘Post hoc ergo propter hoc’ trap [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post_hoc ]. Just because event Y happened after event X does not mean that X caused Y. Just because your son took antibiotics and then got ill does not mean the antibiotics caused the illness.

   Best of luck with your son.

   Chris

   Posted by: Chris Tregenza July 20th, 2006 at 2:35 pm

9. I am a mother of a 5 year old son that has been through the ringer with tests. He was diagnosed with dysphasia when he was a little older than 3. He is very high functioning and is said to have Autistic tendencies. He does have a speech and language comprehension disorder. Whether it was the trauma at birth or antibiotics due to ear infections that caused his disorder we might never know. But as a parent of a child with the frustrations and complications of social skills I feel like I want to know every possibility. My son did have a severe allergic reaction to Augmenton before he was 3. He was so disoriented and physically affected by this drug (which took 3-4 days for these bad reactions to show up) that I can see why it would be in question. Could this not be a possibility? He has improved greatly with therapy but as every mother wants for their child is to have some sort of normality in their lives. So we read and research for any new ideas of therapy and unanswered questions from the medical field. It’s hard and we need answers to care for our children. We don’t want to blame we just want to heal our kids.
   Kathy

   Posted by: Kathy November 12th, 2006 at 12:48 pm

10. My daughter is 2.5years old. Over the last year we have noticed a gradual regression with being able to say her name, not looking us in the eye, not answering direct questions, not following some simple directions, an obvious delay in language and conversation abilities and much more. I have become very concerned that the last immunizations she received were given at 20 months, due to the fact that we were running behind she was given 4 shots, 2 of them being the mmr and the chicken pox, I have read that the two should not be given together. This was in december of 2005. Wondering if this has something to do with her problems. Seems like shortly after the shots, the gradual regression began. any thoughts??Thank you……….

    Posted by: Brenda January 18th, 2007 at 9:34 pm

11. I would just like to comment that although there seem to be a lot of radical ideas out there about the origin of autism and where it came from, we must remember to bo open-minded, yet grounded, about all of these explanations. As a mother of a 5-year old living with autism, I am not prepared to rule out any hypotheses and get very preturbed when others are quick to sarcastically discredit we could very well be a lead. I think parents who feel passionate about finding out what happened are the real scientists in this matter. Not only do we have a wealth of information at our fingertips, but we have the compassion and the conviction that is needed to break through the rigidity of the scientific structure. Do not mistake my words as a discredit to the scientific community of the purposefulness of the scientific method. I do believe it is vitally important to embrace the scientific method so we don’t produce radical theories with no basis for evidence. However, I think it’s important to entertain a theory long enough to think outside of the box.

    Posted by: Nikki Farrow June 14th, 2007 at 5:48 am

12. After years of suffering from sinus trouble, I started to believe that the cure was the cause. Then I started to believe that antibiotics had caused my sons autism. I pose a question? Is it possible that an overgrowth of yeast in my body was passed to my son in birth and that he was born with an overgrowth of yeast which caused him to have an ear infection at one month? Also could his repeated antibiotics increased the severity of his autism? My son had a serious allergic reaction to Clavulin at 4 years and after this, that group of drugs were never used on him again. Around 5 years old we noticed progress in his therapy. Query: Is it possible that this was the key to him being high functioning autistic child.

    Posted by: Patti September 4th, 2007 at 11:57 pm

13. Hi Patti. I just read your blog and your story sounds very similar to mine. I have a son who is 3.5 yrs. old and is on the spectrum. I also was on anitbiotics during delivery and then after he was born. He had thrush which resulted from yeast overgrowth. He also was put on a series of antibiotics for a skin infection at age 7 months. Do you feel that antibiotics has something to do with autism? By the way did your son have delayed speech?

    Posted by: linda May 10th, 2008 at 3:20 am

14. I am becoming more and more convinced that anitibiotics are possibly the cause of autistic children. My child just turned 3 yrs old and is on the spectrum. He was developing great as a child and somewhere between 1yrs and 2yrs old, he stopped talking, had no eye contact, had repetitive tendancys. My son has chronic ear infections for almost a year. He was treated with antibiotics like augmentin and amoxicillan repeatedly throughout that year. They finally referred him to a specialist for tubes. As mothers, I think we know our children best and I dont believe that science and doctors are always right, they are still human. I believe that some vaccines and anitibiotics in large amounts are toxic to our children. Why is autism so common now? We have to ask ourselves these questions. Something needs to be done and I am determined to heal my son and find answers.

    Posted by: Heidi August 4th, 2008 at 4:39 pm

15. I want to say a few words to you all on the subject of whether augmentin and autism are related, Seven years ago I had a son who was born by emergency cesarean section one month early on the day of 8th December, this came about after a visit to ante natal and coming home with a prescription for augmentin, I had a placental separation after taking one of these within one hour and a half, this resulted in the c/section of my son. From the day he was born, I could see the difference in him from my other three sons. On Monday of this week after seven and a half years my fears were confirmed, Kyle was diagnosed as having Asperger Syndrome, at the Scottish Centre for Autism.

    Posted by: Angela Wood August 7th, 2008 at 10:21 pm

16. I see that Dr. Joan Fallon, a Chiroprator in Yonkers, New York is once again making claims that are not even in her scope of practice.
    I worked along side her in a Practice on Pelhamdale Avenue in New Rochelle, NY where she even had nurses inject children who were autistic with Secretin.
    Dr. Joan Fallon now practices at 1234 Central Park Avenue in Yonkers, New York.

