The oil of hope
Victoria Young
When Hope Lewis was a year old, her mother,
Kate, would put her exhausted daughter to bed each night and pray
she’d sleep. Instead, Hope would sit bolt upright in the dark,
wailing incessantly, banging her head against the bars of her cot
for hours on end. When Kate replaced the cot with a bed, Hope
banged her head against the wall. When the bed was pulled into the
middle of the room, Hope targeted her knees, knocking against them
repeatedly until bruises and sores covered her face and head.
Her behaviour was even more distressing because she had been such
a calm, quiet baby. "Until eight months she hardly cried at all
and always slept through the night. I thought I had an
exceptionally wonderful child," says Kate, whose two other
daughters, Jennifer and Tanya, are 13 and nine. "But in retrospect
I realise she was too calm and quiet. She didn’t do anything
spontaneously or respond to us at all."
Within a year of Hope’s birth, Kate and her husband separated, in
part because he found it hard to accept his daughter’s problems.
"To see your child in such a state is just devastating," says
Kate, 38, a teaching assistant from Kent. "She was so evidently
disturbed but I had no idea why, and for a long time no one could
tell me. It was soul-destroying to stand in the dark with her,
trying to get her to stop. I felt totally alone."
As Hope got older, things became worse. "She had very little
concept of what was going on around her," Kate says. "I’d kiss and
hug her but get no response. It was as if she wasn’t there. I’d
have to explain things three or four times for them to sink in and
she was in a constant state of confusion. She’d say things like,
‘I fell down the stairs and broke my heart.’"
What had been a shyly burgeoning vocabulary disappeared, seemingly
overnight. While Hope’s GP was concerned at her loss of language,
he was vague about a diagnosis. "He just predicted that she would
deteriorate and end up in an institution, but couldn’t say what
was wrong," says Kate.
"Another doctor told me that it was my fault for comparing her to
my other children. A third said that Hope was having an
emotionally disturbed reaction to the break-up of my marriage."
It wasn’t until she was five that Hope received a proper diagnosis
of autism, as part of a school assessment. By then her learning
difficulties were so severe that her comprehension of language was
gauged at only 8 per cent.
Unable to communicate, Hope became frustrated and violent, lashing
out at her two elder sisters. She was hyperactive, racing around,
unable to sit still. Constantly exhausted, she spent night after
night in a wakeful trance. While her classmates were starting to
read whole books, she could barely count to 10, and reading or
writing even simple sentences was beyond her. Out of her depth at
school, she fell foul of bullies. Pale and sickly-looking, she
became hunched, hiding her face behind her shoulder-length hair.
"All I ever wanted was for Hope to settle down and have a family,
possibly a job," Kate says. "My biggest fear was that she would
end up alone, needing constant care, and that as I got older I
wouldn’t be able to help her. I thought she’d get in with the
wrong crowd and be used and abused. I was sure she’d end up
institutionalised."
When Kate was at her wits’ end, a friend told her about fish oil.
Kate was prepared to try anything, so in November 2001, Hope
started a high daily dose of fish oil supplement containing omega
3 and omega 6, long chain fatty acids. Within ten weeks there were
some remarkable changes.
One day Hope asked Kate’s new partner, Vaughan, how old he was,
then counted up to 42 without stopping. In a turn-around that
astonished Kate and the rest of the family, her understanding of
language accelerated and her vocabulary increased overnight. She
began reading at school, and delighted in reading aloud at home.
"Now she’ll read a book from cover to cover, with a bit of help,
and she can write sentences," Kate says. "She’s still behind, but
she’s catching up. She’s even started to become sarcastic and
argue a point. Suddenly she has very strong opinions, which I
couldn’t be more delighted about."
The supplement, Eye Q, combines a fish oil particularly high in
essential fatty acids with vitamin E. Research has shown that it
can help modify the behaviour of children with various learning
and behavioural disorders, including dyslexia, dyspraxia and
attention deficit disorder, as well as the autism spectrum.
Dr Carolyn Adcock is a consultant paediatrician who assessed Hope
before and after the child took Eye Q. Although she was pleased at
the improvements in Hope’s behaviour, she is quick to point out
that more trials need to be done on Eye Q before it can be seen as
a "cure" for autism.
"Essential fatty acids are important for normal brain function and
there is a school of thought that says children with autism and
other related developmental problems may be deficient in them,"
she says.
"Some reports claim that dietary supplementation causes an
improvement in some of the features of autism, but it is important
to remember that this has not been observed in all children with
the condition. I was very pleased at how well Hope seemed to
respond to the supplement, but more large trials are required to
establish whether fatty acid supplements do have a definite role
in the management of children with autistic features."
None the less, these days, Hope’s violent behaviour is a thing of
the past. She is charismatic and engaging, and eager to please.
She no longer hides behind her hair and stands up straight and
tall. Playful, with a mischievous sense of humour, the little girl
has made new friends at school and is a picture of health.
"She takes pride in choosing her own clothes now," Kate says.
"She’s become her own little person. She’s incredibly sharp. I can
give her a shopping list and send her off to get milk and bread,
or ask her to remind me about things, and she’ll never forget."
In short, Hope is like any other outgoing seven-year old. A bit of
a tomboy, she spends her weekends riding horses and swimming.
She’s fanatical about animals and loves listening to pop music
with her big sisters.
"For a long time, talk about Hope’s future was taboo," says Kate.
"But now we talk about it all the time. I would be very surprised
if she didn’t go out and get a job and, hopefully, she’ll find
herself a partner and settle down. You wouldn’t know there had
ever been anything wrong with her. It’s miraculous. It seems
incredible that this kind of transformation could be down to
something as simple as fish oil. But it has given me my child
back.
"I’m so proud of Hope. I chose her name because I’ve always liked
it, but maybe I knew subconsciously that it was the perfect name
for her. It sums her up totally."
• Eye Q costs £7.99 for 60 capsules and is available from
most major pharmacies and health food stores. Stockist details,
023 9222 2500.
• National Autistic Society, 020 7833 2299.
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