In the spirit of Thanksgiving I wanted to say what I am grateful for this year. It has been a challenging two years and we have learned so very much about a great many things. Firstly, we can pretty much officially say that Alton does NOT have a corn allergy, a milk allergy, a KD-9 allergy or any allergy whatsoever.
I say again, NO ALLERGIES for our son.
What? So what about the past two years? What about all those symptoms? Doctors? "Confirmed diagnosis"?
So, the western medicine system is a joke. Don't get me wrong, it does a lot for many people. It also doesn't know all it thinks it knows. I have come to realize that western medicine is like a teenager. It thinks it knows everything. (Rolls its eyes as I write that)
When Alton first became sick he had just had his 2 month TDap vaccine and a second set of antibiotics and antifungals to treat the thrush that wouldn't go away. Within a few hours of his vaccines he started screaming and pretty much didn't stop for 8 months. No kidding. It was awful. He screamed, writhed, sweated profusely, had reflux and developed mucous stools. He started getting hives all over his body soon after, eczema and worst of all, discoid eczema. Those suckers are massive boils that just look like torture.
We started seeing our doctor first, then were sent out to specialists. Convinced that it was a GI issue (because of the mucous in his stool and reflux) we asked to see a GI specialist. We headed to the Wilmington UNC Children's hospital. That doctor said children can't have a problem like that and told us to just switch to Alimentum formula. Check out the ingredients. NASTY
Our son got worse so I decided to do a massive elimination diet in myself and continue breastfeeding exclusively. I kept detailed notes of food intake and his reactions. Pretty soon we had a pattern. Gluten went immediately along with dairy and soy. Huge strides of progress. This is my first Thanksgiving note- without my son I would have never know I was severely gluten intolerant. Non-Celiac gluten intolerance is what was causing so many problems for me. Thanks to my son the vertigo, migraines, double vision, hair loss, Raynaud's, anxiety, asthma and peripheral neuropathy were gone.
We pressed on and found allergists because the GI doc swore we were dealing with an allergy. Local allergist said he may have food allergies but couldn't get positive results, go see a specialist. We headed to UNC in Chapel Hill. Those doctors, as learned as they were, acted like jerks. They were absurdly late, dismissive and unhelpful. They told us to treat his skin by scrubbing it and to move on. We saw the GI doctor there and he said we had no GI issues but he would do an endoscopy anyway since we did have reflux and mucous issues.
Scope revealed that there was reflux and eosinophils present. Yet he did nothing.
We headed to Duke University.
Same story. At least they were respectful and helpful. ...and on time to appointments which was a 3 hour improvement over UNC. The allergist was thorough and felt strongly that it was a GI issue. The GI doc said it was an allergy.
NO PROGRESS FROM ANYONE. We pressed on at home. Eventually we had this massive list of food "allergies" and had prescriptions for benadryl and EpiPens. We were using the benadryl daily to manage his hives and wheezing. Our list of foods grew and grew until we were not only treating the obscene list of corn products with strict avoidance but also 21 other foods that were known problems for him. It was insanity. Thank goodness for the Paleo diet and all of its simplicity.
I had subscribed to a few Paleo sites on my newsfeeds and an article came up about FODMAPs. I clicked. Life changed.
So, long story short. We have spent the past two weeks eating a low FODMAP diet and the change in our son is astounding. Normal healthy bathroom events instead of the 2 plus years of diarrhea. What doctor thinks that is normal? Anyway..... No more rashes, no hives, no wheezing, no pain, no bloating no reflux....an NO MEDICINE!!! So our son never had allergies, he has Irritable Bowel Syndrome. His vaccine reaction (inconsolable crying) mixed with the loss of his gut health made for a terrible stage for problems. Considering we have IBS in my family (probably due to gluten intolerance being undiagnosed) it makes sense. Australia is leading the research and I am grateful for their publications and easy to understand dietary information.
What do we have in return after two years in the dietary trenches? A simple list of foods to avoid and HOPE. We have so much hope. Apparently you can manage IBS and make progress towards healing the gut. I sure hope so. We will always be gluten free around here now. We hope to stay clean eaters and know what we now know about the food industry and real nutrition, I think that is realistic.
In the spirit of Thanksgiving here is my list.
This year, I am thankful for my son for making me a better parent, a more patient parent and a better cook. I have had to do a ton of work, research, effort and learn so many new skills that I would have never done without all this dietary drama. I now know how my body functions best, how to cook a meal from scratch and all about where my food originates. I have formed community bonds with my farmers, grocers and friends that are life long. I have met people with more compassion for their needs thanks to understanding my son's needs.
Most of all I am grateful for my son. He takes a probiotic pill without complaining, never complained that his medicines were unflavored, compounded bitter formulas. He never complained about his sore bottom, itchy body, and all the other pains. He just soldiered on and kept a smile on his face. He loves food and never complained that we are different things than him when we were out of the house. My child is a saint. My husband as well. Thanks to him all of this time and effort was possible. He adapted quickly to every bit of research, appointment during his chaotic schedule and nights of sitting up with our sick son. He did it all while managing to get to work on time so he could save the world. So much love there.
