Autism in a Boy of Four

A 4-year -old boy diagnosed with autism was brough to me on December, 19, 2020. He refused to come into the clinic and sat in the car in parking area. His father is a cardiologist and mother is physiotherapist. He developed normally until the age of 15 months.

His mother said:

“He was born by lower segment caesarean section.  His birth weight was 3.8 kgs. His dentition, walking and speech were at appropriate times. He cried constantly day and night for 3 months after birth. We observed a few strange symptoms like extremely fast crawling at age of 7-8 month. He stopped reacting when being called. I went out for a conference when he was 14 months old. When I came back, I observed, he was not talking or answering.

Gradually I understood that his speech is lost. We went to a pediatric psychologist. He diagnosed that Uday landed in autism. Allopathic treatment along with all therapies started. In the beginning, he was good in following his therapist.

One day all of a sudden he rejected therapy. My present concern is about his arrested mental growth. Even after so much medication, there is no development at all. He does the same activity for long periods. Loves to play with himself.”

Previously he was good in motor activities like coordination, strength and muscle tone; but now I observe his balancing is a little bit disturbed.

He avoids sitting in a swing which he used to love, due to fear of falling.

If I hold him, then he enjoys it.

He does some abnormal hand movements. He bends back little forward while sitting. I guess it’s because of his height.  His circumcision for phimosis was done at early childhood. He had bad constipation, solved with some naturopathic treatment. He passes urine and stool in pants. Wants to comb other’s hair. His all day jumping and running is now a great trouble for us.

He could not sit at one place more than 7-8 minutes.

He bangs his head due to anger when being contraindicated. His attention and concentration is poor. He does not follow the commands. He has restless sleep.

His sleep span is short. We are giving him Melatonin 5ml for sleep. He wants love and caring. Attention relieves him.

He understands the vibes of the place. I think he felt negative vibes from your building, hence refused to come up. He loves fruits. He has obsession for Maggie and eating the same in all three meals. He is obstinate. He holds urine till his father reaches home in the evening.

Does not go to toilet with maid/ care giver; but going with me occasionally.

His father pours water on him and he loves to play with water. Once we went at Bapatla (sea shore in South India) for vacation and, he behaved so well there. No hyperactivity or tantrums. I feel that my husband is over ambitious and not spending sufficient time with him.  He hits on gum and teeth with some metal or glass objects.”

H/O Mother during pregnancy-
She said:  I was quite okey during pregnancy. Used to do my hospital shift for 6 hours. An evening walk for 1 hour was mandatory for good sleep. My abdomen was small during pregnancy. Colleagues used to amaze with my physical exertion and small belly. They came to know about my pregnancy at the end of second trimester. My gynecologist suggested some rest but I needed physical work for sound sleep, hence continued my routine.

H/o Father-
Delayed speech.
Tactile issues. His sister, 4 years older than child had asphyxia at birth.

Analysis-
It was a case of non-verbal autism and childhood disintegrative disorder.

These children develop normally for at least two years and then lose some or most of their communication and social skills.  The loss of skills may be gradual.

The transition may begin with unexplained changes in behavior, such as anxiety, unprovoked anger, or agitation. Children may stop speaking or revert to single words. They often lose bowel or bladder control and withdraw into themselves, rejecting social interaction with adults or other children. They may perform repetitious activities and often have trouble moving from one activity to the next.

Miasmatic background –
Autism is considered as due to the tubercular miasm. Tuberculosis, leprosy, cancer and AIDS are all part of the wider syphilitic miasm.  I could sense the mother’s extroverted nature as well her impatience. She wanted me to carry the case as fast as possible.

As per her thought process, the homeopath whom she met before me has taken  1.5 years, so she had already given a long time to homeopathy. I explained that every homeopath works as per his observation and experience.  In this case the father had delayed speech and tactile issues, sister had asphyxia at birth and mother had physical restlessness which is the ultimate  outcome of anxiety with discontented behaviour.

Hahnemann states in aphorism 78 that when the miasmatic taint of the disease is left untreated, the vital force will not be able to overcome the disease.  I have found this to hold entirely true and for this reason miasmatic treatment plays a very important role in dealing autism.

Before planning the constitutional remedy, I wanted to clear the imprints of toxins or the predisposing factors that created the soil for his autism. I needed a  deep acting anti-miasmatic remedy. I always pay attention to which miasm is dominant in the case and work accordingly.