    Posted by: Martha August 25th, 2008 at 12:33 am

17. A few months before I got pregnant with my 3 year old daughter, I took an antifungal which made my asthma 1000 times worse and gave me a severe skin rash. This rash would recur during my pregnancies (I also have an 11 month old son) and I know I passed it to my children. They began having this rash after getting what seemed like a stomach virus that caused them to vomit violently. Along with this periodic rash my daughter would lose speech ability, only to regain it (thank God) when the rash cleared up. Regular food and sleep helps us stave off the rash, but I know it’s not gone. [We have not taken any antibiotics in their lifetimes and probably won't thanks to this site.] A dermatologist prescribed a medication for methicillin resistant staph, stating that this type of infection was largely responsible for many newer skin rashes. I assume my taking the antifungal threw off my body’s precarious balance (already had asthma) and allowed MRSA to overpopulate. Is it possible that this type of infection is a / the cause of autism and that these other antibiotics do the same thing my antifungal did in allowing MRSA to overpopulate?

    Posted by: Deenell December 30th, 2008 at 7:37 am

18. After scouring the web for information, I finally think I know what
    caused regressive autism in our son:
    - On 15th Nov 2008 he received MMR vaccine.
    - On 14th Dec 2008 he received HIB and DTaP vaccines which caused a big
    swelling on his hand. He was given an antibiotic (Clamoxyl or
    Amoxillin) to control the swelling.

    It is my belief that the combination of MMR and Amoxillin caused the
    autism. Be warned.

    Posted by: Hez January 20th, 2009 at 6:45 am

19. Wow, interesting stuff. I think the makers of Augmentin will not be too happy about this!

    Posted by: Laurie B. June 5th, 2009 at 3:41 pm

20. Hey my friend went to Joan Fallon for a long time with her back problem. I used to drive her to some of her appointments. She used to practice on Pelhamdale Ave in New Rochelle but then the last I heard she practiced on Central Ave in Yonkers, NY with Greg Werner, another Chiropractor.
    I am shocked to hear what I am reading.
    Unbelievable actually.

    Posted by: Lara Weiner June 5th, 2009 at 11:29 pm

21. After hearing a story from a dear friend of mine and how her child, afflicted with autism, was treated by Dr. Joan Fallon at her New Rochelle office, I began to research her. That’s when I came across this forum and I must say that as a Health Care Attorney, I have found it terribly appalling that she has not had to answer to the law. She injected secretin into my friend’s child with help of a nurse. Dr. Fallon is a chiropractor, not a medical physician. She has neither the right or license to do such a thing. She blatantly went beyond the scope of her chiropractic practice and what she has done is considered medical malpractice, child endangerment and assault on an innocent child. The children that she has treated have suffered enough and should not have to continue to endure Dr. Joan Fallon’s unprofessional conduct.

    Posted by: Samantha July 3rd, 2009 at 5:28 pm

22. My son was 27 months old and had a cold, the doctor on call prescribed augmentin. I helplessly watched my gentle mild mannered son turn into an increasingly aggitated child.  He became violent and aggressive, hitting himself and others, he also had uncontrollable screaming crying fits where he would start trying to rip his hair out, he was extremely defiant and had difficulty sleeping, he also got fevers, and many times would throw himself on the floor crying. He would try to communicate but his usual words were replaced with jibberish. He was on the antibiotics for about 4 days and then we took him to his pediatrician. She said he was having an allergic reaction and said to stop the antibiotics immediately. She said she had seen that kind of reaction before. He freaked out in the doctors office, he wouldn’t let anyone touch him and was screaming uncontrollably.  Its now been 15 months since that happened. My son regressed significantly since that antibiotic. He slowly got some things back but went from speaking 3 word sentences to mostly one word. He still won’t let anyone touch him at all in the doctors office, he has phobias, he lost motor skills, had to relearn feeding himself, which he still has difficulty with at 3 1/2 years old, he doesn’t interact with children like he used to, he used to sing songs and has difficulty now. We are trying to reteach him his name and his age. He is in behavior therapy 12 hours a week, He has speech and occupational therapy twice a week, and attends preschool in which he receives speech and occupational therapy. He is diagnosed by the school as being autistic and is in next to the lowest class available. His pediatrician can’t figure out what is wrong with him.. he has received MRI’s, EKG’s, EEG’s, bloodtests, etc. They are all coming up normal. I lost my mild mannered talkative boy the day he started taking augmentin. So is Augmentin causing Autism? It did for my son!

    Posted by: Tawny July 23rd, 2009 at 11:02 pm

23. Joan Fallon DC, a NY chiropractor, is now the head of a biotechnology company called Curemark located on Theodore Fremd Avenue in Rye, New York. Our local support group believes she is trying to help kids with Austism. One of our members friends said their friend’s mother, Arlene Feltenstein PhD of Scottsdale, Arizona is the brains behind Dr. Joan Fallon. It is Arlene Feltenstein, with her vast knowledge of Nutrition and the Sciences, that helped formulate Joan Fallon’s original research and patents. None of us can figure out why, Arlene Feltenstein PhD is not listed on any of Joan Fallon’s patents. We think we should tell the Patent Office, what do you think? We would appreciate any advice you can give all of us.

    Posted by: Mary July 30th, 2009 at 6:23 pm

24. My 4 year old was on the very mild end of the spectrum and speaking in 4 word sentences until last week. She went on a course of augmentin for a tonsil infection. She now daily throws tantrums, has lost some of her verbal ability (only speaking in single words) and last night woke up screaming, not wanting to be touched. She has always been affectionate and loved being hugged. I am so scared right now I cannot tell you. She has Kidney reflux and I won’t know what to do next time she has an infection.

    Posted by: Wendy October 15th, 2009 at 9:00 pm

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