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.