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.

Its Autism Awareness Day!

April 2nd is Autism Awareness Day. This is the fastest growing mental disability in the US and yet, so few are educated about its symptoms, causes, and treatments. Here are a few facts for you to chew on...

• 1 in 150 children are diagnosed with Autism in the US. This rate is skewed though. The rate for boys is much higher than girls, affecting boys five times as frequently as girls.

• Autism is more common than MS, CP or childhood cancer, but only receives 5% of the total funding for these diseases.

• Autism currently affects more than 1,500,000 children and young adults in the US.

• Autism has an annual cost of $90 billion worldwide That annual cost is expected to rise to $200-$400 billion by the year 2014

• Some of the most effective treatments for autism include megadoses of supplements and vitamins, chelation, hyperbaric chamber dives, and removal diets such as GFCF, SCD or GAPS.
  

• Most of the effective treatments are not covered by insurance, thus putting huge financial constraints on families trying to heal their children.
  

• The divorce rate for marriages where there is an Autistic child is 80%

• 65% of parents of Autistic children believe their child's Autism is directly related to a vaccination event
  

No closer to answers

Well, apparently the gods are playing tricks on me. They think its funny I have been to our pediatrician 5 times in the last month, so they gave Chase a teething fever, threw in a tummy virus for good measure, and sent us on trip #6 of the last few weeks to the pedi. It was Friday, the day I had been expecting some results on the little guy's allergy tests. Come to find out, the ELISA 96 panel from Alletess was never completed because they couldn't get enough blood from Mr. Bad Veins, so only the CBC, celiac panel, and food specific RASTS were ordered. Drumroll please....he ain't allergic to a G-D- THING! Ok, let me rephrase that. He's not going to go into anaphalactic shock, get hives, or have his throat close if he eats eggs, milk, soy, corn, almonds, peanuts, salmon, scallop, shrimp, or corn. Well GOOD! But.....here's the catch.....he still may be "sensitive" to any and all these foods, and I have to watch for signs as we keep expanding his palate for any reactions. Well, doc, how do I know what's affecting him if the G-D reflux still isn't under control?!?!?!?!?!?

After trying the suggestion of dropping to 15mg of prevacid, we had two horrid, sleepless nights here, with a little boy who was obviously in a lot of pain. Screw the suggestion, back on the regular dosage of 15mg twice a day, plus Mylanta before nursing. We've now switched out the mylanta for tums so he isn't getting all that alluminum. It was working "ok" up until this tummy bug and fever, but "ok" still means waking 4 or 5 times a night. After seeing the doc, him not really having anything more to suggest, me scouring the internet, and speaking with the ever knowledgable LC Teri @ Hopkinton Drug, here is our new protocol:

Beastfeed
15mg prevacid in the AM
probiotic & cod liver oil mixed in breakfast
water at breakfast
Bottle
ground flax mixed in at lunch
water at lunch
Bottle
Prevacid before 1st evening bottle/boob
Dinner
aloe vera juice with/after dinner
2 crushed tums before nursing down for the evening
Breastfeed

We'll see how this goes once this fever/teeth crap passes (you have 6 teeth already, do you really need more right now?!?!?) and then re-evaluate. If it does nothing, at the suggestion of another reflux/allergy momma who was kind enough to read my blog, I may introduce Prilosec.

You know, when you go to Children's Hospital, you eat a big slice of humble pie, and thank your lucky stars your kid isn't one of the ones that knows that place as their home, and I know of all the things that could be wrong with Chase, reflux and allergies are minimal, but still.......I just want my little guy to not feel pain and be ok.

What are Traditional Foods? a guest blogger explains

Today, I am happy to present you an introduction to Traditional Foods. Mothering mom Sarah from Food & Stuff, has been kind enough to write a great piece about TF. Here's what Sarah has to say.....

Here are two basic premises behind Traditional Foods. First is the idea that you want the most nutritional bang-for-buck out of your food - that is, a very high nutrient density. We're not talking caloric density but rather the most vitamins, minerals, antioxidants etc. Much of the TF movement references the work of dentist Weston Price, who in the early part of the 20th century went on several epic journeys around the globe looking at various ethnic groups in order to figure out how people managed to survive before modern dentistry, since his brain kept boggling at the sheer numbers of people in his practice who had all their teeth falling out - it was the norm back then. Price figured the human race wouldn't have survived very long with no teeth, so he went checking on the folks who were eating what they'd eaten since the dawn of time - what we now refer to as "traditional cultures". Sure enough, they had all their teeth, and were darned healthy besides. So Price, being the little science-dude he was, took samples of their foods back to his lab and analyzed them and found waaaaaay higher levels of all vitamins and minerals than are/were found in the typical foods of his patients. He concluded that the food products of industrialized nations lacked the necessary vitamins and minerals for human health. Price also found that all the groups he studied ate as much animal protein as was available to them, and especially prized animal fats. He found that many groups utilized fermenting processes to unlock more vitamins within plant material (and some animal materials too) and to make vegetables more digestible; likewise, he found that of the few groups who ate grains, most sprouted, soaked or fermented them in some form - again, increasing the bioavailability of the nutrients.

