Are these "normal" herx symptoms for 7 year old?

Welcome BrookesMom,

So sorry for the reason you're here but, glad you found us.

And, so sorry your little girl is dealing with Chronic Lyme.

Since she received this diagnosis, that means she's been dealing with Lyme for awhile. That means the bacteria have been going through their life cycles all the while. This translates into some of the bacteria dying....and it's the toxins that are released when they die that cause our symptoms.

Clearly, she had symptoms before treatment which means she already has a toxin load. Now that she's being treated, her toxin load is increasing and that's why she's feeling much worse.

The only way to reduce symptoms is to do things to help the body clear itself of toxins. Our bodies have several ways of detoxing via the liver, kidneys, lymph system, skin, etc.

If you can come up with a detoxing protocol for your daughter....and add to it as she moves forward with treatment, she will be able to handle treatments better....and feel better as a result.

I invite you to read the "New to Lyme? Start Here!" thread that sits at the top of the forum. Not only is there great information about testing, symptoms, etc. but ideas for detoxing....including a link to this site:

www.tiredoflyme.com/detox-methods.html

I think you should trust your intuition on this one and stop treatments until detoxing brings her symptoms load down.

If you plan on reintroducing the herbals, it should be one drop of one herb....and wait 4-7 days to make sure your daughter can handle (via detoxing) any herx that might develop.

It would then be appropriate to add one drop of the other herb and do the same thing.

Wash/rinse/repeat until you have both herbals up to the recommended doses.

Treating Lyme takes time and herxing as your daughter has been will only delay things.

Slow and steady wins the race.

Hope she feels better soon!

Sorry you have to go through this--it's all too common to hear all this, but there are certain steps you can take. You are in the right place and there are many knowledgeable and compassionate people here.

Do you detox at all? Also, for stomach ache, does she take a probiotic or drink yogurt or kefir?

Pain can be managed through anti-inflammatories. I don't suggest Tylenol because of it's effects on the liver, but until we figured out a better option, we did use it. Advil is hard on the stomach, so I don't suggest this, until you actually get her stomach in better shape.

Since she is taking abx, I hope you are using a probiotic. From my experience, this is especially important when you start. Later on, once her stomach gets used to the abx, they won't have the same painful effect on the stomach.

I suggest you try some propolis if you feel comfortable with it. You can ask your doc about it--hopefully he is knowledgeable about something that has been used for thousands of years. It has been a blessing for us and it works as an anti-inflammatory plus is good against viruses, which is a plus this time of the year, especially if she is in school where she can get a viral infection. I am forever thankful to the bees for their propolis. You may have to give it to her 2-3 times per day, but that will keep her pain free or almost pain free. I used it for my children 5-12 yrs old and I am very happy with it. It is widely used in Europe. I am not sure why is not as popular in US. Maybe because it doesn't taste great. You can do a search on Amazon and see what people say about it. I get the one that is mixed with honey for my kids, but you can get it even in pill form. The honey assists with absorption and hides the taste, so I chose that one for them. Best decision I've made to help them with pain and keep them happy or at least happier than they'd be without it!

For detox I use Chlorella which also worked great for us. Everyone here is doing things a little different, so I thought I would give you my take on how we deal with this.

Editing to add: for pain/inflammation you can also try Japanese Knotweed, which is safe for children as well. For sleep the neurologist gave my son Melatonin--it is not however meant to be used long term and look at the fillers listed on the bottle. I found out later on that Melatonin drops are much better, but we didn't use it. We used ashwagandha and that worked well.

You must try something to help her sleep. Nothing works well when not sleeping, plus it messes up with the inflammation process too. I hope you have a good doc. Ours only treated lyme and co. and was not detailed oriented at all to anything else, so I had to figure out things by reading a lot.