LaurieG
08-19-2009, 12:27 PM
I haven't been here much in recent months - I've had some other things that needed my focus. But we're at a point in our path to better health that I could really use some other brains working so I thought I'd give an update.
We've identified DD's sensitivities as milk, soy, magnesium stearate, and rice/ hemp/ almond milk (I haven't been able to find a common ingredient that is the problem, and other things with guar gum or carageenan like coconut milk ice cream seem to be fine with her so I don't know). DD is almost 22 months. We've been working with an ND for both her and I and have had some success with decreasing the severity of her rxs, most notably she doesn't seem to get diarrhea as easily and her sleep isn't as badly effected by an exposure. For months now we have successfully kept her off milk with no exposures. Then about 3 weeks ago we went on vacation and I trialed deli meat on the sandwiches we packed. I think her skin on her face got a bit redder and rougher (she has KP all the time on her face, upper thighs, and upper arms) but otherwise she didn't seem to react too badly. Then last week twice in 2 days she climbed up on to the table and drank her brother's cups of milk. By saturday she had a bright red, bumpy, itchy rash all through her hairline, behind her ears and upper back. The rash is still there. She has never had anything this severe before in skin rxs, but then again she has never drank milk straight before either. We've known since her 1st week that she was milk intolerant and have always limited it to some degree. But her typical milk rxs (congestion, diarrhea) did not occur. In fact she had a cold already at the time she drank the milk and it cleared up in the few days after that. Before she would certainly have gotten an ear infection. One other possible explaination for the rash is that she climbed out of the bath before getting her hair fully rinsed last week and DH didn't feel like fighting her, so maybe the shampoo is irritating??? But it's the same shampoo we've used on her since day 1 so IDK.
We are basically doing just probiotics, digestive enzymes, and a homeopathic remedy for her. We were very good about doing all 3 but then we lost the digestive enzyme and probiotic on vacation and haven't replaced them so maybe that accounts for some of the set back (her sleep has also been really bad again for the past 2 weeks about).
As for me, I've had some improvement with my fatigue level. I've been assuming I had some adrenal fatigue issues going on and maybe now that DD is sleeping better at night my adrenals are responding. But last month I did the saliva test and surprisingly my cortisol levels are good all day. My DHEA was a little elevated so I'm going to start taking Rhodiola for that. My stool test came back with 2 kinds of bacteria (measuring at 4+), no measurable level of beneficial flora, and a 1+ rating of candida and other yeast. The ND thinks this is the cause of all my symptoms (muscle and joint pain, acne, the leaky gut issues, fatigue, etc) and we really want to address these things but we're finding it nearly impossible to find what I need that has no dairy, soy, and especially mag stearate in it. Under other circumstances the ND would want to treat the bacteria with an antibiotic since the testing they did in the lab showed limited response to herbals, but of course there's the issue of DD nursing and the abx being in BM. So then we thought we'd just try the herbals, but I have not been able to find the ones I need without mag stearate.
The ND would also like DD to be taking a zinc supplement as her zinc levels are low but again - can't find one without mag stearate. Same issue with Vit D for me.
So I feel a little bit at a stand still - there are some limited things I can do to heal myself right now but much of the heavy duty healing seems like it has to wait until DD weans. Maybe that's okay - I've probably been dealing with this stuff for 15 or 20 yrs so what's another yr to that right? On the other hand, now that I know I want to keep going. And so I'm thinking about how much longer DD will be nursing. She's almost 2 so she's certainly old enough to wean. But BM is still a major nutrient source for her. She has some kidney issues that cause her to have a poor appetite and some days BM is about the only thing she wants. The same kidney issue can lead to leaching of calcium (though theoretically its being treated now so that is no longer an issue) but still I feel like calcium is an area of weakness in both our diets and BM at least gives her a good source.
So, I have precise questions. I guess I just wanted to throw this out there and see if anyone has any thoughts for how I can proceed. One specific area of concern though is DD's eczema. Since severe eczema is new to me I don't really know what to do for her. I have been avoiding giving her benedryl (though the pedi said I could) because of the side effects and b/c I'm not sure it would be helpful. In theory her rxs are not histamine responses (since she was neg on RAST and skin prick testing) so I wasn't thinking an antihistamine would help but maybe I'm wrong. I don't want to do a steroid as my 1st line of defense. So I've just been applying lotion. Any thoughts on that?
