This morning, before leaving for work (where he often sleeps, remember):
Stephen: Lucy, did you sleep in my bed last night?
(She did, of course, sleep in our bed.)
Lucy: No...your bed is on your boat.
Bahahahahahaha!!!!
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
Monday, January 24, 2011
Sunday, January 23, 2011
Food Allergy Update
I didn't realize how long it's been since I've updated. We've had a lot of breakthroughs the past few months! We are now a low-salicylate family, and much, much happier. We are still working out the kinks and testing out foods, but we are healthier!!!
Lucy had the most dramatic change after removing salicylates. She went from a volatile, screaming, moody child who had tantrums for 30 min or more and locked herself in closets to cry to a calm, normal 2 year old who I am more than happy to take shopping with me. She has gone from pooping 1-2 times a week to pooping 1-2 times a DAY! And no crying when it's time to go. Just a simple "Mama I need to go pooooop!" and a run to the bathroom. It really is a miracle. I no longer supplement her with oral magnesium regularly. I do still give her epsom salt baths, but that is to make sure she maintains good mag levels in her body in general and because they are an excellent salicylate neutralizer. They can literally turn a reaction around. I do try to give her molybdenum and zinc regularly though as they are good for salicylate issues, as well as methyl B12.
The other big surprise, is we have gotten rid of Mickade's eczema for the first time in his whole life! Since he was a few months old, we have been battling his eczema. He used to be so itchy as a toddler that I literally scratched his arms for him as he drifted asleep. He is now eczema-free!!!! It turns out he is super sensitive to salicylates as well, but for him it seems to show up more in his skin. However, we are now noticing it affects his mood as well. He had some ketchup at lunch the other day for the first time in 3 months, and within 30 minutes he had itchy welts, and we also noticed he became very angry for the rest of the day. Mean, glaring looks, yelling, etc. Kind of scary, really.
It's been hard living without so many of our favorite foods, but we are managing. We have been able to add golden delicious apples back into our diet, as they are the variety with the lowest amount of salicylates. It is limiting, though, and I feel we turn to baked goods more often because we can eat so few fruits. At the moment, we are ok with peeled pears, bananas, golden delicious apples, limes, lemons, and mangoes for sure. We still need to retest grapefruit and watermelon, I'm not sure about our first go-round. We eat peas, green beans, carrots, onions, iceberg lettuce, celery, and asparagus. The kids can get away with lemon-lime soda and rootbeer for a treat, but something like orange soda can create a bad reaction. Not that we ever had soda often, but just for a glimpse of our life. We also cannot have tea, except chamomile. Coffee is high in salicylates but luckily I've been able to get away with that one! I still keep Lucy mostly gluten free, so that's another hitch in our eating but we make do.
I bake a LOT and it shows on my hips LOL but I've been working on that one. Luckily she is not direly reactive to gluten so if she has a little here or there we are ok. I'm hopeful since her reaction level to that is so low that she will outgrow it. At any rate, I prepare almost all of our food from scratch, so spend a lot of time in the kitchen (which is now never clean lol). This week I made 2 batches of granola bars, 2 different kinds of rice krispy treats, pumpkin bread, and plan to make pear jelly and nutrigrain bars this afternoon. In addition, I want to make a big batch of tomato-free "tomato" sauce. Yes, you read that right lol! We've been missing tomato sauce so, so, so very much. We've eaten sauceless pizza and been without any of our favorite Italian dishes since the middle of October. No chili either, which as many of you may know is Mickade's all-time favorite. He can eat his weight in chili. I tried out a new recipe last night and it was the answer to our prayers!!!! It sounds weird but it's delicious! It can be found here.
Lucy had the most dramatic change after removing salicylates. She went from a volatile, screaming, moody child who had tantrums for 30 min or more and locked herself in closets to cry to a calm, normal 2 year old who I am more than happy to take shopping with me. She has gone from pooping 1-2 times a week to pooping 1-2 times a DAY! And no crying when it's time to go. Just a simple "Mama I need to go pooooop!" and a run to the bathroom. It really is a miracle. I no longer supplement her with oral magnesium regularly. I do still give her epsom salt baths, but that is to make sure she maintains good mag levels in her body in general and because they are an excellent salicylate neutralizer. They can literally turn a reaction around. I do try to give her molybdenum and zinc regularly though as they are good for salicylate issues, as well as methyl B12.
