The Whisper Then the Hammer: Rethinking Early Signs of Developing Childhood Illness

I want to share an early finding from the Journeys Through PANS/PANDAS project I’m working on — one that mirrors what I hear in practice and reveals a major gap in how our current systems respond to children’s (and adults’) health.

Across interviews, parents described noticing early, subtle signs of neuroinflammation long before the full blown crisis hit. These weren’t dramatic or alarming symptoms — more like whispers. And parents, being deeply in touch with what is normal for their children, noticed them well before the onset of PANS/PANDAS.

Here’s how some of the parents described those early changes:

“She started having a weird gesture… hands up, mouth wide… so out of character.”

“She started having a lot of GI issues… we thought maybe constipation… and an increase in anxiety… then the tics.”

“He developed a snorting and nose tic… but the doctor said kids can do that.”

These are the body’s early signals — quiet indicators of neuroinflammation beginning to take shape. In practice, this often looks like:

• Headaches

• Sleep changes

• Subtle anxiety

• Irritability

• Sensory issues

• GI changes

• And many more

These whispers reflect what’s happening beneath the surface: chronic inflammation, immune dysregulation, microbiome shifts, hormonal imbalance — interconnected systems reinforcing dysregulation in each other. None of these system imbalances is the culprit itself - there is a separate driver that initiates the process, but over time and without properly addressing the root cause, the systems get further dysregulated.

And here’s the bigger issue:

Our culture has normalized chronic dysfunction - aka living with a whisper symptom.

We as adults have learned to live with things in ourselves and in our kids:

• Sleep problems

• Irritability

• Constipation, diarrhea, or IBS

• Fatigue

• Anxiety - and anxiety in 7 year olds, and overwhelm in teens

• PMS

• Chronic headaches

We call this “normal.” But normal and common are not the same thing.

These are the language of the body — early warning signs of biological stress.

Not every whisper turns into a hammer. But every whisper is a message from the body about an imbalance that we don’t have to live with. Not silencing the whisper through medication, but through root cause healing and rebalancing the system - which relieves the need for the body to express symptoms. This requires a whole body approach to looking at wellness and each body’s specific language, and it’s a very powerful and empowering way of looking at health.

The rising rates of ADHD, asthma, PANS/PANDAS, autism, and other “modern” illnesses in our kids is showing us that we’re living in a new era of childhood illness — an era rising with the prevalence of chronic toxins, immune disrupting chemicals, environmental burdens such as mold, and trauma being woven into daily life.

If you’re noticing a whisper in yourself or your child, please reach out. Homeopathy can help.