my novel- me: breastfeeding, mercury issues, possible MTFHR, baby has eczema, dairy & gluten...

[aldensmom09]

Hi folks,

I have been reading through threads about detoxing, nursing, allergies, detox pathways, candida, etc, etc, etc, and I am feeling SO overwhelmed. I am not sure that I have a specific question, even. I am just not sure where to start with healing my body, and where this healing fits in with breastfeeding and TTC.

I'm notorious for blabbering on in circles, so I'm going to try to keep this (relatively) short and somewhat organized (which seems difficult as it is all related).

Firstly, I am breastfeeding my 19.5month old son. He is a heavy nurser. Although he'll eat just about anything we offer him (not picky, lots of variety), he eats very little in terms of quantity, and I would say he's still getting 60-75% of his nutrition from my milk (just a guess).

-Mercury: I have enormous (read: lumps of metal the size of an entire tooth held on to the root by screws) mercury fillings. Have always had problems with my teeth- mouth too narrow, dentists were shaving down the sides of my teeth to try to help them fit better, malformed enamel, space maintainers, braces, fluorosis, the works. Had major gum graft surgery 2-3 years ago. I am VERY concerned about mercury toxicity as I seem to have just about every symptom in the books (fatigue, irritability/anxiety/emotional stuff, foggy brain, tinnitus, dry/flaky skin, very sensitive to light, cold hands and feets, hard to regulate temperature, receding gums). Have also had occupational exposure to mercury (broken thermometers, CFL lightbulbs, etc). I would very much like to get my fillings replaced but wanted to wait until we are done nursing, and and there is the whole other issue of wanting to have more babies, whether I should get these out before the next baby or hope they last until after I'm done, etc... which is a huge dilemma that I am facing...

-Possible MRFHR: I am just now learning about this, and to be honest I don't know much yet. But here is why I think this might be a factor: My mother lost her first baby at 5 months. She had a healthy baby the next year, then lost her 3rd baby several hours after birth at 36 weeks, baby had severe spina bifida, club foot, cleft palate. One year later she had me. I have had 2 miscarriages. Both at 6.5ish weeks. 1st one needed cytotec to complete. 2nd one everything appeared fine, did not find out until 11.5 weeks that babe had stopped growint at 6ish weeks (everything else had continued.). Cytotec failed to complete miscarriage, got huge infection, needed D&C, my OB said plaenta was adhered abnormally thick to uterine wall, lining was still abnormally thick after D&C. Depression/anxiety seems to run in my mother's side of the family. I was also taking a lot of extra folic acid as advised by my OB- 800mcg in my prenatal and another 4000mcg as well. My pregnancy with my baby Alden was healthy until at 34 weeks I developed high blood pressure, low platelets, some funky liver function, and then had a partial placental abruption at 35 weeks. It apparently wasn't pre-E because I never did spill protien in my urine, but other than that it looked like pre-E progressing to HELLP. I've never been tested for anything related to this, and do not know what that entails, what the best tests are, etc.

-Allergies: Sometime during pregnancy I developed eczema on my knees and elbows, which I never had before then. My son also has eczema, mostly on the back of his neck. He had cradle cap as an infant, which I massaged calendula oil into and it went away. Since cutting his hair for the first time a week or two ago, I've noticed that he has what looks to be mild, thin cradle cap again. We very seldomly wash his hair, since he seems to be dry-skinned like his dad as it is. When he was 2 weeks old, he started getting "colicky". He'd scream for hours, be filled up with gas, lots of green poop and diaper rash. I discovered that this seemed to be triggered by me consuming dairy. It was a confusing time, I also went gluten free for a while, it was so hard to pinpoint what was triggering his reactions, but dairy, for sure, was a big culprit. Aside from 36 hours of formula supplementation when he was 4-5 days old (I would nurse, then give him about 15 mL formula, he had lost 14% of his birthweight and the nurses forbade me to give him my sister's breastmilk, which is another huge issue altogether), but anyways aside from that formula he was exclusively breastfed until about 7 months, at which point we started introducing some solids. I was "dairy free" until he was 7 months old, at which point I tested the waters a bit- he didn't react as violently as before, but did have a screaming fit (then again he was teething, too), so I kept dairy out of my diet until he was about 14 months old. I now eat cheese and ice cream on occasion and he seems fine with it. He is dairy and gluten free himself though.

