opinions please... skin itching sals sensitivity or related to mercury issues

[gigismom]

ugh... i am up at 3:00am with a very itchy kid... he scratches in the inside of his elbow, behind his knees, back of the neck and armpits. these areas are also red and rough right now. they looked inflammed. won't stop scratching until the benadryl kicks in. i suspect a sals sensitivity as i have posted before. he was taking a probiotic with fos and we have since stopped that (yesterday morning was his last dose). i also stopped my vit c that had lots of bioflavins in it a couple of days ago. yesterday he had zucchini and tomato sauce for dinner and had a very bad night... needed benadryl to stop scratching. the benadryl works so this says to me that the scratching is due to an allergy. right? i have since noted that zucchini is very high in sals on one of the lists i have found (as is tomato sauce). he has eaten this in the past and i don't remember this severe a reaction but maybe his bucket is more full right now. anyway, he did not eat the left overs for lunch. but did eat sweet potato this morning. also on the list as moderate/high. however, he eats sweet potato all the time and i never thought this was an issue. maybe he is reacting to the sals in my breastmilk from the zucchini/sauce that i ate about 24 hours ago. what do you think? what sals list do you use find most accurate?

could this itching be at all related to the mercury issues i posted about earlier this week? we ordered the hair test. stopped the cilantro last saturday (almost 1 week ago and he only had 2 squirts) and cut back all probiotics to take it easy on our yeast for now. i have not taken any further steps to mop up any mercury because i simply have not had time to do enough research to feel comfortable taking another step. i am taking vit c... found the now brand sodium ascorbate locally that was suggested. i am also taking a multi vit that has many of the other nutrients that were suggested for this purpose and we are both taking extra b12 and folinic acid and magnesium (natural calm... i do use the flavored one...1/2 teaspoon of the flavored and 1/2 teaspoon of unflavored for him because other wise it tastes too strong...hows this on the sals spectrum?)

thanks again for any thoughts

jen

[mamafish9]

Sals reactions can totally be a bucket thing - and the FOS and C may have pushed him over the edge, so now he is reacting to things he usually doesn't. Any flavonoids or herbs in your multi? What flavor natural calm?

[JaneS]

Yep, itching the flexors, same here.

My research is that the mercury plugs up the sulfoxidation pathway and thus causes the body not to be able to process sals.

Try Epsom salts baths, go slow with them
www.enzymestuff.com/epsomsalts.htm

He probably needs B6 and Molybdenum and sulfur himself. The standand amounts in multi vits are not enough to correct a deficiency and an over taxed detox pathway.

www.salicylatesensitivity.com is a good list based on FAILSAFE diet. Tomato sauce and paste is super high in sals b/c it's so concentrated. A few slices of fresh tomato has low amounts.

A nursing mama passes the sals on to her babe so you should watch your consumption as well.

[gigismom]

don't see any flavonoids or herbs in my multivitamin it is Twice Daily by Designs for Health. i have been using the raspberry lemon flavored natural calm all along with no problems. he started to refuse it so i got the unflavored one and mix it so the flavor is not so strong now. so he gets 1/2 teaspoon flavored and 1/2 teaspoon unflavored dissolved in a good amount of water 1x per day... usually at night.

"itching the flexors".... i get the flexor part but is this indicative of something specific... i wish i could get him to take a bath. he had a traumatic experience once when he pooped in the bathtub and now will not get in the tub. he prefers showers and insists that i get in with him and hold him while the water runs over him. (must be nice, right?) maybe if i get in the tub with him he will take a bath with epsom salts. would this change the amount i need to put in the tub? any idea how much molybdenum, b6 and sulfur he might need? i will talk to his chiro about this next week.

[mamafish9]

I do Epsom salts baths with my son - just put the regular 2c in for both of you.

I'd stop the raspberry natural calm, that alone would be enough to have my son sals reacting. I know your son appears to have handled sals in the past, but you're in a new place now (perhaps triggered by the yeast protocol and/or mercury mobilization).

More importantly though - I just looked up your multi. It contains 20mg of alpha lipoic acid (ALA). ALA is a potent chelator of mercury - many people use it on purpose to mobilize and excrete mercury in their bodies. Unfortunately, they stick it in all kinds of supps , but I'd never, ever take it as a nursing mama, especially if there is any possibility of mobilizing mercury.

A smaller issue - the antioxidant blend in the marine softgels contains rosemary extract, which is super high in salicylates.

[gigismom]

Originally Posted by mamafish9

I do Epsom salts baths with my son - just put the regular 2c in for both of you.

I'd stop the raspberry natural calm, that alone would be enough to have my son sals reacting. I know your son appears to have handled sals in the past, but you're in a new place now (perhaps triggered by the yeast protocol and/or mercury mobilization).

