Real Food or EFLF??

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Is there a problem with coconut oil? I love it! I use it for OCM and making popcorn and other things.

I've owned both for awhile now. EFLF I read once, and have picked it up to flip through it maybe twice since. It's worth reading. Real Food, on the other hand, I've lost count of the number of times I've read it all the way through. I love her writing style, and think she does a beautiful job of blending personal experience with good science. She's also extremely pragmatic, which I really appreciate. I've read her newest book (Real Food for Mother and Baby) and it's wonderful!
Yes, I realize I've just written a total love-letter to Nina Planck, and I don't care! :

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How many fermented foods does he eat? Fermented foods colonize the gut better than supplements do, and good gut colonization really helps the immune system as well as reducing the autoimmune response (which is what the asthma is, right?)

For fermented foods for kids, kefir is a good option (mixed with cinnamon is often a big hit), and water kefir is also an option (takes a regular juice and makes it a fizzy probiotic beverage). Yogurt is also good, but doesn't have as many beneficials as kefir and is harder to make. Although I think dogmom has some sit-on-the-counter yogurt cultures, doesn't she? And then there's always homemade sauerkraut/kimchi, which kids sometimes eat.

How much coconut oil does he get? I found that helpful with immunity issues.

Truly unheated, unstrained honey (different from raw) is really helpful with immune and autoimmune issues, too. The propolis in that is really helpful, so if you can't find unheated honey you could maybe order some propolis.

Do you have elderberry on hand?

The hospital isn't fun. I understand your motivation to stay away from it!

We really do not eat a lot of fermented foods. I do buy kefir and yogurt, but that's about it. DS can be such a picky eater. My other 2 eat pretty much anything I give them...some complaining once in a while, but they eat it.

The only time he gets coconut oil is when I make popcorn. I'm not sure how to incorporate it into other foods I make. Someone above mentioned that EFLF uses CO in all of the recipes, so maybe I'll get some good ideas from it.

He also gets a tsp or more of honey every day.

I have some elderberry syrup I had bought once when he was sick, but I don't have any elderberry that I give him most of the time. Honestly, I don't know much about it.

These are the reasons I'm trying to get as many books about TF as I can, mostly because I want to educate myself so that I can make the best choices regarding what we put into our bodies so that we can keep healthy. Esp. DS.

I posted earlier that DH went and bought me the EFLF book, but I also found Real Food on Amazon for really cheap! $10.00, including S&H. No one carries that book within 50 miles of me! I ordered it 2 days ago and am hoping it comes in the mail soon!!.

mbravebird, can you buy kefir water or do I have to make it? And if I have to make it, where would I buy the stuff to do it?

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PLEASE check out Gut And Psychology Syndrome (GAPS) by Natasha Campbell-McBride. I also have a GAPS/SCD thread going here in this forum. I believe it might be very helpful for you.

I just read your post about ideas on how to get your son to eat more coconut oil. And I just had to write another post. Here's what I do to get my DD to eat the things I want her to eat like homemade raw milk kefir, cod liver oil, and butter oil, and flax seed. I put them in smoothies, and she loves them!!! Just maybe melt the coconut oil before you add it. I make a big batch of smoothy and put the left overs in an old glass jar in the fidge for her to drink when she wants to. I put in the blender kefir, bananas, frozen berries, yogurt (just so it's not all kefir because the homemade stuff has a really strong flavor), a 1 1/2 tsp of my clo/bo blend, ground flax seed, and a little organic juice to thin it out because she drinks it out of a sippy cup, and blend it until it's thin and it looks like the flax seeds have been broken down a little bit more. I don't measure any of it except the clo/bo, I just make sure I'm putting enough sweet tasting stuff in it to cover up the flavor of the good stuff. Also, I wouldn't worry about the coconut oil getting hard once it's been blended into the mixture, because the butter oil doesn't separate or get hard in the smoothies I make at all, and butter oil is hard at room temp too.
I'm thinking once I run out of flax seed I'm going to start using hemp seed, because that is supposed to be awesome stuff.
If DD didn't drink her smoothies I'd be really worried about her diet because she's pretty picky.

leila and punkrockmomma, thanks for the links. I'll check them out ASAP!! (I'll look for the GAPS/SCD link, too).

punkrockmomma, I'll have to try out your smoothie recipe. DS isn't the fondest of kefir by itself, so maybe with all the other ingredients, he'll be more apt to drink it. He sounds kind of like your LO.

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If you make the kefir and yogurt, the probiotics will be more numerous and varied and potent, so the little you get in them will pack more punch.

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Kids often like those "nut butter balls" -- mix together some sort of nutbutter, honey, and coconut oil, roll into balls, chill and eat as snacks. Supposedly very very yummy; I've never had them. I think the recipe is in NT.

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You wouldn't give it to him regularly, just when he's sick. We find it very effective over here. It's hard to find it without preservatives, but this website has a great TF version of elderberry syrup that uses raw ACV and raw honey to preserve it: http://www.building-health.com/apith...-8-oz-p-6.html

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Water kefir you'll have to make. Cultures for health has all the options you would need for making your own anything -- including water kefir and easier-than-normal yogurt:
http://www.culturesforhealth.com/zen/index.php

HTH! Good luck with everything.