Author:
Jan Scholten
Book:
Autistic Ferns
Type:
Case
Chapter:
3: 3-432.17.01
Lygodium japonicum
3-432.17.01
Case by Jan Scholten.
Girl, 3, autism.
She was diagnosed with autism when she was one. She did not talk, uttered only sounds like a cat, and walked on the tips of her toes. All her toys have to be in a special place and order.
She has digestive problems. She cries after drinking milk, which improves when she is carried. She vomits a few hours later.
Medical history
Her pregnancy was 3 months after another pregnancy where the baby died at eight weeks. Her mother had brown, bloody discharges from week six to fourteen. Halfway through the pregnancy, her mother had a coryza for two months. She was sleepless and had headaches and vomiting after drinking. Later her mother did not feel baby movements, but the doctors said there was no problem. The placenta was blocking the cervix.
Her mother was very stressed from her work. She had worked hard for her boss, who also was a good friend. She was his right hand and worked long hours for him, as a friend. He mobbed and offended her for the pregnancy. He tried to provoke her into arguments so that he could get rid of her. She felt betrayed, was crying and nervous, and had nervous pains and contractions in her stomach and chest with a desire to vomit. Her labor was twelve days too early. In the hospital, they gave the mother epidural anaesthesia, which made her feel numb. In the end, she was born after fifteen minutes of pressing contractions.
She was breastfed only for 4 days because her mother did not have enough milk.
Development
Her motor development is reasonable. She can walk and likes to dance on her bed. She does no speak much, but understands language quite well.
Her concentration is low, she is easily distracted. Her speech is very limited. She lacks concentration when she is with her speech therapist.
Contacts
She has almost no eye contact. She does not react to her name. Sometimes she stares and loses all contact with her surroundings. She has no spontaneous speech to people, no dialogue. She only has interaction with her parents in things she is interested in. She only feels very good with her mother. The contact with her father is okay, but her mother has to bring her to bed. She doesn't like to go to the home of her paternal grandmother, but has good contact with her maternal grandmother. A friend of her mother had a dream that in such a house someone had committed suicide, it turned out that that was true. Her mother never had good relations with her mother-in-law.
At the nursery, she only feels good with known children. She does not like crowds. When there is a party of ten people she hides in her room. She is not interested in other children and does not play with them.
Mind
She is stubborn, does not accept a 'no' from her parents, and starts crying, for instance when she cannot stay on the playground. She can be very angry, nervous, pushy and explosive. She is emotionally unstable and can have temper tantrums, which build up when she is overwhelmed.
She cries a lot, it is difficult to calm her down, except when her mother has carried her for half an hour.
She is very sensitive to noises, especially raised voices and agitated conversations. Then she becomes anxious and starts crying. She cannot stand the sound of a toilet flushing, the washing machine, blenders or mixers. She puts her hand on the mouth of her mother when she is humming, laughing, or singing.
She is very delicate and weak in the morning.
She can be very lively and agitated.
She loves dogs and is obsessed with them, with real dogs, cuddly dogs, and images of dogs.
She only wants to go on a swing on the lap of her mother.
She has a fear of new places and new houses and starts crying when entering such places.
She loves cartoons, but can also be afraid of figures in them, like dwarfs with red hats.
She loves water and runs to it.
She can have periods of aversion to getting dressed or undressing, to go to the toilet to pee.
She can be malicious, throwing down things, and breaking other children's towers on purpose. She can get angry with words, for a period from the word “Papa”.
Body
She has constipation, from holding her stool in too long.
She has many tics: sudden motions of her arms, shoulders, head, and legs, swallowing saliva, bending of her right hand as if after a stroke, smelling and sniffing, tapping her fingers on her head and on tables.
She has repetitive behaviour like washing her hands and picking up toys.
General
Food: she is on a gluten free and sugar free diet.
Desires: rice, pasta, milk, soup, chips; she is very picky with food; inedible things.
Aversion: new things, potatoes.
Sleep: she can only sleep lying on her mother’s chest; she needs to be carried all the time.
Analysis
Fern: autism, limited contacts; speech impaired; repetitive behaviour.
Carbon series: speech limited; desire to be carried by her mother all the time; desire inedible things: < milk.
Silicon series: very connected to her mother.
Subphase 7: malicious; easily angry; suicide.
The stage is uncertain. Stage 1 fits with her sudden, unexpected outbursts.
Prescription: Lygodium japonicum, 3-432.17.01.
Follow up
After Lygodium japonicum C30 she has much improved. She has 70% fewer tics, less smelling and sniffing, less tapping with her fingers, and less swallowing of saliva. She makes more contact and is not malicious anymore. Her speech is improving. She hardly eats inedible things anymore. Her behaviour at the nursery is much better, she is calmer and has better concentration. Her hyperactivity has diminished, and her sensitivity to noise is diminished greatly, she is only still sensitive to the sound of crying children.
Her Quality of life went from 0 to 65 and then to 80.
Before she had a good reaction to Christella normalis, being 20% better in speech and sleep. Adiantum capillus-veneris, Polystichum polyblepharum, and Cerium muriaticum also gave partial ameliorations, but not fully or lasting.
She did not react well to Anemia rotundifolia, Doodia caudata, Elaphoglossum crinitum and Psilotum nudum. Placenta humana and Lac maternum gave strong aggravations.