Healing the Gut -- March thread - Page 4

[newcastlemama]

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[Chinese Pistache]

Originally Posted by PapayaVagina

Yes she does react to dairy. I was told on another board that if I cultured the kefir longer that she probably wouldn't have issues with it because it will reduce the lactose

But it may not be the lactose. Lactose intolerance means she lacks the enzymes to digest milk sugar (lactose), but an allergy is a sensitivity to a protein (usually). If she's sensitive to casein, the protein in milk, there's nothing you can do except avoid all dairy products.

[bluets]

Originally Posted by Chinese Pistache

But it may not be the lactose. Lactose intolerance means she lacks the enzymes to digest milk sugar (lactose), but an allergy is a sensitivity to a protein (usually). If she's sensitive to casein, the protein in milk, there's nothing you can do except avoid all dairy products.

if she's sensitive to casein, she's likely not sensitive to casein directly - rather, the opioids associated with casein (beta-casomorphin, for example).

[RachelGS]

Joining you and overwhelmed

I'm overwhelmed trying to catch up to what all of you already know; I'm a babe in the woods here. I have a sick toddler, though. I need your help. He has had lots of abx exposure (both himself and via breastmilk for many months as I was treated for methicillin-resistant staph in my breast) and seems to have some allergies. He has had chronic diarrhea since early December. Nothing is helping. I need some ideas and am all ears. Thanks, mamas.

:

[caedmyn]

Originally Posted by RachelGS

I'm overwhelmed trying to catch up to what all of you already know; I'm a babe in the woods here. I have a sick toddler, though. I need your help. He has had lots of abx exposure (both himself and via breastmilk for many months as I was treated for methicillin-resistant staph in my breast) and seems to have some allergies. He has had chronic diarrhea since early December. Nothing is helping. I need some ideas and am all ears. Thanks, mamas.

:

You might try Nature's Way L. reuteri probiotic for him...it's supposed to work well for normalizing bowel movements in young children. What have you done for him so far? Has he ever been tested for c. difficile (sp?)?

[mrsalf97]

I'm so glad I found this thread. My dh has ulcerative colitis and is in really bad shape again. He even asked me if I would help him go vegan and gluten free. : He eats breakfast and lunch in a moving car so that's the main meals I am struggling with. Oh and I have no idea what to send for snacks. He does not tolerate many fruits or veggies so this is a real challenge for me.

[caedmyn]

Originally Posted by mrsalf97

I'm so glad I found this thread. My dh has ulcerative colitis and is in really bad shape again. He even asked me if I would help him go vegan and gluten free. : He eats breakfast and lunch in a moving car so that's the main meals I am struggling with. Oh and I have no idea what to send for snacks. He does not tolerate many fruits or veggies so this is a real challenge for me.

You may want to consider the Specific Carbohydrate Diet--there's some links in the cheat sheet stickied at the top of the forum. Eggs would be a good breakfast food if he'll eat them, and deviled or hard-boiled eggs are portable. The 24 hour yogurt recommended in the SCD would be a good snack, and you can make lots of things with nuts and nut butters (nuts would be a good snack, also). If you're not vegetarian, chicken, tuna, or salmon salad would be good lunch foods.

[JaneS]

Originally Posted by LovinLiviLou

Very, very interesting. I have always had a low body temperature (hardly ever ran a fever as a child, too), except when I was pregnant with DD #1. I used to call her my little furnace because it was the only time in my life that I didn't have freezing hands and feet. That pregnancy was the healthiest I have ever been, and DD#1 is very healthy (and never cold). DD#2 has a lower body temperature, and I also did when I was pregnant with her, and DD#2 is the one I'm working through all kinds of digestive issues with. DD#2 also has my freezing hands and feet.

Off to read up on wilson's . .

I'm slogging my way thru the Ebook on the site and it's very very interesting and makes a lot of sense. Shorter if you skp all his analogies!

RE: Pregnancy

From Chapter 2
Pregnancy
It should be pointed out that a fetal hormone known as human chorionic gonadotropin also can affect body temperature patterns. When a woman becomes pregnant, the baby begins to produce human chorionic gonadotropin or HCG. HCG can increase the body's metabolism and body temperature patterns. This can explain why women suffering from Wilson's Temperature Syndrome frequently do their best while they are pregnant. Unlike other women who often feel tired, feel depressed, and gain weight easily during their pregnancy, some women who are suffering from Wilson's Temperature Syndrome actually fare much better during pregnancy, enjoying much more energy, less depression than usual, and often having unusual success at being able to control their weight. Some women actually report that during their pregnancies were the only times that they were capable of losing weight with proper dieting and exercise. Interestingly, HCG has been used in the past as a treatment to help people lose weight.

