Detox an infant? UPDATED and new questions

[gabbyraja]

DD is 3 months old. I'm carrying a lot of mercury. I've been trying to heal my gut a little with kefir and ferments, to slow the constant diarrhea, but apparently even the very little I was doing was too much. She's still ebf, obviously, and we're both showing signs of some mercury overload, I think.

I got the advice in another thread to give her probiotics, but is there anything else I can do for her to help her get it out? I was only able to find bentonite locally, not pascalite. Can I give her a little bit of this now and then? I mean, it's just dirt, right? She'll be shoveling that in herself in no time, anyway... Anything else?

[tanyalynn]

At that age, I'd focus on your nutrition and your overall health.  So, avoiding foods that you are intolerant/allergic of (experiment if you haven't found any yet, it seems a common issue for people with heavy metals issues), vit/min supplements that support you, things to help you digest better and absorb nutrients better.  I probably wouldn't give any supps to a baby that age, I don't know if cell salts would be more problematic or more helpful at that age and that's the only one I can think of for an EBF baby so young.  Cell salts seem like a good idea for you, there's a long thread on them in this forum. 

Do you have diarrhea most/all the time?  You may want to consider a diet like SCD, the specific carbohydrate diet, or GAPS (gut and psychology syndrome).  For people with significant digestive issues, sometimes they can be very helpful, and that in turn will help provide a buffer to improve your milk for your LO. 

And I just wanted to say... it's HARD to go slowly and gradually when nursing a baby when you have health problems.  It can feel frustrating, like you need to fix everything now.  Or maybe that was just me.  But I think if you focus on stuff that's supportive of your body, and steer far away from anything that's meant to mobilize toxins, or just sometimes does in vulnerable people, then you can help build up yourself and your LO and then once she's a bit older and transitions more to solids, you'll have new opportunities open up to working on her health.  

[Panserbjorne]

Originally Posted by tanyalynn 

At that age, I'd focus on your nutrition and your overall health.  So, avoiding foods that you are intolerant/allergic of (experiment if you haven't found any yet, it seems a common issue for people with heavy metals issues), vit/min supplements that support you, things to help you digest better and absorb nutrients better.  I probably wouldn't give any supps to a baby that age, I don't know if cell salts would be more problematic or more helpful at that age and that's the only one I can think of for an EBF baby so young.  Cell salts seem like a good idea for you, there's a long thread on them in this forum. 

Do you have diarrhea most/all the time?  You may want to consider a diet like SCD, the specific carbohydrate diet, or GAPS (gut and psychology syndrome).  For people with significant digestive issues, sometimes they can be very helpful, and that in turn will help provide a buffer to improve your milk for your LO. 

And I just wanted to say... it's HARD to go slowly and gradually when nursing a baby when you have health problems.  It can feel frustrating, like you need to fix everything now.  Or maybe that was just me.  But I think if you focus on stuff that's supportive of your body, and steer far away from anything that's meant to mobilize toxins, or just sometimes does in vulnerable people, then you can help build up yourself and your LO and then once she's a bit older and transitions more to solids, you'll have new opportunities open up to working on her health.  

exactly-I'd work to bolster your nutrition so that you handle toxins more effectively (and so will your nursling.)  I'd not focus on detox with such a young baby.

I don't tend to do anything orally for babies until they're eating solids unless there are extenuating circumstances.
 

[gabbyraja]

Well, here's where I get frustrated and don't know what to do. I was doing the ferments and cultures in order to bolster my nutrition, and yet they seem to have ultimately done harm indirectly. So, I'm back to square one and quite lost...

My children have MANY food allergies. I never thought I did, but I literally this year realized my diarrhea gets better when I avoid garlic and onions, and just this month realized that when I was wheat-free I felt much better. So, in addition to eating only a handful of items while nursing anyway (and I do mean a handful. I have cleared about 12 base ingredients past the baby's poor immune system) I have further eliminated these 3 things.

