Broccoli and Oranges

That’s what Sadie has been eating for dinners lately.

This post has been a long time coming and it’s probably going to be long and I won’t be able to say nearly as much as I want to but here I go anyway….

Sadie’s not quite as healthy as she should be. As a mother you just know when things aren’t right, you know?  She was a late eater, a late walker, a late talker.   As a child she got colds easily and many of the illnesses were minor headcolds for us but would cause her to have high fevers, tummy aches, and the runs (TMI?).   There were other things that were a little off, too.  For instance my grandma often pointed out her shaking.  I dismissed it not thinking much of it but a couple other people asked about it wondering if she was cold.  Then, when she was about two she developed eczema on her legs during one of our trips to Utah. I thought it was just from the dryness in the west and it would go away when we got home.  Well, it’s 3 years later and she still has it.  About six months ago her eczema got so bad it looked like she’d stepped in bleach.  Her legs were bright red, itchy, and had several large sores that wouldn’t heal. Lest you think I’m an absolute terrible mom I talked to the doctor about all these issues – speech delay, shaking, eczema, digestive issues, and cognitive development.  Their answers were never too helpful.  She was evaluated by a speech pathologist who told us she was plenty intelligent and although her speech was a little delayed she was barely above the score that would qualify her for help.  The doctor dismissed her shaking saying she’d grow out of it, and she was healthy and fine.  The doctor suggested putting steroid creams on the eczema during breakouts.  The problem with that was she didn’t have breakouts – it was permanently there and the creams didn’t ever help much.  Also, steroid creams cause the skip to thin which means it breaks and bleeds more easily.  To help we changed detergents, shampoos, lotions, etc.  They suggested laxatives for her gut problems.  But then the pendulum swung the other way.  She either had constipation or diarrhea.  It never normalized.  The last two years it’s just chronically loose.  As for her cognitive development, I always joke she runs about 6 months behind.  She is smart, she just has a poor memory.  It’s nothing that would qualify as abnormal yet as a mom I just feel like something is not as good as it should be.

So, like I’d mentioned previously on this blog, once upon a time we ate really healthy.  Since McKay’s pregnancy and delivery things have slipped and we’ve just been doing so-so with nutrition.  Not awful; not great.  So, when her eczema took such a turn for the worse 6 months ago I started tightening back up on health.

Back in January I signed up for netflix and one of the movies it suggested based on my interests and previous selections was a documentary called A Beautiful Truth.  It was about the Gerson Therapy – a form of cancer treatment based on diet.  They have hundreds (probably thousands but I’m not sure) of people they’ve cured from cancer without an ounce of chemotherapy, radiation  or surgery.  Their success rates for melanoma are higher than the success rates of any other cancer treatment for that disease.  Also, they have many patients who claim to have come to them with terminal cancer that are alive 5, 10, and 20 years later and cancer free.  So, for whatever reason, it really piqued my interest so I got a book from the library about the Gerson Theapy and another documentary called Gerson Therapy.  While researching all this diet-related-cure-for-cancer stuff online I found another documentary called Food Matters.  In that one it stated that diet changes can cure not just cancer but many of our chronic illnesses – depression, chronic headaches, fibromyalgia, arthritis, etc.  I agreed with it all and thought it would probably really help Sadie’s eczema, too.  This created further motivation for me and I really became extreme with our diet and cutting out all processed food and limiting most of our animal-derived foods.  Not easy to do with three picky little eaters.

During this time I also was reading a fascinating book called Carly’s Voice which is about an autistic child who was unable to speak until at the age of 11 when she suddenly started typing sentences to her family.  Can you imagine?  Her parents thought she was mentally retarded until she started typing in complete sentences!  Crazy!  I’ve always been curious about autism but didn’t fully understand it.  So I have read a few books about it over the last couple months to try to understand it a little better.  Anyway, somewhere between my autism books and my nutritional health research the lines crossed and I stumbled across the book (not sure how this connection was made) called Healing the New Childhood Epidemics: Autism, ADHD, Asthma, and Allergies: The Groundbreaking Program for the 4-A Disorders.  So, I put it on hold at our library.  I’d just been researching cancer for fun.  So, I thought I’d continue on my health research and switch over to researching autism.  This is when everything shifted.  This book has been, perhaps, life changing for us.  I was reading the case studies in the book and suddenly I was reading about Sadie….digestive issues, chronic eczema, brain fog, and poor immune system (I should note that I’d researched her shaking and it said it’s usually related to an autoimmune disorder and in children is often times the beginning of Hashimoto’s Disease which is like hypothyroidism).

