Booby Good for the Brain....well, duh!

Thanks to my hubby for forwarding me this great article. Any BF-ing advocate can give you study after study of increased test scores being attributed to breastfed babies, as many a new story have already spouted. This study, though, done at the University of Colorado & American University, is a tad different in that it shows the incremental benefit of each month of continued breastfeeding on both high school exam scores and college attendance levels. The comparison is made between siblings, so that variables such as socioeconomic status and parenting style are taken out of the equation. Its really quite interesting and just another reason I feel happy to do extended breastfeeding with our son.

Food Jealousy

Nothing like a birthday party filled with little kiddos your own child's age to make you feel like a complete failure!

We attended an absolutely wonderful birthday party over the weekend, lots of friendly parents with their little ones, and so many of them were around the same age. Lots of playing at the water table, or cruising in the buggies. I was smart enough to eat in advance, I have learned this, because beyond salad I don't know that anything is really safe, so I just don't partake. That's fine and I can deal with my own food jealousy as guests around me mow down on yummy sandwiches or decadent cupcakes. I know what I have to do to keep my son happy and healthy, so I do it and I don't complain, though I may want to secretly steal that steak tip and devour it in 2.2 seconds.

But when it comes to our son, my food jealousy strikes a different nerve. To see babies eating a variety of foods, or drinking out of a sippy cup with a straw, makes me feel like I have somehow failed Chase. I know, ONE DAY, he will get there. But seeing this comparative so black & white in my face, brings about more doubt and questions. What is this no solids doing to his development? Are his food allergies going to stunt his development? Will he not be as tall or as smart or as atheletic because of all this? Is his long term health in jeopardy?

And I know its silly, but as we sung happy birthday to Chase's adorable little buddy and he enjoyed his first ever cupcake with absolute joy, I couldn't help but feel sad that Chase won't have that traditional American right of passage on his birthday. I had always considered this may be a possibility, well, at least not having cake, and I made plans in my head how to compensate, with a fantastic gelatine, fruit juice, and fresh fruit concoction that would knock the pants off any regular smash cake. But now, here we are 4 weeks away from his birthday and I don't know that he can have ANYTHING! And if he is doing great by then, do I risk it and make something close to safe with the hope it passes?

No matter what happens on his birthday, and every day before and after, I know we are living a different life and I need to learn to let go of expectations, anger and jealousy. The space those emotions take up could be much better served if it were more patience and smiles as we navigate our foodless life!

First Food Trail.....Day 2

It's official in my mind, and surprisingly, the hubby agrees - Avocado was a fail. Dangit!

Here's the thing though, I have been eating avocado slices every few days, and always use avocado oil on my salad and he's been fine, why when he eats it does he completely change? My theory is his gut isn't healed enough yet, and we need more time to get it there. Maybe one day guacamole will be in his future!

Yesterday was hubby's day home with the boy, and so when I got home I grilled him on the day's events to see if the small changes I saw overnight exploded into anything worse in the 12+hours after ingestion.

How were his naps? how do his eyes look? his bum? was he cranky? screetchy? jumpy when you held him? putting his thumb in his ear? was he warmer than usual? did he have his mouth open more?

I grilled my hubby like a NY detective grills a suspect. Every little thing I could imagine seeing a change in I asked about. And as Phil started to answer yes to many of my questions, I think the light bulb went off for him too. It's too coincidental that a multitude of changes are brought on by food exposure simultaneously, to the point where as a group of symptoms they cannot be attributed to "just being 11mo old".

The naps. The same child that had taken 90min naps morning and afternoon consistently for the past week or so, and had a 3hr nap in the morning and another 90min nap in the afternoon just the day before, went to waking up 45min into both naps, needing to be soothed and held to complete the rest of the nap. Ding Ding Ding. Same exact thing happened when we had the "peach infraction".

His eyes looked more wrinkled than they had the day before, with a tinge of puffiness. His bum looked ok to Phil, but he was definitely crankier and needier than he had been in days. I experienced this when I got home too, wanted up, but once he was in my arms, wanted down or if being entertained, it didn't satiate him for more than 5min. He was wiggly as anything too, which given how calm and chill he had been the last week, was a glaring sign that his little body was in overdrive. He was still very warm when I got home, enough so that I took his temp and it was 99.7°. And for the rest of the evening, I noticed his mouth was open a lot more. When he is happy and content, he keeps his mouth closed and breathes through his nose, but when he's reacting, he keeps his mouth open. Weird I know, but its one of the signs I have caught on to.

