31 for 21: Dual Diagnoses

There are many dual diagnoses around, even in kids with Down syndrome. Just in the few years since being involved in online forums & email groups, I've come across a fair amount of them.

Down syndrome with.....
-Autism
-Spina Bifida
-Cerebral Palsy
-Cystic Fibrosis
-Pulmonary Hypertension
-Crohn's Disease
-and so much more.

With some families, "Down syndrome" gets forgotten about, because the child's medical problems far outweigh the concerns that can come with Down syndrome.

One of the more common dual diagnoses seems to be Autism. I know several families who have that dual diagnosis.

One of those families has a little boy named Jack. He's just a bit older (by about a year or so, I think) than Osiyyah. When he was under a year old he was a normal little boy with DS, doing great. His family slowly started to see regression in him. By using certain oils, they were able to stop that regression. But, when he had his 12 month vaccines, he lost everything he had learned. And everything he was capable of. He regressed 100%. In Jack's case, the vaccines threw him into full blown Autism. His family has been able to help him some by using biomedical intervention and he is slowly recovering. But, he is not where he could've been had he not been thrown into Autism by the vaccines. I know the vaccine-Autism mention is a touchy one, but in Jack's case, it is what threw him into it.

Now, there are other families I know who have the Autism-DS diagnosis that may not have necessarily been caused by vaccines. One family I know has a 20 yr old daughter, Jamie, with Aut-DS. She's had a plethora of medical problems since she was little and so could that have contributed to her Autism? Who knows exactly what caused it.

Autism is a touchy issue and one that doesn't always have definitive answers. That's why it's called the Autism-Spectrum-Disorder. Some children it's obvious what has caused it (like Jack's case), but other's it is not so clear. In some children with DS, certain genes on the 21st chromosome can make them have Autism. But, that is not necessarily always the cause for it in DS.

I asked Jamie's mom some of the best resources she's found and these are a couple books she suggested:

Book: Mental Wellness in Adults with Down Syndrome by Dennis McGuire, Ph.D. & Brian Chicoine, M.D. *specifically chapter on Autism.

Book: Down Syndrome & Vitamin Therapy by Kent Macleod *the chapter on Autism

Some more good links regarding DS-Autism would be,

Riverbend's articles on Autism & DS (in the side bar, click "Medical Series" and it'll be under there)

Disability Solutions issue on Dual Dx.


Einstein-Syndrome post regarding DS-Aut.

Here are a few email listservs for DS-Aut:

Ds-autism - Yahoo! Group for dual dx.

DSAofLouisville - Yahoo! Group for dual dx, but the focus of this group is biomedical intervention and specific diets.

Regarding some of the other dual diagnoses, here are some resources on that.

Evan, God's Best Gift, written by a mother of a boy who has spina bifida & Down syndrome. Priscilla Kendrick is still on some of the online email groups and her son is doing pretty well. Last I heard he was having to use a wheel chair at least some of the time.

Praying for Parker, this is the blog of a mom who has a little boy with DS, Pulmonary Hypertension & many other medical issues that are not related to DS.

(P.S. I just added a printer friendly option to our blog and it'll appear on every post!)