Suddenly my light-hearted research became very personal and intense!  I devoured the book!   Dr. Bock talks about how many of these new childhood illnesses are caused by the heavy metals in vaccines, chemicals in the pesticides/fertilizers sprayed on our foods, processed foods we eat, and other environmental pollutants.  His treatment for his patients is usually a gluten-free, casein-free diet.  Many of his autistic patients start talking, behavior calms, and some even go on to live normal lives once their diets are changed.  Some don’t improve, but about 60% do which is amazingly high, I think.  I can’t obviously go into all of the details of the book but other treatments he sometimes uses with the diet changes include chelating to remove heavy metal build-up, glutamine supplement, vitamin supplements, omega-3-fatty acid supplements, and probiotics.

Sadie’s not autistic – that’s not what I’m getting at.  She doesn’t have social or behavioral issues at all.  However, she does have some of the symptoms described in this book about autism, ADHD, asthma, and allergies.  And those diseases, although all different from each other, are thought to have similar causes and similar solutions.  So, I figured perhaps the solution for Sadie’s ailments could be found in the same treatment that Dr. Bock was successfully using.

I should also mention that I’ve gone to a health food store for years now and while talking to them back in January about Sadie’s eczema they suggested the omega-3 fatty acids supplements and probiotics.  Dr. Bock’s book said the exact same thing but I had already started doing that after my January visit to the health food store.  The owner of the store was there last time I went in, which was two weeks ago, and I probed her for further information.  She was a huge help!  I had just started Sadie on the gluten-free, casein-free diet, but before I could even tell her that she suggested that exact same thing.  She also suggested a glutamine supplement which was exactly what it said in Dr. Bock’s book.  The health food store owner said it sounds like Sadie has Leaky Gut Syndrome which is where the lining of the intestines becomes weak due to a variety of reasons (one of which is antibiotics) and begins to leak toxins into the bloodstream.  This creates an immune response and oftentimes immune disorders begin.

So for the last five weeks (give or take; it’s hard for me to keep track of time) Sadie has officially been on a gluten-free, casein-free diet.  Sadie’s teacher who knew nothing about her dietary changes (the first two weeks I wasn’t overly strict and I let her eat her normal snack at school) has mentioned 5+ times in the last little while that Sadie is like a different child.  She can’t get over Sadie’s progress.  Back in January we had our mid-year conference and she expressed concerns about Sadie.  She had only correctly identified 2/18 of the letters she had tested her on.  Well, mid-March she had noticed so much growth in Sadie she decided to re-evaluate even though it wasn’t time.  Guess how many Sadie got right?  23/26 for sounds recognition and 40/52 for sight recognition.  Only six weeks later.  (I was working with her a lot at home, too, though.)

During those 6 weeks Sadie had been on a no processed food diet with a multivitamin supplement, probiotics, vitamin C, and omega-3 fatty acid supplement.  Half-way through the 6 weeks I switched the diet to gluten-free, casein-free.  Her teacher told me she’s so talkative, energy level is up, focus is improved, she’s raising her hand in class and knows the answers.  When she gave me the new test results and told me about her unbelievable progress I told her about all the dietary changes I’ve made.  She was amazed and said she just can’t get over what a different child she is.  Since then I’ve become even stricter and send her with a different school snack.  I was allowing one cheat per day and I let her cheat for a birthday party and when we went out to dinner.  Well, last week we went to my mom’s house for the day and I let her cheat a lot.  She ate bread, pretzels, and chocolate.  That night her legs were bright red again and itching like crazy.  So, now, we’re not cheating at all!  I’m convinced she has food allergies.  The results speak for themselves.

