While this makes it harder to pinpoint which therapy is responsible for any sudden breakthrough, Underwood says some parents who had tried many therapies without success were turning to chelation. Underwood said chelatin seems to help children whose hair tests
indicate high levels of metals such as mercury, lead, aluminum arsenic, and cadmium.
Chelaton is the most commonly carried out using agents that bind to the metals in the body.
The child then excretes the metals through their urine.
Although chelation has been linked with causing seizures in some children, Underwood says he has seen no cases of this, but he stresses that it needs to be done under close medical supervision and only once other therapies have been in place for several months.
The fact that some children seem to benefit from chelation suggests they cannot excrete heavy metals or detoxify themselves, he says.
US researcher Dr William Walsh found that 85 per cent of autistic children have a dysfunction in a protein called metallothionein. He believes this may lead to an accumulation of heavy metals in the body, resulting in autistic behaviour.
But deputy director of the National Centre for Immunisation Research, associate professor Peter Mclntyre, says chelation therapy has not been thoroughly tested, so its effectiveness has yet to be proven.
I'm aware of people who are practicing certain chelation therapies in children with various developmental problems, he said as far as I'm aware, none of them have engaged in any systematic evaluation of there's certainly no published data to confirm that it's effective.
But one Sydney mother claims chelation was the turning point for her son, Lachlan, 5 Linda John said Lachlan's development was normal until 12 12 months . By 15 months, she noticed he would no longer look at her and he was constantly fighting ear infections. And so began the vicious cycle that many patents of autistic children describe.
Repeated courses of antibiotics to clear up the ear infections or wipe out the micro-flora in the bowel, leading to other health problems.
Her son went from having a healthy complexion and stools, to diarrhoea, nightsweats, red cheeks and glazed eyes. Not even the 18 months he spent at a Sydney school specialising in teaching autistic children could help Lachlan in fact, his autism worsened.
Lachlan started seeing Underwood, who assessed his gut disorder and started treating him with probatics, vitamins and minerals. He did the gluten-free/dairy-free diet, but he never noticed it made a huge difference. Lachlan's ear infections cleared up and his complexion improved, but his mind still wasn't there.
Lachlan's mother had dismissed chelation before she said it sounded like too much trouble. She had reached a plateau with his treatment and decided to try it. She said the first few rounds she thought she noticed he was getting a little bit more aware, that he'd look at her more, but he still wasn't toileting, and he just didn't get it. The only way she could describe it was as if she was speaking a different language to him.
Two months into the chelation, Lachlan came home with a note from school to say that for the first time he had completed all the actions to an interactive activist in class.
Out of the blue they said "pat your head" and he did it, rub your tummy and he did it-all with no prompting from anybody. It was just unbelievable, that first feeling of oh my God something has happened here. From then on he just started using more and more words.
The changes in Lachlan were also noticed by a student speech there who teaches Lachlan at home two or three nights a week. She couldn't keep up the program quick enough with him. he said she has come out of the room with tears in her eyes saying, you wouldn't believe how great he went tonight. The next big breakthrough was toilet training. It took her about two weeks the connection just happened he was suddenly aware that that's what mummy wants me to do. Just when she started to wonder if Lachlan had simply reached an age when he would have improved anyway. She was invited to the school's award night.
Out of 60 pupils, Lachlan won the encouragement award for the child who showed the best single improvement over the school year The school could see that his gains were above what would be expected of a child with his delays, so that was incredible. She now believes her son was highly reactive to heavy-metal exposure, which is why he didn't show much improvement until the chelation therapy.
The biggest breakthrough has been watching the chelation because she felt like perhaps all the other stuff she did was groundwork and the chelation was the icing on the cake.
By James Charles