Traditional Foods advocates stress that eating animal protein is important for human health. The rationale behind eating all the animal products, particularly fatty meat and organs, is that meat is one of the most nutrient-dense foods you can eat. (Seafood too) It's got loads of minerals AND (this is key) they are in highly absorbable forms. Many of the key vitamins (A, E and D) are fat-soluble - and animal meat is not only a good source of these, but essential for adequate uptake. Moreover, the cardiopulmonary issues the medical community frequently associates with moderate to heavy meat intake are a relic of Ancel Key's lipid hypothesis, which has been pretty soundly disproven by epidemiological and experimental data (see Gary Taubes). Also, for children especially, saturated fat is extremely important for brain development and maintenance of neuron health. It's also important for the immune system and digestion. BUT it's critical to understand that all meat is not created equal, and a lot of the health problems people have today started rising right along with factory farming. Fat can carry a lot of good stuff, but it can also carry a lot of bad stuff too - hormones, antibiotic residue, pesticides, etc. So most TF proponents stress that meat must be organic and pasture-raised, since pasture provides the optimal diet for the animals themselves, and increases the nutrient density of their meat while decreasing the amount of bad stuff. (The same goes for plant foods - organic is best because of the reduced pesticide load AND the fact that they contain more nutrients.)

The second main idea behind Traditional Foods is the logical premise that if people have been eating these foods (as prepared traditionally - a loaf of bread is not necessarily a loaf of bread) for thousands if not millions of years without any problems (and, as Price found, with better results than a modern diet), they're probably not going to do you any harm. Meat and veg for sure are exactly what human bodies evolved to run on, so they are definitely healthy foods for everyone. Dairy and grains are newer additions, but most people do just fine with them provided that they're prepared in the ways our ancestors figured out were the safest and most nutritious. (In the case of dairy, this means no pasteurization - it kills the beneficial enzymes that help you digest dairy and get the benefit of the calcium and other minerals.)

The other argument for Traditional Foods is ecological. Traditional Foods are, by their nature, sustainable. Have a look at Polyface Farm as a model of how food should be produced - it's a highly productive farm, more so than most monocrop operations, yet its impact on the environment is actually beneficial. Rotational grazing, which is how meat SHOULD be produced, actually results in a net sequestration of carbon rather than an increase. True diversified organic agriculture that incorporates animals such as chickens enhances the soil and prevents toxic run-off. Moreover, a traditional diet dovetails beautifully with the notion of local eating, further reducing the ecological footprint of your diet.

Are traditional foods more expensive? Sometimes, yes. It depends on where you live, how accessible non-industrial foods are, and what your food budget looked like beforehand. However, because eating a Traditional Foods diet means preparing a lot more from scratch, careful planning, often buying in bulk, and the need to eat less (because the food is more satisfying and more nourishing), the cost difference is not as significant as you might think.

If this strikes you as a sensible way to eat, but you're unsure of what it looks like as far as day-to-day eating goes, here is a quick list of do's and don'ts to get you started:

Do:
- eat grassfed beef, pastured chicken, naturally raised pork - local if you can get it
- eat organic vegetables, the fresher, the better!
- learn how to make your own lactofermented vegetables (the book "Wild Fermentation" is a fantastic resource)
- make your own sourdough bread and pancakes
- find a good source for pastured eggs
- eat seasonally
- enjoy all the fat that comes on your meat
- find a good raw milk source
- eat seafood when you can it get wild-caught and sustainably harvested

Don't
- eat anything out of a package
- buy industrially produced meat products
- eat refined starches or sugars
- eat artificial sweeteners, flavours, colours or additives
- rely on synthetic vitamins to keep you healthy
- eat even natural sweeteners frequently

If you're still unsure, there's one more argument for Traditional Foods: they taste better! Once you've had fresh milk from a grass-fed, healthy cow, you will never want pasteurized industrial milk from a carton again. Likewise, a softboiled fresh real egg with a bright orange yolk, served with a slice of toasted whole-grain sourdough bread, is a breakfast that makes an Egg McMuffin crawl under a dumpster in shame. Moreover, reducing your sugar intake makes mildly sweet things taste sweeter, which means vegetables and fruits taste better than they did before you gave up the Jolly Ranchers.

