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Mar 4

Healing with the GAPS Diet – INTRO (Day 44)

I’m really not sure where to begin as it’s now been one month since my last update and a lot has happened. To follow along on our GAPS journey, visit this page. Updates: Tristan and I are both in stage 4.

This diet has become all-consuming – I literally eat, sleep, and breath this diet. Every spare thought is about this diet. Wondering if I wrote down how I felt after increasing my sauerkraut juice intake or if I have enough broth in the fridge to last through the day. While I have gotten a comfortable handle on menu planning and manhandling the internal organs of various animals, I cannot come to terms with how much of my life has gone GAPS. Thankfully, the end is in sight. I’m estimating we’ll only have about one more month on the Intro portion of the diet. And in all honesty, it really hasn’t been that hard. By now, I’m so used to eating this way and so has the rest of the family, that it doesn’t really bother us anymore. Well, except for my husband. He still frequently asks how much longer until we can eat “normally” again.

But, despite my husband’s readiness to move on to a GAPS-free life, he is willing to wait for it because we’re seeing positive changes. Some are small and some are quite momentous, but they are there and they give us hope. Read more

Feb 27

KIDS! Express Yourself & WIN a Food-Allergy Safe Summer Camp Adventure CONTEST!

camp wingate pin


 Hey Kids!!!!

Here’s your chance to win a two-week camp session on beautiful Cape Cod! It’s easy! If you have food allergies, and are currently in the second through sixth grade, just tell us why you’d like to come to Camp W*K, and you could have the best summer ever! Read more

Feb 18

Food Curiosity, When Young Children Put Their Food Allergies To The Test (Guest Post)

When our kids are young, we feel like we have some sense of control over their allergies. After all, they cannot easily prepare food for themselves and they rely on us to do it for them – so we carefully avoid all allergens and intolerances. But sometimes our little ones of a certain age may become curious about the food they’ve been told to avoid their whole lives. What happens then? Read on to hear this mom’s story and learn how they coped, a great read for all allergy parents!

-Jennifer

Managing Food Allergies, Asthma and Eosinophilic Esophagitis (Guest Post)

By Kendra (bio below)

9554_wpm_lowres      Our family was introduced to the world of life threatening food allergies when Paul, now 8, stopped breathing during dinner at just 7 months old.  I explained to the allergist that Paul always had a rash of some sort, and nothing we did affected the daily wheezing.  We learned that he was allergic to egg, peanut, cat and dog.  Five months later, another half-dozen food allergies were identified.  His symptoms improved for a few months.  Then he started having rashes and trouble breathing every time he ate.  With guidance from the allergist, we continued to remove newly identified food allergies every few months.  By the time Paul was 3 ½, he was allergic to every food that he had ever eaten.  All nutrition came from an elemental formula which is broken down to amino acids.  The absence of actual food proteins ensures that there is nothing for the body to identify as an allergen.
Read more

Feb 14

7 Comments

Our Journey of Healing Asthma, Eczema, Allergies with Homeopathy (Part 2)

Where did the week go?! I just realized that I missed Tuesday’s post! This GAPS diet is really taking over our lives, but still that’s no excuse and even if it was, I think it’s a pretty good one – don’t you? Still, NOT an excuse. Just this week we went for a follow-up appointment for Tristan’s homeopathic treatment and it made me realize that it is way past time I update you on how he’s progressing. If you’d like to read Part 1 of our story, you can do that here.

Things are going much better overall for Tristan. The night-time coughing has completely gone away. Every once in a while he’ll cough a little during the night and he certainly has more trouble when he’s sick, but for the most part he’s fine! We believe this has to do with two things – the homeopathy and the saline nasal rinses we’re doing twice a day. At first I wasn’t sure which of the two was doing the trick, so we took him off the homeopathic liquid tincture as described in Part 1, and after a few days his night-time coughing came back and he had a lot of trouble coughing at school too, which required his rescue inhaler. So, we put him back on the homeopathic liquid and a few days later he was fine again. A few weeks later we stopped the saline nasal washes and the same thing happened, the coughing came back and only ceased after a few days back on the rinses! So, we know for sure BOTH the saline and the homeophathy has really helped with the coughing. And we’re sure now that the coughing wasn’t even really asthma (like we and his doctor believed), but more of a post nasal drip/allergic rhinitis from an allergy that we’ve yet to identify.

The homeopathic doctor has now recommended making some changes to Tristan’s treatment knowing like we do now, that Tristan really has more rhinitis issues than asthma currently. And since he still has trouble with food allergies and eczema, although the latter is mild right now, he’s continuing to treat them with the tincture as well. He’s changed his liquid formula, which he takes twice a day and added a few granules to take once a month, one of which is to prepare for pollen season this spring, which is a HUGE eczema trigger for him. And he continues to take the MMR vaccine treatment mentioned in Part 1.

