Minutus

I am doing the cases of three autistic children. They all have
inherited a rare form of MS. I am getting local rubrics but can't
find the one that covers the whole tendency. I am not telling you the
characteristics that are shared by all three children because I figure
they are characteristic of the disease.
B is said to be most like the father. There is tuberculosis from the
grandmother and her child, the father is doing very well with Tub. B
like his father has many colds every year. B and the father crave
stimulus of all kinds. B is only 5 years old so he does not get into
his father's youthful drugs. He wants more touch, massage, more wind
(tub) and loves trees, loves to be in a crowd, loves dogs, was a head
banger shreiking all his waking hours until a year ago, eating amel.
He seems hypoglycemic to the mother. Is on no meds. I found
General-weakness stimulus ameliorates. But that is not the right
rubric.
He is generally withdrawn. When he is getting into a new situation
(thus disoriented) he pulls on his ear (like Charlie Brown's blanket)
and makes little bubbles with his mouth. He cannot say more words
than his sister consistently and can point to pictures to communicate.
On the day that I spent with him, he was learning to use the toilet.
He had tantrums when he could not communicate that he needed to use
the toilet. Once he learns something, he wants to do it right and
consistently. Sleeps a lot and doing anything is fatiguing. So he is
usually not aggressively getting what he craves. W

hen he gets angry, his movements are jerky. FOr this, do I take the
convulsion or chorea from punishment rubric? Vertat has MIND
convulsive gesture makes.

His mother was crying during his entire pregnancy. She is now
getting thuja and doing very well. He aggravates from heat.
I am thinking of giving him Tub or Bac because of the desire for
stimulants. But before I do that, I want to line up some other
remedies and then ask the mother more to get an idea for the next
remedy and also to get a better baseline for him. Hopefully the tub
will uncover more of his personality.

If you can offer any ideas, I would appreciate it. I will describe
the other children when I hear what you have to say about this one.

Blessings,
Ellen Madono

Not sure what you are asking really if you have more or less decided on
a rx but I don't tend to think of Tub as being taciturn, loving dogs or
needing a lot of sleep - quite the reverse - that weakness and need for
sleep is interesting, perhaps more Phosphorus or China like (although
they have a terrible fear of dogs as well).

not liking change or anything new suggests the cancer diathesis as well
- check out the fear of new things and change type rubrics (tub usually
loves and craves change)

For the angry/jerking rubric I wouldn't be using chorea/convulsion
unless it really is that defined twitching and jerking - there is
'anger with trembling' - what makes him angry and how is he afterwards
and what > during these times

what caused the shrieking episodes to subside

look for curious sx or at least useful sx outside of the so called
autism - if he loves to eat is this another stimulation? what does he
crave

you say he << heat, but in what way, what happens

just a few thoughts, Joy

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Thanks Joy,

Sorry, I am not as decided as I appear. I am trying to think out these
cases. This is a first time working with three children having the same
disease and being so pathologically affected by it. I spent a whole day
with them, but I didn't press into every issue the way I should have. So, I
was looking for what you gave me. A reasonable critique. There are still
two more children left, so in terms of thinking this through, my toes are
only getting wet.

There does seem to be two sides to him. The one that is craving stimulus is
the Tub. The other side is very beat down by the disease. Possibly more
important are the high expectations of this father (carc) or just a lack of
stimulation that he requires to stay mentally present. I am not sure which
condition is the most important.

Most of his lively symptoms are attempts to get more simulation. That's how
he stays in touch. His mother thinks he is hypoglycemic because he perks up
after eating and he can eat an incredible amount. Eating is definitely
stimulation. I think the mouth bubbling is more stimulation. He can't talk
so he bubbles. The physical therapists get their attention by putting
battery driven buzzing toys in their mouth. They love chewy crunchy food.
But this is true for all the kids in this family who are identified with an
identical type of MS. The point is with B, he can't be satiated. He wants
an unlimited amount of all stimulation. It is hard for me to imagine this
boy who seemed so dull and afraid of an interaction with me or strangers,
loving being in crowds. But that is what his mom says. Is that a rubric?
The tantrums from not being able to communicated that he needed to use the
toilet gets at a characteristic that is very individual for him. His mother
says he learns very slowly and with a great deal of effort (compared to
the others), but anything he learns, he keeps. Although his level of
functioning is quite low (can't talk much, moves awkwardly, withdrawn
socially, avoids eye contact) I sense that he is a kind of perfectionist.
Although he seems very withdrawn and lethargic, underneath I sense that he
is very demanding like his tub father. I sense a lot of turmoil in him.
The father demands "perfectly sociable behavior" which he is not able to
give anyway, but he tries. So the turmoil is suppressed. He worships his
father. Follows him around when he is home and tries to immitate him.

