Now that you've read what he can have and what he can't let me finish the story. Most people see that list and say, "What can he have?" We decided to explore the alternative grains. I bought a new cookbook - great one for people new to food intolerance's, Coping with Food Intolerances by Dick Thom. DDS, ND. Funny that he's a DDS (doctor of dental surgery) but now that I search around more I keep seeing his name on lots of naturopathic or food intolerance websites.-- forgive any typos, I was up late last night with my darling child itching and scratching so much I decided drinking was the best way to cope tonight - don't hate me for taking the easy way out.
My other new cookbook was The Gluten-free Gourmet Bakes Bread by Bette Hagman (who BTW is recently deceased). It offered a whole lot of information about the alternative flours. I decide to buy it too otherwise I would have spent the rest of my afternoon in Whole Foods cafe reading it. I thought it best to buy it since Whole Foods is not exactly the library. I did that a lot, just spent hours walking through Wild Oats (Nature's here) and New Season's Market (another locale organic grocer) and Whole Foods. Just wander the isles. I'd be gone for like 2-3 hours just looking at all this new stuff that I didn't know about. Trader Joe's is great too but all these are new brands I've never heard of before. You gotta take time to just read labels.So, we'd been seeing the ND for about 6 months before I think I finally had a handle on all that he couldn't have and got it out of the system. Thankfully I had a daycare provider very willing to offer only food he could eat. She was and is great, as a daycare professional and friend.
Then ND told me to that for every year the body has had a problem, it takes it a month to heal itself. Well at the time we started he was 8 yrs old. 8 yrs = 8 months minimum. 6 months to get all the toxins out, I realize I'm in this for a lot of money. Not including I can't get through Wild Oats or Whole Foods without the bill starting at $40. That's $40 but usually about $60. Depending on your location within the country that may or may not seem like a lot. But to us, our monthly food bill is in the neighborhood of $600-800. Typically I was spending that in 2 visits not almost daily. PB&J's were a thing of the past. So was ketchup, two things that are a staple of most kids' diets. So, now that we are are about 8 months into this and Christmas happens. Lots of eczema that we'd had cleared up. Or as close to normal than we've seen since he was a baby. His skin looked like that of a normal child until Christmas with its sugar, red & green dyes and wheat based cookies. Lots of foods that he's not supposed to have. How can you tell him no? He's just so darn cute?
Now the other turn of events, we'd had to look at ADHA meds. He was having lots of trouble with reading. Reading at kindergarten level or lower at 3rd grade and none of the school's interventions were working - don't even get me started on the interventions he'd been through. And this was all new stuff since our oldest read at 3rd grade level in kindergarten. All the testing showed our youngest the anomaly. No reason why he should be having trouble except that he would fidget and not pay attention. Ah, ADHD on our horizon. We started meds. But looking back, the flare up seems to coincide with the addition of meds or change in meds.I had him tested again with all the foods I was giving him to see if anything I was doing was causing the problem. We found out he also can't have rice or spelt either, two grains I was relying on heavily. Now what?? But those meds still were not thought about.It’s now been 13 months like I said. The ND thinks the ADHD meds are causing a problem. I find plenty of data on the web but of course the regular MD doesn't discredit me but can't confirm even though I bring in some documentation that says reactions include rash, eczema, cracks in the skin and extreme itching. We take him off the ADHD med, put him on Prednisone and alas his skin is clear. Great for steroids.See my son also had this great breakout on Memorial Day weekend where he itched so badly he scratched to bleeding. The doctor at urgent care was worried about secondary infection he prescribed antibiotics, but since I believe it could have started this process why would I go there. I mean hey! Why rob the body of all the good bacteria then take what we and the ND have worked so hard to get back. We have a great length of things we do each morning, acidophilus, cod liver oil, L-glutamine, drops for this or that. Anything to help his body feel better so it can heal.Healing, what a concept.
Monday, June 30, 2008
Saturday, June 28, 2008
This is new to me!
So I decide to start my own blog and record the trials and tribulations of learing to deal with my son's food intollerances. I love the internet because it offers people who've been there and done that before me. But for me I've always felt I was a good baker (an my waistline can show those results if I'm not careful) but when it comes to cooking regular food, let's just say, I really good at ordering dinner. I can order with the best of them. Having worked in the food service industry all my life people assume I know how to cook. But NO, I've always worked the service side and had others cook for me.
Then along came son #2. From the very beginning he couldn't eat rice cereal or have water from the tap. Doctor's thought I didn't know what I was talking about when I said he was a crabby baby the day after having unboiled water or that his skin was dry and flaky with the rice cereal, that only the oat cereal would work. They thought I was setting him up for an allergy. Then came all the ear infections. Our doctor's answer was long term low-dose antibiotics. 6 months worth. It was great for me, no more ear infections; we had been getting them every 6 weeks up until then. Then came the eczema, he was probably 3 or 4. At age five we decide to try an allergist and started Zyrtec and a topical steroid cream plus they wanted to do some blood work to test his allergens. That was my first exposure to their so called no-allergen diet. Boy was that a joke compared to where we are now. We did a blood draw that scared the living daylights out of him that to this day, he's petrified of shots. Try getting that one past him when we have well-child visits!
