Early trouble

15 months old 

When Grace was 6 months old she got her first ear infection.  When she was 7 months old she got her second, then her third.  After that I simply lost track.  As soon as she finished a round of antibiotics, she would seem to start up on another ear infection again.  We tried the low dose antibiotics when she was 12 months old and she got another ear infection while on them.  By the time she was 13 months old it occurred to me that she wasn't saying anything.  Not "mama",  not anything.  Although this isn't terribly concerning I started to wonder.  By 15 months she still wasn't talking.  I took her to see a new pediatrician.  It was the first of many times I would take her to see Dr. G.  What a wonderful woman she is.  She looked at her one time, looked up at me and told me that Grace couldn't hear because of all the ear infections and that she needed tubes in her ears.  All the antibiotics were bad for her.  That was the first of 5 surgeries.  She has had two sets of tubes, one set of T-tubes (or semi-permanent tubes), one surgery to remove the T-tubes,  and one surgery to patch up the hole from the T-tubes.  She has also had an adenoidectomy.
While I don't think this has anything to do directly with OCD, I do find it interesting that there seems to be an informal (and unproven) link between the overuse of antibiotics, the abundance of ear infections, and autism.  There is some thought that OCD belongs under the vast umbrella of autistic disorders.  It certainly has some of the characteristics of autism.  There is some success in "treating" or at least improving autistic symptoms by treating the digestive system. This is done by eliminating gluten and/or casein (dairy protein) from the diet.  Some studies suggest that the overuse of antibiotics may cause the good bacteria in the gut to disappear, thus making it difficult for the body to digest gluten and casein.  If they can't be digested, the theory is that they actually act like a drug in the system, causing and/or accenting autistic like behaviors in certain children.  I based a lot of Grace's treatment on this theory, and as I move through her story I will go deeper into the various methods and the theories behind it.