[JaneS]

Originally Posted by RachelGS

I'm overwhelmed trying to catch up to what all of you already know; I'm a babe in the woods here. I have a sick toddler, though. I need your help. He has had lots of abx exposure (both himself and via breastmilk for many months as I was treated for methicillin-resistant staph in my breast) and seems to have some allergies. He has had chronic diarrhea since early December. Nothing is helping. I need some ideas and am all ears. Thanks, mamas.

:

I think a pathogen test is warranted too. A full CDSA from Genova plus the C. diff. if he has symptoms. http://www.gdx.net/home/education/da...documents.html

What about allergy testing... our AAEM Ped sees patients at The Marino Center in Cambridge but not sure they do intradermal allergy testing there. He recommends that b/c it seems to be the most sensitive even though it's a PIA. For us it seemed to be very right on. DS is doing a 4 day Rotation Diet including most of his allergens, excepting those which were really bad on testing, and any I notice poop/skin reactions.

The book Bacteria for Breakfast is excellent at explaining the allergy-gut flora connection.
http://books.google.com/books?vid=IS...hgy0DopR51yjKQ

[JaneS]

Originally Posted by mrsalf97

I'm so glad I found this thread. My dh has ulcerative colitis and is in really bad shape again. He even asked me if I would help him go vegan and gluten free. : He eats breakfast and lunch in a moving car so that's the main meals I am struggling with. Oh and I have no idea what to send for snacks. He does not tolerate many fruits or veggies so this is a real challenge for me.

I wouldn't go vegan. A vegan diet is already difficult enough with his issues with fruits, veggies... and nuts and beans and soy are all hard to digest too! What else is he to eat? And personally I think it's deficient in many nutrients, one reason being that the minerals are harder to assimilate, and fat soluble vitamins are only in animal products.

If I had UC, I would go as raw as I can... raw grass fed animal products that is... they are easiest to digest and contain tons of nutrients and enzymes. Especially raw milk.

Read Aajonus Vonderplanitz' books, very enlightening.
http://www.karlloren.com/aajonus/index.htm

Would he consider The Raw Milk Cure?
http://www.realmilk.com/milkcure.html

See Dr. Ron Schmidt's article here, he had UC: http://www.westonaprice.org/moderndi...icdisease.html

Read Nourishing Traditions to learn how to soak grains and nuts and beans if he is going to eat those.... and why this is essential for easy digestion.
http://www.westonaprice.org/foodfeatures/be_kind.html

Start making bone broths for him, he should have as much as possible everyday:
http://www.westonaprice.org/foodfeatures/broth.html
http://www.westonaprice.org/foodfeat...beautiful.html

[caedmyn]

OH, ICK...THERE'S A DEAD MOUSE IN THE MOUSETRAP!!! Okay, totally OT, but I had to tell somebody! And I can't just leave it there for the next 4 months until DH gets back...which means I have to touch it...ick ick ick. But at least it's not running around my computer chair anymore.

Now on to the real reason for my post...I definitely react to amines, or at least to too many of them, as I discovered after eating chocolate which is very high in amines. The good news is that all but one of the candida symptoms that I thought were coming back are actually amine reactions. The bad news...I don't want to have amine reactions! In hindsight I'm realizing that some of the "die-off symptoms" I had on the candida diet were actually amine reactions. Which kind of makes me wonder if I had candida issues at all, or if I just had digestive issues and malnutrition issues, and the candida diet was nutrient-dense enough to fix the malnutrition, and water kefirs (amines and all) was enough to fix the digestive issues.

Anyhow, I'm working on cutting back on my amine consumption, and I really hope I can just cut back and that will be enough--I do not want to do Failsafe. It will be a huge PITA and it's not a workable long-term diet financially. Also, it seems like everyone who does the diet is/becomes so sensitive that the least little exposure to a food chemical sets off symptoms, and I'd rather feel slightly off all the time than constantly have to be on my guard against food chemical exposures. At least that's my current cost vs. benefit analysis.

