John at 18 months.
John had his 18 month M&CH check up yesterday. He is doing everything developmentally that he should, and then some. And after losing over 800g in the first month after weaning, he has put on over 1.5kg in three months and is back to where he should be on the weight charts. He’s also grown 2cm in the last month. I talked over the information we have come across in the last month to do with traditional nourishing diets and foods, and the nurse was very interested and encouraged me to continue with what we are doing. She’s really pleased with our progress. Both of us. She can see the difference.
We also had another appointment with the dietician at the hospital yesterday. She didn’t recognize him, as the first time she saw him was at 15 months, a month after weaning when he’d lost weight. I expected her to be upset that I didn’t follow all her suggestions (such as 3 serves of soy products per day, which we only did for 2 weeks until he put on heaps of weight and I started the rice and oat milks, and now he’s completely off soy) but she wasn’t. I also expected her to apologise for suggesting the nut spread but she didn’t remember it had been her suggestion; I guess it doesn’t matter. I also questioned her about having his IgE allergies re-tested, but she says it’s unnecessary until he’s nearly 3, and only to see if he has grown out of his egg allergy. And what about the recent media information about IgG tests? Not relevant to him I’m told. I told her about the raw organic unpasteurized unhomogenised a2 jersey cows milk he had with no problems. She stared nonplussed for a moment, then said maybe he’s outgrown his milk allergy – but I know he’s still got problems with conventional milk. Her advice was just to keep everything very stable and put off introducing anything new, or re-introducing anything he used to have. This idea of them ‘magically’ growing out of allergies concerns me… how can we make sense of illness later in life if we don’t know more about childhood? And what about the next generation? It occurred to me this month that as a kid I was allergic to cats and dogs and then as an adult had other ‘allergies’ and intolerances, and now my son has a worse scenario… there is no answer or end to this when I follow their protocols.
But at home it’s a different story, I am pursuing other avenues and making other changes. I tried some avocado yesterday and I’ll keep giving him the special milk. Today he had toast for the first time this year, an oat sourdough. Silly really to try two things at once, oh well, what’s done is done. I am making so many changes. I have got rid of all the chemicals I can, I’m washing my dishes and cleaning the house with bicarb and vinegar, washing clothes with real soap and rinsing with vinegar, good old fashioned stuff. Bought John some little flasks so we can take his hot food out with us; bought myself some more little saucepans so I can warm his food without using the microwave (just need to develop the habit of defrosting his frozen meals the night before!); warming his milk in a cup in a mug of hot tap water (not boiling!); cooking more natural foods in gentle ways, completely avoiding additives of any number; the list goes on… I may never get it all right but I feel we are on the right track.
John at 19 months
This has been an interesting month. John has continued having the raw milk and seems to be doing really well on it. Hoping that the dietician was right about him growing out of his milk allergy, over the month he’s also had yoghurt and cheese, but they’re not raw so I think they’ve made him react. Breakfast has been the biggest change, I’m now soaking the oats with vinegar overnight and cooking them with celtic sea salt. I tried putting a little tiny bit of maple syrup on his porridge, but I don’t think he’s ready for that either. He’s constantly asking for fruit: pear, banana, apple. We also started coconut oil/butter as a moisturizer and then two weeks ago on a spoon, and he loves it, but I read this week that you can suffer a ‘die-off’ as you do that – this combined with the extra dairy foods I think has made his skin like sandpaper and given him a bit of nappy rash, but it is very different from the horrendous eczema he used to have. And it doesn’t ‘worry’ me, in that it is an expected and understood outcome of what I’m doing… the blind guessing and hopeless experimenting is a thing of the past. He suffers less; I am more confident.
I have been using the Nourishing Traditions cookbook more and more, especially trying to make whey from the raw milk. My first attempt became drinking yoghurt, which we’re all taking, and for John in particular his nappies have become more regular and soft and sweet again. I tried again, and the jug sitting on the dresser looks more like whey and cream cheese this time… couple more days to wait. In the pantry I have ginger ale, apple cider, and fermented ginger carrots doing their thing. I have cleared out all the longlife foods, and we are using cream and butter and sour cream regularly. The menu for dinner mostly comes from the cookbook now, and we are enjoying the meals. I am moving towards meals that John will be able to eat with us… except that I’m still not able to afford organic fresh produce for us and until I can I’m too scared to let John eat them. The one time I gave him something we were eating (pumpkin soup made with my homemade organic stock but conventional pumpkin) he had a terrible reaction. I cannot help thinking chemical pesticides and herbicides are a problem… but my husband remains unconvinced.
I met with a Weston A Price chapter leader this month too. Ironically the only place that had a playground there was a fast food outlet, and it was so cold outdoors, but we talked for hours; I learnt so much and have been studying the Wise Traditions literature ever since. Unfortunately while we were there another child came in with food (we think it was a chocolate muffin) and John found some left hidden in the playground; by the time I saw him his mouth and hands were covered in brown mush. That was Monday. For three days he had bizarre episodes of lying screaming and kicking on the floor and not letting anyone touch him, and his skin broke out again. But on Thursday, as soon as I got raw milk and coconut butter in and on him, he ‘miraculously’ came good. I use the word ‘miraculously’ as this was one of the worst reactions I have seen and last time it lasted over a week and disturbed his sleep as well, and only gradually got better, but this was sudden and marked. So I am a new convert!
John at 20 months
John has continued having the raw milk but there is less available as the cows produce less in winter I’m told. I’ve been making raw milk yoghurt and it’s fantastic, John asks for it all day and he especially loves it with pear.