Our evening and his attitude were eerily similar to two weeks prior. Frustrated and defeated, I worried what sleep would be like that night and how in heck I would ever get this wiggly little guy calm enough to go to sleep. Phil was running errands and honestly I wasn't in the mood to do a full on tubby with Captain Wiggle Worm, but I knew he needed some sort of detox to help him out. Rather than an epsom salts bath, I warmed up grapeseed oil on the stove, and added the salts to it to dissolve. After I added even more salts, brought the oil and the bubs upstairs and proceeded to give him a spa-like salt scrub massage. All over his legs, torso and arms, I worked in the mix to hopefully pull out any toxins being released by the reaction. I also put Oil of Oregano on his feet, again to help draw out the toxins. Nursing him down took a little longer than normal, and you could tell he was trying to get comfy and just couldn't. Finally asleep, I laid him in his crib and honestly guessed that it wouldn't last long, and we'd have one of those nights. Funny thing happened....HE SLEPT 3 HOURS! Then once in bed with us, he slept another 3 hours, then 90min then another 90min. I really think the salts helped him recover from the avocado infraction!

But as I was nursing him to sleep, the overreactionary, worried mom in me took over. My kid can't even eat an avocado! I know maybe it's just fruits or stone fruits or whatever, and its not ALL FOOD, but right now, my little boy is so "behind" with the food stuff and it finally hit me. I started to worry about his brain development, and strong bones and growing tall and achieving everything we want for him, and worrying that somehow this stupid food thing is going to seriously put him at health, atheletic or academic disadvantages. And then I cried. Luckily I have a good partner who reminds me that this won't last forever and with everything we have to offer as his parents, Chase will be just fine. And he's right!

First Food Trail.....Day 1 a fail?

We saw the nutritionist on Monday and she worried that we have been off solids for a long time, and doens't want to see any developmental regressions because solids are not a part of Chase's diet. She implored us to try solids by our next GI appt, which is this coming Monday. So we tried avocado, what should be a relatively harmless food and a really nutrient dense food. He's done ok with me eating it and getting it via BM, but how did he fare?

We started with a skin test. I smeared avocado mush on his forearm and waited an hour. He didn't have a rash, so I proceeded. I gave his about a tablespoon of avocado and waited an hour. He seemed fine. Cool. He had already taken a 3 hr nap, and took another 90min nap until 5:30, so it did not seem to disrupt his sleep. I gave him 3 tablespoons for dinner. He was a bit cranky as the night progressed which given how much he slept during the day, surprised me. When I changed his diaper, his bum was a little red, but no red ring. I started to wonder how our night would go, fearing this was just the beginning...

He sat in my lap and rocked while we read one book. This is actually a test for me, if he is super wiggly and doesn't want to cuddle, its a cue that he is reacting. The last few nights he has sat through 2, sometimes 3 books. Last night was just one, then a little play on the floor, and nursing. Took a while to nurse him down, and he needed to work a substantial burp out, but he nursed down by 9 or 9:30.

I happened to fall asleep with him, and don't remember my hubby waking me up from the Lazy Boy in the nursery to our bed, but I remember the first wake at midnight-ish, and his cry was different. He woke at 2, 4, 5 and up for the day at 6. His wakes seemed more disturbed, with a different cry and he seemed a little pissed when waking up. This morning, he was jived, a tad irritable, and only wanted Mumma. His skin felt warm, but he didn't have hives. He followed me to the front door and cried when I left for work, a first.

The way food trials go, or at least the way I do them, is skin test, small amount on day 1, wait for delayed reactions on day 2, food again on day 3, again wait on day 4.....Based on how Day 1 went, I am just not sure if avocado passes....

Day 14

We are on Day 14 of using a combo of elemental formula and reduced solids to heal Chase's gut. We are on Day 9 of absolutely no solids. Here's what we've discovered...