Prescription:  19^th December 2020- Syphilinum 10 M one aqua dose.

Rational for prescription:   It was the best matching anti-miasmatic remedy as well as nosode for the case.

The child’s extremely early crawling at age of 7-8 months indicated the syphilitic miasm. Any mile stone too early than the appropriate time is always syphilitic. I was thinking about Medorrhinum, as evening restlessness and enjoys water play but his phimosis and the asphyxia at birth of his sister pulled my attention towards Syphilinum.

I would like to throw light on a few rubrics of Syphillinum-

Follow ups

16^th January 2021
Child came with his mom.  Mother said: “His restlessness and hyperactivity reduced and now he can sit at one place for 15-20 minutes. “He is not obsessed with Maggie now; enjoying Indian snacks like chuda and chakli. He is allowing oral massage and brushing the teeth (which she had not mentioned during interview). He is trying to utter the words like Aai, baba and tai but still his speech did not recovered fully. (How could she expect it in just one month!)

Urine dribbles while jumping. He is still restless in evening. Doing imitation.

Though following commands now but his jumping has not stopped. He is still not telling about urination. His fine motor activities are good like he is holding a pen now.  His sleep is better now.

I suggested she give Melatonin 2 mg daily. Immediate stoppage of any remedy may create withdrawal symptoms. We need to taper it. Many homeopaths do this mistake and they spoil the case. The biggest issue here is the patient loses his faith in homeopathy.

Syphilinum is a deep acting remedy. I prescribed placebo. When working well, it deserves some more time.

19^th February 2021
As per his mother, his hyperactivity is the same as it was last month. Trying to speak but has echolalia. He utters a few meaningful words but the rest is just bla bla bla. We can’t understand what he says. Imitation is better. Grasping improved. Motor movements are good. Eating food with spoon by himself. Sleep span is better.

He is constipated with hard stool. He is obstinate and cannot trust anyone. Not playing with the other children. Not going for pee with his governess.

Hyoscyamus Niger 30 prescribed twice a day for 15 days.

I considered the following rubrics:
MIND – SPEECH – inarticulate
STOOL – HARD
MIND – OBSTINATE – children
GENERALS – ENERGY – excess of energy – children; in

Hyoscyamus, which I already guessed, came up.

16^th March 2021
For the first time, his mother was in a positive mood.

She said:

“His concentration improved. I went in the park with him and got surprised to see him balancing well! Now-a- days, he is enjoying to be on swing. No fear about it. His verbal communication improved. He can use meaningful words like water, food, give me, de de etc. There is no dribbling of urine while jumping but I think it is because his jumping is reduced now. He is sitting at one place for 15-20 minutes.

His balancing is even better than last time. He sometimes talks about pee or potty but still needs toilet training. I forget to mention, he has sweating in palm when in crowd and has habit of blinking eyes. He is so excited for going out but when we reach there, he makes hurry to come back at home. He is always hurried in various things like bathing, playing toys etc.”

I thought, why this restless and hurried behaviour?  It is due to lack of secretion of some enzyme or hormone which helps in maintaining the normal body functions. Here is the role of sarcodes or the body’s own substances like medicines prepared from enzymes, hormones or neurotransmitters.

I needed a neurotransmitter as well hormone which could tune what is mistuned.

Neurotransmitters are the body’s own substance. When a case is improving slowly and you want to support the patient’s immunity to speed up the recovery, think about these medicines. They help in balancing the mental and physical plane.

I was thinking about Dopamine but we use it in adventurous people.

Serotonin needs a strong feeling of being misunderstood and is a good remedy to plan if there is H/O depression in one of the parents. Oxytocin can be used in Autism where there is lack of connection, in cases where there is no breast feeding. For such a situation, we can use a sarcode i.e Lac maternum.

From his symptoms, I chose Adrenalinum 30, once a day for 20 days.

Why Adrenalinum?  Child’s hurried behavior with the H/O mother- she used to do hospital shift for 6 hours. That an evening walk for 1 hour was mandatory for good sleep’ indicated this remedy. As per my observation his mother is anxious and hurried, wants a miracle to occur with homeopathy!

