5 yo Autistic Boy – Analysis

Backstory

  • My son is 5.4 years old , he was diagnosed with autism at 22 months of age .
  • We have been strict gluten free casein free sugar free no processed food since his diagnosis .
  • For almost 2 years we followed the ne chek protocol with olive oil, fish oil and 1/32 spoon of inulin.
  • My son was always verbal with alphabets , numbers colors , planets shapes , colors etc and the odd one / two word request sentences but never conversational.
  • His receptive language was very poor until maybe the last year where he is able to follow simple one step instructions.
  • He now repeats what is said to him and can answer to what is your name and other v simple questions .
  • He is not potty trained and does not understand social norms . He interacts with family members and other adults ( other adults mostly for his needs ) 
  • He eats mainly veg and chicken , fish or lamb . Occasionally rice but mostly carb free.
  • He consumes a lot of bananas in a day (5-6).

Foreword – and Reminder

I am not a licensed medical professional and there are strict laws where I live about “appearing to practice medicine”.  I am safe when it is “academic models” and I keep to the language of science, especially statistics. I am not safe when the explanations have possible overtones of advising a patient instead of presenting data to be evaluated by a medical professional before implementing.

I cannot tell people what they should take or not take. I can inform people items that have better odds of improving their microbiome as a results on numeric calculations. I am a trained experienced statistician with appropriate degrees and professional memberships. All suggestions should be reviewed by your medical professional before starting.

Reminder: the purpose of these posts is show the process. Every individual will get different suggestions, the suggestions should not be used viewed as suggestions for any symptom or condition.

For more posts on Autism and the Microbiome

Proforma Overview

The percentile overview shows a moderate bias toward rarer bacteria.

PercentileGenusSpecies
0 – 92237
10 – 192221
20 – 291713
30 – 39812
40 – 491114
50 – 5946
60 – 69912
70 – 791117
80 – 891215
90 – 991116

Potential Medical Conditions Detected has two very interesting items over 90%ile matches, namely:

  • Brain Trauma (99%ile)
  • Schizophrenia (98%ile)
  • For Autism he is down at the 81%ile

Other items over 90% tend to be age related, i.e. Alopecia (Hair Loss), hypertension (High Blood Pressure)

Dr. Jason Hawrelak Recommendations came in at 95.6%ile healthy, so no issue there

Since the interpretation of the microbiome data was done thru biomesight, we see that the top matches include:

  • Depression
  • Autism
  • Easily Irritated
  • Brain Fog
  • Neurocognitive: Attention, Memory, Focus

We have 8 significant pattern matches above and will use each to build a consensus of suggestions. A pattern match means that both of the following appear correct: microbiome pattern matches, the patients symptoms or issue are a reasonable match.

Speculation: The brain trauma and schizophrenia being a much stronger match than autism hints that this child issue may be more related to the microbiome than autism proper.

Consensus Overview

Probiotics

The top item using KEGG data was, Escherichia coli, the prescript assist/equilibrium bacteria and then Bacillus thuringiensis, Bacillus subtilis, Bacillus subtilis subsp. natto, Bacillus amyloliquefaciens, Bacillus licheniformis – further down the list, Akkermansia muciniphila.

Consensus suggestions

We have agreement between two very different paths of picking them (i.e. one by using the genomics of the microbiome and looking at the genomics of the probiotics; the other was using clinical studies reporting desired shifts for the bacteria that was selected). To put some specific brands (when not named above) see this list.

Supplements and Food

Iron (Ferric citrate), Magnesium, l-citrulline, propionate, Reduce choline (Beef, Chicken Eggs) – i.e. more fish, cranberry bean flour or cranberries, blackcurrant, blueberry hydrogenated palm oil, Pulses (pea (fiber, protein), navy bean), Cottage Cheese, berberine, stevia, d-ribose, galactose (milk sugar), lactose.

Many of the above are clustered, i.e. d-ribose and e.coli probiotics (one feeds the other); high saturated milk fat diet and (cottage cheese, galactose, lactose).

Diet style

The Avoids

The avoidance list is rich in “you should be taking items” suggested on the social media on the internet. In fact, they are contrary to the pattern that I typically see with ME/CFS or Long COVID. Everyone is different and it is good to do an evidence based approach for suggestions.

Questions and Answers

Readers usually get a chance to provide more information and ask questions before postings.

Q: we have been on a strict diet for our son, mainly we have not been doing GF/CF diet. Do you recommend moving to a full diet, i.e giving him milk and Gluten.

A: Milk and milk products – yes. Chocolate milk made with real Cacao is supported by the suggestions. 
I checked gluten items:

  • Gluten Free was a mild negative (-25) but checking for specific gluten foods, they were all more negative
  • Wheat was also a negative – 103
  • Oats was also a negative -32
  • Barley was also a negative -146

    So, I would suggest keeping him gluten free

Q: (From Social Media): “I wonder what the effect is/was of 5 to 6 bananas a day”

A: In the suggestions, bananas was listed as a take in terms of the microbiome. Potassium is a factor for some autism (not all):

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