Did your intuition help with figuring it out?

[DevaMajka]

Just wondering if intuition or gut feeling ever plays a role in figuring it out.

My intuition sucks, but it seems like my subconscious *must* know something I'm not aware of. Our subconscious is aware of teeny details that we don't even know exist. Seems like it could be useful. But so far, that's a no go for me. Or maybe I just need to listen better. I overthink and overanalyze things, I think.

[tanyalynn]

I think it's helped, but not with specific knowledge-based details. I mean--on my own, I never would've twigged to my amalgams being a problem, but even though I couldn't get a doctor's help when I felt horrible and was pregnant, I knew something was wrong. And even after DS was born and my fatigue was bad, I never doubted whether it was normal new-baby, adding a second child to the family type of fatigue. And I could tell that things were off with DS, not drastically, need-a-specialist off, but he was vulnerable in a way DD wasn't and again, although I could point to specific stuff, it wasn't the type of thing I ever mentioned to our FP because I knew it was too subtle.

Connections that I read about tend to jump out at me when they're pertinent to our situation, that happens a lot. Sometimes, of course, it's just good old fashioned trial-and-error, see what happens if I do X (or in retrospect, figure out how I screwed up ), but I started to get a framework for what was going on just by seeing connections between things.

[mamafish9]

Very much like Tanya. I read a LOT, gather lots of info. I think intuition is very helpful in honing in on details or ends of string that lead to an important piece for us. But it needs to be informed by lots of reading and testing. The latest test I did for DS showed low amino acids, for example, which I never would have guessed (he eats protein all day long).

[rhesp1212]

My mother's intution hasn't failed me yet regarding my son's sensativities. It all started with a rash on his face and pedi kept telling us it was from the constant drool and heat rash. My gut kept telling me it was food related, and sure enough....after lots of trials, testing and eliminations we discovered that he has a tremendous list of food sensativities!! Once we eliminated all of them, the rash went away, his reflux stopped and his sleep improved all together!!!

[lightheart]

For us, after 4 rounds of antibiotics with no clearing of the "upper resp. infection" we thought our son had - I said out of the blue to the primary, 'can we get a referel to an allergist?' turns out I hit the nail on the head.

What is odd though is about half the foods that little guy is allergic to are ones that he doesn't like or refuses to eat. The other half are the ones he craves!

[sbgrace]

I trust my intuition but it doesn't mean I figure things out fast.

With Andrew I "knew" food was hurting him before he was even a year old. I just knew it without any evidence. We (pediatrician and I) thought maybe allergies (despite no eczema let alone hives or similar allergy signs) and eliminated all top allergens when he was 18 months. No improvement. We tried many diets ending with a health disaster of a SCD trip that went on way too long. In scouring for what fit my very sick by this point three year old son late one night I ran across his (eventually dx'd) metabolic condition. I was right about food being the issue...but it was fat! That never crossed my mind/metabolics never crossed my mind as I was stuck on allergies/yeast/bacteria/etc. that I kept reading about. So in that case information both made it harder to see the real issue and, in the end, helped me find the actual issue (no doctor or specialist we were seeing would have ever figured it out).

With Caleb I felt in my gut he was reacting to something (GI) even though people on other allergy boards and his pediatrician were saying it was likely unrelated/constipation. And...it was cinnamon. It took me months to figure it out even with a rotation diet.

Time and again on the special needs board I see mothers have an intuition about their child even in the face of everyone else saying things are fine (that was me too). Parents are almost always right about the "something is up" even if they can't put their fingers on "what" exactly or their conclusions are wrong.

[DevaMajka]

I think my intuition did make me follow the food intolerance route. But I'm pretty sure that overthinking it is making it take longer than it should have! lol.

[dulce_mami]

When I mentioned to the dr. that my then 4 mo old DD might have allergies (bc. of terrible, bleeding eczema, crying, bad sleep issues, being sick every couple of weeks, poor weight gain etc), he said: don't worry, she will likely outgrow it, and you can drive yourself crazy trying to figure out what she is allergic to. I went to a couple more drs., nobody gave too much credit to my ``allergy hypothesis". When family members, including DH, thought she was fine against all my proof to the contrary, I thought I must be indeed crazy. So, I stopped looking at the obvious thing and I believed cystic fibrosis and other kinds of terrible things could be the issue. *This* is how I drove myself crazy. When my DS was born, I thought that with all my experience with my DD, I should be able to figure out his food problems. Wrong. After weeks on TED he had only a couple of normal looking BM, still don't know what the ``safe" foods are (however, he is doing MUCH better than DD). I can't play the game from the side of ``defense" anymore, bc. it is just too much stuff that the kids react too, and I can't imagine feeding them supps their entire lives. We must find a way to get them out of our food, so I am on offense now against what I believe is the major culprit: yeast. Very difficult to cut the sweets with my kids (and me) that crave them, but in my rational moments (which are not many on some days ...) I know that unless we get the yeast under control we will never be well. This is why I say that intuition is one factor, but there are more at play: self confidence, strength to follow the difficult path, and on some days just being able to let go and accept things the way they are.

[kjbrown92]

I think intuition plays a part in crystal testing/dowsing. When DS was born and started vomiting every meal, I did take dairy out and it stopped. The rest was trial and error. But I do think the crystal testing is definitely intuition-based, but I forget to use it. And the stool test told me stuff that we definitely didn't know about DS.

[dannic]

It was def intuition for me that kept me thinking, "this is not normal". I believe it was inspiration that led me to the right keys the first time. (Intolerances to gluten, dairy, and soy). I took those three out first, as well as all refined sugars to help control yeast and things immediately began getting better--I do wish I'd have journaled at that point.
From there, it's still intuition and inspiration, but there's always the hard work of following it, following through with it, and leaving the opinions of others behind. (like pp said) And there's a lot of self-education involved in following your gut--at least, there has been for me! Once you find a path, you have to figure out how best to follow it.