Maybe this swing between extremes is medorrhinum. His mom says he has
sudden mood changes that she can not explain. He wants endless stimulus,
but actually does not have the physical ability to take so much. He
withdraws when he is exhausted. He wants, but is not even able to express
his desire. Then his beloved father is disciplining him to be socially
perfect. So he also wants to be perfect (Carc, Nat Mur). It's not going to
be a fairly healthy remedy like Nat Mur is it? His nature is not at all
outgoing or charming. I can't imagine a Phos underneath the turmoil. Based
on Herscu's book Stramonium, I have a hierarchy of remedies in my mind.
This kind of formula is typically misguided in homeopathy. Nevertheless, it
is beginning place for a beginner. The physical condition is syphlitic.
(The top of the brain is white. Something has changed in the myelin
shield. Also there are cysts in the cerebellum).
I know there is a huge range in Phos, but does it go into this level of
retardation?
I did not see the jerking behavior when he is stressed. So I am not sure
what it looks like. I should have had the mother act it out for me. I only
heard the tantrum. I will question the mother again. The other two
children don't have this so I thought it might be important. Usually his
movement is much slower than his other sibling. I''ll ask the mother if the
emotion is anger. I think it is. Thanks that is a good rubric: "anger with
trembling." From what I saw of the tantrum is it is exhausting. So he is
worse. He is vying for attention with 2 other sibling who are all very
needy so I suppose the attention that a tantrum earns him must feel good.
HIs mother wakes him up early in the morning before school just to snuggle.
He needs that one on one time she says. His older sister was beating up on
him when the third child was born. Then she stopped suddenly when she
dicovered that she could get more status by being a big sister. Perhaps
that has something to do with the head banging and shrieking stopping. I
will ask the mother about the timing of these events. His father was a head
banger and recalls spending hours calling for his mother who was working in
the family business.

Loving trees and the wind is very unusual for a child. Or maybe not?? I
found dreams of trees for Tub. The father also mentioned liking to hike
around in forests. Loving wind is the desire for stimulus. Probably this
is just my imagination but flowing water and wind are all feelings of
flowing emotion. This child's emotions are very blocked. He has sudden
outbursts otherwise he is withdrawn.

If the mother was crying all during her pregnancy with him, how would you
rep that? The mother feels very resentful toward the father who is trying
to put up a front that they are a normal happy family. She is supposed to
present that front and when she can't he becomes very angry. He is a
Tuberculinum Napoleon. Nux is his next remedy if Tub doesn't take him
completely out of the the Napoleonic state.

Resisting change is very typical of the disease so I don't think I should
use it.

Thank-you again for your help. Just writing about this is helping.
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Hi Ellen,
Sorry if I missed it, but can you describe the head banging? Is it
"knocking his head against wall", or something different?
Shannon
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Shannon,
I might not have inquired deep enough. But it went on all the time, for B.
So it could not be only against the wall. He was trying to stimulate
himself, I think. Also he was angry. As I said, his father did the same
thing, but he can describe it remembering as an adult. In his case, he
wanted his mother and could not have her. I guess in B's case it is also
part of sibling jealousy. Also, at that time he started learning to use
pictures to communicate. The tantrum over the toilet training was also a
communication issue. This may be big. I have to check this out. They
checked B's brain and he was not damaged by the banging.
I had another case with this and it was done in bed as a way to go to
sleep. So I guess the wall was handy. In another autistic-like case, it
stopped in the same way B's did. I wonder, do adults bang their heads?
Blessings,
Ellen
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