Traditional Foods connect you to your food, the people who produce it, and the earth that provides it. They keep you healthy, happy, and satisfied. What more could you ask from your food?

Wacky Food Wednesday: Soaked Almonds

Ok, so nuts aren't wacky at all. Docs praise almonds for their good fats, and high calcium, magnesium and vitamin E content. A one-ounce, 160-calorie serving of almonds, or about a handful, is an excellent source of vitamin E and magnesium, and a good source of fiber and phosphorous. Almonds also have monounsaturated fat, protein (6g), potassium (200 mg), calcium (75mg) and iron (1.0mg). 20-25 almonds (approximately one ounce) contain as much calcium as 1/4 cup of milk, and almonds are a great source of folic acid.¹

So if nuts are so good, what's wrong with them? Well, for as nutritious a nut can be, it also contains the anti-nutrient phytic acid, which impedes the absorption of all the good stuff in the nut. I took an e-course on Phytase, and how it can help the mind and mood by allowing the body to absorb more of the minerals and nutrients in the food we eat. According to Amanda, author of the e-course

In humans, phytic acid is a strong chelator of iron,
calcium, zinc, magnesium, and phosphorous. What this means is
that the phytate generally stays undigested in our digestive tract
and it clings to other minerals in our food and escorts them out of
our bowels.

Because of phytates, you are missing out on about half of the
minerals your food could be providing if you prepared it a bit
differently.

So what can we do to get the phytates out of the nuts? You SOAK them! You simply soak the nuts overnight in salted water, then roast them in the oven for a while until dry, spicing to suit and ta da. YUMMY ALMONDS! Kimi over at The Nourishing Gourmet has great instructions for each type of nut, how long to soak, how long to cook, and at what temperature. Here is her recipe for almonds, though I tweaked it for the flavor. Also, I should note, I have a new fangled oven that doesn't go below 170* but the 170* has worked ok for pepitas and almonds.

4 cups almonds, preferably skinless- SF notes “Skinless almonds will still sprout, indicating that the process of removing their skins has not destroyed the enzymes….[they] are easier to digest and more satisfactory in many recipes. However, you may also use almonds with the skins on. “
1 tablespoon sea salt
filtered water

Soaking time: At least 7 hours, or overnight
Dehydrating Time:12 -24 hours, until completely dry and crisp

Put the nuts, water and salt in a mason jar overnight to soak. Rinse them off in the morning and strain them. Set the oven to 170*, put parchment paper over a baking sheet, and spread the nuts. Sprinkle with sea salt and spices (garlic powder, cayenne pepper, cacao powder). Let them bake until they are dry and can be snapped in your fingers.

This is what the end result is. In the words of RR, YUMMO!

So what the heck are we eating?

After yesterday's post, you probably think we are eating like bunnies. Nope, not really. Just really different than your average American. I am taking the best from each diet and trying to meld it into the best for all three of us.

With all the reading I have done, the Specific Carbohydrate Diet (SCD), the Body Ecology Diet(BED), Gluten & Casein Free (GFCF), and Traditional Foods (TF) all seem to have a few things in common; mainly the need for probiotics, fermented foods, and decreased sugar intake, be it natural or manufactured. SCD allows for only carbohydrates as monosacchariedes, which limits you to fruit, honey, homemade yogurt, nuts and veggies. BED limits fruits to lemons, limes and black currants initially as you "detox", but allows carbs from seed grains like Quinoa, millett, and amaranth, though they need to be soaked and prepared for adequate absorbtion and decreasing phytic acid. This essentially holds true for TF as well, though there is greater focus on meats and fats, with the rejection of potatoes and beans. GFCF stays away from wheat and dairy, but mom's using the diet to treat yeast in their kids often have to curtail fruits and add supplements, specifically probiotics, to achieve the results they want.

Throughout these four diets, their goal is to restore intestinal health and balance by feeding it the appropriate foods, and starving off the bad bacteria and yeast (Candida) that may be interfering with your health. I've read that slow weight loss and carb cravings are symptomatic of Candida. I've also read that probiotics can help refluxing infants. This is why I am thinking food and going this route may not only be better health wise, but also "heal" what's wrong with each of us.

