The magic of B12

B12: an amateur's report


B12 is a vitamin. People get B12 through foods--I don't know which ones--and some through injections. I remember a story about some celebrity performer (was it Madonna?) being accused of doing drugs and pushing them on her backup singer/dancers, and the answer was that it was B12 injections for their health and immunity.

Sometime in 2011, one of Alex's doctors told me that Alex was deficient in B12, and we should supplement. It was a little bottle of sweet red liquid, dosed in a tiny dropper. It was easy. And I thought I could observe improvement.

I noticed a change when I stopped the B12: he was different, harder to focus, more detached. I restarted, and he was back to his then-normal self. Okay, B12 is firmly on our ever-growing menu of supplements.

Then in April of this year, I went to a conference for the Autism Research Institute--a pioneer in research for biomedical interventions in treating autism. One of the many things I learned about while there was the B12 injection--I vaguely remember the doctor telling me about it, but dismissing the notion as "too much."

Some research indicates that B12 is better absorbed by injection than by mouth (I don't know whose research--ask Madonna). And here they even offered a clinic on how to administer the shots. I still balked, but luckily my friend (also a doctor) was with me and coached me: it's once every three days, you can get a numbing cream for the skin, and you do it when he's sleeping. As for using a syringe, I used to give myself allergy injections before that was outlawed, so I wasn't THAT scared of it.

So I tried. I set my iPhone with a calendar event, rotating it every three days, so I wouldn't forget. And...

Wow.

My boy is so much easier to engage, he makes relevant comments, and can actually focus on a task a little longer. I asked his teachers without telling them about the shots: yes, he's actually been doing great in school lately. Wow--B12 does make a difference.

But eventually, as in all things (ahem, like my blog), I got lazy. To give him the shot, he needs to be on his side or belly, and he has suddenly become a back-sleeper. Sometimes when I try to roll him, he resists and/or wakens. Not to mention the time I "missed" the target where I applied the cream. So for about a week and a half, he didn't get his shot. He detached, he got irritable, he wouldn't engage. Finally, I kicked myself and did it again: Sunday night he got an injection.

By Monday afternoon, my boy was back. Chatting, making eye contact, answering requests. Ta-da.

Eventually, I need to find a way to NOT have to creep in on him sleeping, but we need to calm his anxiety first. Too bad B12 doesn't address that, too.