When our doc told us to start the elemental formula and pull most solids except for meat and broth, I was excited, thinking I would see marked improvement immediately. I didn't. Chase did take to the stuff, as it tastes like liquid marshmallows, but we didn't see the "new baby" we had hoped for. Luckily, I have some internet angels watching over me.

I made some snarky post on Facebook about my $50-a-can-not-covered-by-insurance-just-forclose-on-us-now formula, and it elicited quite a few comments. A friend from HS commented that her daughter was allergic to both the milk, and the beef of a cow, and she didn't improve until she pulled beef as well. Hmmmmm.....my kid is only on elemental formula, BM and meat. Maybe she was onto something. So like any good aller-mom, we did a food trial. I stopped the beef for him, and I didn't eat it for 4 days. Now mind you, I have been existing on copious amounts of steak just to keep up my calories with our ridiculous ED's, but I digress.....So for 4 days, no beef. Then I ate it for dinner. Well wouldn't you know, he improved in the 3 days I wasn't eating it, then woke up gassy and with a mild rash the day after. Hmmmm....I think I found my 2nd false negative from our IgGs. The first was butternut squash, and now beef.

Here is how Chase has improved over the last 14 days on this plan

• night waking is better, despite teething
• much more verbal again. I am getting clear as day Mama's now
  
• happier and calmer little dude
• stopped whacking at his ears, or putting his thumb in his ear
  
• eye circles are almost gone
• eye wrinkles are gone
  
• skin rashes have all but disappeared
• he's snugglier (my favorite one)
  
• he doesn't need to nurse every waking.
  

Now, I will tell you, loosing beef has been very very hard. Chicken, turkey, fish and beans are my only sources of protein now. And, damn I just love a good steak. But, we do this for the kids, right?

So today we had our 1st appt with the nutritionist, focusing on what we can eat and when. We have gotten the go ahead to reintroduce solids slowly, 1 new food every 5 days, starting with the safest food families and working up. I am petrified to try solids again, I just don't want the nightmares of before. I will probably be my own worst enemy, too cautious as we try to get back to eating somewhat normally. For me, and my weight loss and nutrient deficiencies, she wants me on a Cal/Mg+D supp, plus zinc, in addition to what I am already taking. Picked up the zinc losenges today at WF, and ordering a safe Cal/Mg tonight. And because Larabars have seemed to pass, and they contain tree nuts, she's ok'd nut butters excpet for peanuts, so I can get more protein that way as well. 2800 calories a day is the goal, and broadening our foods as quickly as possible.

We have another appt with the GI next monday, so we'll start solids on Friday, so I can examine him head to toe every hour for changes and hopefully be able to go to the appt saying, "yay, we got avocados back!" Who ever thought I would get so excited about avocados!

Road to Allergyville: How did we get here?

Before having my own, I looked at mom's whose kids had allergies and truthfully, I always thought it *must* have been something the mom did. She must have introduced solids too early, or highly allergic foods like nuts and citrus, before the child was ready. Now in reality, that does happen, but for the majority of moms, this really seems like this comes out of left field, and its not until they start digging around do they realize the symptoms of a problem may have been around long before they were even thinking of TTC.

In America, our diet and food pyramid are based heavily on starches and sugars. Our foods are mass produced, genetically modified, and laden with chemicals. We are over-perscribed antibiotics. Girls are on birth control for likely 8 years before even thinking of coming off it to have children. We treat symptoms, such as heartburn, rather than the cause. All of this, and our naivety about our own health can lead to the perfect storm of health conditions; long undiagnosed food allergies.

With my son and I, there are actually two things going on that contribute to his allergies: leaky gut and nutritional deficiencies. The are intertwined and to fix both, you need to address the other.