The big guy's diet is essentially BED, so no fruits, no rice, no pasta, no potatoes. I am trying to do the food combinations correctly, but I am so used to having our big protein at night with a veggie and a starch, so this needs more attention. I can't do BED full on because the yeast die-off could negatively affect my breastmilk, so I still eat fruits, just not in abundance. I just avoid unnatural and processed sugars, save the occasional dark chocolate craving (which inevitably gives me a headache later). We have yet to tackle the fermented vegetables. Its only been a few weeks so give it some time and we will get there.

Our plates for dinner are usually 1/2 salad, 1/4 veggie or veggie/starch combo, and 1/4 protein. I am using recipies I find on WHFoods.com so I can get nutrient packed meals every time we eat. The 15min stir-fry chicken and Mustard Chicken(at right) are really good, though I tweak the recipies a bit so they fit within BED. The salads are dark, usually made with herb greens or spinach, topped with peppers, carrots, cukes, red currants, and pine nuts. We've tried to switch to grass fed beef, fresh caught fish, and vegetarian & humane chicken and eggs. I've even tried bison, and its yummy! The baby likes it too.

I am trying to use some different yet palatable vegetables, and expand beyond the staples of broccoli, carrots brussel sprouts, asparagus and sweet potatoe. I've added beets, bok choy, turnips, kale, and parsnips to the rotation, all of which the little guy loves to eat, the big guy though, thinks they taste like dirt. I really love the beets, and they are on that NYT list of 11 foods we should be eating. I coat them with avocado oil, sprinkle with fresh rosemary, and roast in the over for an hour. I love the sweet, earthy flavor and peeing pink for days is just hilarious. The baby loves beets, though I do suggest if you are feeding a baby beets, it should be a naked dinner! The bok choy is a water packed celery-like veg, just yummy and sweet to snack on, and great in stir fry.

The biggest staple we have expanded is Quinoa. I have been eating this for over a year but never forcing it on the hubster. Now, I am figuring out creative ways to make it a little more flavorful, and yes, forcing it on him. I use it for an oatmeal substitute for breakfast, by cooking it with cinnamon, clove, nutmeg, and Stevia, then adding a little hemp milk to finish it. I made our starch side dish with it, and add onion, peas, carrots, celery, edemame and scallion. I've also purchased Quinoa pasta, and made an attempt at shells'alfredo, making my sauce from coconut cream, garlic and onion. The pasta does have a weird texture, but its ok. Next, I'd like to try the Quinoa stuffed peppers. I have never soaked it before now, but I intened on using this TF method of preparation going forward for this, and millet.

Like the grains, nuts are soaked and I am finding people really like how these are coming out. I've tried almonds with just a tad of salt. They have a calmer, meatier flavor after being soaked and then roasted. By far my favorite have been the raw pumpkin seeds, soaked overnight in saltwater, then roasted with garlic powder. Even hubby was asking for more! I have almonds with garlic powder in the oven as we speak, hoping those turn out just as good.

Because I am almost positive that our son, still nursing, has an allergy to casein, I've had to find a replacement for milk. I tried soy, too beany. Rice bindsme and the little guy so I didn't bother with rice milk. What I did find though, and LOVE, is hemp milk. Its creamy, somewhat nutty, and sweet, with tons of calcium. We use it in our breakfast quinoa as I mentioned above, in our scramby eggs, and I drink it straight. In additon to milk, there are hemp seeds, which are absolutely delish and taste similar to pine nuts. I use them in our stir fry, coating fish or chicken, and sprinkled on salads. I've been known to spoon it right out of the bag too. Ok, shovel.

BED suggests using sea vegetabls (aka seaweed), as its a great source of iron, magnesium, B6, B12, and iodine. I have tried both the Kelp and Laver from Maine Coast Sea Vegetables, available at Whole Foods. I haven't really tried making much with these, as I am happy to eat (ok chew on) them straight out of the bag, and the one Kelp & Kale salad I attempted to cook failed miserably. I will try the recipie for making "sea chips" soon, and will let you know how they turn out.

We've also upped the coconut in the house, using coconut oil for cooking, using the cream for deserts, and soon, I am going to try my own homemade coconut kefir.

And then there's LIVER!!!! Though not a lot, I have started to use liver in my and Chase's cooking. I made a TF bone broth and added cooked, crumbled liver to it. The baby really likes the crumbles and broth taste. Doing the crumbles makes it seem more like ground beef than liver, somehow in my head that makes it more apetizing. I have also frozen tiny pieces of raw liver in the freezer, and pop them like vitamins once a day. Its a strange feeling 20min later, and a bit of a head rush, but I do feel good after all those vitamins.

