both parents w/schizophrenia/mental health issues?

I'm not talking about quack cures. There is no cure, but things can be made better. Coconut oil is being heavily researched and is currently a leading therapy in Alzheimer's patients. It seems to be able to delay deterioration of brain tissue and is currently the only treatment shown to restore some function that had been lost. It is also being tested for effectiveness in other neurological conditions such as MS. The type of fat in coconut oil is assimilated easily for use in myelination processes. Some studies recommend adding a small amount to baby formula to mimic some of the fats in breast milk that help in brain building. This is all from major medical journals, not homeopathic or any other source presumed to be quacky. As for gluten issues, one out of nine people in America has food intolerances, discovered or no, that affect their health and/or behavior. Gluten is one of the most common, and the gut-brain connection is well documented. In some patients hallucinations may be caused or exacerbated by ingestion of foods that they can't tolerate. Gluten that isn't able to be digested feeds bad bacteria in the gut which leads to small holes forming in the intestinal wall. These allow the gluten molecules to float freely into the body, they end up in the brain and have a drug-like effect. Of course this isn't true of all people, but trying a gluten-free diet to see if any particular patient is helped by it is harmless and if in fact a difference is seen this is a side-effect free treatment for that patient. My son is known to be at risk of gluten issues because his mother and aunt have celiac disease, so putting him on a strict elimination diet, the specific carbohydrate diet actually, made a ton of sense. His rages went from three a week to one a month, seemingly overnight, and when he does rage it's for about 20 minutes, not six hours. This wasn't a change in meds or therapy or anything else, just a change in diet, and anybody who knew him before and after would argue that he never eat another food he can't tolerate again. I am open to meds and never argued against them. With an autism diagnosis he can't be seen by traditional therapists under the MediCal rules in my state. I can't even get him in if I pay out of pocket. I am documenting every delusion and hope to make a case for him to get a waiver to see somebody, but with our current budget crisis and the fact he's already receiving protective supervision for autism, it's highly unlikely I'll be successful. If he does indeed have schizophrenia we'll have to wait until the symptoms are glaringly obvious, which will mean a great deal of damage will have already been done to his brain. This sucks, and I'm busy campaigning to anybody who'll listen to change this loophole my kid has fallen into, but for now I will do whatever I can to help him keep brain tissue and not lose any more. If that means cooking food in a fat shown to help with brain health and avoiding foods that can be harmful to his mental and physical condition, I think that's the only sensible thing to do. Continuing to feed him a standard American diet would be the quackery.

Hi Everyone. Thank you for the responses. It has been a year and Im glad I checked back in because I hadnt seen some of your posts. Update. Our little guy is now 3 1/3. He is doing well. He is still in the middle of an appeal process and he is not yet adopted but very much OUR SON. He is a lovable little guy who fits in perfectly with our family and we love him so much. The reason I was back on this board is that in the last couple months J has said a few things that have raised flags. Now this is probably us just being hypervigilant about recognizing symptoms, but your posts also point out the fact that it is important not to let things go and deny them so i will try to explain what is going on. J has several times (maybe 6 or 7) spoke of his ghost friends. I asked him whre they were and he said "you cant see ghost silly". I asked him if they talk to him and he said " they say mean things"......then would not elaborate. My DH attributes this to us allowing him to watch some recorded episodes of Scooby Doo (all about ghosts), which may very well be true. But I dont know. He wasnt laughing. He wasnt looking up to the ceiling like he does when he tells fibs, he was very matter of fact. It was definantly frightening (to me) it didnt seem to be to him. My teenage daughters also have spoke to him about his "ghost friends". Now I dont know if he continued to discuss them because he was getting attention from big sisters or if it is really happening. We cut out the scooby doo and he has not brought up the ghosts in several weeks. Also, behavior wise......J is a lovable boy. he tells us he loves us, displays affection appropriately, is very intellectually advanced for his age, and makes friends easily. He also is stubborn, defiant, strong willed and doesnt listen a bit. LOL. I worry about this behavior because it is actually to the point that other people comment on it. He DOES NOT do this for other people outside our immediate family. For example, when playing at grandma's or cousin's house or daycare, I always receive excellent reports. However, we can rarely take him to dinner, and vacations are a nightmare. But is this typical of a spoiled 3 year old, or worrisome behavior. He is spoiled, I know. He is basically living in a home with 5 adults and we all dote on him as he is a God send. But his behavior can cause us all to feel so frustrated. We are working on undoing the spoiling, Ha. is that possible. We are firm with time-outs and have stopped buying him everything he asks for. We are truly working on it. But I guess I dont know how to know if these are all signs of "something bigger" or if Im always worried about the mh issues and relation his imagination and 3 year old behavior to problems. I have heard that at some point in time either he or the birthparents were sent to a geneticist. I am unable to find out details and am hoping that once the adoption is done I can take himto a geneticist myself or at least find out if he was there as an infant. The pediatrician has said he sees no outward sign of any genetic problem that would have caused testing to be done at birth, but his old pediatrician let it slip that he had met bf when he had J at the geneticist office long ago. He would not give me any info. Ok, So i know Im rambling now so Ill stop, but I was so glad to find responses here and felt that you could lead me into where to go from here. I hate that im worrying that every little thing is a sign, im really not. I just don't want to miss something that should be looked into, because I put it off as normal. I want to always do what is best for J. Thank you in advance and for all the wonderful help so far.