Of course I may end up doing Failsafe anyway if I don't see some improvement in DD soon as I'm at a loss to know what else to do for her. She has her first health kinesiology (similar to NAET) appt on Wednesday and I just hope it helps. If she's "cleared" of wheat or tree nuts I should know right away because she had very clear reactions to those in the past even with just one exposure (through BM). I'm really hoping that she'll be cleared, or have outgrown, her dairy intolerance since it's been almost 6 months since I've had dairy. I'm going to start a dairy trial right after her appt. regardless of whether dairy is "cleared" or not...starting with ghee, then butter, then goat yogurt. I'm a bit concerned about her nutrient status since she only eats meat and veggies and doesn't digest most of that, even with enzymes. And her baby teeth are coming in crooked I feel like it would be a huge benefit to her if she can tolerate yogurt, and she ought to be able to digest that easily.

[mum2be]

So what does mucus in dd's poop really mean? That's she still reacting to somethign (she has it everyday, but some days are worse), or is it a sign that her gut is a mess (obviously, right?)...but what is happening and where is that mucus coming from?

The SCD book talks a lot about mucus, but I don't know if they're the same thing

[caedmyn]

Originally Posted by mum2be

So what does mucus in dd's poop really mean? That's she still reacting to somethign (she has it everyday, but some days are worse), or is it a sign that her gut is a mess (obviously, right?)...but what is happening and where is that mucus coming from?

The SCD book talks a lot about mucus, but I don't know if they're the same thing

This is just a guess: I believe the gut normally has a thin layer of mucus to protect it. If things go haywire and the gut is inflammed, it produces more and more mucus trying to protect itself, and some of that naturally comes out in the stool. My DD only has mucus in her stool when she's reacting to something. I would guess that either your DD is still reacting to something, or that her gut is so inflammed that everything is causing more inflammation (so kind of the same thing, I guess).

Are you working with a naturopath for your DD? I don't know if you've considered supplementing her with something like l-glutamine to try to heal her gut. Normally I think all supplementation (other than probiotics) should be done through mama until baby starts solids, but in severe cases you might need to do more than what can be done through BM. Just a though, though.

[moonshine]

Any of you heard of microscopic colitis? Haven't googled yet, but supposedly the GI found it when he did the colonoscopy. My doc said he wasn't quite sure how it could tell that from what he did, but .

Based on the recent posts on SCD, I am wondering if I should consider doing it again (for microscopic colitis and IBS and gastritis). I did it last summer and wasn't sure how helpful it was, but then again I also didn't feel that I did it completely exactly.

[mum2be]

Originally Posted by moonshine

Any of you heard of microscopic colitis? Haven't googled yet, but supposedly the GI found it when he did the colonoscopy. My doc said he wasn't quite sure how it could tell that from what he did, but .

Based on the recent posts on SCD, I am wondering if I should consider doing it again (for microscopic colitis and IBS and gastritis). I did it last summer and wasn't sure how helpful it was, but then again I also didn't feel that I did it completely exactly.

I would definitely give it a go. I have been doing lots of reading on it as my ND thinks it might be something I should try. I have read that if people didn't stick with it 100%, they didn't see much improvement. I guess you have to be really strict! I just called out co-op and I can get a 25 lb bag of almond flour for $184 : I guess the diet is expensive...

Okay....another question:

The past two times I have tried some grape juice (100% organic, no nothing added) I have gotten a really bad headache after and my tummy doesn't feel too good....what's up with that?

[mykidsmyworld]

Hi everyone,

I am new to this thread so I'll need some time to catch up!!
I have been battleing my ds eczema since he was 2 months old and have been seeing a ND for the last two months.
He is balancing his gut right now and says that his skin problmes are from an unbalanced eco system...to much bad bacteria and toxin overload
He had horrible eczema all over his body until a few months ago but now it had all migrated to his face and seems to be getting worse...
He is on probiotics right now and other homeopathic drops.
Our ND keeps telling me that this is a process to clean his gut and rebalance the eco system and to expect his skin to errupt b/c the toxins are coming out...
He has even talked about purging any heavy metals that he has from the past vaccine that he had as an infant.
I need to learn more about this whole gut issue because I am a little confused how it all works.

I guess that is all for now since I have little fingers stopping me from typing!

[buteoridge]

Enzymes through BM?

I am trying to address gut issues in my dd (8 mths) and am curious as to whether or not she can benefit from me taking digestive enzymes since she is EBF. I just started them today, but have been taking probiotics for a few weeks as well. I also give the probiotics to her directly.