In regards to supplements, we've both added a probiotic, and he takes a digestive enzyme before dinner. I am taking 1 tbsp of Cod Liver Oil in the morning and drink a green goo slime drink in the afternoon. I don't dare ask the big guy to try these yet, he's not ready to "go there". I wonder if I can sneak the CLO in his eggs on the weekends though. Hmmmm....

So thats it. That's what we are eating. I guess it really is easier to say what we aren't eating, which is milk, cheese, potatoes, rice, wheat, bread and ice cream.

Feed with Love and Respect

I am going to be starting a new series of posts regarding food. Food obviously plays a huge role in anyone's life, especially as Americans, we have nightly love affairs with food, and most warm and fuzzy family holiday's are centered around it. For us, food is a struggle. We were raised very differently, thus shaping palates and tastebuds that sit in direct opposition to each other. It is now my goal to come to some happy and healthy medium.

I've been doing LOTS and LOTS of reading lately, on everything from Traditional Foods, to Paleolithic Eating, to the Body Ecology diet, to gut flora and probiotics, to GFCF, to Vegan living and Bento lunchboxes, to the over-dairy-fication of America, the 11 best foods you likely aren't eating, the importance of Cod Liver Oil, kefirs and kombuchas, to methylation pathways (still totally confused on that one), to phytic acid, the health benefits of liver and most importantly, being a loca-vore, the relationship between food and health, and really just how important the quality and type of food you eat impacts your body. I am spending a lot of time learning from the Mothering Mamas on the Nutrition & Healthy Eating board and I am trying to find the right balance of how to incorporate all that I have learned. Food is especially difficult for our family as we try to balance our health, our sanity, and a refluxy baby. I could eat grass every day and be content, whereas it might drive the big guy absolutely bonkers. I am striving for yummy (ok, edible) meals that help the big guy on his quest to drop a few pounds, excellent nutrition and varied tastes for the little guy, and enough calories to keep this nursing momma from starving, without us going broke at Whole Foods.

I'll be honest, its been really hard. And you wouldn't think that food could be such a big deal right? Its just food. Well, when you tell a tiger to eat like a rabbit, the tiger gets angry. When you work hard to do the best for your family but nobody is happy, its hard. But like any habit that needs to be broken, the breaking point is the low before the healing and acceptance can begin.

What I want to focus on today is why I am doing this. It's not just about following a tenant of AP, its my goal of always doing better and more for my family. I am not a complacent individual, I see room for improvement in almost all aspects of our life. Not that I don't appreciate the good stuff, I just always see where we could treat ourselves, our bodies, each other, better.

So, this stems from my interpretation of Dr. Sears' 2nd Principal of Attachment Parenting, which is to "Feed with love and respect". When I first got into AP, this statement always stood out to me; it conjures up lots of feelings regarding todays parents and the growing obesity rate in our kids. It's a pretty simple statement in of itself, but can have varied meaning depending on the individual. First and foremost, I see the love and respect as it relates to breastfeeding, acknowledging that is the best possible start in life for my child, and I respect the ability and design of my body to do so. I also see this related to breastfeeding as respecting my child's wishes on when this phase of his life will be over. All that being said, I am a happily breastfeeding momma with no intention of stopping at any predetermined mark.

As it relates to solid foods, the "respect" part, for me, relates to a child's natural abilities and motor skills made for self feeding, which is why we went down the "Baby Led Weaning" path, and had Chase choose his foods and learn to feed himself. In addition, I see "respect" as guiding what I choose to make as options for meals. I respect his body, the little infantile temple, that hasn't yet been ravaged by processed, dyed, manufactured, or genetically modified foods. So for our little guy, he almost always has organic food, and its always fresh, save for his 1/2 jar of Earth's Best prunes that help his constipation. As you have seen in our BLW posts, lots of fresh fruits and veggies, and just recently starting to add protein with eggs, chicken, steak, white fish and salmon. And maybe, just maybe, I am a little too strict, but I don't do Gerber puffs b/c I can't pronounce all the ingredients, so we have happily held out for the release of HappyBaby organic puffs.

Looking to the future, how do I interpret this "Feed with love and respect" thing? Well, for the baby, I think that laying the foundation for healthy eating habits is on track. I really don't think that limiting foods, or what is in the house, will make a rebellious eater later in life. Rather, taste preferences for the healthy stuff will be established early, and he won't gravitate towards the bad stuff. I don't understand "picky eaters" and I really don't understand, as I have been told that "kids will go through a mac-n-cheese phase, everyone does." I just can't comprehend not having an array of food to choose from and eating mostly healthy stuff, temper tantrum throwing toddler or not. Sometimes love and respect, for me, may mean going to bed hungry or a tad peeved you didn't get your way. Health is #1 in my book, and we don't get a do-over.

