Autism, Immune Health & Quality of Life: Supporting the Whole Child and the Whole Family

When Amber and her husband first began searching for answers for their daughter Penny, they weren’t looking for a quick fix — they were looking for ways to help their little girl feel more comfortable, connected, healthy, and supported in her own body.

In this deeply hopeful episode, Elizabeth and Amber share Penny’s story: developmental delays, a Level 3 autism diagnosis at age two, speech and motor challenges, chronic gut symptoms, recurrent illness, and the overwhelming reality so many families face while navigating therapies, specialists, and daily life with a medically complex child.

Together they explore how functional nutrition, gut healing, immune support, and chronic infection work dramatically improved Penny’s quality of life — including her sleep, engagement, language, mood, digestion, sensory regulation, energy, and overall developmental capacity. They also discuss the growing understanding that many children with autism experience significant immune dysregulation, chronic infections, fungal overgrowth, and gut dysfunction that can worsen symptom burden and stress on the entire family system.

Most importantly, this episode centers the idea that healing is not about changing who a child is — it’s about removing barriers that keep them from fully accessing themselves and creating more margin, peace, and connection for the whole family.

In this episode:

• Autism and the gut-brain-immune connection

• Chronic infections, Lyme, mold & neuroinflammation

• Speech delays, sensory symptoms & developmental regression

• Clostridia, candida, oxalates & GI dysfunction

• Immunotherapy and functional immunology

• Supporting children without trying to “fix” them

• Why improving health changes life for the entire family

A favorite takeaway:
“When a special needs child gains health, the entire family gains margin.”

Please note that transcripts may contain minor errors or inaccuracies. We hope you enjoy reading them and find them helpful.

Hey, you're going to be okay. I'm Elizabeth Mae and my functional health practice. Hey, hey. Mae helps people heal when they've exhausted traditional options when no one can figure out your health challenges. My team helps you resolve symptoms and restores your health. You're listening to my podcast. Where will your stories of healing chronic illness from a root cause immune centered approach?

Welcome back to another episode of the podcast. We're going to be talking about autism, immune health, and quality of life. We're going to talk with Amber today and her family we have worked with for about four years on and off. I've seen her daughter, Penny, and walk through a healing journey with her. We've seen other kiddos in her house.

But you know this this episode is really about like the whole child in whole family care. Caring for the child is caring for the family, and it's also an episode about possibility and support and quality of life. Not necessarily trying to change something or remove something, but really up leveling their families. Just health status in general. So we met through a practitioner for an Amber, and I kind of just want you to introduce a little bit of like, how did you you guys have been on a journey with Penny at the point that we started working together.

But how did you come to find out about us and what made you feel like, okay, this is a good next step because she definitely was in like a typical clinical pediatrician specialist roundabout when we met. So what started this process for you? Yeah. So I have a long time friend, Brittany Dunbar, who she kind of knew little bits and pieces of our story.

Just kind of here and there. And there was something that she had shared that just sparked my interest. One day. I can't remember if it was exactly talking about her daughter's journey or her. I believe it was her. And so I kind of reached out and she kind of explained working with Elizabeth and just the incredible journey she had, the healing, all of that.

Their case was not the same as ours, but just that little bit of info of knowing like what she could do going through the pediatrician. Like from early on with Penny, we kind of noticed some things. We're just a little bit different. And so we went. There was the pediatricians. They sentenced to do ultrasounds of her head EEG, like all these scary, scary things, bloodwork, this and that, but literally never gave us kind of any guidance or true information that could actually help her.

Just stuff like therapies or, you know, those type of things that I just felt like wasn't the right answer and just an instinct image just kept going. There's got to be more. And so that's again, when we found Elizabeth and I reached out. We did the the the call, the clarity call. There you go. Clarity call. And just gave some bits and pieces about Penny.

And Elizabeth was like, oh yeah, we got something here. Let's, let's get it going. And I've always been more of like a natural side of things. But obviously we all need, you know, regular Western medicine and doctors when we need it. But in this type of case, I just knew that Penny needed something different is when we found Elizabeth, we just kind of started chipping away and dig in, and that's kind of where we're still at today.

We've had a several year long journey. It's not been obviously continuous the whole entire time. It's been a roller coaster up and down of finding things and then digging some more. And then so we just kind of did that and we're we're actually kind of work at some things now. But there's been a lot of kind of huge positives in the long run.

Obviously we didn't go into this assuming like we're going to wave a wand and pennies going to be running around and talking and doing all this, which I guess a little backstory is, yeah. Where was she when we kind of started? Yeah, yeah. What were her. Yeah. Like no, no Penny books. So where she was when we started is her whole life she's kind of been delayed.

They eventually put it as globally developmentally delayed. Just along the way, crawling, walking, even setting up everything was just a lot later than your typical, I think one of the things I kind of started noticing early on to is she definitely smiled, and she was always happy and things like that, but it was certain eye contacts and things.

It just didn't seem like it should have been. And so when we started with Penny, I want to say she was three, right? It was like just before three. Yeah, yeah. But we we've not we didn't have any language or anything like that. She did kind of like do some babbles and, and things. But again it was nowhere near where she should be as a three year old to get to where she did, to do physical therapy and all the things to get her walk in and sitting and all that.

But, when we started working, we kind of, I think we first started addressing gut health because, you know, as we learned along the way is that's like, you know, your second brain. And that was such a big, important step was going there. So that was our first step to her stools were not right. They were just always super, super loose.