You are such a good mom. I love how you describe your family and how you approach your little guy. It's impossible for someone to tell from the (very well written) description provided: 1. He spoke about ghosts saying mean things 2. He at times can be stubborn and challenging. Both COULD be normal for a 3 year old. Or not. On the one hand, 3 year olds often are demanding and insist things must be a certain way. My many time-mom sister, often said, 'Little children are the world's arch conservatives'. They don't like things to change, and they often get very stubborn about wanting things. We changed camping grounds once, and all 3 kids, from age 7 to 4 to 2, were wailing and sobbing. 'WE DON'T WANT TO CHANGE CAMPGROUNDS!' Little kids OFTEN talk about tv shows in odd ways, and they don't usually have a neat dividing line between tv and them, it gets all jumbled up with other things. They don't have the language to describe a dream at that age, or usually, quite have it all figured out how dreams work. My nephew was about 3 1/2 when he announced, 'I had a dream last night'. My sister was delighted and asked him to tell all about it. He shrugged and said, 'Ask daddy, he was there'. And the flip side. Pre schizophrenic and early schizophrenic children also COULD do these things. They can get very upset about small things, and they can 'seem' rigid and stubborn. As an example, I visited one guy, and he pushed another person off the seat where he had sat last when I came. He needed to sit there, because that is where he sat the last time. This is called 'behavioral rigidity'. It is NOT stubbornness. The person does it because he has a brain disorder. The only way he can make sense of things is to repeat what he knows from before. He doesn't do it 'to get his way', he does it urgently to try and survive. His symptoms often will get much worse when he changes, so he may suffer a great deal when something changes. There can even be a hysterical, screaming insistence not to change something, or that you must do something EXACTLY as it was done before. They can want some trivial thing and have a 'meltdown' easily over things. With pre- and early schizophrenic children, the meltdowns are usually much more extreme than for typical kids. Such as the example I gave, of the youngster who cried, wailed and sobbed uncontrollably all afternoon because 'the sun came in the window and hit me in the eye'. Too, pre-schizophrenic and early schizophrenic children OFTEN will talk about the things they see on TV 'in a psychotic way'. If one listens carefully, it DOES sound different from what other kids say. Hallucinations and delusions nearly always start with 'material' found in daily life, mostly because the brain usually works on 'available material' and takes it and exaggerates it and forms it into hallucinations. The other possibility is that the 'ghost' he sees on TV is simply the only word he has for a 'hallucination'. They may look soft or filmy (or seem to bulge forward toward him) and wavy so he uses the word for them that he heard on 'scooby doo'. Taking away the 'scooby' cartoons doesn't make the hallucinations go away. This is how the brain processes information, it's not about taking away scooby cartoons. If it's not the scooby cartoon, it may be a painting on the wall, or a bed cover at night that starts the process off, or another TV show. For one person, we avoided all scary, wierd shows, and he started hallucinating over and obsessing over 'The Sound of Music'. It also depends somewhat on what sort of hallucination he has. Especially early on, symptoms may come and go, but they also can be tied only to a certain type of perception. Some people have them only in low light, others only in daylight. Some hallucinations start where there is a contrasty area. Some are dark specs on a light surface, others are bright things on a dark surface. Sometimes they pop up where two different colors meet (where ceiling meets the wall). I'll try an example. A normal child might talk endlessly about the scooby cartoon he saw, he might demand scooby toys, he might draw scooby pictures, but it might be more like, 'and then scooby said, and then the girl said', and 'I like scooby, he's brave and he finds the bad guy' or 'scooby scares me when the ghost goes wooo' or 'scooby is silly when he talks'. He may act out the show over and over. The pre or early schizophrenic child may see scooby doo cartoons, and start to talk about a ghost who comes out of the ceiling and tells him he is a bad boy, follows him around and keeps repeating numbers, makes him poop his pants and tells him to push his sister down. He might draw scooby pictures too, but they might be harder for you to recognize and make sense of. So you see, both can chatter and obsess about the cartoon, but what they say, how they say