Oxypowder causing fever, vomiting on my 3 yr old - pls help

[bikram.gupta]

Dear Dr,

I have read through the topics in the forum. The case for my son (3yr old, PDD, constipated and use of purgative intermittently since Oct 2005) looks similar; however we're devastated after initial use and need reinforcement from you to proceed.

Day one:
First day, we put 1 capsule (in 4 oz of orange juice) for our son. He passed motion that night after meal, just once and next day we had to use purgative (becasodyl) again. We found that he caught cold/cough next day morning.

Day two:
We upped the dose to 2 capsule that evening. He passed motion once after the meal, slept and then got up and vomited. He did not sleep that night and was feverish and crying. His vomit contained yellowish substances, a lot (mucous or cough like). Next morning, he vomited again after lunch. It was a shock, as this healing crisis stuff is not written in your main page (or, maybe I am wrong). Then we came across this forum.

Day three:
We did not want to stop oxypowder. So we reduced the dose to just half, to be on safer side. Also reduced his meal to very little, and increased the juice/water. He had trouble sleeping, did vomit, but only mucous. He passed motion just once, in Day 4 morning.

Day four:
Today. Now (it's evening local time) we gave him another half capsule and writing this email to you.

Apart from Oxypowder, he's on Vit C, Cod liver oil, ProEFA, Probiotics (Kirkman), Milk thistle. We've exhausted his enzymes and will start those soon once we receive.

Please advise:
- What should be our course of action now?
- Should we keep using purgatives if he's not passing motion?
- Can we start zeolite when he's on maintenance dose of oxypowder?
- Can we give him antihystamine or crocin or ibuprofen to stop feeling feverish?
- Can we continue the maintenance dose for a year or more?
- In addition to colon cleanse, what do you advise for a 3yr old PDD child, for cleaning toxins from his body? Please keep in mind that he'll be on host of other supplements as we've written above.

We'll be grateful to you for your response.

Kind Regards,

Bikram Gupta.


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[how2gethealthy]

It sounds to me that this treatment may be too extreme for a young child. Are you working with a health practitioner (pediatrition or natrualpath with experience of children)?
Why do you feel your child needs to detox?

My daughter was very constipated at age 1. I took her to a naturalpath who diagnosed a gluten intolerance. We removed all gluten from her diet and treated her with something homepathic for 3 months. She improved immediately. She still tends to get a bit constipated, but nothing that we can't sort with diet. She is now 7, is no longer gluten intolerant and very healthy and robust.

I must say I personally would not give a young child a colon cleanse designed for adults.

Your child's vomiting is perhaps sign that it is not suited to him?

I would also stop the cleanse until he is over his cold.

There may be an underlying cause to his constipation, for example a food intolerance. Have you looked at this?

Good luck,
Brenda

[bikram.gupta]

Hello Brenda,

Thanks a lot for your response. We actually stopped Oxypowder at that time and have not started yet. Our son is on Milk of magnesia+paraffin and prune juice. He manages to pass once or twice a day.

During those 3 days, I was constantly in touch with GHC Health team and they are very, very friendly and were kind enough to explain things in detail. My son is off gluten, so may not be gluten intolerance. It was possibly healing crisis and we gave 2 caps, which is too much for him. We're going to start clean once again and this time with 1/4 cap and increase over a few weeks.

By reading the experiences of others, there're two things that we are really wary of: Oxypowder and Zeolite. Hopefully we'll soon get a DAN doctor in our subcontinent and start these under suitable guidance.

Regards,
Bikram

[how2gethealthy]

Good luck Bikram. I know how distressed I was when my daughter was constipated so I can really feel for you.

I'm sure you've done this already, but I had a quick look at information available on the internet on children and natural remedies. This is what I've come up with:
http://www.cloverhouse.org/
http://www.kidshealth.org/parent/genera ... icine.html
http://www.kidshealth.org/kid/stay_heal ... bowel.html
http://www.kidshealth.org/parent/food/g ... ation.html
I think this constipation page is useful. Particulalry the bit about what constipation is i.e. it's not the frequency of the bowel movement that is important, but rather the hardness of the stool. Hard stool means constipation and soft stool doesn't.

The point they make about children putting off going was very true for my daughter. She didn't like strange toilets, and didn't want her play to be interupted. She also associated going to the toilet with pain. This all took time and patience to get over. I found that my concern and worry would stress her out a bit. So I had to relax, too.

I'm developing a blog called how2gethealthy.com and will be posting information on natural health remedies suitable for children next month.
Please do have a look.

Best wishes,
Brenda

[Health Dr. 1]

Bikram,
I wish you the best of luck in helping your son. I hope that you are able to find a practitioner that you can work with; it is so difficult trying to deal with something this complicated without a practitioner to guide you through the process. I just wanted to make a note here regarding Brenda’s very helpful commentary. Constipation is often defined exactly as she stated: hard stool. However, many doctors and natural practitioners believe that this definition is lacking. Stool hardness can be a very good indicator. Frequency should also be taken into consideration. It is, I think, valid to consider whether a person is having a bowel movement every day, every week, or every two weeks. If you speak with people that have only 1 movement per week, the majority of them feel bloated and “stopped up,” even if their bowel movements are not overly hard. More frequent bowel movements often totally eliminate these feelings.

[how2gethealthy]

Hello Dr Health 1 and Bikram,
I completely agree that frequency is a consideration and didn't mean to say it wasn't. Apologies, if I wasn't clear. The point I was trying to make is that what may be normal for one person is not for another.
With my daughter once a day is normal. Occasionally she skips a day (she might be too busy playing and not want to go) and we increase water and veg to keep things moving.
Certainly once per week is not enough and would worry me. But with children occaisionally missing out a day or two may not be cause to worry.
I'm assuming your child is still in diapers or recently potty trained. Potty training can certainly complicate things.

I do wish you all the best Bikram, and like Health Dr 1, I hope you find a health practitioner that you can work with to help your son.

Brenda