I also apply it to my husband; love means I can't sit back anymore and let his old habits rule and ruin his health. Its making dinner at home a time to reconnect, getting the same warm and fuzzies out of our nightly ritual, while mawing down on the good stuff, not just chew and screw, or chew and boob tube. Its helping the entire family transition to a new lifestyle, a new thought process, and a new beginning. Out with the old dogmas of "Milk does a body good" and the Food Pyramid. We will find our way, together, and we'll come out on the other side a happier and healthier family!

my next post will be about what we actually ARE eating, so look for that in the coming days.....

Toxic Tubby Time

Its 7pm, your little one is in the tubby, do you know what is being absorbed into their skin?

Most people never think twice about the safety of their cosmetics, lotions and washes, thinking that they the consumer is somehow protected by the oversight of our wonderful Food & Drug Administration. Companies wouldn't knowingly put harmful chemicals in their products, would they? The government would stop that, wouldn't they? aaaahhh.....NOPE! Guess what, the FDA has ZERO, repeat ZERO control over what is sold to us the consumer. We are at the mercy of the goodness of the manufacturer. And we all know how good someone will be when they are trying to make a buck.

According to a new report out by the Campaign for Safe Cosmetic Use, covered by US News, the Washington Post, and WebMD, the boogers, spit up, dirt and gosh knows what else you are trying to wash off in the tub are probably the least of your worries. After testing many name brand cosmetics, such staples as J&J Body Wash and Lotion, among other brands, the CSCU has found that manufacturers are including two potentially harmful and carcinogenic chemicals in their products, formaldehyde and 1,4-dioxane. This is in addition to mineral oil, parabens and sodium laurel sufates, found in almost every mainstream cosmetic.

A copy of the official report from CSCU is available here. According to the report, a whopping 61% of the items tested contain BOTH formaldehyde and 1,4-dioxane, and all were mainstream brands such as J&J, Aveeno, Huggies and Pampers. It isn't fully understood how skin absorbtion of chemicals relates to the cancer risk, but regarless, we shouldn't be playing a guessing game and just assuming that small doses of this junk is ok. What does assume mean? It makes an ASS of U and ME!

I never used these types of products on our son, I made the decision early on in my pregnancy that both he and I would only be exposed to natural, if not organic, bath and body products. I happen to love California Baby, available at Whole Foods and Target, but I also love just using natural nut oils from the grocery for moisturizers. I think its important in cases like this to play it safe and watch out for your family's best interest, because it's pretty obvious the government is not.

Book Review: The No-Cry Sleep Solution

NCSS as its known in mommyville is the sleep bible for Attachment Parenting families, who as the title says, prefer to go the "no-cry" route. What I think is that this book should be the first sleep book everyone chooses, and if it doesn't solve your problems, then move on to others if you must.

Elizabeth Plantley, author and mother of 4, dedicates the first chapter to safety, a must considering that many may choose cosleeping as part of their repertoire for a good night's rest.

The 2nd chapter dives into the why's and how's of infant sleep, the cycles, the multiple wakings, and the biological drivers. This is really important stuff for new parents to understand - 100 years of industrialization doesn't change the hard wiring of a human infant, they are meant to wake up often for their own safety and survival. The end of the 2nd chapter gets into why the "cry" sleep solutions, known as "Cry it out" or CIO, can be detrimental to infant development and attachment. What the author is setting up here is preparing the reader for the long term commitment to her plan, by emphasizing that the short term rewards of CIO, if they really even exist, are not worth the long term physical and emotional detriments it can bring upon an infant.

The book takes a break in the 3rd chapter to talk about sleep logs. I will be honest. Because we cosleep and I usually don't have to get out of bed (or if I do its only a minute), and I never fully wake up, I have a hard time filling out the logs because I can never remember the times and frequency of the wake ups. I think the sleep logs can be a good thing, but if you are a tad OCD like myself, you may just obsess over them. You know if you (and the baby) are getting a good night's sleep. I would personally skip the logs and just go on feelings

Chapter 4 gets to the meat of Plantley's plan. She gives solutions for newborns - 4mo, and 4mo - 2yrs and beyond. She talks about learning your baby's nighttime cry, and ensuring that you differentiate between "I need a cuddle" and "Ma, I'm hungry, gimme that boob now!" By getting to know the child's cry, she says you can help avoid always using the breast/binkie to soothe and thus, not create the suck-to-sleep association, which is much harder to break as the baby gets older. She also gives recommendations on creating a cozy sleep environment, with soft sounds that mimic the womb, and favorite smells like a t-shirt mom has slept in. Her best piece of advice is to lower the bar and expect that newborns are going to wake up a lot, and accepting that will help ease the frustration tremendously. From personal experience, I completely 100% agree with this. Once I threw out the expectations, I was a much happier momma.

