Have you ever thrown yourself a full on pity party only to
learn about someone who is truly struggling and realize your own predicament
ain’t so bad? I sure have. And this was one of those times. Perspective.
That is the gift I received from a woman named Lisa Lundy in November, 2007
even though I had never met her. But I
digress.
My son was 2 ½ when we vanquished the rash by removing dairy
and wheat from his diet. That was in January,
2006. That September, at age 3, he
started school.
The school year was barely two weeks old when the colds and
fevers began. I wasn’t overly concerned.
Everyone had warned me that when kids first go into daycare or start
school they get sick relatively often. Well,
he was and he did.
Soon a pattern emerged.
By December he was getting sick every four to six weeks like
clockwork. This was more than a runny
nose. He also had weepy eyes, congestion
and fevers lasting for days and spiking
as high as 104F and 105F. These bouts
would last 7 to 10 days and he would miss a week or so of school with each
one.
“Kids get colds.” the Doctor told me. The Naturopath prescribed immune boosters
galore but the onslaught continued. I
was becoming a little too used to giving tepid baths in the middle of the night
and began to suspect that something was amiss.
We made it through the school year but the colds continued all
summer. By mid-September, 2007, the first school year cold had already set
in. I decided to ask the school Administrator if all the kids went through this. She responded frankly that they did not and that
my son was absent the most often. From her perspective no other student at this
school had colds of this severity or with this kind of regularity.
Ironically our saving grace – the inspiration for the
allergy testing that would equip us to get him healthy – was the fact that we
had been succumbing to the pressure, from ourselves and other well meaning
folks - to try and feed him what most people refer to as a ‘normal’ diet. We had started to test him every so often
by giving him a piece of cheese or a few bites of a regular bagel. These occasions were sporadic but the fact
was that he didn’t appear to react. There was no sign of the rash or any other
rash. Not even any mild eczema.
I had no idea that his diet could be linked to this ongoing cycle
of colds and fevers. To the contrary, I was optimistic that my son’s days on a
restricted diet might be over. I asked
the Naturopath if he was now old enough for the blood analysis she had
mentioned when we first consulted her.
She suggested that at 4 years and 4 months of age the results should be
fairly reliable and we went ahead with the tests.
The results arrived by email within three weeks. He was
showing reactions to gluten, wheat, eggs and cow dairy products that were literally off
the charts. He was also having low grade reactions to a host of other foods
ranging from select fruits and vegetables to peanuts and even garlic.
Although I didn’t yet understand that the food was making
him sick I knew these foods would have to be removed from his diet. I sat in front of my computer and cried.
I would be happy to talk about the follow up in more detail
or answer specific questions you might have.
But for now I’ll tell you that the Naturopath did a simple urine test
and told me that my son was having digestive difficulties also sometimes identified as a 'leaky gut'. As a result his immune system was suffering.
The foods were indirectly causing his ongoing colds and fevers.
The good news is, that when caught and treated early,
digestive difficulties can be corrected and it is possible that my son may be
able to safely eat some or all of these foods later in life. The Naturopath suggested we repeat this food
testing after his 7th birthday.
In the mean time, our solution was two-fold. The easy part
was the twice daily amino acid and once daily probiotic supplements. Both were powders that I mixed in with a tiny
bit of applesauce. No problem. The drastic
diet change was another story. Before he
ate everything except wheat and cow dairy. He was still eating spelt, kamut, rye, barley and oats. Now all of these grains were off
the table. Literally. Same with eggs.
Where was I going to get baked goods? The bakery where I had
been complacently picking up bread, pizza crust, cookies and cakes was now off
limits as none of their products were free of gluten, dairy and eggs. I found one gluten free bread at the grocery
store that fit the bill but it’s taste could only be described as vile.
The confidence to know that I would indeed be able to feed
my son came in the form of the The Super
Allergy Girl Cookbook by Lisa A. Lundy.
Lisa deserves an entire entry!