Growing up, and even now, my diet would be considered very healthy, lean meats, steamed veggies, salads, fruit and lots and lots of skim milk. By any normal nutritionist's standpoint, my mom made stellar meals. There were issues though, which no one would have known about at the time, and even now its hard for me and my parents to swallow. I used to crave milk, sneak down into the kitchen after everyone was asleep and drink 1/2 a gallon straight from the jug. I had major anger issues, even at a young age. I had back problems and poppy joints, always needing to see a chiropractor, and any daily pain I had was attributed to years of competitive sports. I was super bright, was put at the smart table every year, but eventually ended up with the trouble kids. I was violent child, tantrums were my forte, and I am talking at about 7 years old. By high school, I was dx ADHD and depressed and put on meds and I did a little better but I wasn't myself and it would be 8 years until I felt somewhat normal again. Into college, when the beer & pizza diet took over, I got much worse. Rxs were upped, and changed, and by senior year I was showing the beginnings of major anxiety disorder. I really couldn't pin down why I felt the way I did, but I knew I hated being who I was at that time.

Other signs that something was up was that I had mild scoliosis, and now that I look at it closely, I also have a mild tongue tie. I always had really dark circles under my eyes, then chalked up to lack of sleep. I have keratosis pilaris, that nice rashy thing on my upper arms that lots of people have. Probably the most telling are my mouth and teeth. I have a very narrow jaw, a high palate, and a ridge on the roof of my mouth. Before braces, my teeth were horridly crooked, I mean it looked like my two front teeth were trying to do a gymnastics split and run away from each other. With braces, the top look ok now, but depsite having braces TWICE on the bottom, my teeth are determined to be crooked.

Well come to find out through this allergy testing, I am allergic to eggs, wheat, dairy, and coffee. Now that I don't consume any of those items, that inner fire of anger that was always stoking deep inside me is gone. GONE! And since I started taking Thorne's B-complex, I feel very calm and cool. I was always the high strung type-A'er, and to now be chill is a very weird, but pleasant experience. My popping joints and back pain that I have just dealt with for years.....um, thats gone too. The brain fog I used to have has suddenly cleared, and I just feel 100% better.

In January, after a holiday season filled with sweets, I decided to go low to no sugar for a while, trying to get my body back in balance. For a few days, I felt like absolute DOG SHIT. I was tired, ravenously hungry, and light headed. Little did I know, until reading The Body Ecology Diet, was that I was experiencing "die off", when the bugs in your gut are starved of their sugar and die. These bugs are yeast, and yes, we are all supposed to have a balance of candida albicans (yeast) and other "bugs" in our guts. When the right foods are not consumed, like say too much starch or sugar, the bad bugs, the candida, can grow and cause an imbalance of the intestinal flora. Then, because the candida wants to stay alive, it sends chemical signals to the brain, craving what it needs to survive. This is why people crave carbs or sugar. Unfortunately, too much candida causes small openings in the intestine, which results in "leaky gut", where food particles, bile, and other intestinal chemicals, leak out of the intestine and into the body cavity. When they find themselves in the blood stream, the blood knows those particles shouldn't be there, and flags them as a bad guy. The next time your body sees a bad guy in the blood stream, there is a histamine response, and an allergic reaction. To the right is a really great illustration of this. Reactions can be mild or build over time, and some, like mine, are so unnoticeable, that they can go on undetected for years. Continuously eating the allergens just makes things worse, and the holes get bigger and time needed to heal gets longer. This is why people with allergies often go on to develop asthma, RA, IBS, Chrons, and other autoimmune system dysfunctions. The image below shows the path that untreated allergies can lead to.


I am taking the B-complex because of the physical abnormalities that I have, most are related to deficiencies of folic acid. Tongue tie, scoliosis, high palate and narrow jaw are all considered mild midline defects. Midline defects are caused by folic acid deficiencies. Your body uses folate to complete the digestion cycle and get the most out of your food. If one part of the cycle is broken, the rest of the cycles don't function properly. That leads to an imbalance of chemicals in the body, and can contribute to gut disbyosis.

I consumed what doctors would say was adequate folate from food during my pregnancy, and yet Chase has not only a high palate, Level 3 tongue tie that was surgically repaired, and crooked teeth, he also has very mild sacral dimples along his bum crack. My body though, doesn't know how to process food folate correctly, and thus, both Chase and I were undernourished in this department. Here is a really complicated map of the methyl cycle that your body goes through as it digests food. Note the teal label MTHFR. This is where I think I have an issue. There are genetic tests to determine if I have a mutation on this gene, which I will be asking for at my annual, but I may be able to determine if I have an MTHFR issue by a homocystine blood test. Taking the b-complex will help bring homocystine levels down, but for me, it may not be enough and I may need to seek other alternatives to get every cycle below working properly.

