The Child Who Knew His Antibiotics
Noel Peterson, ND
"What is wrong with our child's immunity? Taylor is only 5 years old, but he already knows the names of five different antibiotics." His parents had reluctantly given him Amoxicillin, Ceclor, Augmentin, Zithromax, and Biaxin, all in the last year, and some of them off and on for years. But instead of his resistance to infection improving, it had gotten worse over the years. It seemed that with each trip to the doctor and each antibiotic, he became more susceptible to infections. Now his coughs were turning into asthma and his doctor had prescribed inhaled steroids. He had developed rashes, and mom and dad were worried where it would all lead.
I learned that Taylor had not been evaluated for food allergies, although his parents had taken him off dairy products and seen some improvement. He enjoyed a wide variety of foods, took his multiple vitamins, and had a loving and supportive home life. But he caught every bug and had a hard time recovering. New infections would set in just one or two weeks after finishing his antibiotics.
It sounded like Taylor had a deficient production of Secretory Immune Globulin A, or SIgA. SIgA is the major immune globulin produced and secreted by our respiratory mucosa. It provides the first line defense against invading viruses, bacteria, and fungi by allowing mucus secretions to carry the invaders out of the body and summon the white blood cells to destroy the invaders. Without adequate production of SIgA, our mucosa is defenseless against bacteria and viruses. The use of steroids inhibits SIgA production, as do food allergies, chronic infections, respiratory allergen exposure, and stress. In some SIgA deficiency is inherited. It affects up to 12% of the population.
Deficiency of SIgA is associated with chronic recurrent viral and bacterial infections, sinusitis, asthma, eczema, psoriasis, food allergies, autoimmune arthritis, inflammatory bowel disease, celiac disease, and other immune related disorders.
After a simple test that measured the SIgA in his saliva, we found that Taylor was not making enough SIgA. With dietary and herbal support, we were able to get him off antibiotics and clear his asthma. His infections were milder and less frequent and his skin cleared. Now his vocabulary includes the botanical names of his herbal remedies.