Or appetite I don't feel like was as fantastic as it is now when we started. So that might have been something along the way. I didn't realize too, she's not ever been like, we're really like about this on this side of things. She's not ever been like a picky eater for the most part. I think starting off when she was eating, it wasn't great, but so we had that.

She comparatively, she ate really well and her appetite was like there. But you guys kind of felt like maybe not all the way, and some other markers for me to where she'd had that persistent soft spot. She definitely had low tone stuff. She had a bigger head and a tiny body. You guys have been through like like you said, like MRIs and EKGs.

And she had some odd thyroid labs that were there. And she also had that like this, like distended Ethiopian belly with the GI stuff. So I knew, like, there's definitely GI stuff here for us to work on. And that's going to change her nutrient absorption. But with autism diagnosis, there are trending patterns will say so like 1 in 31 children in those with autism and children with autism often experienced very similar groups of symptom loads.

So recurrent infections and penny wasn't like a straightforward recurrent infection. But she had ear tubes, she'd had ear infections, strep and fungal populations in a child with autism are pretty common things that the immune system doesn't police. Well, we learned that both of those things were there, and sensory and sleep issues tend to be a big issue. But she didn't necessarily struggle a lot with sensory issues.

She had more delays and like gross motor and speech delays and sleep. I feel like for her it was more the like getting her to sleep. She wasn't really disruptive or waking tons. It was getting her to kind of wind down. But I think to one of the most important things that I want to share about, like our approach to autism.

And that was really one of the core spaces I started in when I started this practice years ago, is that autism isn't something that is a failure of the family or genetically, or it's something that needs eradicated. Our goal is to help a child feel more comfortable, regulated, nourished so that they're growing well. And you all are not worried about growth and developmental markers, and just more capable in improving that immune and gut health can reduce our overall day to day symptom burden.

And we see this when working with adults with autism. We have a 60 year old client right now. Her whole life has changed upside down. Her function is so much better. Her day to day quality and comfort is so much better. And it's not about like getting rid of. There's so many beautiful skills and talents and perspectives that come from the neurodiverse community.

It's not a healing about changing who a child is. It's sometimes about removing the burdens that keep them from really fully accessing themselves in development. And because of pennies, GI stuff and some of the, you know, language, GI issues, those are places where I really felt like, hey, we can make a move here, we can make a difference, and we'll continue unfolding.

And like you said, we've not seen her in a continuous pattern. We did a healing season in the beginning, and at the end of that I mapped out and said, okay, these are things that will probably want to visit at some point. She also needed to develop because she was a little thing as far as age goes, like she was three.

And so they were still stuff that remained for us to like, learn about her. But thinking back to those years of like figuring stuff out and specialists and random labs and stuff, how did those years feel emotionally for your family? Because you guys have other children, too. There's more going on than just Penny and you guys, you know, have a business and lots of other pieces.

But what was it like navigating that part for you guys? Oh, it was so hard. And it is it's like an emotional roller coaster because like, again, having other children, which at the time of the start we didn't have our third child, but Piper was first. She's the oldest, she's now none. And then Penny is the middle. But I felt like it was always just trying to figure out, you know, what to do next, what to do to make her feel better.

And it just was a lot. And it's always going to kind of be a lot, I guess, as a parent in general. But when you have a child, you know, with special needs and like Penny, who you're trying to navigate, you know, who can't communicate because she can't tell us her needs are wants or what's hurting. It's kind of just, you know, a guessing game.

And so it's just going along the way and then like having you to God as is. I could cry about it now because like, we've just not you know, it's not like, again, like you said, it's not about like fixing or things like that, but ultimately any progress that you get out of it is the best thing ever.

It doesn't matter how little or how big, it's just knowing that, you know, we're killing her in a way like, I do not have a clue where we would be right now if we didn't start it. Start working with you. Because we haven't had seen, like, just this incredible thing where she's like, talking and going to go to, like, regular school or, you know, yeah, silly things like that.

But just the journey of just seeing little bits of pieces, just looking in her eyes and can tell she's feeling better or, you know, well, I guess that's really the main thing. You can look at her when we started and again, it's been ups and downs where you can see a change and then we're like, okay, we need to address this again.

But again, like that load is so hard as a mom because ultimately all I want to do is not fix her, but make her feel better in any way possible. And and so that's just, I think the beauty in the functional medicine, because you really do get answers and always say like beauty from the ashes. Like, that's one of my favorite quotes is because this is like, not something I ever thought I would go through.

But at the same time, like having someone like you as like a tool in our back pocket to constantly like help address or guide us to a certain area or things to kind of, you know, to help her be better or feel better. And then that kind of spills out to the rest of the family. I have, like, changed my whole mindset of things.

She has taught me so much because of this journey and working on the functional medicine set of things. So it's not just her feeling better, it's her siblings, you know, her older sister and then now her younger brother, who, you know, we've dealt with some things with some eczema and skin issue stuffs, but it's like I've felt more at peace with things that come along because I know we could potentially find answers instead of going to a doctor that kind of just beat around the bush and don't really, or they want a cream or, you know, a medication or whatever.

And so, yeah, it, it is just a lot to kind of have to deal with. But again, like I said, having this side of things I don't, I can't even like describe what it has done for our family in the long run. And with Penny too, it's just like one of the biggest things, which I'm sure we'll get to with her, though, is definitely like overall, like she's very spunky and happy, along the way, like, we just kind of see more light that has come in.

We're not necessarily getting my ultimate goal. Was hoping for some more and more speech. Obviously in communication now, I will say communication with her has gotten better, such as, you know, guiding us to things or things like that. We don't necessarily get the language, but we have gotten more communication. But what we've all noticed along the way, and it's been a process, is her engagement with us, with her siblings, just almost like she does go to Penny's world, you know?