So Chase's nutritional deficiencies are 99% genetic, but what about the leaky gut. How does a "perfect" little newborn inherit that? Well, they do and they don't. Because I was eating cheese and milk throughout my pregnancy, following the "milk does a body good" addage, my blood was filled with allergy "flags" meant to attack milk proteins in my blood. Unfortunately, the placenta doesn't filter out these flags, so any time my body was having an undetectable (or at the time undetectable to me) allergic reaction, so would the baby. This is why when I started to feel kicks, they were always like Ray Lewis punching bag style. In her book Is This Your Child?, Dr. Doris Rapp goes into detail about intrauterine allergies and how fetuses respond when allergens are consumed. Excessive kicking, hiccuping, and bruising of the mothers' ribs are all symptoms of fetal allergic reactions.

But the other component of this is the leaky gut, how did he inherit that? Well, candid live in all the mucous membranes in our bodies, including the vajayjay. So if upon his exit, he encountered my V that had the wrong flora, then the mucous membranes he picked up on his way out (like souveniers on vacation) would put him in dysbiosis. That's one theory.

The other much more likely theory is that the 3 day course of antibiotics at the hospital, that was not followed with any probiotics, is the culprit. Because I spiked a fever during labor, and it is the protocol of the hospital where I delivered, both Chase and I were given heavy doses of antibiotics for 3 days after birth. At the time, I did not know about gut flora, probiotics, and how antibiotics can WIPE OUT YOUR INTESTINES COMPLETELY, so I didn't put up a fight. Gosh I wish I had and next time (well, next time may be a homebirth) if the same happens, I will outright refuse.

Because of the abx treatment, Chase and I both developed thrush, the evident rash of a yeast (candida) infection. The picture to the left isn't my son, but it looks just like his rash. I had thrush in my breasts, the most painful thing I have experienced next to childbirth. Chase didn't seem to have it in his mouth, but he did have consistent yeasty diaper rashes for the first few months, that had to be treated with Nystatin ointment. I didn't know to be giving him probiotics, so the yeast took hold of this fresh blank canvas that the abx had prepared for it.


So that is kind of the "how" of "how the bleep did this happen?". Next up, will be all the details of how we are healing, and a status update, 2 weeks into formula.

Road to Allergyville: Part I - Diagnosis

Our journey with all this allergy nonsense is such a tale, and probably too often moms are following in my footsteps, so I hope by writing this out, I may help someone get on the road to healing just a little sooner

In January, Chase turned 6mo. Six months was supposed to be this magical turning point when he would start to grow out of his "reflux", and maybe start sleeping better. He was by book definition "High Needs", but I read they grow out of that. HA, that's funny. At that time, Chase was on the max dosage of Prevacid for his weight, was actually over that per the docs, and his reflux was still horrendous. I tried following the No Cry Sleep Solution, thinking it was me, or us, and our routine that had maybe, dare I say, spoiled the little guy. All these fantastic improvements others were seeing, I got only glimmers of. Chase would still wake up every 45-90min, screaming out, but mostly just needing a mommy snuggle to get back to sleep. He'd wake up in the morning with gas every day. He farted like an old man. At 6 months, we did start solids and I didn't see any major problems except for corn. What I didn't realize was that starting solids only aggravated the already bad situation in his tummy as he was reacting to my allergens....more on this later

As we got into February, now 7mo old, the waking and pain seemed to increase, needing to nurse down every damn 45min, bobbing his head in pain, wailing. We propped the mattress at an angle. We tried probiotics. We tried warmer, cooler, more sound, less sound......I wondered what sins of my past karma was kicking my ass with. Finally, I gave him some more mylanta, on top of the already high dose of Prevacid, and yes, it did help. I thought I just had the worst refluxy babe and eventually, before he was 18, his tummy would feel better and he would sleep more than an hour. Little did I know but the antacids were only making the situation worse. More on that later as well.