It’s been really, really, really hard to make these changes.  I’m trying to eat what she eats so I can understand how full or hungry she is, but I’m struggling with it way more than she seems to be.  She can’t eat anything with wheat, rye, barley, or dairy – no pizza, pasta, crackers, bread, butter, yogurt, cheese, milk.  It’s unclear whether oats are okay or not.  Some people can eat it and some can’t.  I’ve made oatmeal every morning for three weeks now but I still can’t get her to eat it so I’m not sure if she’ll react.    For breakfast she eats corn flakes with almond milk.  I’m not happy about the corn flakes.  Just seems like junk to me.  Every day we’re making progress though.  For lunch and dinner she eats meats, fruits, vegetables, rice, quinoa, corn tortillas, and peanut butter (with apples).  The only vegetables she likes are broccoli and carrots.  She loves broccoli, though, and will eat that at both meals usually.  I don’t like that she’s eating so much more meat.  I’m trying to limit her but the poor thing is so hungry.  My mom did one of the greatest things ever and made her gluten-free roles for Easter.  Sadie has eaten 10 in the last three days.  My mom also bought us probably $75 worth of gluten-free groceries she found at her health food store.  It can be very pricey to be gluten free!  So, hopefully that will help to keep her belly full this week.  Now that we’re gluten-free, casein-free it seems like she’s eating more processed foods now.  I don’t like that at all but all of us are trying to figure this out.  Hopefully our palates will change and vegetables will become more tasty to us and that will become the majority of our diets.  I’ve never been able to get rid of the processed morning cereals.  That’s all she wants in the mornings.

I still have a suspicion that she has chronic inflammation so I need to research that more.  Also, yeast overgrowth is another question mark in my mind.  I’m in the process of getting her paperwork from our pediatrician so I can take her to a wholistic pediatrician in Tampa who specializes in treating autism.  We’ll do a complete allergy test with them and hopefully gain more information.  Her eczema is much improved.  5 of her 7 big sores have healed now but it’s still not completely gone and flare-ups still happen.  At least, for the first time in a long time, I feel like we’re making progress.  That feels so good!

I believe had we not caught this sooner that she was on a path to developing a serious autoimmune disease – Kromes, Irritable Bowel Syndrome, Hypothyroidism, or something.  In fact, I think the food allergies came due to the gut damage.  I’ve read a few places that after the digestive system fully heals, often several years later, that the food allergies disappear and stay gone as long as a healthy wholefood diet continues.  I hope, hope, hope that’s true.  I’m praying we’ve found the answer and that now things will get better.

Looking back over the process of figuring this out I’ve felt very guided to the information I’ve found.  I never would have guessed she had food allergies.  Things just kindof fell in my lap.  Also, it scares me to think of where we would have ended up in two or three more years had this not all come about now.  At the same time, though, I wish I’d found this information sooner.  The doctor kept dismissing my concerns but I knew there was something off.  It’s been painful to see Sadie suffer with all these different annoyances and discomforts all her life.  Ever since that illness that put her in the hospital when she was 7 weeks she’s never been fully healthy.  In retrospect, she had 3 different kinds of antibiotics during that one week hospital stay and I think that may have been what caused all this damage.  Just a guess.  We’ll never really know.  I just hope and pray that we’ll be able to get her to 100% healthy.  Also, I believe things happen for a reason.  In Dr. Bock’s book it said that many of children suffering from the 4-A disorders become some of the most compassionate, kind children he’s ever met once they heal from their ailments.  That really rang true for me.  Sadie is a very sweet, compassionate child.  She has difficult moments but in the last year she has softened and become so cooperative and kind.  It’s not in her makeup to ever be a person that gossips, complains, or belittles.  Perhaps her health challenges will be for her betterment.  I hope some good will come out of all this.