The other big surprise, is we have gotten rid of Mickade's eczema for the first time in his whole life! Since he was a few months old, we have been battling his eczema. He used to be so itchy as a toddler that I literally scratched his arms for him as he drifted asleep. He is now eczema-free!!!! It turns out he is super sensitive to salicylates as well, but for him it seems to show up more in his skin. However, we are now noticing it affects his mood as well. He had some ketchup at lunch the other day for the first time in 3 months, and within 30 minutes he had itchy welts, and we also noticed he became very angry for the rest of the day. Mean, glaring looks, yelling, etc. Kind of scary, really.
It's been hard living without so many of our favorite foods, but we are managing. We have been able to add golden delicious apples back into our diet, as they are the variety with the lowest amount of salicylates. It is limiting, though, and I feel we turn to baked goods more often because we can eat so few fruits. At the moment, we are ok with peeled pears, bananas, golden delicious apples, limes, lemons, and mangoes for sure. We still need to retest grapefruit and watermelon, I'm not sure about our first go-round. We eat peas, green beans, carrots, onions, iceberg lettuce, celery, and asparagus. The kids can get away with lemon-lime soda and rootbeer for a treat, but something like orange soda can create a bad reaction. Not that we ever had soda often, but just for a glimpse of our life. We also cannot have tea, except chamomile. Coffee is high in salicylates but luckily I've been able to get away with that one! I still keep Lucy mostly gluten free, so that's another hitch in our eating but we make do.
I bake a LOT and it shows on my hips LOL but I've been working on that one. Luckily she is not direly reactive to gluten so if she has a little here or there we are ok. I'm hopeful since her reaction level to that is so low that she will outgrow it. At any rate, I prepare almost all of our food from scratch, so spend a lot of time in the kitchen (which is now never clean lol). This week I made 2 batches of granola bars, 2 different kinds of rice krispy treats, pumpkin bread, and plan to make pear jelly and nutrigrain bars this afternoon. In addition, I want to make a big batch of tomato-free "tomato" sauce. Yes, you read that right lol! We've been missing tomato sauce so, so, so very much. We've eaten sauceless pizza and been without any of our favorite Italian dishes since the middle of October. No chili either, which as many of you may know is Mickade's all-time favorite. He can eat his weight in chili. I tried out a new recipe last night and it was the answer to our prayers!!!! It sounds weird but it's delicious! It can be found here.
Saturday, October 23, 2010
Adventures in Food Allergies
Ever since we've moved to VA, Mickade's allergies have been awful. Per testing last year in Florida, he has severe allergies to dust mites and mold, and some other milder allergies to various trees and grass, and also sesame. We had them fully under control with some dust mite bedding, weekly laundering in hot water of all his bedding (including the quilt), and a couple Austin Air purifiers. Here, however, despite flooring the downstairs and his bedroom, he has been miserable. It got to the point where even Zyrtec wasn't making much of a dent in it for him. We finally saw our Dr here, and he said he wanted us to look into food allergies that could be affecting him and making his enviro allergies worse. We eliminated dairy, wheat and citrus, replacing the dairy with soy. What we got out of that week was NOT what I expected...it turns out Lucy is allergic to soy! She completely flipped out...tantrums, crying for literally hours, biting, unable to control herself in any fashion. It was awful. I finally realized after a few days what had changed, and what had happened. So, she is now completely soy-free. We also discovered Mickade is allergic to dairy, and gets a runny nose within minutes of a glass of milk, is stuffy all night, and also, gets gas (which explains why he has always been so gassy, even as a newborn!).
I finally had Mickade and Lucy's IgG reactions tested. Most allergists do an IgE test. This type of reaction is what most of us know as an "allergic reaction" -- hives, itchiness, anaphylactic shock, etc. IgG tests what are more commonly known as intolerances. The IgG test isn't the most accurate, but it gives a good starting place for most and helps identify odd foods, like pineapple or green beans, that might not be discovered otherwise. Mickade reacted to corn, baker's yeast, and brewer's yeast. Lucy reacted to wheat, gluten, gliadin (both parts of wheat), orange, yogurt, and brewer's yeast. We have eliminated corn now for Mickade, and Lucy and I are gluten-free since she is still nursing.