Blood work came back with only dust mites and grasses with a small skew on something else but nothing showed up on wheat, dairy, or eggs. After two weeks on their no-allergen diet we noticed he face cleared up. No more dry skin around his eyes. Wow! But we gave back all the offending foods because, hey the doc said it was all fine! So what could it be? So we ellimated all the stuff again and added back in one item at a time. It was dairy - or shall I say cows milk. But still the eczema was present.
A little over a year ago I was talking to a friend and she said she'd had her son tested for allergies without a blood test. I was very interested. VEGA testing using an electrode to see what the body likes or doesn't like. I looked all over the internet to learn more and see who in Portland might be able to help. I talked to ND's to see whom can help, many did not have the testing equipment but recommended one and said to call for an appointment once I had test results. But is was a matter on money. ND are not covered under our insurance. Well, we could get a ND that was supposed to give us discounts but it ended up being like $10 a session. So we decided to stay with the testing doc and see what she can do with the results. Today after over a year with a naturopath I'm struggling even more than ever.
Here's the list the machine said he couldn't have:
wheat
wheat gluten
all dairy except goat milk
refined table salt
refined white sugar
corn
garlic
honey
tomato
anything ending in the word "berry" except blackberry
no kiwi
no citrus - oranges, lemons, lime
no yeast when its mixed with a grain
no caffeine products - cocoa, decaf coffee, tea, carob
eggs
soy
Nutrasweet & saccharin
sulphites
red or green dye
MSG
The list seems to make you think, well what can he have. That's the reason for this blog. I'm trying to make my way from a packaged, processed, eating out mom to a healthy, something that fits in his menu and good for the whole family kind of cook. That's the true challenge.
She believes the months and months of antibiotics robbed his gut of healthy bacteria and probably contributes to leaky gut syndrome. ND's also believe the skin being the largest organ is trying to push out toxins and if we don't let it out, they body will find a way to manifest it and create some other way to get it out. It could manifest into asthma or some other chronic disease. That alone was enough for me to take all the offending foods out and stop the topical steroid; the steroid was suppressing the eczema.
So here we are today, almost 13+ months after the first visit and lots of money later. I'll keep you posted as we try new things and I find my way through what seems to be a next to impossible task. I know I should end up a better cook but hey, it all sometimes seems overwhelming.
Then along came son #2. From the very beginning he couldn't eat rice cereal or have water from the tap. Doctor's thought I didn't know what I was talking about when I said he was a crabby baby the day after having unboiled water or that his skin was dry and flaky with the rice cereal, that only the oat cereal would work. They thought I was setting him up for an allergy. Then came all the ear infections. Our doctor's answer was long term low-dose antibiotics. 6 months worth. It was great for me, no more ear infections; we had been getting them every 6 weeks up until then. Then came the eczema, he was probably 3 or 4. At age five we decide to try an allergist and started Zyrtec and a topical steroid cream plus they wanted to do some blood work to test his allergens. That was my first exposure to their so called no-allergen diet. Boy was that a joke compared to where we are now. We did a blood draw that scared the living daylights out of him that to this day, he's petrified of shots. Try getting that one past him when we have well-child visits!
Blood work came back with only dust mites and grasses with a small skew on something else but nothing showed up on wheat, dairy, or eggs. After two weeks on their no-allergen diet we noticed he face cleared up. No more dry skin around his eyes. Wow! But we gave back all the offending foods because, hey the doc said it was all fine! So what could it be? So we ellimated all the stuff again and added back in one item at a time. It was dairy - or shall I say cows milk. But still the eczema was present.
He's 9 now and all these years I was the queen of pasta, red sauce, garlic, and anything containing bread or carbs. I'm a carb addict. More on that later.
A little over a year ago I was talking to a friend and she said she'd had her son tested for allergies without a blood test. I was very interested. VEGA testing using an electrode to see what the body likes or doesn't like. I looked all over the internet to learn more and see who in Portland might be able to help. I talked to ND's to see whom can help, many did not have the testing equipment but recommended one and said to call for an appointment once I had test results. But is was a matter on money. ND are not covered under our insurance. Well, we could get a ND that was supposed to give us discounts but it ended up being like $10 a session. So we decided to stay with the testing doc and see what she can do with the results. Today after over a year with a naturopath I'm struggling even more than ever.
Here's the list the machine said he couldn't have:
wheat
wheat gluten
all dairy except goat milk
refined table salt
refined white sugar
corn
garlic
honey
tomato
anything ending in the word "berry" except blackberry
no kiwi
no citrus - oranges, lemons, lime
no yeast when its mixed with a grain
no caffeine products - cocoa, decaf coffee, tea, carob
eggs
soy
Nutrasweet & saccharin
sulphites
red or green dye
MSG
The list seems to make you think, well what can he have. That's the reason for this blog. I'm trying to make my way from a packaged, processed, eating out mom to a healthy, something that fits in his menu and good for the whole family kind of cook. That's the true challenge.
She believes the months and months of antibiotics robbed his gut of healthy bacteria and probably contributes to leaky gut syndrome. ND's also believe the skin being the largest organ is trying to push out toxins and if we don't let it out, they body will find a way to manifest it and create some other way to get it out. It could manifest into asthma or some other chronic disease. That alone was enough for me to take all the offending foods out and stop the topical steroid; the steroid was suppressing the eczema.
So here we are today, almost 13+ months after the first visit and lots of money later. I'll keep you posted as we try new things and I find my way through what seems to be a next to impossible task. I know I should end up a better cook but hey, it all sometimes seems overwhelming.
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