She has been having poop problems (green, mucousy, watery, acidic, frequent, etc) for months and we are searching fo the cause through an elimination diet at this time. She has gained very little weight in the past four months (8 ozs I think), so it is clearly causing problems for her growth/development.

I am totally new to this stuff and can use all the help I can get. TIA for your comments.

[LovinLiviLou]

Originally Posted by mum2be

I would definitely give it a go. I have been doing lots of reading on it as my ND thinks it might be something I should try. I have read that if people didn't stick with it 100%, they didn't see much improvement. I guess you have to be really strict! I just called out co-op and I can get a 25 lb bag of almond flour for $184 : I guess the diet is expensive...

Okay....another question:

The past two times I have tried some grape juice (100% organic, no nothing added) I have gotten a really bad headache after and my tummy doesn't feel too good....what's up with that?

I'm going off memory here, but isn't grape juice high in sulfites?

[Chinese Pistache]

Originally Posted by caedmyn

OH, ICK...THERE'S A DEAD MOUSE IN THE MOUSETRAP!!! Okay, totally OT, but I had to tell somebody! And I can't just leave it there for the next 4 months until DH gets back...which means I have to touch it...ick ick ick. But at least it's not running around my computer chair anymore.

Now on to the real reason for my post...I definitely react to amines, or at least to too many of them, as I discovered after eating chocolate which is very high in amines. The good news is that all but one of the candida symptoms that I thought were coming back are actually amine reactions. The bad news...I don't want to have amine reactions! In hindsight I'm realizing that some of the "die-off symptoms" I had on the candida diet were actually amine reactions. Which kind of makes me wonder if I had candida issues at all, or if I just had digestive issues and malnutrition issues, and the candida diet was nutrient-dense enough to fix the malnutrition, and water kefirs (amines and all) was enough to fix the digestive issues.

Anyhow, I'm working on cutting back on my amine consumption, and I really hope I can just cut back and that will be enough--I do not want to do Failsafe. It will be a huge PITA and it's not a workable long-term diet financially. Also, it seems like everyone who does the diet is/becomes so sensitive that the least little exposure to a food chemical sets off symptoms, and I'd rather feel slightly off all the time than constantly have to be on my guard against food chemical exposures. At least that's my current cost vs. benefit analysis.

Of course I may end up doing Failsafe anyway if I don't see some improvement in DD soon as I'm at a loss to know what else to do for her. She has her first health kinesiology (similar to NAET) appt on Wednesday and I just hope it helps. If she's "cleared" of wheat or tree nuts I should know right away because she had very clear reactions to those in the past even with just one exposure (through BM). I'm really hoping that she'll be cleared, or have outgrown, her dairy intolerance since it's been almost 6 months since I've had dairy. I'm going to start a dairy trial right after her appt. regardless of whether dairy is "cleared" or not...starting with ghee, then butter, then goat yogurt. I'm a bit concerned about her nutrient status since she only eats meat and veggies and doesn't digest most of that, even with enzymes. And her baby teeth are coming in crooked I feel like it would be a huge benefit to her if she can tolerate yogurt, and she ought to be able to digest that easily.

I hope the kinesiology thing works for you guys. Good luck with your trial! was so disappointed that Naet didn't work for us, but I'm still hopeful that dd will outgrow her allergies if we can avoid them for the next 2 yrs or so.

We're not doing failsafe, but I've pretty much decided that dd has a salicylate sensitivity. I'm hoping it's connected to her gut issues and that when we can work those out, she'll be able to tolerate more high sal foods. We've recently reintroduced grapes (limited in number) and she's doing great with them--no reactions! I hope it means her gut is getting better.

I'm still trying to get all the right enzymes into my dd. I wish she wasn't such a picky eater. She's still so small

[mum2be]

Originally Posted by LovinLiviLou

I'm going off memory here, but isn't grape juice high in sulfites?

Sulfties, eh? I know wine is, right? So that could be true.

But then I've been noticing that if I have any sugar, I get headaches. So the grape juice has sugar IN it, not added though, but it is still super sweet. Could it be the sugar? If I have a candida problem, would sugar do that to me? The only thing that doesn't give me headaches with a tad of sugar in it is Green and Black's Organic dark chocolate I have two squares (they're teeeeeeny!) a night...I know, I know...I probably shouldn't while I'm nursing but it's sooooooooo yummy