Dyspraxic Journey

Tag Archive: d fragilis

D. Fragilis Is Reportedly Gone

One thing that we have learned on this journey is that CB has a sensitive immune system. He doesn’t get sick often, knock on wood, but his system is sensitive to random infections, bugs, and immune suppressors. During the last few years, he has tested positive for yeast infections, anal strep, d. fragilis, selective IgA deficiency, multiple vitamin deficiencies (despite eating healthy and a variety of foods), food sensitivities, and allergies. OK, some of these are common, but I don’t believe anal strep and d. fragilis are all that common.

The latest culprit is d. fragilis, dientamoeba fragilis. D. fragilis is a parasite that lives in the large intestine. It is controversial as to whether it is pathogenic. If you do a quick search on the web, you will see many anecdotal reports stating that it can cause IBS type symptoms, decrease the body’s ability to absorb iron, and can be very hard to anihilate. You can read more about dientamoeba fragilis at https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3862407/. (more…)

January 5, 2017 Allergy, Diet, & Supplements, , , , 0 Read more >

Parasites Strike Again

For me and for most of the moms I know, after we take in the fact that our child has special needs, we set off on a journey to find the root cause of our child’s challenges and sometimes illnesses. Even when we think we have an answer, it is not the final answer. Things are always in flux and we are always learning something new. Information posted a few years ago may already be disproven or at the least improved upon. Even though we know CB has a genetic difference, genetic variance, genetic mutation, whatever you want to call it, we know that he exhibits a myriad of symptoms that may or may not be 100% related to this genetic variance. He could exhibit some behaviors because the genetic variance makes his body more susceptible to other infections, illnesses, or other difficulties.

Our latest work up results included blood, urine, and stool.  We did this as we were considering seeing a pediatric gastrointologist. This pediatric gastrointologist wanted an extensive work up including blood, urine, and stool before he will see your child. His visits are also 100% out of pocket and if he has to do a scope, a good portion is not covered by insurance. Since it was time to do CB’s usual blood work, we added in the extra tests. The good news is that we do not feel we need to move forward with a visit to the pediatric gastrointologist based off the results of the work up. (sigh of relief). The concerning news is that CB’s iron is still low and his IgA levels have fallen even lower. His wbc count is low but nothing else on the CBC. His zinc and vitamin D look fine but we supplement those. The other interesting finding is that his stool still contains d. fragilis. This is the same parasite identified in his stool from another lab almost a year ago. We treated the parasite with humaworm. Actually, the entire family took humaworm. We felt his symptoms had improved afterwards. Since we did not test again, I don’t know if it actually cured it and he was reinfected or it never fully cured it.  (more…)

November 18, 2016 Allergy, Diet, & Supplements, Tests & Evaluations, , , , , , 0 Read more >