Hen23's Journal~Goodbye

[Henrietta23]

DS and I had our appointments with the naturopath today. I liked her a lot. She was awesome with DS. Listened to what my concerns were and talked to him. She is suggesting a month dairy and gluten free for him. His fidgetiness, dark circles under his eyes, perpetually red ears (external) and pale skin all are suggesting gluten intolerance in particular to her. So we'll see how that goes. We start tomorrow.
She ordered about 3 pints worth of bloodwork for me. She's strongly suspicious of food intolerances with me too, gluten being her favorite culprit. No dietary changes until she gets it all back. She's looking at a bunch of other things too.
We came home with some supplements and a plan. I'm feeling really encouraged.
Tomorrow, depending on the weather, we'll head out to Whole Foods and our local food co-op. DS is NOT happy about having to go without milk for a month. He's not a big fan of soy or rice milk to drink.
We're off from school for the week. Chance of some snow tonight, but not a lot in our part of the state. It shouldn't slow us down too much. Not that we have a lot planned. I'm hopping to get into the pantry and cupboards for a good cleaning out. It's time, gluten free or no. Haircuts tomorrow. Would love to drive up to Vermont for a day but we'll see. We're busy Wednesday and Friday nights so we can't go then.
One thing the doctor recommended was getting the carpet out of the house. We'd been planning that but DH has been resistant. Now that he heard her say it he's more willing. It may even happen this week.
We're enjoying the Olympics. DS is in love with snowboard cross and short track speed skating.

 

[freemotion]

I love going to naturopathic doctors! They spend so much time with you, listen to you, and educate you, giving you steps you can take to take control of your health.

Please, please, please do some research on soy before giving it to your son in the form of soymilk. Here is a place to start: http://www.westonaprice.org/Soy-Alert/ If you scroll down on this page, there are links to 58 articles to choose from on soy. I know you weren't asking for advice, but....read, and you'll see why I butted in. It's 'cause I care.

 

[dragonlaurel]

Can he have almond milk? Lots of people love it.

 

[Farmfresh]

Gluten intolerance can be determined with a blood test alone. That is the route I would take. You do have to be eating gluten at the time so don't give it up until AFTER you have the test.

I am curious as to why she wants to make so many different changes at one time. Scientifically speaking you should only change one variable at a time and then give it a few weeks to see how it goes.

I for one did not want to give up my gluten laden bread, but I would REALLY suffer if they took my milk!

 

[Dace]

Good luck!

My advice (from experience!) is do not go out and purchase a bunch of gluten free 'replacement' foods. They are just not the same and you will be disappointed in a lot of them (ok nearly ALL)....talk to people about their favorite replacements and try those. We have some GF people here who can probably recommend a few brands.

I hope it goes well and you are able to pinpoint the trouble foods!

 

[Henrietta23]

I love going to naturopathic doctors! They spend so much time with you, listen to you, and educate you, giving you steps you can take to take control of your health.

Please, please, please do some research on soy before giving it to your son in the form of soymilk. Here is a place to start: http://www.westonaprice.org/Soy-Alert/ If you scroll down on this page, there are links to 58 articles to choose from on soy. I know you weren't asking for advice, but....read, and you'll see why I butted in. It's 'cause I care.

Will do, and no worries about sharing advice. I wouldn't have posted if I hadn't expected some from this bunch! Digestively I don't tolerate soy at all well so I'd be happy to find an alternative for that reason alone. I am very concerned about giving him soy too. I know we can try rice and almond milk. He's had rice milk because my dad drinks it and DS doesn't care for it in milk form. He'll eat it as a frozen dessert happily though and I think my dad gets a pudding the DS loves.
She hasn't made all that many changes for him, just eliminating those two foods. I left out a lot of our conversation don't forget. She is really quite confident that he is suffering for eating those two foods. As for bloodwork, that's the route we're going with for me. So I'm not taking anything out of my diet for now. DS is only 7, completely needle phobic. We made the choice together. If the month shows improvement we'll trying adding dairy back in. If the month is too overwhelming I can switch to just taking out the gluten and then do the dairy.
He already prefers cereals that are gluten free. I have a good friend who has a favorite GF bread she will be giving me the name of later. He's not a big sandwich eater but it will be good to have on hand. No more school lunches!!! Now that's a change I can live with! For now we will be adding more "real" foods rather than replacing with GF substitutes. Like carrot sticks for Goldfish, etc. He's not happy but he's not the parent. He will want to try GF waffles and chicken nuggets, two favorites. He's had both before at a GF friend's house and was okay with them.
I am planning on getting some almond milk today. He can eat almonds so I hope he'll like this better than soy milk. Other than milk and ice cream he's not a big cheese eater. Mostly we need to get him eating more fresh veggies and fruits!
We had about 2 inches of snow that is just finishing up. After our haircuts at 1:00 we'll head out to WF (about 40 minutes away). I go once a month anyway so this is the perfect to go and try just a few new things. We can get lots of GF foods at our food co-op but they don't sell any meat so I can't get the chicken nuggets there.
Lunches are going to be interesting. I have to write a letter to the school cafeteria telling them he is not to buy anything from there.

 

[freemotion]

Whew!

For a lucky few, it is not the gluten in the grains but the phytates. I say lucky because you can deal with that through preparation methods and still have grain products. If you have issues with phytates, the almond milk and gluten-free products will still cause trouble, unless you make your own and remove the phytates.

It will be such a relief when you get it all figured out. For me, food was the enemy, now it is a source of adventure! And healing. Ok, and obsession....

 

[Henrietta23]

Whew!

For a lucky few, it is not the gluten in the grains but the phytates. I say lucky because you can deal with that through preparation methods and still have grain products. If you have issues with phytates, the almond milk and gluten-free products will still cause trouble, unless you make your own and remove the phytates.

It will be such a relief when you get it all figured out. For me, food was the enemy, now it is a source of adventure! And healing. Ok, and obsession....

This doc sure seeems to think food could be DS's enemy as well. I know this isn't going to be an easy thing to figure out necessarily but obviously it is worth doing so!
I'm taking him with me to WF so he can pick out two new produce items to try. He's intrigued by star fruit and wants to try that. Not local but it's hard to find local fruit this time of year! Veggies will be tougher. Given a choice he'd eat nothing green. He'll eat green beans, broccoli, and peas. He prefers carrots and corn though. I have on occasion convinced him that a raw cucumber or zucchini stick won't kill him but he ate a small bite of cuke last night and made himself gag.
One step at a time I guess.

 

[freemotion]

One thing that my ND didn't think to warn me about....it can take time for the digestive system to heal. She moved around the time we were both getting frustrated with me, since everything we tried wasn't really working. I saw her once a month for over a year, I think. When she moved, I didn't find another doc, as I needed a break from it.

I continued on the research path that she put me on, and continued applying what I was learning. It took about another year, but boy-oh-boy, was it ever worth it! Most of what helped me came from Sally Fallon's book and the website I linked above.

 

[freemotion]

Forgot to say....your son is 4 decades younger than me, so his digestive system should heal right quick!