Poor diets, behavioural issues and fussy eating could all be linked by a very common genetic disorder which is so very easy to manage – Pyrroles. So why aren’t more doctors testing for this?
My journey as a mum has been the best experience of my life, but boy have I learnt a lot from my kids, in particular my fussy eating son. Ryder is almost five and at a young age we discovered that he wasn’t developing as well as he could. He was completely neophobic of all green foods, would have emotional outbursts for seemingly no reason and started showing signs of anxiety and learning difficulties. I suspected that something wasn’t quite right. I started making appointments to search for answers as I believed early intervention would result in the best outcomes for our son.
We had so many questions. Why doesn’t he like to eat? Why is he never hungry? Why does he vomit spontaneously? What is the cause of this highly irritating rash on his skin? It had also been suggested by his kindy teacher that he could have autism.
We found a marvellous doctor close by who had the answers to questions we desperately needed. I didn’t know it at the time but this doctor has been on a 15 year journey with his own son who is autistic. He specialises in healing the gut and endocrine system for brain health. He had Ryders poop sent to one corner of Australia for analysis and his urine sent to the other corner for a Pyrroles test. The results were astounding. He had a gut disbiosis that indicated an overgrowth of bad bacteria plus an elevated case of Pyrroles. Here we had it, we were ticking just about every box of symptoms.
- Poor stress control, mood swings, highly irritable, depression, anxiety.
- Sensitive to bright lights, noises, smells and food.
- Morning nausea, aggravated by smells and tendency to skip or delay breakfast.
- Strong and violent tempers.
- Irritable bowel syndrome, food sensitivities and fussy eating.
- History of underachievement, reading difficulty.
I recalled an early clue to this diagnosis some time ago. I had noticed white dots on his fingernails, which I knew meant a zinc deficiency. I started supplementing him orally with zinc and bam this monster hunger came out of nowhere! This lasted nearly six weeks, although I was worried about giving him too much zinc so I stopped and his fussy eating returned.
Here’s where we are at now. We are working on healing his gut. We have removed all dairy and gluten and are planning on further removing all grains and processed gluten free products from his diet in the near future. We are giving him daily pro-biotics in the form of capsules and home brewed kombucha tea. We hope to later re-introduce these foods but for now the vomiting and rash have subsided, so we’ll stick to it until I know his leaky gut has healed.
We are supplementing with a vitamin B complex, zinc and selenium. Due to his positive diagnosis of Pyrroles he will have to do this for the rest of his life. We are thrilled and relieved in his development already. He is a completely different child and many people have noticed the change. In particular his understanding of language, back and forth conversation and his emotional well-being has improved greatly. He’s a confident and very social little guy. He’s also helping me to curb fussy eating in his classroom. Could we of dodged a diagnosis of autism by first healing the symptoms? Wow, I wonder how many others this information can help.
What is Pyrroles disorder, pyroluria or kryptopyrroluria?
The statistics say that 10% of us have Pyrroles disorder. What’s alarming is that so many children could be getting misdiagnosed with ADHD or autism and improperly medicated. So why aren’t more doctors sending our kids for testing? Why?!
This means that in an average classroom of 30 children, at least three children will be affected and won’t be learning and behaving their best at school.
Pyrroles disorder is caused by the overproduction of hydroxyhemopyrrolin–2-one (HPL). This brain and nervous system toxin binds to active vitamin B6, then to Zinc and to a lesser degree biotin, manganese and vitamin B3. This prevents your child using them and causes over excretion in the urine. This leads to deficiencies in these very important nutrients.
If you suspect that someone may have this in your family, get a referral from a doctor to have their urine tested. Chances are that if you find one case, you can trace back others in the family that have also gone un-diagnosed. I got myself tested after my son was diagnosed and the result was an elevated case of Pyrroles. For 36 years I’ve been copper toxic and deficient in so many minerals and vitamins, its no wonder I have the autoimmune disorder, hashimotos.
Diet change can be one of the hardest things to do with children although the younger they are, the easier it is to flick the switch to a healthier diet. It’s what I’m passionate about and specialise in. I turn little fusspots into healthy eaters and I’ve been getting brilliant results with my clients for over nine years now. Click here to learn more about our online programs