Articles

When middle school student Connor Odom road-tripped with his family from their home in Charlotte, North Carolina to Atlanta to play in the U.S. Basketball Association National, he missed the first game. As the start time for the big game approached, the 13-year-old athlete was in the hotel room shower—where he’d been for four hours—alternating between weeping and calling out for help from his parents, who stood just outside the curtain. His mother and father felt helpless, begging him to come out. “You’re all clean, Connor,” his mother said over the sounds of rushing water and her son’s furious scrubbing. “You’re going to miss your basketball game. Please come out. We love you and want to see you.”

Four years ago, Caleb Fournel had strep throat and was treated with antibiotics for 10 days. His parents, Susie Wiggins-Fournel and Martin Fournel, thought that was the end of it.

But a common childhood infection was the beginning of a nightmare that lasted more than two years.

A new study raises a novel idea about what might trigger celiac disease, a condition that makes patients unable to tolerate foods containing gluten.

The study suggests that a common virus may be to blame.

The nightmare was as much a puzzle for his parents as it was scary for Tyler.

He was waking up in a state of terror, saying he would not be able to go to college, not because of his grades, but that he would be unable to drive there, because he couldn’t pass the driving test.

The thoughts were disturbing, oddly compulsive, and especially puzzling, given that Tyler was just 5.

Professor Maxine Eichner, JD argues that the medical child abuse theory developed by physicians and enforced by child protection officials is bad constitutional doctrine, bad law, bad science, and bad medicine.

Just as the incidence and awareness of autism has grown over the years, so too has acknowledgment of Pediatric Autoimmune Neuropsychiatric Disorders Associated with Streptococcal Infections, otherwise known as PANDAS.
The condition is characterized by a dramatic and sudden onset of motor tics and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) following a streptococcal infection like strep throat. It can occur at any age among pediatric patients, but is most common in children during the pre-pubertal years.

Doctors around the country are trying to raise awareness of a condition that may be more common than previously thought.

Most people associate strep throat as a common childhood infection, but doctors warn that a bout of strep can lead to side effects that mimic obsessive compulsive disorder or other psychiatric disturbances..

A growing group of researchers around the world are investigating how the microbiome, as this bacterial ecosystem is known, regulates how people think and feel. Scientists have found evidence that this assemblage—about a thousand different species of bacteria, trillions of cells that together weigh between one and three pounds—could play a crucial role in autism, anxiety, depression, and other disorders.

My son, Ezra, was kidnapped. It was on October 28, 2008. He was 3 ½.

It didn’t happen because he was unattended in a shopping cart or running around the playground. It was while he slept, tucked safely in his bed. We awoke to his screams and found him soaked in urine. The next morning, a child who physically looked like Ezra woke up. He had Ezra’s blond hair, big green eyes, and long eyelashes. But he didn’t have his personality, compassion, or wit. He was no longer sweet-natured, inquisitive, loving, and incredibly verbal. Instead he screamed for hours, stuttered, made repetitive noises, and became very selective in the foods that he would eat. He was angry, defiant, and raged for hours. We used to snuggle, now he wouldn’t let me hold him — his body stiffened each time I reached out for a hug.

Josie Andrews is one of many kids diagnosed with PANDAS, a devastating disease that happens to your well-adjusted child overnight. It starts with something we’ve all had – strep throat. That strep throat then creates OCD, anxiety, eating disorders, aggressive rages for hours at a time, irrational fears, mood swings, writing issues and a decline in motor skills.