He’s teething and had nasty nappy rash, even worse when I gave him apples in a ‘munchkin’ (an eating aid made for children so they don’t choke) because chewing and sucking on it would’ve made him digest a lot more saliva and I read that extra saliva with teething can cause this so I can only guess that’s the case. Peeling apples and chopping finely seems fine. He’s had an amazing month really. The most significant step was trying to make rice porridge instead of using oats, so he is now completely gluten free and the improvement we saw was amazing, his skin was almost perfect until he ate playdoh (more on that later). The oat porridge was one of the last remaining ‘questionable foods’ in his diet…
Or so I thought! I’ve come across more information this month about the importance of raw foods and the ‘dangers’ of cooked foods, to do with enzymes among other things, and it scares me a little. How do you give raw food to a baby? The concept I have of edible raw food is carrot and celery sticks, anything else seems unpalatable to one so conditioned by western diet. I worked out that fruit is raw, and raw dairy products (of course, silly me) can be included in this list, but all of John’s main meals are cooked. And reading about including raw dairy or cultured foods with a meal of entirely cooked food was enlightening, but as yet I haven’t done this with John. He usually has a cup of raw milk prior to every meal. Maybe this is enough… I don’t know. I’m finding it very frustrating that there are still no definitive answers.
And I wondered how he was doing regarding his previous salicylate intolerance, so I gave him some avocado at lunch one day… hyperactivity all evening and then he absolutely crashed into bed. Sometimes I wonder about the coconut butter, as coconut is supposed to be a no-no, but the benefits and the place it has in the WAP/NT method are too compelling.
The playdoh… he was playing with some at playgroup last week, put some in his mouth, and swallowed it as soon as he realized the childcare person was trying to take it off him (he’s just getting to that stage of “this is mine and there’s no way you’re getting it off me”) and it has undone all the progress. To start with it has wheat in it. It also has preservatives and colours. But the manufacturer won’t tell you the details for patent reasons. How is my son ever going to live in this world? It pains me to think that he won’t have a “normal childhood” but only until I look at the hyperactive silliness and medicated illness of other children and realise if that is what is “normal” then we don’t want it.
Sometimes I feel like I keep taking things out of his diet or limiting his food choices and all I get is even more sensitivity. I don’t know why this is. I’d hoped that getting him right would strengthen his tolerance, not make it worse. But I persevere because I am convinced we are getting closer to what we need to do, and not just for John but for our whole family’s health, including the child I’m planning to try to have next year. It’d be so easy to give up some days, but a sibling for John is my goal and I’m unwavering.
John at 21 months
The playdoh incident (followed by some tap water out of another child’s bottle) was the start of the most horrific skin we have ever seen on John. We were on a waiting list to see a dietician who had been recommended by WAPF and thankfully got a call that same week. He took a thorough history of both sides of the family, assessed John’s condition, and discussed treatment. According to him, John was born with an immune pre-disposition TH2-high (eczema/allergies) and TH1-low (infections – John is rarely ill) and TH3-level (gastro-intestinal disorders – he didn’t have any at birth and breastfeeding did much to protect him) and this, according to him, has much to do with his grandfather’s exposure to chemicals in Vietnam, with other factors such as family history of cancer, c-section births of both Ian and John, incorrect diet during my pregnancy and my emotional stress also contributing. But additive-laced lactation diet, continued maternal emotional stress (diagnosed early this month as Post Traumatic Stress), incorrect introduction of solids, incorrect medical advice and the use of pharmaceutical cortisone, and finally weaning at 14 months followed by months of dietary mistakes - all this combined to create Hypercortisolaemia, Functional Hypoglycaemia, Adrenal Exhaustion, and Gastrointestinal Dysfunction referred to commonly as ‘Leaky Gut’. This explains John’s other symptoms such as food cravings particularly for fruit, food sensitivities, hyperactivity, extreme hunger, decreased muscle tone, liver toxicity… he was extremely encouraging of John’s current diet and the methods we are implementing, particularly using Nourishing Traditions and the raw milk and coconut oil. He made the addition of a few mineral supplements and a correction about the probiotics we use and said to expect results in 3-4 days! I corrected him and said don’t you mean weeks? But my initial skepticism fell away with the sheets of dead scabby skin that fell off John’s skin all over his body for the first 2 days, and hope has replaced it that he may be able to live a next-to-normal life just as healthy pink skin was being revealed everywhere. He’s also less hungry so obviously getting more nutrition from his food. A follow-up appointment indicated a need for more supplements and fine-tuning, including (for a time) removing fruit and raw milk from his diet. He is quite confident that not only can he treat John’s current condition, but he can help to heal the Leaky Gut and everything that entails, and in addition to this, that the dietary methods will enable us to produce a healthy baby next time around. The role of my trauma and stress in all of this (and the stress John experiences being itchy) has been an eye-opener (in particular I learned that cortisol is a stress hormone) and much soul-searching and prayer has begun to resolve these circumstances. I’m really thankful that Ian has finally started to grasp the importance of the dietary choices and the significance of the major changes I’ve implemented in my kitchen and my shopping. We see benefits even in John’s development, which is exceptional for his age. Ian’s still not ’sold out’ on it all but he’s getting there. And he’s had two pleasant changes from all of this too - one he notices and one he doesn’t, he’s loving the food and eating so much but is losing weight; and he’s less stressed and less stressful to live with, I can’t get over the difference in him… actually I see it in all of us.
About the Author...
I am a princess. I am a daughter and sister and wife and mother and friend. I am very creative and have always wanted to be a nourisher but only recently discovered what that truly means, especially following my most important creative endeavour - my son. I continue to learn more about it and in relationship with my Creator I am confident I will become the nourisher and nurturer that I was made and meant to be.
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