The Yeast Beast

Yeast is a word that brings dread to most parents. While adults also struggle with treating candida overgrowth it seems to affect adult more in children. The symptoms displayed by children are varied and bothersome and may include constipation, rash, hyperactivity, stimming, self limiting diets and congestion.  So when people hear that yeast might flare up with chelation, their apprehension to start chelation is completely understandable.

Thankfully there is a solution! We've learned that you can safely and naturally manage fungal overgrowth and reduce or eliminate symptoms while you work on chelation.

It does take time to learn to recognize what symptoms yeast causes for your child but these become clearer when you start treating yeast.

Getting started is as simple ad choosing an acidophilus based probiotic or one with several good strains of bacteria.  You would start with a low dose and slowly increase it to reach the recommended dose on the bottle. There may be some die off initially but this should pass in several days.

Once you have reached this and your child is tolerating the probiotics well, you can begin to add in your natural herbal antifungal.  There is a list of antifungals in the book you can choose from.  Just choose ONE and start with a low dose.  You can gradually increase the dose to reach a point where most yeast symptoms are controlled. It might not be gone entirely but it should be much better.  In almost all cases you are going to see die off which is confirmation there was an fungal overgrowth.  This usually settles down in a few days.

You might see this anytime you raise the dose, and you may have to raise or lower the dose in response to yeast symptoms and whether or not they are on a chelation round.

On important thing to remember is that probiotics are bacteria too, just good bacteria. Some of the natural antifungals are not selective enough to only kill bad bacteria so you should make sure probiotics are doses at least 4 hours away from antifungals.

Another key point to remember is both supplements can be raised and lowered giving more when yeast flares up.  Treating yeast is a daily ongoing process until enough chelation has taken place that the immune system is able to normally balance the yeast numbers and keep them at healthy levels.

Some children benefit from avoiding dietary foods known to feed yeast like sugar and bread.  Children in this category seem to crave these foods and don't want to eat anything else. While doing this is not required, in some cases of really stubborn yeast, it can help.

On rare occasions we do see a child that despite lots of natural antifungals and probiotics yeast is still out of control.  In these cases the low-sulfur diet may be helpful.

Either way, remember to start only one thing at a time and watch for reaction. Always raise slowly to avoid harsh die off symptoms!

It does get better with adequate chelation! Yeast will become much easier to control with less antifungal and eventually it will go away entirely.

-Jan Martin

*for further information on treating natural fungal overgrowth see the Yeast Chapter in our second edition book.