18^th April 2021
Mother: “He is enjoying activities. Going for therapies. I carried him to supermarket with me. He was comfortable in crowd.  I observed little sweat on his palm but surprisingly he spent around one hour there and did not push me to go home as he usually does. He still needs toilet training. Uttering various meaningful words but cannot form a sentence. There is no change in blinking eyes.

Overall calm, following commands, playing with the kids from surrounding.

He shares his toys with them. Sometimes I think, the kids from neighborhood come to play with Vivan because we have a variety of toys at home.

Nowadays, he has developed addiction for screen.  He loves to watch You Tube. This time, please put some medicine to cover his stubbornness.  We cannot take mobile away from him. He is very stubborn, wants to watch screen all the time.”

Adrenalinum 200 one aqua dose given to speed up the recovery as well to clear the remaining hurried and anxious behavior. If body gets sufficient backing of neurotransmitters, its functioning improves.

20^th May 2021
His mother complained that he is shouting due to happiness. He wants physical play. Sometimes throwing things out of window.

“If we compel him to do any activity, he closes his eyes and does not listen. His blinking is no more  but he is putting everything in the mouth. Wants to play in home only, does not want to go out. Doing the routine activities but not learning anything new.

He stopped passing urine and potty in pants. Now he goes to toilet by himself but yesterday he passed urine in gallery. He still couldn’t remove pants by himself. One good thing happened, he can sort the colors now.”

Hyoscyamus Niger 30 CH twice a day given for 15 days.

Comments on selection of remedy
The rubric- MIND – BED – remain in bed; desire to- Hyoscyamus.  It indicates the desire of patient to be in his comfort zone. He is doing the routine activities but not learning anything new. Excitement, throwing things out of window, wants to be at home and enjoying screen, aversion to going out, passing urine and stool anywhere altogether indicated Hyoscyamus. It was once prescribed in February with good outcome.

14^th June 2021
Mother:   “He is better. Not throwing things. Strength improved.
He is able to identify various objects. His word bank is improved.
He wants to be patted and cared for, sort of vestibular demand is there.
Placebo prescribed.

20^th July 2021
Mother said- he is following commands. Avoids physical activity in evening. Excited with new shoes. Happy and learnt cycling. Dependent on care taker, could not ride cycle alone.

“I want him to be independent. He is able to open the buttons of the pants for pee. Does not allow brushing and haircut. All his parameters/ physical generals were fine.

Placebo given.

Why?  His vitality aroused with homeopathic medicine itself is handling the disease state. I thought not to interfere and hence preferred wait and watch.

I suggested his mother to bring his father at next consultation. As mother is an discontented and anxious person, and continuously handling the child may skip or over exaggerate the symptoms as per her perception.  I wanted to check father’s view too. Sometimes if required, I talk to the teacher and caretakers.

26^th August 2021
Mother said, he is much better now. Diet is good. His perception is good. Sitting at one place for an hour. He can distinguish between boy and girls in pictures. Identifying actions, following commands. Trying for speech but his vocabulary is inadequate.  I suggested they to introduce him to new words and objects.
She further complained that he still loves to be in water whole day.
I asked parents, how much difference they observed with homeopathic medicines in six months duration.
Father answered 40%.
100% recovery in Autism is not possible.We should do as much as we can.
I prescribed Amniotic fluid 200 one aqua dose.
Why?  As per mother’s statement-‘My abdomen was small during pregnancy.
Colleagues used to amaze with my physical exertion and small belly.
They came to know about my pregnancy at the end of second trimester.’
Child’s birth weight was 3.8kg .What was lacking there during pregnancy?
It was amniotic fluid!

28^th September 2021
Mother said-The positive changes which happened previously are stable. Perception and verbal communication improved. Physical generals are fine. Enjoying his surrounding.

Placebo given.

10^th  November 2021
Mother C/O –
“He has itchy skin eruptions all over body especially on face after your last medication.  Are you sure the medicine was correct? It made him so restless, poor child is scratching all the day. I waited for 15 days and later on applied some ointment suggested by his dermatologist.”

I suggested just coconut oil application. Psora is evolving. How can I disturb the evolution by giving medicine?   Isn’t it a confirmation of cure according to Hering’s law?

4^th February 2022
Mother said- significant improvement in all area. He is still a member of water world!

We cannot change the basic likings of a person. Homeopathy helps to control it if it is threatening for life, otherwise just leave it. It is the patient’s natural characteristic.

Improvement in a child of Autism is the improvement in the quality of life of the family.