Happy Thanksgiving. We are going to enjoy our local heritage turkey without fear of the unknown.
I say again, NO ALLERGIES for our son.
What? So what about the past two years? What about all those symptoms? Doctors? "Confirmed diagnosis"?
So, the western medicine system is a joke. Don't get me wrong, it does a lot for many people. It also doesn't know all it thinks it knows. I have come to realize that western medicine is like a teenager. It thinks it knows everything. (Rolls its eyes as I write that)
When Alton first became sick he had just had his 2 month TDap vaccine and a second set of antibiotics and antifungals to treat the thrush that wouldn't go away. Within a few hours of his vaccines he started screaming and pretty much didn't stop for 8 months. No kidding. It was awful. He screamed, writhed, sweated profusely, had reflux and developed mucous stools. He started getting hives all over his body soon after, eczema and worst of all, discoid eczema. Those suckers are massive boils that just look like torture.
We started seeing our doctor first, then were sent out to specialists. Convinced that it was a GI issue (because of the mucous in his stool and reflux) we asked to see a GI specialist. We headed to the Wilmington UNC Children's hospital. That doctor said children can't have a problem like that and told us to just switch to Alimentum formula. Check out the ingredients. NASTY
Our son got worse so I decided to do a massive elimination diet in myself and continue breastfeeding exclusively. I kept detailed notes of food intake and his reactions. Pretty soon we had a pattern. Gluten went immediately along with dairy and soy. Huge strides of progress. This is my first Thanksgiving note- without my son I would have never know I was severely gluten intolerant. Non-Celiac gluten intolerance is what was causing so many problems for me. Thanks to my son the vertigo, migraines, double vision, hair loss, Raynaud's, anxiety, asthma and peripheral neuropathy were gone.
We pressed on and found allergists because the GI doc swore we were dealing with an allergy. Local allergist said he may have food allergies but couldn't get positive results, go see a specialist. We headed to UNC in Chapel Hill. Those doctors, as learned as they were, acted like jerks. They were absurdly late, dismissive and unhelpful. They told us to treat his skin by scrubbing it and to move on. We saw the GI doctor there and he said we had no GI issues but he would do an endoscopy anyway since we did have reflux and mucous issues.
Scope revealed that there was reflux and eosinophils present. Yet he did nothing.
We headed to Duke University.
Same story. At least they were respectful and helpful. ...and on time to appointments which was a 3 hour improvement over UNC. The allergist was thorough and felt strongly that it was a GI issue. The GI doc said it was an allergy.
NO PROGRESS FROM ANYONE. We pressed on at home. Eventually we had this massive list of food "allergies" and had prescriptions for benadryl and EpiPens. We were using the benadryl daily to manage his hives and wheezing. Our list of foods grew and grew until we were not only treating the obscene list of corn products with strict avoidance but also 21 other foods that were known problems for him. It was insanity. Thank goodness for the Paleo diet and all of its simplicity.
I had subscribed to a few Paleo sites on my newsfeeds and an article came up about FODMAPs. I clicked. Life changed.
So, long story short. We have spent the past two weeks eating a low FODMAP diet and the change in our son is astounding. Normal healthy bathroom events instead of the 2 plus years of diarrhea. What doctor thinks that is normal? Anyway..... No more rashes, no hives, no wheezing, no pain, no bloating no reflux....an NO MEDICINE!!! So our son never had allergies, he has Irritable Bowel Syndrome. His vaccine reaction (inconsolable crying) mixed with the loss of his gut health made for a terrible stage for problems. Considering we have IBS in my family (probably due to gluten intolerance being undiagnosed) it makes sense. Australia is leading the research and I am grateful for their publications and easy to understand dietary information.
What do we have in return after two years in the dietary trenches? A simple list of foods to avoid and HOPE. We have so much hope. Apparently you can manage IBS and make progress towards healing the gut. I sure hope so. We will always be gluten free around here now. We hope to stay clean eaters and know what we now know about the food industry and real nutrition, I think that is realistic.
In the spirit of Thanksgiving here is my list.
This year, I am thankful for my son for making me a better parent, a more patient parent and a better cook. I have had to do a ton of work, research, effort and learn so many new skills that I would have never done without all this dietary drama. I now know how my body functions best, how to cook a meal from scratch and all about where my food originates. I have formed community bonds with my farmers, grocers and friends that are life long. I have met people with more compassion for their needs thanks to understanding my son's needs.
Most of all I am grateful for my son. He takes a probiotic pill without complaining, never complained that his medicines were unflavored, compounded bitter formulas. He never complained about his sore bottom, itchy body, and all the other pains. He just soldiered on and kept a smile on his face. He loves food and never complained that we are different things than him when we were out of the house. My child is a saint. My husband as well. Thanks to him all of this time and effort was possible. He adapted quickly to every bit of research, appointment during his chaotic schedule and nights of sitting up with our sick son. He did it all while managing to get to work on time so he could save the world. So much love there.
Happy Thanksgiving. We are going to enjoy our local heritage turkey without fear of the unknown.
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