Moderate to Severe Autism and Homeopathic treatment

Sensory issues, problem in transition to a new place, hyperactivity, nonverbal, behavioural issues are some of problem areas of this child who was referred to our autism centre for Homeopathic treatment and Nutritional intervention.

The child was crying nonstop when they came for the consultation and was inconsolable obviously, the parents were helpless in this situation. The parents explained that whenever they go to a new place the child always cries and wants to go back to his everyday environment. Besides this the child doesn’t respond to his name, there is no social interaction and he is completely withdrawn within his own world.

The child was receiving occupation therapy, speech therapy, acupuncture, Ayurveda, bio medicines but with very little improvement. The father was very anxious and sceptical if the child will get better with homeopathy he said this is their last resort.

The child was diagnosed by a leading developmental paediatrician and assessment was done to confirm the diagnosis of Autism spectrum disorder and the child was in the moderate to severe range.

We went through the complete case taking and found the important symptoms for prescribing the homeopathic medicine that will help the child. In Homeopathy, along with disease diagnosis understanding the peculiar and characteristic symptoms of the individual is very important to find the right constitutional homeopathic medicine.

Homeopathic medicines act at the level of psycho-neuro-endocrinal axis and bring a state of harmony, also the medicines are in very small doses. Homeopathic medicines do not create any adverse reactions but self-medication should be avoided in all circumstances.

Based on the totality of the symptoms the child was prescribed a Homeopathic medicine and was asked to report after 1 month. Typically, most follow ups are once in a month unless required. The remedy is selected after careful analysis and evaluation of the case, we also use a sophisticated homeopathic software to run a process called as repertorization.

Image of Repertorization – Representation only

Repertorization

Besides this the parents were told about what we expected and how they should keep an observation chart of the child after prescribing the homeopathic medicine.

A detailed Gluten free Casein free diet plan was crafted for the child taking into consideration the nutritional requirements.

1st Follow up

The child was not showing much improvement, the parents were quite dejected and then we went through all the symptoms that we had from the first consultation. What we found was some very minor variation in the hyperactivity was noted at the therapy centre, the transition period which the child took in getting accustomed to the new environment had reduced marginally. We were happy with this minor change that we found after 1 month’s treatment.

2nd Follow up

The hyperactivity of the child had reduced and the child could sit in one place for few minutes and engage in a certain activity. Transition to a new place was also getting better, fleeting eye contact was noted. The child is eating new food now and doesn’t create much fuss when eating. Due to these changes the child could perform well in the therapy sessions which earlier were very difficult. The parents now had little hope that things can change. We again had a discussion with the parents and told them to be realistic about the goals or we may end up not achieving them.

3rd Follow up

In continuation of improvement in the above areas some other areas of positive development were decrease in behavioural issues, sensory issues were decreasing, the child was sleeping well. Still the child was hyper and was unable to concentrate for a longer time but there was no regression seen in the improvements that had happened.

Conclusion:

There are multiple follow-ups and it’s been 1 year of treatment now and the child has no problems in transition to a new place, the child follows simple commands, gives eye contact, responds to his name. Also, the child has developed few words and speaks in monosyllables at the current age of 3.8 years. We have seen an overall improvement in all the areas which were challenging. Homeopathy and Nutrition play a defining role in bringing encouraging improvement in child on the Autism spectrum disorder.