Update Time

I thought I'd update you today on where we are in our personal journey.

BLOOD BRAIN BARRIER UPDATE
I recently posted about how we had begun a new supplement with our son that crosses the blood brain barrier.  After the initial "what have we done" detox where he got WORSE before he got better, I am happy to report that we are seeing some great things.  His behavior has improved even more.  His decision making skills have improved.  The brain fog has lifted and he is thinking clearly and rationally.  (Well, as clearly and rationally as an eight year old boy can think!)

FOOD ALLERGY UPDATE
We recently had Craig retested just to see if we're getting anywhere with all of our hard work.  (We know we're getting somewhere with his behavior, but he continues to ask us how long we'll have to eat like this.)  In case you're new to the blog or to our journey, we are currently egg free, artificial sweetener free, gluten free, sulfite free, dye free, and salicylate low.  (We used to be salicylate free, but we figured out that Craig can tolerate about four days of salicylates before they build up in his system.  Therefore, we currently try and limit salicylates.  But, if I recognize that he has had four or five days and is building up and reacting, I pull all salicylates just to give his body time to absorb and process.)

Before I tell you where we stand, it is important for you to know that we won't EVER put another artificial sweetener (aspartame, acesulfame, etc...) into our bodies or Craig's.  Dyes are in the same boat.  Regardless of how he tests for these, he won't ever be getting them.  There are too many dangers with artificial sweeteners and dyes.  (Dyes are even banned in almost every country but ours because of their danger.)  They are linked to too many diseases, behavior problems and health issues.  Go here to read more about artificial sweeteners and here to read up on dyes if you'd like.

However, that being said - here are the updates for each item:

DYES - Craig's initial test showed that he was HIGHLY intolerant of red dye and mildly intolerant of blue and yellow with yellow being slightly more irritating to him than blue.  His most recent test showed that he could tolerate blue and yellow currently and that red was still irritating to him, but not near to the extent that it once was.

ARTIFICIAL SWEETENERS - Again, we won't ever be ingesting these again so we don't even have him tested on these anymore.  For those of you out there enjoying the occasional diet soda, let me encourage you to read up on what you're ingesting.

GLUTEN - Craig's initial test showed that he was HIGHLY intolerant of gluten.  He was not classified as having Celiac disease - just simply not able to tolerate gluten.  However, instead of having severe stomach problems, his reaction was manifest in his behavior.  (((Sitting here almost seven months later I can tell you that he actually was experiencing some stomach/bowel problems.  We just didn't know it.  We just assumed those were his normal bathroom habits given that we'd never known anything different.)))  His most recent test showed that he is barely intolerant of gluten anymore.  He could probably tolerate it in small doses.  After all the research we've done into gluten and how it affects behavior and health, we have all become gluten free.  (I wrote about it here.)  So, we might let him enjoy a cookie or treat with gluten in it occasionally, but for the most part he will (and we will) remain gluten free.

SULFITE - These aren't really good for anyone given that they are a preservative.  We try to remain completely preservative free.  However, in some cases you just can't avoid them.  Craig tends to react to sulfites strongly and while we never officially had him tested for them, when we removed them from his diet we saw an immediate change in behavior.  (What's odd is that we saw an immediate change in our daughter's health as well.  I'll write about that below.)  You can go here to see a list of foods containing high sulfites as well as low sulfites.  Our introduction to sulfites was through shrimp which (as you will see in the list) is supposedly very low in sulfites.  Regardless, we are sulfite free and do our best to stay that way.

SALICYLATES - Initially, Craig could not tolerate ANY salicylates.  (Salicylates are the defense hormone that a plant produces to ward off insects or bacteria.  Some fruits/vegetables are higher in salicylates that others.  Research Fiengold Diet for more info or go here.)  That meant relatively no fruit except bananas and a pear without the skin occasionally.  However, slowly we began adding back in an orange or an apple at a time.  As his body healed, he could tolerate a few more salicylates.  Currently we are up to about four or five days worth of salicylates before we see a buildup reaction.  To be honest, I don't really watch his salicylate intake as closely anymore simply because he is doing so much better with this one.  Also - this one is an easy fix.  Since it builds up in the system, the fix is simply to cut salicylates and give the body a few days to illiminate.  Craig is currently the only one in our family that is on a salicylate modified diet.  However, Julie will be joining him.  (I'll write about that below.)

EGG - This one is the most surprising to me.  Every other food allergy that we have tested has improved in some way ... except this one.  It's a little puzzling to me.  Initially, Craig was HIGHLY intolerant of the entire egg (white and yolk).  So, we avoided all eggs and all products containing egg.  However, after about two months of detoxing, he was able to tolerate some egg white.  Our most recent tests revealed that he is currently very intolerant of the entire egg.  (This would explain a few recent episodes of bad behavior as I fed him some very yummy gluten free blueberry muffins recently that contained eggs.)  So, why isn't this one improving and all the others are?  To be honest, I don't know.  One thought goes back to his immunizations and how they contain egg and how we believe that is what started this entire thing.  Another thought correlating with that one is that we recently began detoxing his brain and that would be where he is storing many of his egg toxins right now because we've been detoxing all the other areas for nine months.  I could speculate for hours; however, it doesn't do any good.  The child cannot have eggs right now and that's that.

A NEW JOURNEY
This whole process has been very interesting.  For Craig we have seen obvious changes and improvements and our friends and family have seen them as well.  They don't have to ask what changes we've seen in him because if they knew him before, it is obvious that we're making improvements.  However, many have emailed or asked via Facebook what kind of changes the rest of the family has experienced. 