I don't know if you've ever looked at your food labels, but the pervasiveness of cheap ingredients is frightening and frustrating if you have allergies. Soy is in everything...soy lecithin, soybean oil, msg, 'natural flavors', it goes on. Then corn....there is a whole website dedicated to corn allergies, since it's not one of the "Top 8" designated by the FDA (soy, fish, shellfish, peanuts, tree nuts, dairy) so it's not stated on labels. You should look here to see what ingredients can mean corn!
We've started a number of supplements to help, too. Mickade has gotten more relief from 3000mg of vitamin C and 2-3000mg of methyl B-12 than he got from Zyrtec, and there are no side effects! Some other interesting things are that his sleep has improved. As you all know, he has never slept very well. It turns out that the body uses methyls to fight off allergens. If you are fighting all day, you have little to none left at night, which is a problem because the body uses methyls to combine with serotonin to make....melatonin!!!! Ever since he has been taking methylB12 during the day, he has been falling asleep much, much easier, and been a little bit less restless in his sleep. We are also taking lots of probiotics in order to try to heal everyone's guts, since the imbalance of gut bacteria is what lets the food proteins out of the intestines and into the bloodstream, causing the reactions.
Even with all this, Mickade's eczema still hasn't quite left him, and Lucy is still very volatile and poops only once a week without magnesium supplements (This week with supplements and epsom salt baths though, she has already gone 4 times since Monday....a miracle around here). We've turned now to salicylates, a naturally-occurring chemical in many foods that some people are sensitive too. In fact, it's such a big sensitivity, that a program called the Feingold Diet is 30 years old. It turned out to be a huge factor in helping kids with ADHD, and many other issues. Feingold also removes artificial food colors, flavors, and preservatives. There's a lot of data to back it up too, and the more I've read, the more I see my oldest and youngest. We are following a very strict version for this week, to see if it makes a difference, before adding in anything else. For an idea, you can look here and see what has negligible or low levels of salicylates to see what our food choices are this week (In case you're too lazy to click, our fruits this week are bananas, pears, and limes, with some veggie choices like green beans, peas, brussels sprouts, potatoes. Tomatoes, berries, apples, ketchup, cinnamon, cumin, peppers, to name a few, are out.). So, here's to hoping this one does the trick and kicks the crap to the curb. I'd like to have a sweet little girl more often. I'd also like to see Mickade's eczema stop and his sleep improve. I've had Lucy on it for 2 days now, and I think I am seeing some minor improvement already. I would the THRILLED if this works, even it means we can't enjoy a lot of the food we are used to. I'll take my kids happy and healthy anyday!
This is the much shorter version of our lives these past two months, but I know people are wondering exactly what is going on over here...hope this helps some!
I finally had Mickade and Lucy's IgG reactions tested. Most allergists do an IgE test. This type of reaction is what most of us know as an "allergic reaction" -- hives, itchiness, anaphylactic shock, etc. IgG tests what are more commonly known as intolerances. The IgG test isn't the most accurate, but it gives a good starting place for most and helps identify odd foods, like pineapple or green beans, that might not be discovered otherwise. Mickade reacted to corn, baker's yeast, and brewer's yeast. Lucy reacted to wheat, gluten, gliadin (both parts of wheat), orange, yogurt, and brewer's yeast. We have eliminated corn now for Mickade, and Lucy and I are gluten-free since she is still nursing.
I don't know if you've ever looked at your food labels, but the pervasiveness of cheap ingredients is frightening and frustrating if you have allergies. Soy is in everything...soy lecithin, soybean oil, msg, 'natural flavors', it goes on. Then corn....there is a whole website dedicated to corn allergies, since it's not one of the "Top 8" designated by the FDA (soy, fish, shellfish, peanuts, tree nuts, dairy) so it's not stated on labels. You should look here to see what ingredients can mean corn!
We've started a number of supplements to help, too. Mickade has gotten more relief from 3000mg of vitamin C and 2-3000mg of methyl B-12 than he got from Zyrtec, and there are no side effects! Some other interesting things are that his sleep has improved. As you all know, he has never slept very well. It turns out that the body uses methyls to fight off allergens. If you are fighting all day, you have little to none left at night, which is a problem because the body uses methyls to combine with serotonin to make....melatonin!!!! Ever since he has been taking methylB12 during the day, he has been falling asleep much, much easier, and been a little bit less restless in his sleep. We are also taking lots of probiotics in order to try to heal everyone's guts, since the imbalance of gut bacteria is what lets the food proteins out of the intestines and into the bloodstream, causing the reactions.