But nothing has EVER actually helped with my yeast. I hadn't had much trouble with yeast through most of my life, 1 or 2 infections, until dc#1 was born and I began my literally constant battle with thrush. It was at some point in that battle that I realized I'd been dealing with bodily yeast (scalp, fingers/toes, etc) my entire life. But it was nothing until it felt like barbed wire tearing my burning nipples off all day, every day. Diflucan for over 90 days straight, oil of oregano, GSE, clortrimazole cream, countless dollars in probiotics, etc, etc and nothing has made it go for any amount of time. Well, except for Merc V 6x 4x/day for a few months after ds#2 was born. Then my dad killed himself, when I was 6 months pregnant w/#4, and I had to take care of everything and move my mom in with us and so on and the remedy mysteriously never worked again (and my money ran out so I couldn't go back to the homeopath to figure it out).

Anyway, I began researching here for my children's teeth, which lead me to cell salts (I'm half-way through that thread now, actually, and we're all taking bioplasma and some of the calcs daily. Thank you for your knowledge PB!) and nutrition, which lead me to cultures and ferments and WAP (I just got the book from the library today).

Sigh, so, I'm trying to heal myself (and my whole family!) and hoping that that also transfers to her. However, based on symptoms this week, after beginning the cultures, it seems that we're feeling some mercury. So, can I heal myself this way? Or do I have to wait until she's nursing once or twice a day, or not at all (4 years or so, really?!)? That's a long time to live with knowing how little of the nutrients from my food I'm absorbing and knowing the fix and not being able to use it.

I'm so confused, and I have so many threads with questions that just beget more questions. I thought I finally knew what I was doing, or at least where to start, but the dangers of exposing her to the mercury seem to be the worse of the 2 evils, and with not being able to fix it if it hits her... I can't figure out if healing me does her more good or more harm. Yes, Tanyalynn, it's HARD to go slowly.

Also, I realize that at 3 months she's probably young, but if I can start giving her things in 3 months, well then that's not quite the sentence that "wait until she's no longer nursing" would be, and I don't feel so bad about needing to wait.

I'm not familiar with the diets you mentioned, so I'm going to look them up. I also don't know what these would be: "vit/min supplements that support you, things to help you digest better and absorb nutrients better." I'm taking fermented CLO, thanks to MDC, and a regular old store-brand B complex and now will be ordering sodium ascorbate, but don't know how much to use. I don't know how to figure these things out, and god-forbid a doctor might know. And for what do you use the epsom salt baths and could they help either of us? Any help you might have, or resources to which you can point me, are welcome. I'm back to not knowing what to do and just doing my best to avoid having to stay home constantly close to a bathroom, all day every day.

[Panserbjorne]

well, it sounds like the remedy was helping oust mercury (and as long as mercury is present yeast will likely be an issue-which you can circumvent a bit by using biotin.)  That's interesting.  Why did you stop the merc v.?  Just because you no longer had a homeopath, or did it stop working?  I'd be inclined to try it with the diet change to improve your ability to excrete it.

I never waited to clean things up until kids were done nursing.  I did address my issues with nurslings-but with appropriate support.  I was also very educated and felt good about my decision.

Sorry-needing to run but don't get too frustrated! 

[Koalamom]

I am very cautious of ferments/cultures as they seem to detox very fast for me and my nurslings aleays get the raw end.  I don't focus on them as much and add in nourishing foods instead and epsom salts baths for mom and baby are great.  I agree that detox should be very slow.

Have you cut out dairy, even butter?

[gabbyraja]

Yes, the Merc V stopped working. I've tried it several times again since and it didn't do a thing. I told her it wasn't working anymore, and we tried for a couple of months to get back to "good", but every time I talked to her it was another $75, even for a 1 minute chat on the phone. And then the new remedy(s) would be $10-15 each and I just could no longer afford her.

