PANDA--Pediatric Autoimmune Neuropsychiatric Disorder Associated with Strep

The day after Thanksgiving we had Erin and Reece tested for PANDAS. The neuro ordered bloodwork that included ASO AB and DNASE-B AB. I was happy to have found a neuro that specialized in PANDAS, Autism and Tourettes. Erin had lost her PDD symptoms but now her occasional flapping seemed to be tics as in Tourettes. She had been pretty OCD at one point, but that seemed to resolve after giving her Olive Leaf Extract. I was hoping the tics would go away but after doing more research on PANDAS, realized that if this was the cause, then we needed a plan of action.

Of course while we were at the neuro's office, Erin was totally typical. No flapping or tics at all. Reece was doing his stimming that included verbal and movement tics. Since they had several strep infections while they were falling into autism, he felt PANDAS was a possibility.

After being unable to reach the neuro after the visit, I requested a copy of the lab work. It seems Erin does have PANDAS. Her AB should be less than 150. It was 472. Her DNASE-B AB should have been <60 but was 480. If I don't hear back this week, I will be contacting another PANDAS specialist. Hopefully with treatment Erin's tics will go away and she will have no residual signs of the PDD or PANDAS. Reece's numbers came back within normal limits. But another mom, who is more knowledgeable, told that he can still have the disorder even if his numbers are normal. So we will still be inquiring about this for him. It would be great if he could stop the movements and vocal tics.

I hope this is taking us one step further down the path to total recovery!