Even with all this, Mickade's eczema still hasn't quite left him, and Lucy is still very volatile and poops only once a week without magnesium supplements (This week with supplements and epsom salt baths though, she has already gone 4 times since Monday....a miracle around here). We've turned now to salicylates, a naturally-occurring chemical in many foods that some people are sensitive too. In fact, it's such a big sensitivity, that a program called the Feingold Diet is 30 years old. It turned out to be a huge factor in helping kids with ADHD, and many other issues. Feingold also removes artificial food colors, flavors, and preservatives. There's a lot of data to back it up too, and the more I've read, the more I see my oldest and youngest. We are following a very strict version for this week, to see if it makes a difference, before adding in anything else. For an idea, you can look here and see what has negligible or low levels of salicylates to see what our food choices are this week (In case you're too lazy to click, our fruits this week are bananas, pears, and limes, with some veggie choices like green beans, peas, brussels sprouts, potatoes. Tomatoes, berries, apples, ketchup, cinnamon, cumin, peppers, to name a few, are out.). So, here's to hoping this one does the trick and kicks the crap to the curb. I'd like to have a sweet little girl more often. I'd also like to see Mickade's eczema stop and his sleep improve. I've had Lucy on it for 2 days now, and I think I am seeing some minor improvement already. I would the THRILLED if this works, even it means we can't enjoy a lot of the food we are used to. I'll take my kids happy and healthy anyday!
This is the much shorter version of our lives these past two months, but I know people are wondering exactly what is going on over here...hope this helps some!
Monday, August 23, 2010
First Day of School
Ah, the plans we make! Today was our first day of school. We were supposed to get started at 9am this morning. That was my goal. Of course, best laid plans and all, Lucy had her own ideas. She went to sleep all nice and sweet by 8pm last night, yes! Or so I thought. One of the disadvantages of our amazing new house is that I don't hear when she cries if we are watching TV. What's that you say? Use a monitor? Yes. I know. I have it right here on the counter. Or most of it. I'm too stubborn to buy a new one. At any rate, it should turn up. Somewhere. So, I didn't hear her fast enough and she was awake. Yes, my baby had now taken a 2 hour nap. At night. Awesomeness. After a Wonder Pets marathon, at 1am I told her I simply had to go to bed. We could watch in my room (and I could doze). After some convincing, she came up with me, settled, and we watched more Wonder Pets. She curled up in the rocker at one point to sleep, but didn't. Then asked me for a pillow. Then she made a bed on the floor. Then, finally, at about 3am (!!) she crawled into bed next to me. I slept til 8:45 (so no school at 9 lol) and she slept til...10:45!!!
We sat down to start around 11am, and it went pretty well. We are excited to study early American History, especially because we are living so close to the actual locations for our early history. In case anyone is interested, we will be studying the following this year:
Together:
American Story 1
La Clase Divertida Spanish
Song School Latin
Handwriting Without Tears Cursive
Lillian, first grade:
First Language Lessons 1
Handwriting Without Tears, print
All About Spelling
Rightstart Math B
Mickade, third grade:
First Language Lessons 3
All About Spelling
Math Mammoth 3
Writing With Ease 2
We also have an awesome homeschool coop we're going to start attending once a week called Renaissance School of the Arts for art, music, and other creative classes. It's going to be a great year!!!
I presented the kids with some Native American "crowns" to kick off the new school year. We will have a big focus on Native American history this year.
Rocking out with La Clase Divertida, as they act out and sing along learning los vocales in Espanol (the vowels in Spanish.)
We sat down to start around 11am, and it went pretty well. We are excited to study early American History, especially because we are living so close to the actual locations for our early history. In case anyone is interested, we will be studying the following this year:
Together:
American Story 1
La Clase Divertida Spanish
Song School Latin
Handwriting Without Tears Cursive
Lillian, first grade:
First Language Lessons 1
Handwriting Without Tears, print
All About Spelling
Rightstart Math B
Mickade, third grade:
First Language Lessons 3
All About Spelling
Math Mammoth 3
Writing With Ease 2
We also have an awesome homeschool coop we're going to start attending once a week called Renaissance School of the Arts for art, music, and other creative classes. It's going to be a great year!!!
I presented the kids with some Native American "crowns" to kick off the new school year. We will have a big focus on Native American history this year.
Rocking out with La Clase Divertida, as they act out and sing along learning los vocales in Espanol (the vowels in Spanish.)
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