Into early March and now doped up on Prevacid AND Mylanta, things stop improving, and seriously, I begin to doubt EVERY SINGLE PARENTING CHOICE we had made. Had we really created this monster? How in hell would we survive this child with enough energy and love to go on and go for #2 someday? We joked that Chase was just very determined to be an only child, but all joking aside, it looked that bad for a while. Miserable, we still stuck to our guns and tried to provide love and attention to all of our little demons needs.

It was at this time I posted on MDC asking for an 8mo old, whether his sleep pattern was normal, as EBF cosleeping babes DO tend to wake more and nurse more at night. Most moms unfortunately said yup, and it gets better after 2 year molars. Ummmm....thats 16mo away...F#$%^&*()_+!!! Luckily though, one mommy, said that it was her experience that babies who slept (or didn't sleep, ha) like Chase usually had a food allergy or intolerance. At that point, I had laxed on hidden dairy, still no milk or cheese, and even though soy was still out, there wasn't anything I was really avoiding. I was just eating what I thought was healthy, you know, lean proteins, steamed veggies, little starch, lots of fruit. Come to find out, for us, it was the wrong things to be eating. From that point on, I went GFCFSFCornF, which essentially means no gluten (wheat), casein (milk), soy, corn or any corn derivities (WHICH ARE IN EVERYTHING!!!). I asked moms on the allergy board what their infants had been like before they figured out their own allergy puzzles, and their stories all mimicked Chase. I was onto something.

I made an appt with our pedi to do allergy testing. You need to know that there are 3 different types of allergy tests, and most docs only give creedence or care to IgE allergy tests, which show what we typically think of as an allergic reaction: hives, exzcema, anaphalactic shock, etc. All of the IgE tests we did on Chase came back negative. During this time though, I had been actively parusing the GFCF board on Yahoo Groups, and picked up a copy of Is this Your Child? and based on all my reading, I KNEW Chase had allergies, I just had to find them. In the book, the author, an allergy doc from Buffalo, talks about in utero and infant allergy symptoms, which include hyper kicking, hiccuping, not wanting to be cuddled, reflux symptoms, frequent ear infections and she includes stories of her patients and how they described their child's early days. THEY ALL SOUNDED JUST LIKE CHASE.

Via the GFCF group and the book, I learned about IgG allergy testing, which test for gastrointestinal "intolerances" that cause all sorts of trouble, from sleep disturbances, to learning disabilities, to aggression and bleeding intestines. Here is a really good description of IgE versus IgG reactions. Unfortunately, allergy docs and pedis alike don't give much creedence to the testing because it is not 100% accurate, only 50-80%. Well, hell, I figured knowing something is better than knowing nothing, so I ordered the test. Oh yeah, I ORDERED THE TEST. This is because unless you see a DAN! doctor, its up to you to be your own medical advocate with this allergy BS and pave your own way to a diagnosis and cure. There are a few different labs you can order the test through, including Great Plains and Alletess. We chose Alletess because they are here in Mass and could pick up the vials from the doc.

Because I was (am) still breastfeeding, I also needed to be tested for allergies. I knew that not eating dairy and wheat made me feel better (and possibly played a major role with acu getting me preggo), but I never thought I was allergic. The reason BF moms need to get tested too is because their body's allergic reactions flag the bad food protiens in their bloodstream, which then end up in their breastmilk, and then the baby reacts to those. So not only can a baby have their own reactions to food, they can react to your reactions as well. So I also had my blood drawn for the IgG allergy test.

While we waited the 10days for our results to come in, we also had an appt with pediatric gastroenterologist at Mass General. We told him our story and he said, "I see this a ton, he has allergies, here I'll show you." YAY, confirmation from a doctor that this was allergies! I was so happy to finally have an answer, I cried right there in the office. He then proceeded to do an occult stool sample, which looks for blood in the stool not visible to the naked eye and yup, wouldn't you know, our poor son's intestines have been bleeding for god knows how long. This would be my first big piece of advice to mom's out there: if you think for 1 second that your baby might have allergies, have your pedi do a stool test. Had our own pedi done this way back, I could have addressed this months ago!

The GI also said that likely Chase never had reflux, and that reflux was just a symptom of allergy. So he asked us to start weaning down the Prevacid slowly, and stay with the elim diet we were currently doing. Follow up in 2 weeks. In the following 2 weeks, we went from 30mg/day to 7mg/day and then dropped it all. Confirmed, Chase never had reflux.