But I feel like she's noticing more that's going on around her or like her siblings to, you know, a dance party in the kitchen. And she comes along and joins in like those to other people is like they would never even notice. But for us, it's like you could sit back and cry, you know, watch them from a distance because that used to not be there.

She would just kind of be over here and we're all over here, you know, and she's not even understanding what's going on. And so, yeah, I probably rambled on with that, but you're fine. I mean, it sounds like the piece that was missing in conventional care was like the through lines, like they had done a lot of, like, liability type things, like, let's make sure there's nothing out of sorts on MRI.

Let's look at her thyroid listener to endocrine. Let's check on growth stuff. Let's do genetics workup. There were some basic things you had there, but a lot of those things, when they get reviewed, it's like we have this. We didn't see anything huge. That's great. I'm so glad there's nothing huge. And also when I look at her labs I can see blood quality things.

And we have a path that we know we need to go on as far as pituitary and thyroid health, which impacts growth. So there were lots of things that were you guys had collected good info, but that through line isn't there for conventional medicine for them to really like loop everything together unless there's a major diagnosis. And even then, our clients who have big diagnoses of genetic abnormalities or bigger immune issues, the doctors are not talking together.

And fortunately or unfortunately, our body is systems connected all together. They're not siloed. Like you don't have your endocrine system over here not impacting your GI like they do impact you. That's so true and never thought of it that way. And that is what I love so much about this too, is because we can just navigate all these different things versus you have to wait and go to interpret for this.

Then you got to wait and maybe see a neurologist for this. And like it's just all this, it's not together. So, you know, working with you we can literally like, okay, let's see what we think is most important. Now get there. You know, if we see this here then we can navigate that way or navigate this way. And you just get more answers and more understanding.

Just yeah, you don't have to wait, you know, a month or six months for a doctor or whatever. And thankfully, we have it now if we need a doctor, great. But like you said, it was an important piece of filling for a journey. Kind of frustrating, but important because we did get to do those big tests. The MRI, you know, they did the EEGs for, you know, different things and the different blood work, but they kind of just like, nope looks good.

Yeah. Good luck. You know that type of thing. It's like there's that's great. We didn't find anything huge. But there's still a lot of huge things going on in the body that clearly are showing her body. You know with screaming at its for in day to day comfort. She's had that like very descended belly and she had she was frequently stool.

She had lots of stools which would sometimes give you Rashi stuff. We had the ear infection, the two ear tubes, like there were things that were impacting her daily health and it was starting to become more than just developmental delay, which is like how it's going to present in that conventional space. Exactly. And that's pretty typical. Like kids with autism, like I said, struggle with recurrent strep or fungal overgrowth, gut dysbiosis.

They don't do well when they're exposed to toxicity, whether that's mold or other toxins. Just in our normal world, a lot of times there are detox defects that come along with an autism diagnosis, and there's immune dysregulation. There can be chronic viral burden. So there are places for us to look and learn. And as we did, we found things.

We found, you know, her GI map and showed us there was cluster overgrowth. Clostridium. Thankfully with her we didn't see necessarily behavioral things. But for the listener, aggression, tantrums, self-harm, banging the head, hitting themselves. That's a very common symptom. Presentation of cluster do, which is just a gut bacteria family anxiety sensory dysregulation can be present to that. We saw the fungal Candida overgrowth.

We saw some oxalate issues. So that's going to impact kidneys. She also had into hemorrhagic coli that popped up a couple of times. So again if those things are left and not tended to those were in her gut creating that descended belly. They can create organ harm in time. She wasn't digesting fats while we were seeing fat in the stool there was H.

Pylori. So upper GI and one of the things that I always say with children who are nonverbal or non communicative because Penny is not necessarily nonverbal, but communication, getting exchange of ideas is not there. She can't tell us, like, I have reflux, I have heartburn. This is why I'm coughing at night. This is why this is happening. But that's related to the H.

Pylori. And she had a classic Sibo or small intestine bacterial overgrowth presentation. That's what was creating that big distended belly that was uncomfortable. And there was some parasite activity. So there were lots of little things. We learned low vitamin D was present. There were some anemia patterns, some blood sugar regularities. These are all things that, as we help her body resolve them, help her to feel better, help her to retain more nutrients.

And those things are really important for quality of life, whether we are dealing with neurodiversity or not. Did you feel like it was overwhelming as we worked together, like the factors that were contributing to penny symptom load? Because there were lots of little pieces, like, how did that part feel for you, maybe even in that first, overwhelming.

Yes. Only because like when you first get started, like, oh my gosh, there's so much how am I going to keep up with this? And of course, everyone's case isn't going to be that much. And but it just shows like if you just listen like Penny has had a lot and it is scary to think like, if we didn't address this where she'd be and how miserable she would be.

And so I literally wake up every day thankful for that, even if I'm not seeing the biggest strides, I'll, you know, anything in the world. Her feeling better and just knowing what we have hit along the way, even if the, you know, the journey continues and we're still going on like it's just it's scary to think where we would be because of all the things we found.

So yeah, it's definitely was overwhelming. But at the same time, I feel like working with you, it makes it less overwhelming because you kind of you break it straight, straight out. Exactly what to do. I looked at the first step when we started, started going through things, you know, what you need to do. Or her different supplements or change in diet.

That was a big one. You know, the gluten free. We did the dairy free. We even did a low mo diet for. I felt like we kept up with that for years because we just got used to it. And so those things can definitely be overwhelming. But I would tell anyone like it's worth it because to, like I said, you, we had you to guide us.

