Vitamin B Deficiency

I wanted to share something else that we just learned about.  Moses is Vitamin B deficient. It didn’t occur to us that this could be the case because he’s on a good liquid multivitamin that we get from the health food section of our grocery store, and it contains Vitamin B1 (1.6 mg), B2 (2 mg), B3 (10 mg), B5 (13 mg), B6 (1 mg) and B12 (70 mcg). The thing that I didn’t know was that it doesn’t contain enough to be a meaningful dosage for someone who is low on Vitamin B!

I should have known since my husband and I have recently discovered that we were low on vitamin Bs (based on an assessment by our naturopath). Since starting a good vitamin B supplement, my husband has been a lot less cranky and tired (two symptoms of a vitamin B deficiency).  I haven’t noticed as much of an effect for me, but I’m sure that it’s helping.

We first started to cue in on the fact that Moses was vitamin B deficient when his day home provider commented that Moses was complaining that his tongue was very sore.  She mentioned that this could be a sign of vitamin B deficiency. Moses’ naturopath confirmed that he is vitamin deficient based on the state that his tongue is in (it looks sore, thick, swollen, like raw meat, red). Moses is now on Genestra’s Liquid B Complex.

She said that we should see a difference in Moses tongue in about 2 weeks. If things don’t improve enough, then she may start him on vitamin B12 sublingually or injections (since vitamin B12 has a poor absorption rate through the gut). I’m pretty sure that we’ll be going this route.

I was reading about some of Vitamin B12 deficiency symptoms here. There are a lot. Some of Moses’ symptoms include: anemia, sore mouth, low levels of hemoglobin, gastrointestinal symptoms, swollen red tongue, shortness of breath after exercise, disturbed sleep, tingly tongue and sores in corner of mouth. In particular, he has had sores in the corner of his mouth for as long as I can remember — they never heal (or never have in the past). We have seen so many doctors and have sometimes made special appointments about the corner of his mouth. They are constantly cracked and bleeding. It looks so sore (but my little buddy never complains about them). My prayer is that they will finally heal. And, it looks like my prayer is being answered.

More interesting information is that many autistic children also have a vitamin B deficiency. You can read more about that on the Autistic Forum’s website.* My son isn’t autistic, but I’m made the point before that many of the strategies that help autistic children also help my son.

In case you’re interested, this is a full list of the supplements that Moses is currently on:

• Liquid multivitamin
• Liquid vitamin B complex (recommended by his naturopath)
• Liquid calcium supplement (recommended by his doctor)
• Liquid iron supplement (recommended by his doctor)
• probiotics (recommended by his naturopath)
• arnica homeopathic (for his past history of traumas – e.g., birth trauma; recommended by his naturopath)
• sulphur homeopathic (for his rashes; recommended by his naturopath)

For medications, we actually recently started him on Singulair for his respiratory system (something that we put off for 1.5 years), but we finally caved in when he was having so much trouble breathing in a few months back and we were using his puffer so often.

His eczema has essentially cleared up (even before we started him on Singulair). He just has some inflammation around his ears (another spot that essentially never heals — I’m hoping that maybe Vitamin B will help; and also the back of his head). Everything else is clear!  A miracle in itself.

In case you’re a new reader, Moses is allergic and sensitive to a lot of foods (I think the list is around 20 different foods) and is on a limited food diet, which is why he needs to be supplemented quite heavily.

I still haven’t started him on a good oil supplement yet. He can’t have fish oils because of his fish allergy. I believe that this came up in one of my earlier posts, but let me know if you have any suggestions? **

Moses is also seeing doctors and specialists a whole lot less than he was before. Last year, we were visiting a doctor every week. Really. And now there are some months where we don’t have any doctors appointments at all! Whew! I’ve even cut down on visiting some of the alternative therapists just to give us both a break on appointments and he can just concentrate on being a little boy and having fun! 

* By the way, the Autistic Forum looks like it’s another good resource for parents of autistic children, who are looking for alternative and complementary treatment of autism.

**I’ve since started him on a good flax seed oil supplement. More here.

Update (Mar 18, 2010): According to the blood work done by Moses’ pediatrician, his Vitamin B12 levels are normal. She didn’t say what they are exactly, but they are in the normal range.  We’re still supplementing him with the liquid Vitamin B everyday, so it seems to be working!

Also, the cracks in the corners of his lips are healed!!!!!!

September 13, 2010: He is still on his liquid vitamin B supplement. The corners of his lips are cracked again though…

January 11, 2011: The corners of his mouth are healed. Now, I realize that he had angular chelitis (a bad case of thrush / oral candida) that he had. When he started Fluconazole, it went away (Nystatin wasn’t strong enough for him).