The new liquid tincture contains:

  • Rosa Canina S ID – 50ml
  • Corallium Rubreau 9CH – 10ml
  • Sporgia 5CH – 10ml
  • Coccus Cachi 5CH – 10ml
  • Kalium Blib 5CH – 10ml
  • Thymuline 9CH – 10ml

New granules at one dose a month, rotating through the following:

  • 2 Dose – Psoriumum 30CH
  • 1 Dose – Arsenicum Album 30 IM
  • 1 Dose – Pollens 30CH

We hope we continue to see progress! With the homeopathy and the GAPS diet, I can’t see how we won’t!

 

 

 

 

Feb 4

12 Comments

Healing with the GAPS Diet – INTRO (Day 15)

So, we’ve survived the first 15 days of the GAPS intro. Tristan is in stage 3. I am in stage 2 still. You can read more about why we’re trying the GAPS diet to attempt to heal my son’s body of allergies, asthma, and eczema here. And you can follow along with our GAPS Intro journey here.

While it hasn’t been horrible being so restricted in our diet, it’s not a walk in the park. I will be very happy when we are able to return to more normal eating or at least the full GAPS diet or perhaps Paleo down the road. Read more

Jan 28

1 Comment

Alternatives for People with Animal Allergies (Guest Post)

I grew up with horrible allergies, not knowing they were allergies at all really. I just assumed having itchy, watery eyes and an itchy, running nose, on a daily basis was normal! Can you imagine?! I never dreamed it had anything to do with growing up in a house with 1-3 indoor dogs living in it at any given time. Nor did I have any clue why I developed small hives every time the love of my life (before I met my husband and had my children of course), a beautiful Golden Retriever named Beau, gave me a friendly kiss. He was my boy and we were two peas in a pod. How I miss that happy-go-luck guy, always wagging his tail, and always CRAZY-EXCITED to see me. It wasn’t until years later, after living away at the University and starting my own life in my first apartment, when I adopted a dog, did I realize that I had been free of that darned itchy nose and watery eyes. Read more

Jan 21

9 Comments

Healing with the GAPS Diet – INTRO (Day 1)

So, I’ve heard about the GAPS diet (Gut & Psychology Syndrome) for several years now. People that have followed it claim they’ve cured many of their and their children’s chronic ailments and diseases, usually of the autoimmune family. Yes, I said CURED.

I knew when first hearing about the GAPS diet, that we just weren’t there yet. Yes, my son’s skin was really out of control, but we had to try other options first. In fact, I wanted to be able to say we’d exhausted all our other resources first. Why? Because the diet is not easy – it’s far from it. And frankly, I really didn’t want to have to put our family through it. Read more

Jan 14

2 Comments

Bye Bye Benadryl, Why You Should Skip Antihistamines During An Allergic Reaction

If you or your child is diagnosed with anpahylaxis or has experienced anaphyalxis in the past, and they consume a food they are anaphylactic to, then Benadryl or other antihistamines are not the answer. In fact, it was clear in the Anaphylaxis session at the Food Allergy Blogger’s Conference, that antihistamines are no long recommended for severe, life threatening allergic reactions. Read more

Jan 8

1 Comment

Naturopathic Approach to Allergies, Asthma, and Eczema in Kids (Guest Post)

I love holistic and alternative medicine because it usually looks at the whole body and doesn’t treat just the symptom. Of course it’s still important to keep regular appointments with an allergist to monitor severe food allergies and asthma and to ensure you have the correct emergency medication on hand. But it’s important to look beyond wheezing, hives, and itchy skin.  With conditions like eczema, allergies, and asthma, as well as autism, ADHD and so on, there is usually something bigger going on internally like immune dysfunction, but identifying just what is causing all the trouble can be very difficult to determine. So, we turn to a holistic practitioner and we hope they can lead us on our journey to healing. I’ve asked today’s guest to tell us more about how she treat’s children with allergic conditions. Please welcome Dr. McCollum.

- Jennifer

Naturopathic Approach to Allergies, Asthma, and Eczema in Kids (Guest Post)

 By Dr. Meaghan McCollum (Bio below)

Having suffered from allergies, asthma and eczema myself as a child, it always aches my heart to see young kids and infants come in suffering from these common ailments. The good news is that there is lots that can be done naturally to help these young sufferers. Read more

Dec 31

bragg apple cider vinegar for eczema relief
13 Comments

Finding Eczema Relief: Bleach Bath Alternatives

For years dermatologists have been recommending bleach baths to anyone suffering from eczema. It’s no wonder why when you read studies like this one where patients saw a clear reduction in bacterial infection after bathing in bleach.

But bleach is a chemical and is clearly anything but natural and non-toxic. Thankfully, there are safe alternatives. Read more

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