How Mold Exposure Caused Behavior and Motor Changes in a 4 Year Old
As you may remember, I recently shared my personal story involving how mold, and mycotoxins produced by molds, had been affecting my health in troubling ways. My own experience with mold-related illness has sharpened my awareness that mold can be the most upstream cause for a long and varied list of seemingly unrelated physical and mental symptoms, particularly in a historically damp place like San Francisco.
In this article, I will tell you about a 4-year old who had been developing on track until his as yet unknown mold exposure caused a unique set of worrying symptoms. These appeared almost overnight and included marked social withdrawal, fear, anxiety, and burgeoning learning disabilities.
Let’s Learn More About Ben
In February, Ben had turned 4, and came in for his annual well-child visit. He was healthy, happy, enjoying school, had lots of friends, and he was meeting all the age-appropriate developmental milestones. During the appointment he declared he liked riding his balance bike and was proud to show me how he could jump with both feet off the ground. Everything looked great – there were no signs that Ben was neuro-atypical. But just six months later in August, everything had begun to change and his parents contacted me in a panic.
Ben’s preschool began suggesting he needed an occupational therapy evaluation because his development was falling behind. Teachers were concerned about his fine motor skills, including the way he held a pencil or crayon only in his fist, not with a more mature pincer grasp. Ben had become notably socially withdrawn at school as well. His parents observed he no longer greeted friends in the mornings, and he was having trouble using his balance bike at home. He had also become a picky eater, after always enjoying varied flavors and textures. Additionally, he no longer wanted to play outdoors, melted down when his routine was disrupted, and was suddenly bothered by putting his head underwater when he swam. Ben’s parents were anxious to figure out what was going on and had already scheduled a neuropsychological evaluation. Before moving forward with it, they brought Ben to see me. During this visit, among other things, I noted that Ben had lost the ability to jump with two feet off the ground. His parents also explained that when the family had taken trips to Legoland and Hawaii, all Ben had wanted was to go home. They said he seemed miserable and they were very concerned since this was a marked departure from the child they knew.
Clearly, something had changed in the intervening 6 months. Ben’s parents mentioned that a nanny that had worked with their family since Ben was an infant left suddenly when Ben was 3, just before he started preschool. They wondered if the changes in Ben were part of a trauma response. (Spoiler alert: They were not.) His parents also mentioned that around the same time the nanny left, they had moved back into their family home after completing a kitchen remodel. Their home was located in a particularly foggy and damp part of San Francisco.
Detective Work
Ben’s parents moved forward with the occupational therapy assessment. The findings included: significant movement difficulties, a low visual perception score, and compromised fine motor abilities as well. The assessment suggested that Ben would benefit from weekly occupational therapy as well as support for his social and pragmatic language skills.
Deep in detective mode at this point, I further probed about the state of their living conditions, asking questions about proximity to freeways and whether they had seen any obvious signs of mold inside. Ben’s parents told me they had noted mold on one or two window sills but had no knowledge of water intrusion issues during rains or pipe leaks. Because of where they lived and that there was some indication of mold growth inside, I suggested that the family do a screening for mold spores in their home. The family had moved back into their home not that long prior to Ben’s symptoms appearing, and I wanted to rule out any possibility of unhealthy mycotoxin exposure. The test involves taking samples of dust from inside the home, and while it isn’t perfect, it is deemed more accurate than air sampling. (Mold spores are relatively heavy and fall to the ground or onto other surfaces). When the dust samples are analyzed, the results are reported on a logarithmic scale that goes up to 20. Anything over 5 is considered potentially unhealthy.
Test Results and Treatment
Ben’s family’s home sample score was 18.7!
With such a high score, even if the sample collection in their home wasn’t totally accurate, Ben’s family clearly needed to further investigate. I had already ordered a urine mycotoxin test for Ben, but immediately ordered it for the rest of the family as well, as it was likely they all had been exposed. The first rule of environmental medicine is to remove the source of the problem, which in this case was the house. My hunch was this family would likely need to leave this house in order to get healthy.
Ben’s urine mycotoxin levels came back elevated in 4 out of 5 that were measured, so we immediately began a treatment plan supporting Ben’s body to excrete the mycotoxins: including, for example, making sure he was well-hydrated every day, pooping well and at least once daily, getting plenty of dietary fiber to bind the mycotoxins and supporting his glutathione levels. We also began to treat and heal his gut which, probably because of the mycotoxin exposure, had a yeast overgrowth.
Ben’s Recovery
Over the subsequent few months, Ben improved dramatically. The family did leave their home while they figured out how to remediate. No one else in Ben’s family felt bad, though they all had mycotoxins in their urine samples – Ben turned out to be the canary in the coalmine. By December, Ben’s mom told me that he was back to talking a lot, being proactively social, and seemed so much more like himself. Whew! His sparkle and spunk had returned. Within 4 months of treatment, the Ben they remembered was back singing, dancing, chatting, balancing, jumping, buttoning his own buttons and his pencil grip went from fist to mature grasp. His parent teacher conference in the spring was glowing. Ben had made dramatic progress and he was doing wonderfully both developmentally and socially.
GetzWell Is Here To Help
In Ben’s case, the symptoms he was experiencing when his parents approached me did not make sense based on who I had known him to be. There had never been an indication (or even the tiniest hint of parental intuition) that Ben was neuro-atypical, but those were the types of symptoms his parents and teachers were reporting. While these kinds of dramatic, seemingly “out of the blue” changes can feel incredibly scary to parents, their suddenness is an important sign to me that there’s a good chance I will be able to help once I identify the treatable, root-cause issue.