A few days after the pedi GI, we got our results back. CHASE HAD ALLERGIES, and of course, they were foods I fed him on a regular basis, or I used to cook my own food. Oats and Coconut are Chase's worst allergies, and he has a list of about 20 that he is sensitive to, including egg. I never knew I had allergies but apparently I did. I am allergic to wheat, dairy, egg, coffee, and 30 foods I am sensitive to. So we pulled all of our allergens out of our diet and the most wonderful thing happened.....CHASE GOT BETTER! He was happier, calmer, slept better, and didn't need to be nursed to sleep every time he woke. His gas improved significantly, as did mine! It was amazing.


Because we had lost so many foods, I started overcompensating for vitamins by increasing how much meat both Chase and I were eating. I also started supplementing with some great healers, cod liver oil and probiotics. So he was better for about 5 days, and then he started to get worse, and was showing new reactions, now including major skin rashes. I started to food journal to try and identify the causes. I started a severe rotation diet, where we only ate a certain food group, say foul, melons and nightshades, every 4 days. I tried looking at food chemicals, reducing the foods that were high in salicylates or amines, and totally eliminating high pesticide and GMO foods. I nearly lost my mind trying to figure this out. Luckily I am a big dork and made a spreadsheet to help me. I don't eat anything out of a package anymore except Lundberg Rice Cakes and Larabars. Eating whole, fresh foods all the time makes it a lot easier to ID allergens, but it does make life and eating out harder.

We had another appt with the GI and Chase still had blood in his stool. I honeslty wasn't surprised. With the food journaling we had figured out that butternut squash and other orange foods caused a problem (carotene to Vit A conversion issue), but the improvements we had seen had disappeared. The GI said it was time to experiment with formula, and lay off the solids, except for meat and broth, in an attempt to heal Chase's gut and stop the reactions. So, for the first time, I wasn't all broken up at the prospect of giving Chase formula, that was until I found out it was $50 a can and not covered by insurance. The plan was for 2 weeks, to give Ele-care, an elemental hypoallergenic formula during the day, and still nurse at night so as to not disturb our nightime routine. We started seeing some improvement during the day, but the nights, still weren't much better. With the food journaling, I started to think maybe beef was the issue, so we took 4 days off and then only I ate it for dinner. Overnight, Chase had a bad night and he had a rash by morning. DING DING DING DING. We found another allergen, and one that had shown up as fine on the IgG. Since pulling beef, we have seen the most improvement.

So upon this discovery, we stopped all solids and that is when we really started to see improvement. He's happier, calmer, laughing more, more verbal, and sleeping better. He's doing 2-3 stretches, sleeping in late, and life is so much better. It's not 100% yet, but I see the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel. We'll start adding solids back in the next week, and it will be a completely different approach. I plan on following a Weston A. Price method, in Sally Fallon's book Nourishing Traditions. The book focuses on the use of food as healing and providing the most nutrients, aka bang for our buck, with our food. We will likely do chicken and fish stocks first, then egg yolk, and if those pass, slowly slowly back with veggies, and then fruits. I will be Nazi-esque about food journaling and the 4 day rule.

So I hope that writing this all out helps someone who is still struggling with their child and their doctor doesn't have any answers besides colic, reflux or "high needs". If you feel like you are out of options and can't figure out your LO, food allergies might be the culprit. I'd encourage you to look into it. It is like jumping off a cliff, and the healing aspect of allergies will make your head spin, but it's so worth it. In the coming days, I will post about the how and why of allergies, how this happened to Chase and what, beyond elim diets, I am doing to help both he and I heal. Until then, best of luck to all the aller-mommies on this road with me, and those of you who are about to join us.

Coming Soon....a blog that actually gets updated!

I haven't been posting recently, and my last effort was going to concentrate on food. Well, our life has been consumed with nothing but food recently, and figuring out that food is what is causing all of Chase's problems. Countless doctors appts, blood draw attempts, nearly $1000 in alternative doctor/testing fees, and where are we? We have a kid (and a mommy) who each have their own set of unique allergies, and those are wreaking havoc on Chase's little body. And, the reflux is gone, it actually may have never been reflux to begin with.