She then goes into her advice on 4mo - 2 year olds. Again, she talks about expectations, what is reasonable for the age of your baby, and what is the driving force behind you wanting to change your child's sleep habits. Simply put, she's asking for a little self examination to make sure you aren't just being selfish, and that these changes are really in the best interest of BOTH mommy and baby. Her suggestions start with getting more of the total caloric intake during the day, which can be hard once little one's become active and distractable. She drives home the need for a calm bedtime routine, thus the baby expects that after a series of events, sleep is the next step and the transition to sleep is easier. Since starting NCSS in January, this has been the backbone of our attack on sleep, and it has worked incredibly well. Our routine starts about 45min before bedtime and now looks like this

Tubby with Daddy
fresh Pjs and Diap
Lights down low, white noise on
meds
story time
Momma comes in, twilight turtle on
"Lovie" in hand
lights off, "night daddy, love you"
in the rocking chair
nurse to sleep

Plantley stresses the importance of regular days and regular naps to help your baby set its biorhythms and maximize the potential for nighttime sleep. If introducing the baby to a crib, make sure they know its a friendly place by letting them play in there during the day. The author also suggests introducing a "lovie", some sort of soft (and SAFE) toy that can be snuggled with. For me, this was a great opportunity for me to make something for our little guy, a crocheted little blankie made of bamboo yarn. Its soft, open stitching, and really cute. Now 2 months later, its integral in our bedtime routine and I kind of freak out if I can't find it because he loves holding it in his hand and rubbing (ok smacking) his face with it while he nurses. Some mom's question the idea of a lovie, thinking of it as a mother replacement, but unless you force the "lovie" to be the only source of soothing, I don't think there is any cause for concern.

Plantley talks about the importance of a sleep cue, a word or set of words used to help babe to bed. Like with the bedtime routine, sleep cues set up the expectation that sleep is the next thing to come, and its ok to go there. For us, its the Canadian National Anthem. Yup, you heard me right. I hum the Canadian National Anthem over and over until he is about to drift off, and then I do the Shhhhshshshshshhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. It works for us :)

Because she is now addressing the bedtime and sleep associations of older babes, Plantely talks about changing the suck-to-sleep association if it has already been established, and suggests her "Plantley Pull Off" (PPO) plan to help stop the baby from needing something in the mouth to sleep. For me, honestly, I love those sweet nighttime moments, nursing him to sleep, and look forward to it. I also don't have the issue, unless reflux is acting up, that my son NEEDS a boob in his mouth, and if he did maybe I would change my tune, but I don't think nursing a baby to sleep is a horrible association to have, rather the contrary. I'll probably be eating crow in 6months with a walking a talking babe trying to nurse to sleep. Regardless, she gives tips on how to stop this if you want to, though the little I tried of it was fruitless (before deciding that I LIKED the nursing to sleep too much to bother with the PPO).

Her biggest suggestions in this chapter relate to the night wakings, and how to decrease them by changing the association. If you feed every wake, the suck-to-sleep association will stick further, and you may encourage wakings. She suggests alternative soothing, and getting to the frequent waker as quickly as possible so you can soothe them back without them waking up fully. We implemented this starting in January and saw a really great improvement in this department. We have gone from wake and need 10-20min to get back down, with boob, before NCSS, to I hear a squeak at 45min in (a usual wake up time for all infants) and when I check him, he has adjusted his position and gone back to sleep on his own. I no doubt believe that this is due to us intervening and showing him its ok to sleep longer, by getting to him immediately. I know picking up a baby quickly may seem counter intuitive, but it works!

As the reader progresses with her plan, Plantley moves into transitioning the baby to falling asleep and being comforted without being picked up or nursed. For us, I have only been able to "in crib soothe" maybe a handful of times, but it is getting more frequent. This is the slowest development for us in the plan, and I can understand why, its nice to get a snuggle when you are having trouble sleeping!

Chapter 5 has the reader develop their own personal sleep plan, which she has forms you can fill out. I found it similar to the sleep logs - a bit unnecessary and potentially obsessive. You know what you want, you don't need to write a thesis on it :)

Chapter 6 - follow your plan for 10 days. We did. We didn't see an improvement in 10 days. I say follow your plan for a few weeks. At 10 days I was frustrated and mad that I had seen little to no improvement and really started to question my parenting abilities. Give yourself ample time to see improvement.