-Nutrition/Supplements: I've always been a big dairy and carbohydrate/starch person. In fact during my pregancy with Alden, I ate A LOT of both. I realize now that my diet during my pregnancy (and life up till recently) has NOT been so great, though I thought I was doing pretty well. Recently I got into reading about Weston Price and got Sally Fallon's "Nourishing Traditions" and have been trying to eat more along the lines of Traditional Foods, though still struggling at times (lots of bone broths, though, and I've stopped eating breakfast cereals- which I used to be addicted to, and ate several times a day- and started eating kasha, rice, stone ground oatmeal, quinoa, etc, which I soak overnight). I've been eating mostly organic and pasteured meats for years though, but I definitely have a sweet tooth, and a salty one as well. As far as supplements go, 1 take 2 tsp of fish oil a day (when I remember, which is maybe 3 times a week) and a cod liver oil capsule with a meal (also just when I remember, probably 3 capsules/week). I used to take prenatal vitamines (the SISU brand), as well as folic acid (usually just a generic one) I took these for several years while trying to get pregnant, and during the first while of nursing as well, but haven't taken them in months. My naturopath recommended magnesium because I told her about my chocolate cravings (it seems i NEED to end a meal with a few squares of really nice dark dark chocolate), but I haven't been taking it regularly. That's about it. In general I'd rather get my nutrients/vitamins/minerals from foods, but am realizaing that I might have deficiencies that my diet is just not adequate to resolve.

Any advise at all is greatly appreciated. I feel like this is all connected, I just don't know how, and maybe more bells are ringing for the experienced people here. THanks so much in advance.

[tanyalynn]

I'm going to direct you to a post in the Chelating Mamas thread for a fairly straightforward, low risk way to see whether mercury is your issue.  Nothing jumps out at me saying no, really NOT your issue, but other things can do similar stuff to us, or as some people on this thread have discovered, once you're susceptible to one major issue, another can set in (a few people have significant metals issues and lyme, for example).

It's post 582, should be near the top of this page....

http://www.mothering.com/community/forum/thread/435848/chelating-mamas/580

There are some caveats on nursing moms (you can be more likely to fail one of Cutler's counting rules), so if you can, testing both you and your son may show best what's going on.  I tested my daughter as a proxy for the entire family--my health fit with the timing of my amalgam placement so I was pretty sure mercury was the issue, I was looking to see if any other metals were elevated. 

I've written a lot more, in more depth, over in that thread, but I'll mention some of the high points here, ask more if you want.

I weaned my son (2nd child) when he was 21 mos old, in order to get my amalgams out.  Sadly--or not--weaning was good for his health.  Like yours, he was getting a good chunk of his calories via my milk at that age, but his temperament is pretty easygoing and cutting back on breastmilk and eventually weaning were easier than I expected--sad for me, quite emotional, but it was for the best.  In retrospect, I wish I'd weaned him earlier, but that's a very personal, and individual, view. 

DS is 4.5 years old now, my DD is 7.  If/when we have a third, this is a longer break between children than we originally planned, but several factors were involved.  I think Cutler's recs on spacing after amalgam removal are good, he says 18 mos from removal to conception and I agree.  Roughly somewhere around 12 mos post amalgam removal (it's rough, data's not huge, this is not set in stone) circulating mercury levels are at about the same level as before the amalgams are removed--people often feel better in the first few months post- amalgam removal, then they feel worse and circulating mercury goes up--I felt this, it wasn't debilitating but my mood and energy took a noticeable dip--so you don't want to be pregnant then.  Or TTC really--I want a reasonably stable and balanced environment in my body for a few months before conception as eggs are developing, before one actually goes all the way and is released--that's why I now think that extra 6 months beyond 12 is really helpful. 

After that--I was still chelating myself at 12 and 18 mos post-amalgam removal and beyond--balancing this stuff when you already have a child, or two in my case, is tricky.  I'm not sure how I would've done w/o kids, just being employed, I don't think that would've been a picnic either--I'm just saying that real life, with its real demands, slows stuff down.  And then I started managing the kids' pills more and tried to make more progress chelating them.  Balancing two is harder than one.  I think it's quite possible that I'll be done with extra pills for the kids this year, done chelating them, done with the piles of pills they take.  I am deciding, for myself, that I will be healthy enough by the end of this month to stop chelating and just spend 5-6 months making sure nothing is lingering, circulating around, and work on building myself up nutritionally, with a combo of pills and food, but aiming toward developing a diet that meets most of my nutritional needs, ideally so I just need a few supps to help.  But if I need more (not sure how this is going to work), I'll be okay with that. 

