Boy, 5, swollen tonsils & alopecia. (Perfectly healthy now)

[Nico Starchivore]

My 5 yrs old son, Kiann, suffered from sleep apnea for two years. His tonsils were swollen and very large, he woke up so many times choking during the night and looked exhausted when he wakes up in the morning. My wife still sleeps in his bedroom because she's scared he would stop breathing.

Kiann has a weakness with his intestines : before age two he had two operations, the first because he had intestinal obstruction of the small intestin, the second operation two weeks later because his intestin was blocked again and after many tests the surgeon understood the cause of the blockage : he was born with the small intestine at the wrong place, she succeeded to put everything at the right place.

After his operations Kiann always caught so many colds, many times turning in bronchitis. Since he's 3 yrs old, he was always absent at school for a week or two because of these problems.A couple of years ago he started snoring very loud. We met 3 different doctors who told us if it gets worst he should have his tonsils removed. We don't want to do that of course. Last summer I managed to convince my wife to try a diet for Kiann without gluten and dairy. His health improved but as soon as he went back to school his sleep apnea came back.

Since last summer I advised my wife to stop giving Kiann some oil, meat, fish, and eggs. Since october we noticed another problem, Kiann started to develop alopecia at the back of his head. My wife minimised animal products and oil more and more and finally agreed to totally stop it before christmas, although she sometimes complains Kiann lost weight because of the lack of fat. We noticed another improvement, at least he doesn't choke anymore in his sleep, but still snores every night, still has a problem to fall asleep and has an agitated sleep. Also he had some acupuncture, It seems to help a lot as well. He had very few colds compared to the previous winters. But his alopecia didn't go away, instead it became slowly bigger.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[sjsilver]

I am so sorry to hear about your son. That must be really stressful for you. When I was a child, living in Canada, it was routine to have tonsils removed if there were any problems with sore throats. So my sister and I had ours removed at the same time. I also have alopecia, on and off for 4 or 5 years. When I notice a spot form that is the size of a dime, I will go to the doctor to get cortisone injections. This stops it from spreading and stops the itch for a few months. The doctor will do about 10 tiny injections at a time. This is a lot to ask of a 5 year old though. The one advantage you have, is that your child is a boy. If you have to cut his hair really short or shave it, it is not as stressful as it would be for a girl.

[Nico Starchivore]

Thx for the reply sjsilver.

I had problems with my intestines, very bad digestion, so many sinuses infections and eczema. As soon as I started TSS my intestines got better, no more sinuses infections, my eczema weakened and totally disappeared within weeks only, I guess it means the cause of my sinuses problems and my eczema was my intestines issues somehow. Maybe for Kiann it's the same, if his digestion improves because of TSS his alopecia and his swollen tonsils can totally disappear after a while, Dr. McDougall said alopecia is an auto-immune disease. Kiann's immune system is a lot better already now, he doesn't catch so many bad colds as he did before despite this cold winter.

[sjsilver]

You're welcome. My alopecia seemed to kick in the same time as menopause. I don't know if that was just a coincidence. My sister has alopecia as well. This year I have noticed an improvement in my eczema. All my life I would get it in the winter time on my face and hands. This year I only have it on my hands. In my job I have to do repetitive hand washing, which is probably a factor. I have not had any heartburn since I started Mcdougalling. This used to be a problem for me when I was trying to sleep.

[GievlosS]

You must be so worried about the little guy! I do not have a lot of experience in this area, except to note that I remember that alopecia is on Dr. McD's list of autoimmune issues--and some folks have had some luck addressing those with Dr. McDougall's elimination diet, intended to address food sensitivities (just type elimination diet into the site's search function to pull up the articles on the diet). Some people react to citrus, wheat, soy, glutens, yeast, as well as to animal foods.

I am on the elimination diet myself (to resolve issues with joint pain and an injury that refuses to heal). One thing I have noticed is that it stopped the hair loss I was worrying about. For about a year I had noticed that I was losing about 80-120 hairs every time I washed my hair. This was NOT normal for me... ordinarily I lost from 10-20 hairs. Since I have been doing the strict elimination diet, my hair loss levels have returned to normal.

Another thing to consider is allergens that one does not eat. My son is quite allergic to some personal care products--hand lotions, hand sanitizers, etc. We are in the process of switching him over to hypoallergenic detergents, shampoos, and so on. There is a lot of horrible stuff in most shampoos.

Dust allergies might be another issue.

Best of luck to you.

[GievlosS]

I have had two more thoughts that might be helpful.

The first is that since your son is very sick, it might be a good idea to contact Dr. McDougall by email to see if he would be willing to advise you directly.

The second is a stray thought... something I happened to learn about autoimmune disease generally, in adults. I have no idea whether this also applies to alopecia in children, but it might be something to do more research on. When a friend of mine was diagnosed with MS in her twenties, one of the first questions that the hospital asked her was, "Did you grow up in a household that was always super clean?" Apparently, houses that are too clean during childhood are a risk factor in adult auto-immune disease. The immune system is not being given enough germs to fight, so it has to fight something, so it turns on the body. Again, I have no idea whether this is also a factor with children, but it would be worth looking into.

Again, best of luck to you and your son.

[sjsilver]

That is interesting about the super clean environment. I knew that about basic illnessess but hadn't heard that about MS. My husband has always refused to buy antibacterial soap for that reason.

[Nico Starchivore]

Thx a lot for your kind replies GievlosS, I forgot to check if there was some new answers in this post !

I heard about elimination diet and I read the topic in this website. Not sure my wife will be ok with it, it was hard enough for her to admit she'd had to suppress all animal products from his diet...

What was the food that made you loose too many hair btw ? Just curious about it...

We also suspect Kiann would be allergic to something, nuts or whatever...He got checked by a specialist who didn't detect any allergy, to any food or other environnement issue, but this guy was weird and we didn't trust him, he wanted us to follow a 3 years program with chemicals to heal Kiann, it seemed it was more a marketing plan than a real health plan, so no way !

About the super clean environnement, it can't be the case because we live in an old building built in the 50s, we don't like it but we don't have the choice to move out at the moment. And about soaps and shampoos I always buy organics stuffs without all these chemicals.

I might send an email to Dr McDougall, but I always tell myself he's so popular he must already have tons of emails to reply...

[Nico Starchivore]

Now Kiann is 6 and his health is...perfect !

He's a McDougaller since january 2015, and his tonsils are totally healed, he doesn't snore at all at night anymore. His sleep is good now. After 4 months of starch solution, suddenly his hair grew back, he got rid of his alopecia quickly.
We added tofu and nut butter to his diet because he's growing a lot, and he's now more energetic than his friends at the same age ! He loves his starches, veggies, fruits, and his buckwheat bread with nut butter. He eats well, lot more than last year. I also give him vitamin B12, 1000 mg every sunday.

This newsletter helped me a lot : https://www.drmcdougall.com/misc/2012nl ... ildren.htm