For Rick, he has lost over twenty pounds and his stomach "issues" have gone away.  (You can read about that in our Success Stories.)  However, the most incredible change is his gluten fog.  He will roll his eyes and tell you I'm crazy and that he wasn't living in a gluten fog.  However, I will die on this hill.  The man is very different since going gluten free.  He is engaged and present instead of checking out.  He still has energy after coming home from work.  He gets up in the mornings and immediately starts his day where as before he would need to sit and "wake up" for awhile before going.  I could write page after page about this, but it would only embarrass him or make him angry.  Just suffice it to say that I am still standing back in awe at the amount of change in him since going gluten free and eating organic.

For me, I've lost a little over fifteen pounds and I just generally feel better.  I have a couple of break throughs that I'm waiting on in certain areas, but I'll wait and share about those when I figure them out a little more.

Our most surprising (and newest) adventure is Julie.  Obviously if you know us, you know that Julie's food allergies are definitely not manifested in her behavior.  I'm not saying the girl is perfect or never has a temper tantrum, but her behavior does not fluctuate like Craig's does.  However, Julie has had her share of health issues.  When she was born, she had terrible, TERRIBLE allergies.  Her nose ran constantly and she kept having eczema problems on her face and tummy.  She spent her first Thanksgiving in the hospital with RSV.  It was such a bad case and so scary that they called an ambulance to the doctor's office where I'd brought her.  When we moved from Houston, things seemed to improve drastically for her. 

Once she was able to talk (and talk she did!), she was able to tell us things that were bothering her and it has always been the same:  #1)  my tummy hurts and #2) I can't breathe.

I would hear "my tummy hurts" at least once a day.  You could bank on it!  At first, I thought maybe she was just hungry.  However, then I'd hear it twenty minutes after she ate.  Or, I'd hear it after she drank a glass of water.

Then, when she was four she began telling me she felt like she couldn't breathe.  Her breath sounds weren't diminished and she wasn't struggling, she just felt like something wasn't right.

Then, we began to notice something really odd at about the age of 4 1/2.  We began to see that she had a storage tank of energy and when it was gone - it was G-O-N-E.  She had no reserve.  She could go 90 to nothing and then all of a sudden, it was as if she'd completely run out.  She'd get these dark circles under her eyes and she would need to go to bed.  We saw the best example ever at Disney this past Christmas.  I had over done it and came back to the hotel by myself on the last night leaving Rick and the kids riding some last rides at Hollywood.  One hour later, Rick burst through the hotel room carrying a crying Julie with Craig following closely behind.  She had broken down about thirty minutes after I left when she had tried to ride Rockin Roller Coaster again and realized she had nothing left.  She'd over done it as well.  She cried and cried because she wanted to keep riding, but she recognized the feeling (exhaustion, weakness) and knew she was done.

Well, since going gluten free, I no longer hear "my tummy hurts" very often.  Occasionally she will complain, but definitely not once a day as it was before.  Since we removed sulfites, she no longer complains about her breathing.  As it turns out, sulfites are terrible for people with asthma or lung issues.  After having RSV, I imagine sulfites irritated her little lungs.

The most amazing find has been her energy breakthrough.  I recently began taking her to see our chiropractor as well.  This has always been part of my plan, I just didn't feel like I could handle having BOTH of them on restricted diets and supplements at the same time.  So, now that I feel like I can handle Craig's, I started Julie's journey. 

As it turns out, Julie is slightly intolerant of milk (which happens to be ALL she drank as a one and two year old).  Her body was not appreciate of dyes - especially red.  She reacted STRONGLY to the gluten.  But, the most surprising find was her adrenal glands.  As it turns out - they are not functioning properly.  This is the direct connection with her energy levels.  What is ASTONISHING about that though is this:  When I was pregnant with her I began to notice that without warning I would all of a sudden be completely out of energy.  The only thing that would fix it would be to go to bed and start new in the morning.  I could be going strong and then suddenly be completely done.  I had never experienced that before in my life and was astonished at what her pregnancy was doing to my body.  Most people can feel their energy start to fade and that is what I had known all my life.  However, during pregnancy with her my energy could go from full to completely depleted within ten minutes.  After she was born, I noticed the problem didn't go away and I have dealt with it since.  Little did I know I had passed it on to her and I had no idea it was connected to our adrenal glands.  Even more astonishing is that my mother shared with me that she has the same problem (just never knew it was her adrenal glands) and that my great grandmother had the same thing.  (It is highly likely my grandmother had it as well, she just never shared it with us.)  Therefore, this has been an issue for five generations and we are just now figuring out what is causing it.  We are currently working through some supplements and testing the waters to see what will work best to combat adrenal fatigue.

The last astonishing thing we recently discovered with Julie is that her body is not appreciative (doesn't tolerate well) citrus (and possibly fruit in general).  This should come as no surprise to me.  I loathe fruit - hate it.  I never crave it and would prefer to never eat it.  However, when I was pregnant with her, I could NOT get enough.  I ate fruit with every meal like it was going out of style.  Having hated fruit my entire life, this was peculiar to me and somewhat humorous.  We don't know right now why her body doesn't want to metabolize fruit, so we're currently looking into that as well.

In conclusion (finally, right?!) - I don't want you to think we have a bunch of sick kiddo's on our hands.  Nor do I want you to think that that is what WE think.  Instead, I want it to come as an encouragement to you:  that food affects EVERYTHING.  It effects our behavior, our breathing, our bowels, our stomachs, and our adrenal glands.  Instead of heading to your primary care physician and getting an inhaler or some stomach acid medicine, consider heading over to your local chiropractor and taking a more natural approach to what ails you or your child.  I think you'd be surprised at the amount of things you could "fix" simply with food!  Happy Thursday!