Neither of my kids has ever had a spectrum-related diagnosis, but both have health and behavior manifestations of the mercury impairing their body's ability to function properly, plus the other things that accumulate when your detox pathways are so impaired--enviro chemicals, other metals, who knows what-all.  So even without a diagnosis, I felt very strongly that their long-term health was at risk due to growing in me, and I wanted to do what I could to fix this when they were young--part of the reason that if/when I TTC again, there will be a 6-year gap between kids #2 and #3. 

In terms of supps now... regardless of what's causing your issues, things like a good multivit (I like Thorne because it has real folate which sounds like it may be important for you), you may want extra, maybe an extra basic B complex that will have a bit extra folate as well (also Thorne, I mean).  Vitamin C to bowel tolerance was helpful (also supportive for the adrenals), it helps with circulating toxins and it passes in breastmilk.  Think about food intolerances--cutting out food intolerances is like removing daily toxins--they're a burden on our livers to deal with, taking up space that could be handling metals we've already got or other circulating chemicals we've already got.  Gluten and dairy to begin, and then consider more depending on how you feel and what type of symptoms you've got. 

For a multi-mineral, I like Perque's Bone Guard Forte, pricey but nice.  But some of the Thorne multi-minerals, Biomins, Citramins, names like that, are pretty good and easier to buy.  Some people have blood pressure issues due in part to needing extra magnesium, so a stand-alone mag may be helpful too.  The better supported I am nutritionally, the less I crave foods that aren't good for me. 

Oh, tinnitus.  Some people have it resolve with supplemental B12, B12 is weirdly depleted in people with heavy metal issues, and a few people (less than MTHFR) genetically need a bit more (or a whole lot more) B12 than others.  Hydroxy B12 is usually the best tolerated, you could start there with a sublingual and taper up, see if the tinnitus reduces.  I am now taking methyl B12, my kids and I do well with supplemental methyl groups, but not everyone does, and we did hydroxy B12 for a long time, which I think was helpful.  You'll probably find methyl B12 at a healthfood store, I've only seen hydroxy B12 online. 

[aldensmom09]

thank you so much for the info! that chelating mamas thread is awesome (and HUGE), that is going to be a huge source of info for me. wow, there are threads linked to threads linked to threads, and i have  LOT of learning to do, but i am excited to start.

my husband and i talked a lot yesterday about all of this, and we're both OK with waiting a few years to ttc if that is what it takes. my plan is to get back to see my naturopath. it will probably take a few weeks or a month to get in to see her. she carries the thorne supplements and i'm sure can help me figure a few things out too. i want to see my regular doctor to get tested for MTHFR and see if he can order any hair or urine tests (i'm in canada, i have no idea if this would be covered by our MSI, or by my personal health care plan, but it is possible), if not, i guess i will do the hair test through one of those direct labs that many of you use. i'm going to get in contact with the biologic/holistic dentist (the closest one is a 5 hour drive away, unfortunately), and start figuring out a plan for replacing all my fillings. i guess i have a lot of learning to do there as well, i've heard that some of the non-mercury fillings are loaded with bpa, etc, so i'll have to do my research on that. i'm planning to continue nursing until my baby is 2ish, and arrange to start getting those fillings out immediately afterward. in the meantime, i'm going to really focus on diet.

so please correct me if i am wrong, but because i am nursing, and because i have tons of mercury in my mouth, i want to avoid "detoxing" completely for now, right? i was reading somewhere that lemon in water, and most "detox" or chelating supplements are a no-no because i don't want to mobilize that mercury. but i do want to support my liver function, right? what things would be good for that- i've read that milk thistle might be a good one? are there others that i should be considering?
 

people were saying that candida binds mercury, and so you don't necessarily want to kill of a lot of candida while nursing. i had read about using bentonite clay to bind toxins and excrete them, but my bottle of bentonite says "candida busters" or something similar, so i'm not sure if i should stay away from that. also, i am thinking of going sugar/dairy/gluten/caffeine/alcohol free. is this a good idea (giving my body a much easier time), or could this result in mobilization of toxins (specifically metals) by itself?

so for the next 5 or 6 months i plan to just read and learn as much as i can about detox and chelation, and get set up for my fillings to be replaced, and eat really, really well. i'll keep searching and reading on these threads, which are LOADED with information and experience and seem so so valuable. but of course, any more input is very much appreciated!!

thank you for your help as i start figuring all of this out.