*Also, as a sidenote, while reading Dr. Bock’s book things about ADHD and Jax’s behavior seemed to jump out at me.  I’ve tried to remove all food dyes from his diet and limit his sugar and he is the best behaved he’s been in months!  He’s always well-behaved but he’s back to being my sweet, perfect Jax.  Turns out dyes and sugars seem to really affect him in ADHD sort of ways.  On Easter he had candy with the food dyes and he was a monster.  He was like that back around Halloween and just after Christmas, too.  Popsicles set him off, too.  The cause is the sugar with the food dyes.  I’m convinced.  However, maybe I’m just becoming a paranoid, crazy person with conspiracy theories.  That’s a possibility, too.

**Also, for the record, I’ve researched vaccines and plan to do a delayed vaccination schedule from now on.   The flu vaccine still contains thimerisol which is a form of mercury so we’ll forego that one entirely.  We also discontinued our lawn pesticide/fertilizer service.  I always wash new clothes before I put them on the kids.  I often drive with the windows down because my car still has that new car smell which is just dangerous chemicals.  Our plastic cups are the #5 kind of plastic which is safe.  I’ve switched to all green household cleaners.  I even gave up my toilet bowl cleaner even though I feel like nothing else does as good of a job.  My detergent is homemade and I buy it from a organic co-op I joined.  Speaking of the co-op, I joined a co-op which sells organic, locally grown produce.  I’ve switched to as much organic foods as the pocket book will allow.  I still buy the normal strawberries and blueberries, though.  I feel guilty about that.  We never eat artificial/fake sugar.  EVER!  We never eat margarine.  Never ever!!!   Ben doesn’t know this but dry cleaned clothes are full of all sorts of awful autogens and carcinogens so if you’re reading this please throw the plastic wrap away before you come home – please and thank you!  In fact, let’s just skip dry cleaning and I’ll try to do it myself 🙂  I open my windows and doors as often as possible to get clean air into the house.  We spent a lot of time outdoors and I make the kids take deep, cleansing breaths when we’re out in nature.  I give them baths as infrequently as sanitarily possible (I made up that word).  When they do have baths I put vinegar, gound up oatmeal, or baking soda in the water.  I move Sadie to the shower to wash her hair so she’s not sitting in the soap.   I’m still using the wrong shampoo on her and I need to do some research and find a better one.  Another thing I need to research and do something about is a water filter.  Our water is pretty gross here and they use chloramine instead of chlorine to treat it which is more dangerous but cheaper.  I’m trying my hardest not to use teflon pans.  I read somewhere that the metal in foil is damaging….still need to do more research there. What else…..?  I’m pro dirt.  On the days I know I’m going to put them in the bath I usually let them dig in the dirt out back.  For some strange reason I feel like that’s healthy.  Let’s hope they don’t get a parasite!

***So, yes, I see clearly now I’m becoming a deranged, paranoid crazy lady.  But it’s become shockingly clear to me that we have created a very toxic, dangerous environment.  Did you know that in the US men have a 1 in 2 lifetime risk of developing cancer; women are better off – only 1 in every 3 are expected to have cancer.  1 in 330 children will have a childhood cancer.  1 in 86 American children have autism.  1 in 10 American children have ADHD.   1 in 10 American children have eczema.  1 in 12 American children have asthma.  1 in 12 American children have food allergies.  1 in 5 American children are overweight or obese.  It’s expected 1 in 3 American children born in/after 2000 will be diagnosed with diabetes.  Those are just the popular illnesses.  The less well-known and understood autoimmune diseases are often overlooked – Chone’s Disease, IRB, Lupus, Rheumatoid arthritis, type 1 diabetes, Raynaud’s (Kimmy – that’s what you have).  Those are all very much on the rise.  Everything is on the rise.  So, no, I’m not paranoid, but I do have a healthy level of concern which seems pretty understandable considering the statistics.  I try not to overstress about these things yet still be informed and make healthy life choices as often as possible.  I still have a sweet tooth which I’m trying to keep in check.  I let the kids eat candy on Easter.  We still cheat with Sadie’s diet once a week.  Fruits and vegetables just don’t fill me up all the way.  But, we’re definitely making changes in the way we do things about here.  I can already see and feel the differences!  That’s very encouraging and motivating.

The crazy lady is done.