it, how it affects them, differs. Children can get spoiled, whether they are pre schizophrenic or not. Children can behave beautifully with other adults, and come home and be brats, pre schizophrenic or not. What would I do if he were mine? Because both parents had the illness, I would take him to a psychiatrist, now. Yes, actually, I would. Even if I had to pay for it myself. A hundred dollars or so is cheap compared to worrying about it to myself. If he is starting to become ill, starting medication and supportive help early on COULD mean that the disease has far less impact on his, and your, life. If he is NOT ill and never will BECOME ill, a hundred dollars and a visit to a nice psychiatrist when something is worrying you, is money very, very well spent. Psychiatrists, good ones, are generally wonderful, compassionate and very interesting, well educated people, with theoretical as well as practical knowledge. Child psychiatrists generally love children. Generally, what they do is make worried parents feel much, much better. Of course. I have an advantage (grin). I already know a good one who has helped me and my family with problems that turned out to be medical, not psychiatric. They are also very good at that, having gone through medical school. In many cases, I would prefer a good psychiatrist to a good internist, GP, neurologist or many, many other specialties! I have another advantage. I have absolutely no fear of psychiatrists, and no suspicion as some people do have a lot of that. I want their knowledge and expertise to help me with my people and I know they have the experience to do so. You could be looking at one of four things: A normal child A pre or early schizophrenic child who will become more obviously ill at some point during his childhood years. A person who will be schizophrenic as an adult, who shows a brief spate of 'crop out' symptoms at an early age, and then nothing for years to come, til, say 18-21...or even older. A highly unusual child who has a psychotic period of time when very young and never has any other symptoms his entire life (chances of that statistically are close to null) What would I look for? Other indications. I'd try to build a 'full picture'. I'd look for sleep problems and other issues as well, and make a full picture. And I'd make an appointment with a psychiatrist. He sounds like a wonderful, intelligent child that brings a lot to your life. My hunch is that he always will be a wonderful, intelligent child and adult, whether he happens to become ill or not. Just because he had two parents with it, does not mean he will 'get those genes'. A lot of schizophrenia risk appears now to be with gene mutations that happen in the individual, and aren't necessarily inheritable.

I'm so glad I found this thread! It has been very insightful! I am concerned about my 4yr old.. I'm not sure what's going on with him but something is. We have an appt to see my dd's therapist next month but until then I sit and wait.Drool Prince is 4yrs old. We've had him since birth. While neither birthparent has a diagnosed mental illness, they are both drug addicts. He was born exposed to cocaine. In the past year or so we've noticed some odd things. Drool Prince can be a great little boy. He gets along well with everyone for a few months and then all the sudden a switch seems to flip and he is constantly getting into trouble for normally 3 months. He steals from his siblings, breaks their things, rages, is destructive of his own toys, & constantly pushing the adults buttons. It's exhausting when he's in that mode. Then we finaly switch back to the "good" mode and you almost forget how horrible he was because he can be soo sweet. He used to always be a big sleeper.. He'd sleep 14hrs at nite & a 3+hr nap during the day. I always attributed it to his heart issues or autonomic dysfunction. Recently, he has been found awake =just sitting in his bed, at all hours of the nite. He has problems falling asleep and obviously staying asleep.. When he lays there awake he sits there and picks at things.. I've taken away his comforters and given him a fleece blanket bc he would pick a hole in his comforter & pull all the stuffing out. One last odd thing we've seen- him talking to what he calls "shadow".. He doesn't do it in the open but I've overheard a few conversations.. He will lay in bed and stare at the empty spot beside him and then have complete conversation.. The one time that sticks out in my mind was where he sat and argued with "shadow" about pulling off a hang nail. Drool Prince wanted to wait and ask Mommy to clip it so it wouldnt hurt.. In the end he tore it off & then scolded "shadow" because he had told him it would hurt & they shouldn't do it.. I went in after it happened and he denied talking to anyone or having any conversation at all.. Thoughts??

