Autism: “Children with Starving Brains” a road map to recovery?

“Children with Starving Brains…”

After being given the diagnosis of Autism many parents are bewildered and devastated, once the realization sets in it can be hard to really know where to go from that diagnosis.  The CARE center in our situation handed us a folder with lots of information on autism but no real guidelines on recovering from it, there were suggestions for all kinds of interventions but no real road map on what/why/where and how. We, like many families, could have been clueless as to where to start and what might work. Luckily, or unluckily whichever way you choose to spin it, we had been working on our son’s recovery for the previous 17 months, so we felt we were ahead of the game; he had been enrolled in occupational therapies and speech therapies for the same length of time.  I had also started to clean up his food and added supplements to his diet.  Actually, getting the autism diagnosis was a shock to us as we had believed all along that he was going to receive a PDD-NOS diagnosis. It just so happened that the day we went for the evaluation he was regressing somewhat, maybe his yeast was flaring or he was just having a bad week I don’t remember exactly, anyway that day he exhibited every behavior we had seen that brought us to this point. He had no imaginative play, limited eye contact, and that week he had also regressed back to echolalia which had really been dissipating. That day saw him repeating the random sentences (even with his funny, stilted speech you could hear the inflections mimicking theirs) that the care counselors said, while for the very first time, tip toeing around the room. I, and his Early Intervention Specialist who had accompanied me to the evaluation, explained that this was not typical for him; he NEVER walked on his toes, even when he was learning to toddle, but that day he toddled around tippy toed repeating sentences to no one in particular, it struck me as odd that this was the day he chose to put it all together and do that.  

Initially when we had been given an at-risk diagnosis when he was 19 months I had jumped on the internet to find the ‘cure’ that was going to fix him (thank goodness for Google!).  I spent hours on the internet, first finding the book “The Late Talker” recommended by our Pediatrician, and then onto websites; such as the defeat autism now (DAN!) site, to reading random papers on the subject, reading excerpts from books and, most importantly to me at that time and still now: other parents accounts listing symptoms, interventions and dietary changes they had tried in their efforts to help their children.

Eventually I came across the book, Children with Starving Brains, A medical Treatment Guide for Autism Spectrum Disorder, 2nd Edition, updated 2005. Jaquelyn McCandless, MD.    This book was first published in 2002, but updated in 2005. In the Introductory chapter the author writes: “I will explain more about ASD causation models in Chapter One to help parents understand the rationale behind the various treatments. Chapter Two discusses nutritional deficiency as a common denominator in almost all ASD children and emphasizes the importance of the gastrointestinal tract and its relationship with the immune system. Accumulation of toxins, especially heavy metals and the “autism/vaccination” controversy are discussed at length in Chapter Three on Impaired Detoxification, Toxic Accumulations, and Politics. Chapter Four is dedicated to diagnostic evaluations, including a description of laboratory tests that help guide treatment and monitor its progress. Chapters Five to Eight delineate the Biomedical Treatments for ASD that I use in my practice. These include Gastrointestinal Healing, Feeding the Starving Brain, and Chelation Therapy (Removing the Toxins) – based on the DAN! [Defeat Autism Now] Protocol – and Immunity, Autoimmunity and Viruses.” 

I had an epiphany - this was the first place I had found a list of how/why/which/ and when, the almost “how-to-guide” on recovering from autism.  Much of what I was reading in this book made so much sense to me.  It was – finally - a road map for us to use to help our son; best of all there are many suggestions on how parents can start the recovery process through diet and supplements themselves.

Dr. McCandless became interested in the treatments for ASD disorders after her Granddaughter was diagnosed with Autism in 1996.   This book is basically a handbook on treatment options and possible illnesses related to the autism diagnosis.  When we realized our son had developmental, sleep and gastrointestinal issues, we started to look outside of medical interventions to help find both the cause and the best treatment for his puzzling symptoms.  All his illnesses seemed to be separate but in my mind there was no doubt that something bigger was going on.  Looking at the whole picture: excessive tantrums, lack of eye contact, lack of interaction, speech and cognitive delays, sleep problems and gastrointestinal issues, it occurred to me that they might all be linked together. If we could just get to the underlying cause we could maybe resolve many of these issues altogether, I still believe this today, more than ever.  At any given time my son is on - an iron supplement for his periodic limb movement sleep disorder, pro and prebiotics for his gastrointestinal problems, black walnut to treat his parasite (we have moved beyond MD prescribed drugs that couldn’t resolve the parasite issue), Nystatin for a yeast problem, Taurine to help his moods and hyperactive tendencies, and more, the list goes on and on, each morning we line up the plethora of vitamin and mineral supplements, one of which, Brainchild Nutritionals, is targeted for children on the spectrum, and off we go about our day.

