I swear I can't take much more.

[Wugmama]

My firstborn dd just turned 7. She has asthma. We found out in Sept that even at baseline her breathing isn't good, and she needs to constantly be on inhaled steroids, daily. So at that point we decided to bring her to the practitioner who helped us w/the baby, while simultaneously having her on the steroids.

She saw that woman twice, who is now on a year sabbatical. That woman is NOT big on food avoidance, wants you to heal. I wanted to take my dd off of wheat and diary, and have attempted to do so. The woman didn't do massive food testing, but did look at wheat and dairy (muscle testing) and all she said was, "Wheat tested worse for her than the dairy" and "Don't take their yogurt (her and her little brother) away". I really don't know what she meant, how bad it "tested". And we got a lot of great supplements. Too bad my dd won't take them, except for the digestive enzymes.

On Christmas Eve and for 5 days my dd had a stomach ache and NO appetite, but never threw up, didn't have a fever. Then on the 5th day she told me it was hard to have a BM, and then it came out liquidy. Well, I figured she was blocked and liquid got around the blockage, so took her to the family practice doc right away (why did I bother?). He did an X-ray, basically told me my dd was full of you-know-what, and to get some over the counter miralax, which she was on as a baby. While there she had a BM and regained her appetite. She's continuted to be fairly regular. We didn't get miralax but instead used the enzymes, although a lot at first, then only about once per day.

The last few days again she has been having a harder time going. Then it dawned on me to bring her to the chiro that did the webster on me when baby #3 was breech, so I did. Right when we parked in front of their office, she puked, now I was really alarmed. The chiro said her ileo-cecal valve was stuck shut, did some massage and adjustments, showed me how, said to come back for testing and more adjustments. DH took her in today. She tested (muscle testing) bad for, big surprise here, CORN. And soy, garlic, cinnamon and I'm not sure what else (dh has list written down). Wheat and dairy were fine.

I don't know how much faith I have in this muscle testing. Conicidentally, this is where I took baby originally, and we didn't get any better. I hind sight though, we maybe didn't give them enough time. Also, she talked about the valve being inflamed or irritated, and to retest the foods in 4 weeks, they may have cleared.

At any rate, in looking into corn more, I found this list. IT.TRULY.IS.IN.EVERYTHING.

http://www.cornallergens.com/list/co...ergen-list.php

When my little girl was laying on the table getting the massage her shirt went up and I just felt sick seeking the deep valley run up her chest between her rib cage. She has looked sickly since she was 2 years old. Even her pulmonologist described her in his notes as frail looking. It is breaking my heart. I can't even take care of all three of my kids. She is totally falling through the cracks. I can't even get all three of their teeth brushed every day, much less get the right foods into them all, and the supplements??? I can't do this anymore. Or actually, I never could do this. Get one kid fixed up, meanwhile the other is going down hill.

:

[lil_miss_understood]

I have no words. You've been through so much.

[Hedwig_Fly]

I have no advice but I wanted to send out lots of hugs and many positive thoughts to you and your whole family.

You have all been through so much - many prayers you find the right path for you and the little ones.

[iamama]

I'm sorry...no advice

[newcastlemama]

s I tell tell you love your children so much. You are doing your best mama. Can you get more help from friends, family, hired, church ect? s

[changingseasons]

[chlobo]

hugs

[springmum]

I am no where near your stress level, but I do have days where I don't know if I can do it.
Just take one day at a time, that's all you can do right now. Make small goals and focus on that - write it out if you can. This is what I found helped me. I have a daily list, with my priority and non-priority items.

Your children are very lucky to have you - don't doubt that for a minute!

FWIW - I have been to 2 different practitioners that applied muscle testing. You want to know what the frustrating thing is...... they both tested the total opposite..... one said dairy was fine, the other said no. One said corn was fine, the other said no.......
I'm playing it safe and cutting out the biggies, plus some other things that I've found through diet. I just keep trialing new things when DS is at baseline, and I keep things based on that.

If you're planning on cutting out corn, it is definitely overwhelming at first. I couldn't change everything all at once - I would have lost it. I just made as many changes as I could, a few one week, something the next. That was just my expereince.

You are doing the best you can, and you are doing an amazing job!

[FireWithin]

Oh mama you sound so tired,scared and frustrated. I understand those feelings. The idea of taking corn out is overwhelming. (we did it in december). When you are ready, really consider the corn. Neither one of my boys showed signs of a probelm. The youngest we positive. One removed it became clear it was a problem. You can trial it out and see. Hugs

[WuWei]

Sending strength and peaceful energy. You ARE doing it, mama.


:



Pat

[Chinese Pistache]

Tracy Please don't beat yourself up! You didn't make this happen, and you're doing everything you can to get your kids healthy. What more can any mother do?? You're wonderful!:

Yes, corn is everywhere. It truly sucks. Especially when you're wheat free, too.

I don't put much stock in muscle testing. I've had two experiences (actually 3, 2 for dd and 1 for me) and they were not useful. I'd much rather do an ED.

For your dd, does she just need more calorie dense food? Can you add oil to everything she eats? Was she eating dairy and wheat when she had her bowel problems at Christmas? If so, I'd remove those for a week or two before cutting corn or anything else. In fact, I'd probably take out egg and soy before corn

Be back later. Baby's crying.