More importantly though - I just looked up your multi. It contains 20mg of alpha lipoic acid (ALA). ALA is a potent chelator of mercury - many people use it on purpose to mobilize and excrete mercury in their bodies. Unfortunately, they stick it in all kinds of supps , but I'd never, ever take it as a nursing mama, especially if there is any possibility of mobilizing mercury.

A smaller issue - the antioxidant blend in the marine softgels contains rosemary extract, which is super high in salicylates.

we'll do the epsom salt bath tonight if he will agree...

i am now seriously irked with my chiro she knows i am nursing obviously and i feel should have not recommended the multi or the cilantro/chlorella for me. i realize i bear some responsibility because i can research this stuff too. but isn't this why we seek out medical advice? because we want more informed recommendations and someone to trust? i feel like now i have caused some of my son's issues and he is worse than when we started all this yeast stuff. he is reacting to more foods, skin is a mess and now possibly has a mercury issue my dh was angry last night and told me that he thinks the supplements are what is causing ds symptoms and i should stop everything. maybe he is right. i don't know what to do at this point. i am not a medical expert, though i do work in the medical field and took some biochem in college but most of this stuff is very over my head right now. not to mention i have 2 other kids to care for and work full time. ok enough whining.... mamafish9, thanks so much for looking up my multi vit... actually i figured you would. you are always so helpful and it really seems that our kids have some of the same issues. i don't know what to do next... i want to help my son but am not confident in my own knowledge at all to make informed choices. anyone have a good multi vit recommendation that will have what i need (what's that?) to deal with mercury detox (not mobilizing more)....

thanks

jen

[gigismom]

sorry to have been so whiney in last post... but i am wondering, how have all of you walked down the path that you are on? I am mostly in awe of the knowledge on this board. Do you just research yourself mostly or do you have a hcp of some sort who guides you along the way? I was so happy when i found our chiro especially because her visits are covered by my insurance. but i am realizing that everyone has their limitations and i can not take for granted that she, or any othe hcp, knows enough about these issues to just follow automatically any advice given. kwim? i really love what applied kinesiology has done for us and am also valuing that traditional chiro adjustments she gives me and the kids. what kind of hcp should i look for to guide us through the next stage of this which is the mercury and detox issues? how do i find someone who really knows what he/she is doing? i live in a great area with lots of different kinds of docs... new jersey/nyc metro area. there has to be someone near me who can help us... how to find them?

btw... ds had a great day. played outside all day long. it was over 70 degrees here and he was literally muddy and sweaty. i rolled up his sleeves and let the sun get to his poor skin and he did not scratch once all day that i could see. he is exhausted and happily nursing in my lap now, not scratching. i checked the sals list referenced above in JaneS post before anything he ate. he did have peaches (canned) which i think is moderate and coconut milk ice cream (no chicory) but everything else was low or negligible. I gave him only the unflavored natural calm with some vit c mixed in (no flavonoids). I hope he sleeps better and we start to see the angry red areas on his legs diminish. We will have to try for the epsom salt bath tomarrow.

one more question... he still only poops every 4 days or so... this is an improvement that i hope does not back track now that he is off his probiotic while i wait for the one without fos to arrive...... but i have suspected that he scratches more the longer he waits to poop. is this possible or just a coincidence?

if you read this long thanks. i really appreciate you all so much and hope that at some point i have something to add that might help someone else as much as you have all helped me


peace

jen

[mamafish9]

Hang in there Jen - it is a rough road, especially at the beginning, but you are doing really well. I've been immersed in this stuff now for a year - and I only sound like I know what I'm talking about because you share a lot of our issues . This board is full of wonderful mamas - and you, just like all of us, will be able to learn and give back here too. And whine too .

I don't know what to tell you on docs. I have a family full of chiropractors, but I think most docs of any type don't know enough about metals toxicities and food reactions - and definitely not enough about keeping nursing mamas and fragile kids safe .

A couple of things... try Thorne or Perque for a good basic prenatal/multi. Good forms of most vitamins. I get Thorne stuff at iherb.com for good prices.

For pooping, constipation and infrequent poops were one of my son's major sals symptoms, so you might see that improve quite a bit if you both reduce your sals intake.

And if the itching gets worse when he's not pooping, that suggests mercury/toxins - as poop sits around in the colon, the toxins in the poop get reabsorbed, instead of coming out - so his body has to try to process them over and over. So one of the biggest things you can do to help him with detoxing right now would be to get him pooping more frequently. LOTS of magnesium can help with that (like try dosing him 3-4x a day with 1/2 tsp natural calm and see what that does).

I'd guess that the combo of the ALA and yeast protocol mobilized a lot of your mercury - and if you stop both of those, you'll likely see the acute issue resolve fairly quickly. Then you can try low sals, and work on nutrients. Those are fairly basic steps - I'd do those for a bit and see where you're at. Hopefully his skin will get better and then you'll be in a more relaxed place to consider what comes next.