We have utilized the care and dedication of Developmental Pediatricians, General Pediatricians, DAN!  Doctors, Chiropractic care, Naturopaths and Homeopaths. Finally, we have met an amazing homeopath (thanks to another parent) who has taken my son beyond that which we had ever hoped, and its happening in a very short time. 

I firmly believe, every problem in life has a solution and there was a big problem looming ahead of us at one time, I am forever grateful that we began researching options for treatments. In our sons case, the use of the gluten free/casein free diet, the Feingold plan and some other key natural options, together with early intervention (which I believe is also key to his recovery) have been effective in helping him reach for his true potential. Our interventions both speech/OT and herbal/medical have been many; some have been pointless (one being pharmaceutical parasite treatments, parasites are notoriously hard to resolve) and some have worked amazingly well (his current homeopath). So we consider him well on the way to reaching that potential we know is possible. There are still areas we need to work with, after all the parasites are still there, causing untold problems in his gut, and he still has some speech and social delays but we can now say with confidence that he is well on his well to being a “typical” kindergartner. 

The question still remains: How did we even get here? The parasite is where I believe his problems started, it’s my thoughts that the ingestion of that bug caused a domino effect on his physiology, and the more we added to the gastrointestinal stress he was under from the parasite the further my son stepped into the autism diagnosis.  His gut was more and more overloaded and he became intolerant even to basic foods.  Had we realized the parasite was there, wreaking havoc, I feel sure if we could have cleaned that up before completing his onslaught of vaccines, we would have been giving him a chance to be a ‘typical’ toddler, instead of a kid being dragged from one intervention session to another, from one Doctor to the next, from one treatment … and the story goes on.

Dr. McCandless writes in Vaccination News

“As a clinician, my current belief which guides my practice with these children is that any child given the HepB vaccination at birth and subsequent boosters along with DPT has received unacceptable levels of neurotoxin in the form of the ethyl mercury in the thimerosal preservative used in the vaccine. In any child with a genetic immune susceptibility (probably about one in six) this sets off a series of events that injure the brain-gut-immune system. By the time they are ready to receive the MMR vaccination, their immune system is so impaired in a great number of these children that the triple vaccine cannot be handled by the now dysfunctional immune system and they begin their obvious descent into the autistic spectrum disorder.”

As parents, we all look forward to enjoying our toddlers, screaming tantrums and all, what you don’t expect is a spacey vacant child, a child who ignores your basic requests, a child who doesn’t want to be held, interact with you or even respond to his name.  We parents live for the interaction, the reciprocal emotions from our children and when that isn’t forthcoming it is both confusing and heart breaking.  I distinctly remember the very first time our son showed true, spontaneous affection (previously we needed to force hugs on this kid, you’d hug he’d squirm and wriggle until you released) this particular time he was two years and two months old, we had recently moved to a new house, in a new state and the transition was difficult to say the least.  We had finally got his bedroom and beloved crib back together and I think he was beginning to feel settled again, I was sat on the floor talking with my husband in the corner of the room, my son toddled over, reached around my neck very briefly and then toddled away, my husband and I looked at each other in astonishment. It took many more months for him to repeat that spontaneous interaction but I had seen it, and we knew it was just a matter of time before we could make it come back. Now, at 4 years old, finally, our son is affectionate (most of the time, when he forgets he is a 4 year old boy!!), it’s a joy to both feel and see him emerging from his little cocoon, the other night he told me “Mummy you rock my world, you are the most beautiful princess ever!” and that night I really felt I might be.

Make an adjustment, stay healthy ~ be happy: call Dr. Paul or Dr. Susan at 303.674.1500 or email

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