Drug addicts have told me for years, that they and many of their friends, have psychiatric problems, but since they are afraid to get help from a doctor, they wind up taking street drugs in an attempt to feel better or just escape from their symptoms for a little while. That doesn't mean your child's parents had psychiatric problems, but that it might be possible. Even at that, the 'hereditariness' of most psychiatric problems is oddly, rather low, something that has puzzled researchers for a long time (but answers now are coming as to why that is). To boot, 4 year olds often have 'imaginary friends'. 'Shadow' could indeed be an imaginary friend. Perhaps a youngster who has conduct issues might feel a need for imaginary friends. But usually, the imaginary friend is friendly. He often will have a name like another child might have, and he may have something that will keep older brother from picking on him, LOL The imaginary friend is usually a positive presence. Sometimes they have an argument and 'split up' at the point when the imaginary friend is no longer needed. The fact that he calls it 'Shadow' and the character of the interchange between him and 'Shadow', and that it happened in the dark, there is just something that makes me feel like this is not an 'imaginary friend', but it is just a feeling, I really have no idea. Some people do have hallucinations only in the dark. They can seem filmy or shadow like. And children often refer to them as 'ghosts' or 'shadows'. Coincidence? Possibly, or not. Hallucinations can often be very friendly, or they can be mean. They just don't follow any set rule. But when you are around psychotic people a lot, you start to get a feel for, 'oh, that is a hallucination' or 'oh, that doesn't sound like one'. After a while one just sort of gets a feel for what sounds hallucinatory and what doesn't. The most important thing for the moment, is to make it ok to talk about 'Shadow', not to find out immediately, what or who he is, because that just takes a little time anyway. The more he talks freely the more you know how he feels and what he's going through. And THAT is golden. Absolutely golden. You can say casually when Shadow crops up again, 'Would I like to have a 'Shadow'?' I wouldn't assume Shadow was a friendly thing for him when asking. It's not a good idea to pretend to be able to see Shadow, that I know. Even at a very early age, kids can indeed learn that other people don't see Shadow, and that can make them feel 'wierd' or self conscious and less able to talk about it. It can just be as simple as looking at a person and realizing they never actually seem to look over at where 'Shadow' is. They put two and two together. And for some amazing reason, I think people who have even just some psychotic symptoms, they seem to have a very highly tuned 'fake radar', they really can tell when someone is being insincere, I have no idea how, so I never pretend I can see that Shadow. I have at times said something like, 'I wish I could see Shadow too, so I would know what it's like', the usual response is a horrified look and, 'but Shadow is MEAN!' at least then you know more about how the child feels. You can however give the message that while you can't see Shadow, you don't mind at all hearing about him. Having a very relaxed, non judgemental attitude comes across even to a young child and helps to open up the communication lines. Sometimes mom is seen as more the 'boss' who might just say, 'Did I say you could have a Shadow? No, now go set the table and stop talking about Shadow'. And they will talk to someone else about it. Sometimes an older sister or brother is the person they choose. But they definitely CHOOSE a person. Sometimes a more distant friend who isn't as closely involved. They seem to want someone they feel is going to be more neutral. And talking helps no matter WHAT Shadow is, an imaginary play friend, or a little tiny hallucination. Even if a small child does hallucinate, it doesn't always mean they have a mental illness. It's a good idea to keep an eye on it, if it does seem to happen more consistently over the next month or so, yeah, it would be a good idea to talk it over with a psychiatrist. Who may put your concerns to rest, or want to investigate more.