Case History - Nicholas

By Dr. Campbell-McBride

Our son Nicholas was diagnosed autistic at the age of three. At 3.5 we started an ABA programme with CARD. Nicholas is now 7, he is in a mainstream school doing reasonably well. His academic achievements are within the normal range for his age though his social skills are slightly behind. He is very sociable and despite him being clumsy, naïve, and hyperactive, children want to play with him and he has got quite a few friends.

Looking back now, nobody could predict that a little boy without any language, constantly self stimulating, eating very little apart from milk from a baby bottle could undergo such a transformation. On the whole what happened to him can only be described as a miracle. However, his achievements are not due solely to the ABA programme.

I remember that traumatic moment of the diagnosis "Autism", being announced to us by our doctor followed by a statement "There is nothing that can be done.". Well, being a doctor myself, I have to say: "Your doctor is wrong! There is a lot that can be done." We all know what miracles an ABA programme can do. But it is not enough.

A huge part of Nicholas’s transformation was in his nutritional management. Being trained as a medical doctor I knew that conventional medicine has nothing to offer children like my son. So, I went back to university and trained as a nutritionist. We have changed Nicholas's diet and after trying various nutritional supplements we have found the ones that work. An autistic child needs a very special nutritional management, a major part of it being - putting his gut flora right! Gut flora is a living organism very sensitive to the diet, antibiotics, steroids and stress.

Diet on its own is a very powerful tool in helping an autistic child. But it cannot solve all the problems without nutritional supplements. In order to rebalance the gut flora it is essential to use a strong multi-strain probiotic.

Nicholas showed an excellent response to probiotics. From about two to three months after starting it we saw dramatic improvements in our son - his eye contact became normal and stable, the self-stimulation had almost disappeared, he generally became more aware and with us. Everybody comments on how healthy he looks. Nicholas used to be on a milk free diet. We introduced some milk products back into his diet and found that he tolerates it now without any symptoms.

Nicholas continues to progress and I believe that probiotics such as Bio-Kult are key to his continued growth and development