And then I was like, proud of myself because I'm like, I've never in 1 million years thought I could keep up with all this. And you do you kind of just get into your routine? Yeah. Which nobody likes to change things. Change is hard. You know, some people I feel like may not continue to navigate certain journeys, like with healing, because it is overwhelming.

But if you just stick to it, it's like it is a life change. It's not just a change. Right? Then it changed all of us. I even went gluten free. I didn't go dairy free, but it was free for me. Just the things that I've had going on. But like to like with my kids. Just our Patrick looks, you know, better than most.

And we look at labels and like that. It's kind of so much of like the things we did kind of trickled into new patterns for us, but like overall health for all of us. And so that's that's what I think is like, really cool about this too. It wasn't just, you know, obviously it started off just about Penny, and she's still ultimately our main goal.

But we have been able to navigate and learn so much along the way for all of us, like the whole family and then her siblings too. Like they just almost get a better road because, you know, the her younger brother, I mean, because him starting off like he's not going to know a lot of stuff that food wise and things that they may have known at the beginning because I've learned, you know, so much about gut health and things like that.

But, but yeah, I definitely would say overwhelmed. But it works out because of the guidance. And I feel like again, with doctors, you wouldn't get that. They might give you a diagnosis or give you these things or whatever, but you can't, you know, message or reach up like, hey, you know, she woke up today and this is going on.

Is this normal, you know, or should I be worried or do we need to change this, you know, things like that that made it possible. That's helpful because some of the families feel like, do we really need to do like four months of ongoing care? Because that's really where we start with most cases. And it's a game changer because we are in touch.

We're watching, like every single protocol that we do in all care is informed by all body systems. We are looking at symptom load and we're having conversations regularly. Protocols pivot throughout care continuously based on what you're doing. We don't want you on a supplement forever. I want you to move and progress in your health so you're in a better foundation.

And then you can choose, do I want to continue to optimize or do I want to like, take a break and enjoy my health? It's not about a for everything. And early on to Penny was having a lot of wins and us being in touch and hearing that her sleep was better, her energy was better. She was responding to all faster and communication.

She was engaging. She started repeating words and started some counting and alphabet skills that weren't there before. She was also learning to chew better because you guys were putting a lot of that kind of OT strategy. And then how about that? Yeah. And so there were things happening that were little things where she had better balance or you noticed like a little better strength and more persistence with physical tasks.

And those may seem like little things, but when you talk to me about them, I understand what's going on biomechanical in her body. And that helps me know where do I need to go next? What still is it working when balance improves? That tells us that detoxification is improving. Someone who think about when someone's drunk, what happens? They try to get you to walk a line, or are they trying to get you to touch your nose and be coordinated?

And you can't do it because your detox systems are overwhelmed? But that is the case. Like, if I get someone in care who's in mold or dealing with Lyme, they're like, no, I'm fine. I'm like, let's stand up and do some balance stuff. But hearing even that was improving for Penny helped me to know that some of the detox things we were working on were improving.

And so changes may be subtle, but being in care helps us to see those and really like move stuff forward as opposed to just for sure staying on. Like honestly, I feel like for months I'm like, we need more like, you know, like people are like, oh, that's long. I'm like, no, I want more, you know, like because it's so true.

It's not just like, okay, here's your stuff. Good luck. It's a constant, you know, back and forth and, you know, because you give that tool to communicate when you're in care and stuff like that, that makes it just, I don't even know, just so much easier. And like, you just learned so much too. But like us, where the four months goes by for, you know, super quick and you're like, oh, wow, we're four months into this thing, you know, but again, to with Penny along her journey, when we got to the line piece, which I don't know if you want to get to that, look at that yet.

That was like a whole new ball game of things. That's to me is like the big thing, the big, big that we found out gut was very important. And I felt like that's something we probably all battle off and on just because of her circumstances. But ultimately when we were going and digging and we got through the gut stuff, we started to see things.

And I think we paused for a little while, and that's when I came back, like, okay, there's some of the things coming up. I think we had some rash going on. Yeah, we were talking to airway stuff there for a while because we'd work through that like gut brain part pretty good, right? But the thing of like getting sick all the time, that was another big one.

Just constant snot and mucus and all that. And then that's when down the line is when we start to navigate. You're like, I think I'm seeing some Lyme things. And I'm like, wow, what do you mean? You know, and we're like, I'm like, I trust you, Elizabeth. We'll do whatever you say because you have found I mean, you have guided us through so much healing in just, you know, the whole journey.

So I'm like, whatever you think, let's do it. And sure enough, you know, there was that very big long piece. And so that was our our next step. And that's where I feel like we have seen the most progress in positivity for sure, because that's when again, with the whole where I say like seeing a little more light in her eyes or just really, truly feeling better.

It was when we got to that point. There was that point along the way, but this was where everyone around her, I feel like kind of noticed it. Yeah, we'd worked through the gut brain connection part, which was really clear, and you guys had had that like season. But we kept talking and you were like, we still have these enlarged adenoids.

You guys have been in like an INT journey and it was better. But she was still mouth breathing. The congestion has always been a through line for her, but she was having in large lymph nodes. And I think there maybe was like one particular area in the neck where you were like, this doesn't really move a lot. The recurrent sickness stuff was there and you that had ent discussions about tonsil annoyed removal.

We got these tubes in here, like, what do we do? But you wanted the Y. Yeah. You were like, that's not a suitable answer for me. There has to be. They just kept pushing. I was like, nope, I got to reach back out to Elizabeth. We ain't doing that. There's something else going on here. And that's when we found you're right.