[MoonWillow]

It's so hard! I also have an asthmatic/very food allergic dd and I too feel that my other child falls through the cracks. He is starting to act out in ways that have really taken me off guard but its opened my eyes to the reality. This is an incredible balancing act, one that I have yet to figure out. We as mothers can really only do our best, but it is hard when that doesn't feel like enough.
Worrying over the health of a child is beyond stressful, to throw guilt into the mix = :

We had limited success with muscle testing too well, I guess the testing part was ok but the treatment part was pretty much worthless.

I don't know where I am going with this....just offering my empathy I suppose.
You're not alone!

[LaurieG]

You are doing a great job! You're children are so lucky to have you looking out for them.

[rhiasmum]

[Chinese Pistache]

Tracy, how are you doing today? I'm thinking of you and your sweet babies

[Wugmama]

Thanks you guys, no one understands the way you all do. I didn't mean to get so negative, I know so many here have it a lot worse than we do. It is just hard w/the 7 yr old because she is very picky to begin w/ and we just spent the last month transitioning to wheat/dairy free and she has some staples she COULD have like Van's gf/df waffles for instance, and they have soy. And other stuff has corn.

I made muffins two nights ago, she wouldn't even TRY them. I made cookies yesterday, and at first she wouldn't try them, but finally did and is eating those at least. She just doesn't eat much. She was living off of yogurt, and will NOT eat the coconut milk yogurt.

It is hard to take food away from a pitifully thin child. Especially when you don't even know if it will help or hurt her in the long run. I wish there was a reliable test to know what foods she should really avoid. I'm just not that familiar w/the tests, what our options are. I don't think I can get her blood drawn though, don't think I can talk her into it, and NOT to the point of having her held down. Maybe I could bribe her w/enough Webkinz. Plus I guess intolerances wouldn't show up anyways?

Anyways, I should stop whining now.

Thanks you guys, your support means SO much to me.

Tracy

[gilamama]

just so you know my kids dont get their teeth brushed every day either, and only 2 of mine have teeth. my dd's allergies did not fully present untill she stopped nursing. her gut flora went wacky, she got diarhea from milk, wheat corn, chocolate, soy, and she refused to eat anything. foods she previously liked, she would not touch. it was oatmeal for breakfast with lots of coconut oil and probiotics and honey mixed in. sandwich for snack at school, and toast with butter and scrambled eggs at least once a day. all she wanted was oatmeal or bread and butter. as the allergins got out of her system and her gut flora was somewhat restored she got her appetites back. this experience lead me to beleive that healthy guts crave healthy foods and unhealthy guts dont. we eliminated foods based on trial and error with each one we saw a little improvement so i knew it was a no-no. i never even thought about testing at a dr. funny. we did have one really bad muscle testing experience. woman had no idea what she was talking about, gluten bad, spelt and rye okay. all goat dairy fine. NOT!!!! a month of incontinence issues after organic goat yogurt for my 4 y.o. so yeah cant say it worked for us.

hugs. sounds like you are doing fine. well as fine as the rest of us.

[lily7]

Allergy testing:
one allergist that I went to told me that tp test for food allergy is to avoid it for a week and then have a little bit on empty stomach on the 7th day, then measure pulse and observe for reactions. That may work to check for dairy since your DD seems to be living on yogurt. It is rare but dairy is pretty much mainstream of my diet since out of 88 foods I was tested for dairy, turkey and couple of veggies I am not reactive to. Also I am not sure what yogurt you give to your LO, but home made is best out of raw organic milk. Corn syrup is in most commercial yogurts BTW, but I am pretty sure you already know this.
The other option is Vega testing, painless. I am not really sure how proven it is but my ND used it on me after blood esting that did not pick my biggest trigger, after both of us talking thru my daily routine she checked with Vega machine for different foods and founf that I react to Olive Oil of all things, which was for me the biggest trigger.

Hugs to you!!!!

[kjbrown92]

I bribed DS with "Secrets of Droon" books for his blood draws. And it was easier getting blood out of the 3 year old (DS was 8). The muscle testing didn't do much for me either. The ALCAT test did but it's expensive. I took corn back out of DS's diet a couple weeks ago. For me it's not that hard since it's already out of DD2's diet, but since he's already so limited, it IS hard. Then my superhealthy DD1 broke her wrist. When you're already dealing with this stuff, it does seem like every little thing is just huge. And taking just one more food away seems impossible. If it is asthma, it is possible that a regular allergy test will show you some foods, but if there are intolerances, then they just add to the allergy load. Send me your mailing address on PM, and I'll mail you some of the light buckwheat flour (I hope the postal inspectors don't have me on some watch list!). Maybe that'll make you feel better.

[Wugmama]

Thanks you guys. Kathy you are so sweet to offer to mail me flour!

I am still at a total loss about what to do for this kid. She doesn't flush and I saw yesterday that there was blood in the toilet after she went. I guess I should talk to her about getting her blood drawn? Kathy, the Alcat test, does that test for Allergies as well as intolerances? Does it involve a blood draw?

TIA,
Tracy