My 12 year old son, Jason, has TS with obsessive compulsive traits, with
no history of TS in our family. Jason is on 1 mg/day haldol which helps
him in school somewhat. He has allergies to everything almost, including
Sulfa drugs. Red Dye 40 severely affects him 15 min. after he eats
something with large quantities of the dye in it. He screams and throws
temper tantrums, which he gave up years ago as a toddler. As an infant he
was jaundiced due to breast feeding, we assume, and had to have his blood
monitored for indirect bilirubin. As a Medical Technologist, I know that
indirect bilirubin can damage a newborn's brain's basal ganglia in high
quantities, especially in kernicterus (as in "RH babies" where the babies
blood is being destroyed by the mother's anti-RH antibodies). I am
wondering to what extent, if any, his brain was affected by this, and how
many TS kids were jaundiced at birth enough to have to come back to the
hospital for retesting. I am also wondering how many TS patients have a
CNS reaction to red dye 40. It seems to me that his brain cells became
susceptible to red dye 40, and possible autoimmune antibody formation to
neurons from either immunizations or strep infections, by being jaundiced
at birth.
For some reason, my postings are disappearing after only one day, so I
will keep posting this periodically.
Thanks! Bonnie.