That's when we did the long pieces, because it was. It was a lot of focus up here at that point. You know, we worked on the gut and and then it's just like she still was always snotty most of her life. And so when we worked on the gun, I can't remember fully if a little bit of that got better, it probably did, but I feel like it was just a reoccurring.

And she did. She had two sets of tubes and it's crazy. I mean, she couldn't tell with her ears hurt, but she never she was sick a lot, but so she might have had a lot of ear infections because we never like, you know, ran and and went to the doctor often. But she never acted or pulled on her ears.

But when we decided to go to anti mainly because two for speech, I was like, what if she just can't hear? What if that's what's going on, you know? And the doctor was like, oh yeah, you should probably go to NT. So we go to NT and they're like, oh my goodness, she needs tubes. And then we did the tube thing.

They came out. Nothing really got better. Needed tubes again. So she did them twice. They came out again. And then that's when they're like we think she needs a third set. And you know, they're like at a certain age, you know because her annoys were very enlarged mouth breathing like you said. And they're like when we get to a certain age, we like to just go in to remove those.

And I was like, okay, you know? And that's when I was like, yep, we're going to reach back out to Elizabeth. And that's when we navigated the line that found the line, you know, and started to address that quick break. If you've been curious about homeopathy, this is your sign to try. It added hey, hey, homeopathic. We've created liquid remedies for everything from sleep and skin to digestion and beyond.

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We'd seen the cluster, we'd seen even the fungal stuff that's not bacteria. But like she couldn't get that under control, which that's a typical presentation when someone has autism as far as gut stuff goes. But we knew that the strep was recurrently there because strep can be part of Pepto. Strep and streptococcus can inform those ENT issues, whether it's recurrent ear infection, recurrent strep throat like that whole area is into, it's all connected as one.

Then when we got our panel back, we saw lime was there, which would be connected to a lot of the recurrent recurrent sickness stuff, the enlarged lymph nodes, some of the breathing adenoid involvement, the lymph node piece where there are recurrent lymph nodes, especially in the neck or the armpits, saying, you know, large is a huge cue for me with line.

Bartonella was present, the strep was there. We also saw Coxsackie responsible for some hand, foot and mouth disease and then parvovirus. So she was carrying mostly a bacterial load. But with those things present it's going to limit the immune system's ability to police bacteria. So child's going to continually struggle with bacterial issues whether they're exposed to something new like mycoplasma pneumonia.

It's going to be a slower crawl for them to resolve that respiratory issue. Or if they've got extremely rare, they have in particular, they get exposed to the body is struggling, the immune system is struggling to police that bacterial population. So I was thankful that you were like trusting me to do, you know, the infections panel and see like what's there because it really showed us they were more layers that were holding that immune system down, and that was leading to the recurrent gut stuff we were seeing, leading to the recurrent ear infection, that sort of stuff that we were seeing.

And when the immune system is inflamed in terms of autism, the brain is also inflamed. And so that was going to impact her cognitive ability and age wise. Cognitive ability and inflammation in the brain also means cognitive and development gets impacted. So those infections increasing neuroinflammation can also mean we see gut dysfunction happening. Because again, gut brain like you said, are connected.

But I think to like the stressor that recurrent sickness places on a family is a lot. And it puts a lot more obligation on you. You have other kids, you've since been pregnant and had another little guy. Like, how did reducing the illness frequency? Because she worked through protocol for lime and infections. And on this side of things, I think the infection illness portion is a lot better.

How has that helped or impacted family stress or just your day to day? Oh, big time, because I just felt like every time we turned around, she was sick again. And another big thing that I remembered too before we did the lime, if you remember, I forgot about, like, she wasn't really getting fevers when she got sick and you were like, wait a minute, that's not normal.

You know, everyone's, like, scared of a fever. But we learned, like, no, fevers are important. That's how your, you know, your body sees the intruder and fights it. And so with that, with Penny the lime, I will say, obviously that process is long when you find things with immunotherapy. But it's not hard. It's just, you know, editing things in doing things few times a day, you know, the different things.

And it is a process. But my gosh, wasn't so worth it. And again, another big win for Penny. Because again, if we had not decided to address that, no telling again where things could be even worse at this point. But just she was the healthiest she had ever been in her entire life for, like, a whole year.

I was like, wait a minute. I think she got sick, like twice or something. But when she did get sick, those few times she saw a fever. The fever would come. It would knock it out. And then, you know, we might see some symptoms. But with Penny when she gets sick, it was snot for weeks at a time.

Fixed. Not, you know, just feeling and looking not well. And so when we finally addressed that, that was, for me, the biggest win that I can scream from the rooftops is I know for certain, if nothing else changed, that I could notice in her body, like the immune system piece was incredible because you you couldn't deny the fact, you know, with that.

And and so obviously as a mom, you know, you hate when your kids get sick and when you have other kids, it's just, oh my gosh, that's my favorite thing to talk about. When we do the line piece with Penny. And obviously there's other wins too. And there's been so much it's hard to exactly pinpoint and exact thing that went on.

But I would say when we found the line piece and address that, that has been our our biggest win so far. And then that's when it trickled down into, okay, maybe we need to navigate some other people in the family with this. Yes. That's kind of where we are. Yeah, that's kind of where we are now. And then that's when we addressed it with, you know, her bigger sister Piper and what was going on for Piper that made us think.

We'll do a brief caveat there because Lyme can be passed congenitally. So we started thinking like, okay, what is the symptom look like in brother and sister, mom and dad? Like, where was it a bite? Did it come from somewhere else? Like, what do we have going on? So when we started with Piper. And that's the crazy thing about love, I'm like, pennies never had a tick.