TIA -
Laurie
We've identified DD's sensitivities as milk, soy, magnesium stearate, and rice/ hemp/ almond milk (I haven't been able to find a common ingredient that is the problem, and other things with guar gum or carageenan like coconut milk ice cream seem to be fine with her so I don't know). DD is almost 22 months. We've been working with an ND for both her and I and have had some success with decreasing the severity of her rxs, most notably she doesn't seem to get diarrhea as easily and her sleep isn't as badly effected by an exposure. For months now we have successfully kept her off milk with no exposures. Then about 3 weeks ago we went on vacation and I trialed deli meat on the sandwiches we packed. I think her skin on her face got a bit redder and rougher (she has KP all the time on her face, upper thighs, and upper arms) but otherwise she didn't seem to react too badly. Then last week twice in 2 days she climbed up on to the table and drank her brother's cups of milk. By saturday she had a bright red, bumpy, itchy rash all through her hairline, behind her ears and upper back. The rash is still there. She has never had anything this severe before in skin rxs, but then again she has never drank milk straight before either. We've known since her 1st week that she was milk intolerant and have always limited it to some degree. But her typical milk rxs (congestion, diarrhea) did not occur. In fact she had a cold already at the time she drank the milk and it cleared up in the few days after that. Before she would certainly have gotten an ear infection. One other possible explaination for the rash is that she climbed out of the bath before getting her hair fully rinsed last week and DH didn't feel like fighting her, so maybe the shampoo is irritating??? But it's the same shampoo we've used on her since day 1 so IDK.
We are basically doing just probiotics, digestive enzymes, and a homeopathic remedy for her. We were very good about doing all 3 but then we lost the digestive enzyme and probiotic on vacation and haven't replaced them so maybe that accounts for some of the set back (her sleep has also been really bad again for the past 2 weeks about).
As for me, I've had some improvement with my fatigue level. I've been assuming I had some adrenal fatigue issues going on and maybe now that DD is sleeping better at night my adrenals are responding. But last month I did the saliva test and surprisingly my cortisol levels are good all day. My DHEA was a little elevated so I'm going to start taking Rhodiola for that. My stool test came back with 2 kinds of bacteria (measuring at 4+), no measurable level of beneficial flora, and a 1+ rating of candida and other yeast. The ND thinks this is the cause of all my symptoms (muscle and joint pain, acne, the leaky gut issues, fatigue, etc) and we really want to address these things but we're finding it nearly impossible to find what I need that has no dairy, soy, and especially mag stearate in it. Under other circumstances the ND would want to treat the bacteria with an antibiotic since the testing they did in the lab showed limited response to herbals, but of course there's the issue of DD nursing and the abx being in BM. So then we thought we'd just try the herbals, but I have not been able to find the ones I need without mag stearate.
The ND would also like DD to be taking a zinc supplement as her zinc levels are low but again - can't find one without mag stearate. Same issue with Vit D for me.
So I feel a little bit at a stand still - there are some limited things I can do to heal myself right now but much of the heavy duty healing seems like it has to wait until DD weans. Maybe that's okay - I've probably been dealing with this stuff for 15 or 20 yrs so what's another yr to that right? On the other hand, now that I know I want to keep going. And so I'm thinking about how much longer DD will be nursing. She's almost 2 so she's certainly old enough to wean. But BM is still a major nutrient source for her. She has some kidney issues that cause her to have a poor appetite and some days BM is about the only thing she wants. The same kidney issue can lead to leaching of calcium (though theoretically its being treated now so that is no longer an issue) but still I feel like calcium is an area of weakness in both our diets and BM at least gives her a good source.
So, I have precise questions. I guess I just wanted to throw this out there and see if anyone has any thoughts for how I can proceed. One specific area of concern though is DD's eczema. Since severe eczema is new to me I don't really know what to do for her. I have been avoiding giving her benedryl (though the pedi said I could) because of the side effects and b/c I'm not sure it would be helpful. In theory her rxs are not histamine responses (since she was neg on RAST and skin prick testing) so I wasn't thinking an antihistamine would help but maybe I'm wrong. I don't want to do a steroid as my 1st line of defense. So I've just been applying lotion. Any thoughts on that?
TIA -
Laurie