Yes, I've always cut out all dairy, even butter. I tried about a tsp of ghee a few weeks ago and the screaming and puking and refusing to nurse was SO not worth it. These are the foods I know she can let me have:

Beef (picking up grass-fed 1/4 next week, along with a whole goat, so wish me luck on goat)

Chicken

Apples

Banana

Cranberries

Lettuce

Tomato

Potato

Bok choy

Sea Salt/Real Salt (no additives)

Cane Sugar

raw honey

Enjoy Life semi-sweet chocolate

Baking soda/baking powder

Spectrum palm oil shortening

coconut oil

Things I know she reacts to:

Dairy

Soy

Corn

Wheat/barley

Legumes

garlic/onions

pear

Citrus (maybe)

absolutely any meats with added anything, like ham, bacon, chicken with added "broth", etc

Other allergens we've had with other kids, so I just avoid them in case:

Egg

Cinnamon

Rice

So, you can see my urgency.She's number 5. I have to do this for at least a year every time. I want to heal my gut that seems to be allowing large undigested proteins and whatnot into my milk (ever notice how a lot of moms never see an allergy while nursing, but only after the baby eats the food themselves? Like her body broke it down enough, but my body doesn't), and heal her body, too, so she can someday eat more than the handful of items I listed above.

I haven't challenged her on anything new. To this point I just try to work on the things she can't have, then I start adding in new things and seeing what happens. I simply haven't yet had the energy to deal with the screaming and refusal to nurse, etc, so I'm existing on the above.

[Panserbjorne]

it certainly sounds like you have the mercury/yeast thing going on from what you're describing.  I do wonder what would happen if you added in the ferments, but supported detoxification?

[gabbyraja]

Originally Posted by Panserbjorne 

it certainly sounds like you have the mercury/yeast thing going on from what you're describing.  I do wonder what would happen if you added in the ferments, but supported detoxification?

Yes, yes, I want to do this, but I guess I don't know how? And didn't think I could do it while bfing. Please school me, old wise one?

[Panserbjorne]

hmm, I don't know how old or wise I am.  lol.

there are a few ways to do it and I tend to tinker because there isn't one approach that works for everyone. 

For this I'd do biotin, green phase detox, glutathione (to protect the breastmilk) and malus pumila remedy in 6x.  I think this would really allow the body to excrete things well.  You can use crab apple essence too, but the malus pumila would be a better choice IMO. 

[gabbyraja]

Old in spirit only, of course! :) Thank you! I'll look up all of your recommendations today. I didn't know there was anything to protect the bm.

[gabbyraja]

She's 6 months old this week, and I need to get this show on the road. I'm hoping you can revisit and give me recs on detoxing her and helping to heal HER gut now that she's old enough to start introducing some things slowly? And anything else you'd like to recommend for me...

What we've changed for me:

-Traditional foods, exclusively - I still avoid allergens, however, though I've been successfully experimenting with homemade raw butter when taking GlutenEase. Turns out with our allergies we were actually unintentionally doing GAPS after we switched to TF!

-added digestive enzymes - Enzymedica's GlutenEase and Digest Gold. I take 2-5 total with each meal, 1-2 with snacks and/or between meals.

-Enzymedica's Candidase

-FCLO

-1 cup each of water kefir and kombucha per day, but almost never vegetable ferments yet (I don't like them, so it's hard to remember and/or force myself)

-Occasional homemade coconut milk yogurt, coconut milk kefir, or coconut juice kefir

-glutathione and biotin daily

-epsom salt baths, epsom salt in my lotion, daily magnesium malate supp 500 mg twice daily (with no diarrhea)

-herbal "wormer"

-sodium ascorbate to bowel tolerance

-New Chapter "All Flora" and "Colon" formula probiotics

-Cell salts - bioplasma and the calcs, mostly

-Occasional FE groupings from FES

-Bitters

-Zinc Supp

What we've changed for baby:

-Nature's Way "Primadopholus" probiotic daily (when I can remember)

-Occasionally bioplasma cell salt

Planning to add for me in the future:

malus pumila

green phase (starting this week)

threelac

So, other than beginning w/real foods for baby when I do begin (which may be a month or 2), what else?