You know, you always think like, that's what everybody thinks. You got to have the tick. And this is like, she never had that, you know, none of us did. And so when we found that, that's when I learned so much more about line two is okay. She you were like, I think this might be a utero thing. And so that's when we started.

I kind of started being like, okay, Elizabeth Piper, you know, my oldest, like she started, she would puke a lot if she was overly excited about something. She got nervous, like you would not believe about, like at school field trips. That's when it really started was when she started school. When I started to notice just new things or things like that.

Vomit. She would puke. Just it would come every day before school. She would puke every day for school, like I. And it was that sensory pressure, like when she started school and there was a lot more intensity on her. The anxiety came along and she was happy to go do like she liked the field trip. She was okay with school.

It wasn't like it was straight anxiety. It was more of a visceral neurological disruption in that passive nervous system signaling it was more signaling issue as opposed to like, she is so scared of this, or it was more that. And that's really what it was like. You said. Yes. It's like her body didn't know what it was feeling, I guess.

Like it was excited, scared, nervous, like it all felt the same and it would just trigger vomit and almost got kind of used to it at first. I obviously I knew, okay, this can't be right. And then two, along with that, just getting her to eat was like pulling teeth out. And so along with that and all my kids are tiny anyway, so we can't afford vomiting and not eating great.

But so that's when like when I started to learn about the lime and then of course mentioned Piper in to you, you're like, think we got another culprit on our hands? And we kind of held back a little bit with it because it is a process. But the more I went, I'm like, you know, I can't just obviously, Penny, there's a lot going on.

But, you know, I want my other children to be well and do all that to. And if we we knew that piece that others wouldn't even have known to address because of what we went through. And so that's when we went along with it. We started going to do the lime blood testing with Piper and then found a lot of common denominators.

Not all the same. She wasn't, as you know, had as many issues as Penny, thankfully. But we did find some of those lime pieces and and address them. And along the way, she like, I was like Elizabeth way a filter today. We didn't throw up or you're like, she would puke a lot when we went back from like, breaks for like Christmas break or whatever.

It was always like, okay, now we're going to peak for a few days, and it's like we went back. I think it was Christmas break, I think was the next thing we went back to. And I was like, she was excited this morning and she got out of the car and she did puke. And you're like, okay, this is big, you know?

Or we might have seen things creep in, but overall the bigger picture, like I wasn't saying, you know, having a hand or a puke bag in the car rider line or another big one was we went on we were well into her immunotherapy at this point with the lime, but we went on a little quick trip trip with the family and in an airplane.

Yes. And we've had it. We've not flown a lot, but we flown several times throughout the years and we always. All right. Where's the Ziploc bag? Where's the puke bag? Because she would not be scared. She would actually be excited about the trip. But it's like she couldn't like regulate that. And then disorganization. It's not. That's the part that line was really easy.

And that's what I would tell you. I'm like some of the things like she would be nervous about, but other things, it was almost like even birthday parties. That's one. That's a big one. She would puke for that or even her own birthday party. And I'm like, if you don't want to do it, we don't have to. But that's not what it was.

It's like her body didn't know, I don't know, it was just so crazy. And that's when you were like this. This sounds like another correlation with Lyme. And then sure enough, because going along the way, you know, again, we did that that plane ride, this was like a couple months ago. And we got on and I'm like, oh my gosh.

Wait. She's like, we're on the flight. Like like almost forgot because, you know, I was used to it, but it didn't even we just had a normal flight. And so and again on the way home it was good. And so that was a big piece for her. Her appetite has gotten better too. I will say she's not like the greatest eater on the planet.

But again, that's that's for another day because maybe something we got to work on. Yeah, we still got some things to work on, but it definitely has gotten better. Like she's coming home from school and mommy wake me this or that or I want this. And you know, so those are little pieces to, along with her. Hers was her eating and the puking.

So it definitely, definitely got better. And we just actually ended her whole process with love. And so she was excited about, you know, but good. Yeah. So, so that was another positive that we would have never addressed, you know, just going along in a regular world if we hadn't even known about this, you know, because of Penny.

So it's just great that again. Beauty and the ashes with Penny is learning and be able to navigate that through with her siblings. Like there's no telling what we have saved Piper from along the way, you know, kind of addressing that long piece as well. Yeah. So it's impacting. Yes. Because now it's I'm going to go we're going to go along and address mom eventually because, you know, we're not here to talk about me, but as a normal, typical mom, I have my issues, you know, and obviously to just being drained as a mom in the journey we've had, you know, it's not.

Yeah. Yes. The stress load is is crazy. You know, I got to wake up every day from armor back on, but I would lie if I'd say it was, you know, easy. And in, you know, definitely emotional. It's like there's times when you have a little bit of a breakdown and then you're like, you know what?

We got the tools. We can do this. It's okay, you know? And then then we're back at it again. And so now we're realizing, okay, it's my turn. So that's probably where we'll start to navigate next. Yeah. What do you wish that people knew. Or maybe you feel people misunderstand about raising a child and navigating the autism and like, chronic immune journey because so many of us don't get to see that up close.

But we know that numbers of autism are rising. Therefore numbers of chronic immune issues are rising. Like what is? What do you wish people knew or are misunderstanding about that journey? That, you know, it's kind of hard because I don't really know. It's so hard to even talk about. But the cool thing is, is that there are answers for a lot of parents out there, like in the functional world or just, you know, finding a space like I found with you.