I plan to do a series of posts this week, detailing the long and winding road we went down to get these answers, in hopes that some day it helps someone else. So for now, sit on the edge of your seat in anticipation, and put some positive thoughts out there into the universe that stregnthen me to get this huge puzzle all figured out.

A Breakfast Carnival! - Quinoa & Fruit, and Super Shake!

Kimi over at Nourishing Traditions is doing a carnival on fast, easy breakfast ideas. My two staples as of late have been Breakfast quinoa and our Super Shake.

For breakfast quinoa, I soak the Q overnight in a mason jar. Be careful to only fill half with quinoa, as it expands pretty quickly and can bust your jar open if you put too much in! In the morning, I rinse it through a strainer, then put it in my ricecooker or stovetop pot with water and a tablespoon of ghee and a few tablespoons blackstrap molases. Cook that until its almost done, and at the end, I add frozen berries, usually blueberries or raspberries. Top it off with Vanilla Hemp Milk and that is my super nutritious, allergy free breakfast.





On most work mornings, I am trying to start the day with a smoothie I can drink in the car. I make enough for both hubby and I, and I sneak in as much good stuff as I can. Seriously, this is different every time I make it, b/c I switch up the fruits I use, or what juice I put in but you will get the general idea.

I put about a cup of ice at the bottom of the blender. I add 1 scoop of Super Green stuff, and break open 2 probiotic capsules. I add about 2 tbsp of Nordic Naturals Cod Liver Oil (though this will change to Kirkmann's now that we are soy free). Half a bag of frozen fruit, a banana, maybe some coconut yogurt, hemp milk, black currant juice, whatever strikes my fancy or is in the fridge.....and blend! If you don't use berries, and say use mango and pineapple, it will still have a slight green tinge. The berries make it a pinky purple and do cover the green stuff flavor better. Now I won't lie and say this tastes like the perfect Jimmy Buffet sit on the beach smoothie, but its palatable enough to get all that goodness in to start the day. I am sure you could add flax, coconut flakes, VCO, maybe a small chicken liver, or other things to make it super nutritous without changing the flavor much, but I don't dare try yet.

Adventures in Babywearing

Over at Adventures in Babywearing, they are asking bloggers to post pictures of us and our LO's being worn. Here are a couple special ones.

When Chase was a little tiny peanut, I hotsling'd him a lot, as he was a little too flimsy for the moby. How tight and snuggled in the hotsling was made for great pre-nighttime comforting. It took a long time to master getting the sleeping baby from the HS to another surface without disrupting him, but we did manage to do it a few times.

As he grew, the Moby (or BRU rip off of a Moby until I got my real one) made it easy to get lots done hands free, but also give the snuggly comfort the baby needed. We used it almost every night for bed time for a long while, and I used it going out shopping, rather than have the bucket seat in the carriage. Its funny, people always smile when they see a baby being worn, and comment at how wonderful it is. I like it when I walk past mommas struggling with a fussy baby in a car seat, and C$'s happy as a clam helping me shop.



In October, I had multiple apple picking trips where the Moby worked WONDERS. I'd face him out for a little to check out the scenery, and then face him in for naps or a snuggle. It also kept him warm and made breastfeeding discreet.









We used the super expensive ultra back support Bjorn very little. ITS SO UNCOMFORTABLE! This was about 1mi into our walk, and I had to switch with Dad b/c it hurt my shoulders so bad. And he was only 6 weeks old in this picture.





Now, at 9mo old, we use the Moby less and less, as he is a mobile dude now and loves to crawl. I am noticing though that after a day of action, he needs that time being held to reconnect. So overstimulated, he needs to be held tight, sometimes tighter than I can with my own arms, and the Moby gives us both exactly what he needs. We still shop with it 99% of the time, choosing it rather than sitting in a carriage (even though he is a big boy now and can). Its great for visiting too, if its nap time, I just pop him in, walk or bounce a bit, while still conversing with whomever I am with, and voila! Baby sleeping!

Next, for our baby wearing adventures is hiking gear. As it gets nice and warm, I want to be outside with C$ A LOT, so we are looking into a Kelty pack.