Chapter 7 - Do a 10 day log. Again, unnecessary. I am pretty sure if your sleep has improved, you are going to know it.

Chapter 8 - Analyze your success. Again, if you are paying any attention, you will know what parts of your plan are working and which ones aren't that need changing.

Chapter 9 - follow your plan for 10 more days. How about 9 weeks?

The rest of the book just talks about analyzing your success, being flexible to changes in your plan, going with the flow, and knowing that change will eventually happen and your baby will STTN before college.

All in all, this book is a great reference for ALL PARENTS, not just AP minded ones, and really should be the first step in trying to address any perceived sleep issues. The solutions are easily to implement, and should only be tweaks in your daily routine to set up successful night times. Whether your baby wants to cooperate is another story. This is a long term investment. The changes she claims to have seen in her own son after 10 days have the potential of making a mom who sees ZERO change after 10 days like a failure. If you are considering NCSS, be prepared that it could take a while to see results. Don't get down on yourself or your baby if things move at a slower (or snail's) pace. As I said to my hubby the other day, I am really glad we went this route and stuck with it. Never once did we resort to tactics we don't want as a part of our parenting arsenal, and we have seen major improvements in many different aspects of his nighttime sleep. Mind you, during this time we did have a reflux flare up, so the wakings became more frequent again before we resolved that, but still the ability to go back down to bed quickly and not need boob was greatly improved. Here is a list of our NCSS successes

Time needing to be held after falling asleep - 10min minimum down to 1-2 min
Time needed to soothe back to sleep - 10 min down to 1-2 min
Tool used to soothe back - was always Boob, now it can be shhhh, pat on the back, in crib soothe, or in arms, only the boob if hungry

If you are interested in getting your own copy of the book, see my amazon widget on the right side of the page, and click the link to purchase the book. Happy reading mommas!

Know when to walk away....or out of the doctor's office

These days, you need to be your own advocate when it comes to your health. When you see a doctor, if you don't have confidence in their advice, if you think something is off, if you don't get the warm & fuzzy, its not written in stone that you need to follow that doctor's advice or even see them again. Mommy-sense is the 6th sense, and if its telling you to walk out of a doctor's office - DO IT! and don't look back. Always trust your mommy senses.

I say this all in light of our GI appt yesterday. A day I had high hopes for, with potential answers, medication alterations, and a full allergy panel so we could have some idea how in heck to make Chase's poor belly better. As I mentioned in a recent post, the little guy's reflux is out of control again. Note to self - lower expectations. What ended up was me walking out, bewildered, disgusted, and without any answers. FANTASTIC!

The appt started with the usual height and weight check - 28 1/2 in, 18lbs 14.5oz nakey nakey on their scale. A tad lower than I expected, but ok. The NP came in to talk to us about symptoms, reactions, and both of our diets. I explained how Mylanta was working while the Prevacid had lost its effectiveness. I shared with her our diets of veggies and fruits, with egg & meat for me, and minimal exposure to those items for the Bubs. I explained the constipation issues, and how he once screamed in pain while I helped him poop with a suppository. I explained the bloody poo from the early days, and the corn nightmare of late. She scribbled furiously on her notepad, keeping up with the rollercoaster of reflux that has been our life since July.

What happened next floored me. The NP said our diet lacked dairy (because he seemed allergic early on with bloody stool, dumbass) and guessed this was the cause of his weight issues, and that he should be eating things, now I am quoting verbatim here, MAC AND CHEESE. She also suggested we see a nutritionist, and made a somewhat snide comment about my post partum weight loss, implying, at least to the now frazzled me, that I have an eating disorder (Um, lady, I eat 4 meals a day, FU.) They wanted to decrease his Prevacid dosage, despite his condition getting worse and had no alternatives to Mylanta. In addition, there was no good answer for the chronic constipation other than "Just give him Mirilax for that." And to top it all off, they had a very hard time finding a vein to take blood for the allergy tests I literally had to beg for, so writhing and screaming in pain C$ was invetiably rescued from the horrid experience, no blood taken, no answers, nothing accomplished.

Stepping in when doc's are treating your child, or trying fruitlessly to draw blood, may seem like an overbearing act, and cause for some embarrassment or looks from said staff. Guess what? at that point, I couldn't give a flying you know what what anyone in that office thought of me - it wasn't the place for us to get answers from. So I scooped up my son in my arms, held him tight, tucked my momma bear claws away, and told him tomorrow would be a better day. Don't be afraid to do the same if you ever feel like your child's healthcare is being compromised or short changed. You da momma, you da boss, nuff said.