And that's what I would always hope to be, is in my journey. You know, if I could just help one mom, you know, realize, like, you know, this isn't where we thought we would be, but we can do it. But you know, what I love to about it is I didn't kind of just get complacent with it. And just like it is, I mean, it is what it is, obviously.

But just to kind of dig and know that you can do more to make them feel better or, you know, and I know there's some people out there that have navigated the functional world and they can even lose a diagnosis. And so that's the cool thing about that too, is there's just there's so much more healing out there that can be done and there's more and more need for it than ever, which is sad.

And it makes me sad because that's a whole other realm of things, you know, to go on. But the cool thing is, is there are tools out there that we can use to kind of better our children in any way, through the functional side of things. So I love that because there are so many pieces in the traditional world that I really helpful to.

I think about her therapy journey. Yeah. How is this process impacted her therapy? So that's a beast of a parental obligation. You're doing speech you do you like. There's different seasons for those. But how has this work impacted her therapy journey, if at all? Yeah, I mean, honestly, we did we started ABA therapy. It was something I kind of held back on a lot because there are mixed emotions on it.

But I will say that's a big piece to there. You know, every facility or place is different. You're just got to find the one that works. And again, every kid is different. So some it's not going to work. And with Penny, we had not such good luck in the past with some things that she just was not herself when she did it at all.

But when we found the place that we're at now and again, the healing journey probably is a part of that. You know, because we are doing speech and ot, you know, occupational therapy and then ABA therapy, and she's doing that eight hours a day, three days a week. 

She's happy when I pick her up. And on that side of things is more of a relief than you could even explain. Because with me, I'm, like, very overprotective and especially with her because she can't tell me I'm scared. They were mean to me or whatever, and she so can't do that, but she can't communicate to me through her, you know, emotions or actions.

And so those speak louder than words, for real. A lot with that journey. Like it's hard, kind of like letting go and get, letting her out of my bubble. Like I just want to keep her in my bubble at all times to protect her. But I feel like too, I've kind of like have learned, okay, if we got to try it and see how it goes.

And that's again with the health side of things. You never know unless you try. And so her whole life, that's what it's been that I've learned along the way with her, because she has taught me more than I could ever explain. She's made me realize I'm stronger than I ever thought I was. And then again, she's made me smarter because I've learned so much.

Because AJ both, he's like my little understudy. He's like, what about my health? What about like, yes, that's the day it is. That's what I think the bigger picture is like because of Penny. Surely she's made us better people for sure. And a big realm of things, you know, in our hearts, but also in our learning and researching and and not just getting comfortable, like having open minds and trying new things and navigating things that's uncomfortable.

And it all came out pretty good. I mean, there's not everything's been perfect, but, you know, that's what I feel like this whole process has taught us. Just try it, you know? Because the worst thing is, is something just don't work. But the best thing is, you see, healing that you never expected could happen. And that's the most beautiful thing, I think if you've been wanting to transform your health but don't know where to start.

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Yeah, and it's been like a short four years looking back timeline wise, because she just turned seven and so, so many things going from distended belly to not constant GI issues were not a bazillion times a day and having rationing stuff. I remember to one of the times we got in a call for a check in some of our longer stretches, and you were like, we just went to therapy the other day, and instead of doing the actual therapy point, we just stayed in the waiting room because she was interacting with little kid in the room in a back and forth manner.

And that was new for her, even being like, yeah, she was like starting to interact. And it wasn't just a straight mimic or the echolalia type behavior. It was a true like back and forth interaction. And you saw some growth there. And she's still just seven, which makes me really excited. There was going to come. And the things that we talked about too, that we figured out that have impacted the rest of your family, it's definitely like my goal for care is that people learn things and then they can trickle down that wellness onto others, whether it's in your household or it's another mom who feels hopeless or helpless or stuck or just dealing with

recurrent illness. And like so many of our parents are like, I can't get to work because this child, we have to stay home with them all the time, and it can impact so many different things depending on how your life is set up. And it's it can be really freeing, even though it may be a new process and something different to learn.

But I love that you and AJ have both shared her with me, but also partnered with me in this process of supporting and figuring out because there's not. I haven't found dad like AJ, who's like, what about this? I've been learning this and you're like, I don't want me to ask you. And I'm like, yes, that's exactly where we're going.

He meant that, my friend. You know, we were both a little piece of that process for him. But he is a full on, you know, researcher now and he's like taking his health into a whole new thing, too. So you're right. Like, not even that he's working with you, but because we kind of learn so much. And again, this process opens your mind the things you don't realize now, sometimes it makes you angry because you realize how corrupt the world is.

And that can be a whole nother our podcast. But like, it really does. Like it's hard but like the best thing ever because I'd rather have my eyes open than have them closed. And because of Penny 100% and us taking that leap into working with you, it is like a whole. And I, like you said, I can't believe it was like she was 3 or 4.

Well, I think she was three and now she's seven. Like it's been this whole process. But you know, it's it's crazy how much we've learned and grown and like, I'm proud. I'm really proud of us actually. And it all it really did. Like that big step was the process with you. And I really think it was one of those, you know, Butterfly Flex because like, it's just opened up a whole new world for our entire family, you know, and a lot of people not in our family look at us and think we're a little bit cuckoo because, you know, I'm like, hey, you know, and I loved it because I try to teach people like

I try. I'm not like, you know, anywhere on your level or anything like that, but, you know, I've become, you know, I've like kind of triggered that into, like, my sister who has children. She had children after me, you know, and that is change directly for her family to on learning things and health wise and the home world and all of that, that a lot of people kind of frown upon unless you give it a chance.