[gigismom]

here we are again... itching in the middle of the night. he had seemed better each day slightly. today he had less itching and the areas were less red and more "discolored" or brownish... not as inflammed looking. he was scratching MUCH less. but here we are again in the middle of the night and he could not stop scratching so i had to get up and give him benadryl. he also has a slight cold right now too. i think he got overheated in bed and it seems like he scratches more when he is warm. ugh... i am so tired. we have been eating low sals for the last few days so i had credited this with the improvement. but why the flare up tonight again? today he ate: rice pasta with flax oil, salt and onion powder (teeny tiny bit), ground chicken burgers with onion, salt, and ground flax seeds, brussel sprouts, tons of water and nursing... he ate less than usual today because of his stuffy nose. he had his normal vit drops and plain natural calm. he is not taking a probiotic right now because i still haven't found one that is free of dairy and soy and fos and flavors. i ate: lentil soup (red lentils, home made chick stock, carrots, onions, tiny bit of white potato, celery and salt), salad with mixed greens, chicken, onions, lemon, chicken burgers, salad with romaine, a couple of bites of fresh tomato (like maybe 1/2 small slice), onion, lime, brussel sprouts. that's it. maybe the reaction just takes some time to settle down because it got so bad. maybe i should dose him with benadryl more regularily for a couple of days until it is under control. i had to give his orapred a couple of times in the past to stop severe reactions to other things (these reactions including wheezing and hives though) and i don't really want to go there because it makes him crazy but...

on the brighter side, i found an md who practices integrative medicine. a good friend of mine is seeing her with her kids who are on the gaps diet with multiple food sensitivities and a supplement regime. she is having a very good experience with her. her website specifically says that she specializes in mutiple food/chemical sensitivities and biotoxin detox (something like that) including heavy metals. she is not on our ins plan but we are going to go for it anyway. however, i can't get him in until april 19. is this too long to go without doing anything to address the possible mercury issue? well i should not say that we aren't doing anything, we got the hair elements test today and gave him a haircut in his sleep and it will go out tomarrow in the mail. i really guess it is better to make sure what we are dealing with anyway before going forward with any action and this is why we got the hair test. if the hair test comes back that he does have a mercury issue, i do not want to wait until april 19 to address it if that would be dangerous for him in any way. he is so far developing right on track if not a little bit ahead of where my girls were at his age as far as language is concerned... we are raising him bilingual and he speaks/understands both languages. socially he's fine. solves simple problems and gets himself into trouble because of it of course in the past couple of weeks he started a slight stutter which i keep having to tell myself is very common in this age when language is exploding but it is still in the back of my mind as a possible concern. thanks for reading again and any thoughts are appreciated.

peace

jen:yawning

[mamafish9]

Yay for finding a good doc . What either of you ate doesn't sound like it should have triggered a sals reaction.

Being sick can run down lots of nutrients (b's, mag), that make my DS a lot more sals sensitive.

What's in his vitamin drops? Are you still taking your prenatal (in particular the softgels with the rosemary extract)?

[gigismom]

Originally Posted by mamafish9

Yay for finding a good doc . What either of you ate doesn't sound like it should have triggered a sals reaction.

Being sick can run down lots of nutrients (b's, mag), that make my DS a lot more sals sensitive.

What's in his vitamin drops? Are you still taking your prenatal (in particular the softgels with the rosemary extract)?

The vit drops (methyl b12, adeno b12, and folinic acid) are just the vits in purified water from what I can see. I stopped the other multi vit for myself and am now taking one that is herb free. It seems to have none of his triggers per the label. I got it at my local hfs. Maybe this reaction is just taking time to work itself out. We will see how tonight goes

[gigismom]

last night was much better. he did scratch a little bit but not nearly as bad and did not really even wake up completely, I was able to just nurse him back to sleep. His skin is looking much better each day, too. Hopefully, we are on the other side of this reaction. Can't wait to see the new doc next month. Planning to call next week to see if we can get him seen sooner. Thanks so much for your support through this reaction.

jen

[tanyalynn]

It's a tricky topic. I stumbled on a HCP who really knows the topic well--I later realized that a lot of HCPs, even if they recognize health issues as related to heavy metals, don't know how to deal with the problems safely--and then I started educating myself. It's harder when you have to educate yourself first.

If you want some general discussion, the Chelating Mamas thread in Dental does that. It discusses supplements, oral chelation (it's mostly focused on Andy Cutler-style frequent, low dose oral chelation), stuff like that.

http://mothering.com/discussions/sho...lating&page=30

middle of the thread that I had bookmarked

A lot of our path through this is in there. I got sick due to the mercury from my amalgam fillings, my kids (2) have very different symptoms, but their nutrient needs seem to be pretty typical of kids with these issues.