And that's, again, one of those things you don't know unless you try like, and that's the beauty of this side of things is if you try it, it can't hurt you. Yeah. You know, medication or prescriptions or whatever can hurt you. And so that's why I love this so much. Because you can get true healing, not just a Band-Aid or, you know, a medication or whatever.

And we're still functioning in that scientific process, like everything that we do is informed by biomechanical function of the body. How does this organ system work? What nutrients doesn't need, what where in this chain of nutrient conversion or detox or things off? It's just using different methods, things that are not side effects or interacting with medications or foods or allergies or those sort of things.

And it's really pushing the body back. The homeopathy piece prompts the body back to its original function in that part is so great for children because kids can take it really easily. It's liquid, and it's not even non-verbal and even violent, and who won't take much of anything slash food, even though the opposite can be used and it can still be something that makes a big difference

But I love that you've shared and seen so much progress in the UN. Farah and other people you shared with have had a lot of new tools introduced into, you know, just the whole new world basically that you probably wouldn't have randomly. I'm like, oh, grain starts coming, let me find my little cabinet here. I'm constantly to it.

And like we were at the other day, and I keep my little head pains in my purse, on the home office side and, somewhere with had a headache. And I'm like, open up your mouth. And they're like, what is that? I'm like, trust me, you just. And I never called her and ask her how that went

And I just like, yeah, let me know if your headaches gone after that, you know. But you know, instead of like, popping Nabi and constantly I swear by the headphones, you were like, wait, you're ordering that too much? You know, I was like, why are we having so many headaches, man? We gotta go down the line path. Because I think, where are these headaches about?

We need to we need to address that. Yeah. But that's. Yeah. But again, that just like, what's so cool about homophily is like, if I'm trying it, I know, I know, I ain't got to worry about it hurting me. It's either going to work or don't. So, you know, we'll see what happens. And yeah I love it.

So okay, we're going to wrap up a little bit here. I want to know. Same question I ask everybody at the end of the podcast. Because so many people have not dealt with chronic illness or they haven't figured out yet. That's part of their journey. And it can be a weird, unfamiliar territory full of lots of pieces, grief being one of them, costs being one of them time, you know, all these sorts of things.

But how have you guys been loved? Well, through the process by your community or other people, as you did a lot of change and did a lot of things that were maybe new for your peer group? Have you guys been loved? Well, you know, I will say a lot like I said, a lot of people are like, are you sure about that?

You know, they kind of give it. They look at you kind of like silly. But then that's what I think is so cool is that, you know, we do this process and people don't have to like that you're doing something different outside the norm. But then the cool thing is when they can see healing, and then that's when it opens up the eyes to other people.

They're like, all right, maybe this is where we're going to check this out of side of things. But I say, like my mom, my sister, you know, obviously me and my husband are on the same team. That's a big deal along the way. Like we got a lot of support on those side of things, like, you know, pushing us to keep rocking it out.

Like, where do you think it would be if you didn't do this? Keep on trying. Or, you know, with Piper, you know what? You just kind of navigate it through our family like we've seen. They've got to see the beauty in a lot of it, too. And we're still in a journey. It's not like it's over. But I think that's how health is in general.

It's never just, oh, you're better. We're always going to kind of keep navigating things and and with Penny, because hers is such a complex case, I feel like we're going to always kind of be on that journey of just continued healing. But I do feel like like I just feel more blessed than I could explain that we get to do that because a lot of people don't get that opportunity.

Like you said, cost was and things like that. But if you know, someone could, I would say if someone could find a way to just take baby steps into it, it's worth it and do it, you know, and find those people that can support you and, and kind of be your cheerleaders in the background throughout the process because there's nothing better than your health.

And then, of course, the health for your children. And I feel like that's just my biggest role as being an advocate, especially for penning, because she can't communicate. And so always say, I'll be her voice until she has one, and if she don't, then I'm going to keep at it. And and the cool thing is to, I hope along the way for my other children to learn true health too, because we've started so young.

Like you said, with kids it's so much easier to navigate these things versus, you know, someone like me or someone who's just been dealing with it for 20 years or something. And so, yeah, there's just so much beauty in the functional and holistic kind of side of things that I wish more people kind of new because it really it is a beautiful thing for so many people.

Well, I really appreciate you, Amber, sharing with me about Penny's journey, but also Piper's a little bits of your own and just how supporting one whole child can move to supporting a whole family. And I feel like this story has given people a lot of like, possibility understanding of how we work with autism and support progression and health there, and just how our our goal is always to support development and quality of life.

And the healing is not about changing who a child is. Sometimes it's about removing those burdens that keeps them from fully living, and that's really what we're focused on. I think Penny story does a great job of giving a very real testament to the journey portion, but also the growth and progress that's possible as we stick with it.

So thanks for joining me. I really appreciate you sharing. Yes. No problem. I'm glad. I hope we can help encourage another mom or family or dad or whoever you know. But ultimately, I want to thank you because I don't know if you get it enough because I know our family loves us some Elizabeth and your knowledge and just heart and everything that you do to help others.

It's really like your God sent, and I hope you know that. Oh thank you Amber, thanks for listening. I hope you're leaving. Encouraged, curious and hopeful. If you learned something, I'd love for you to share this episode with a friend. Hey, we are all healing together. You can learn more about my practice, our team, and what it's like to work with us at Heyheymae.com

I teach lots on Instagram and answer questions. They are. Each Monday. My Instagram handle is @heyHeyElizabethMae. You can watch these podcast episodes and more on our YouTube channel. Hey hey Mae, learn about and enjoy our homeopathic line and take our homeopathic short course at hey Hey homeopathic. Com happy healing.