You are What You Eat (Part 1)

Food is a bit of a mystery to me, both in taste and nutrition. Whereas I used to be a slave to tantalizing my tastebuds, now I sit in awe of what foods or food combinations will/will not aggravate my kids' skin or lungs.

With my daughter, I followed common pediatric advice, fed her baby rice cereal at exactly six months (yes, video recorder ready), then jarred food exactly a few weeks later, nursed for almost exactly a year and before she was a year old, she was eating much of what grown-ups ate. We took her out to restaurants and shared our food with her. I did not restrict any foods, except cow's milk due to her earlier allergy. She drank buckets of soy milk after she turned 1 and I stopped nursing her, so there was a lot of Cheerios, whole grain cereals of all kinds, pretzels, toddler gummies, cookies, etc. Then one day she got a cold and ended up crying all night. Next morning, she could not even walk. Frightened, I carried her to the doctor's office and rode the ambulance with her to the hospital. Her chest was so tight, she could not breathe. The pediatrician called it, "restrictive airway disease," which was a nice way of saying she has "asthma"; grace was given to her because she was only 16 months old. But two months later, the same thing happened, even though I was armed with drugs. She ended up at the hospital again, because neither I nor the pediatrician had enough drugs open up her chest and she had to be monitored. Then she was labeled as an "asthmatic."

I never suspected food had anything to do with it. Daddy has seasonal allergies/migraines, an uncle from my side has asthma, so it must be hereditary and I should just surrender to my fate. But during one innocent evening of pasta 'n pesto (an easy favorite for both of us), I heard my DD wheezing as she ate her dinner. She was not sick, so it seemed odd. So I put my ears to her chest to make sure and yes, she was definitely wheezing. That was when I started to suspect wheat.

The following months was psychologically challenging as I sought to remove wheat from her diet. The pasta was relatively painless, as there is brown rice pasta substitute (although I didn't like paying the new price). But it was the bread and everything else that made life difficult. Thankfully, my daughter was adaptable and I had trained her to eat whatever she is served. It was the beginning of my new role as a "Food Nazi Mom."

A few months after I started using the drugs, I gave her Lyprinol, small capsules filled with soybean oil and the oil of New Zealand, green-lipped mussels. It is supposed to have super omega-3 power, which means it is super anti-inflammatory. She was already taking a teaspoon of Carlson's cod liver oil and it alone didn't seem to help. With the Lyprinol, my DD would keep the caps in her mouth and let the fishy taste dissolve, swoosh around her tongue. Now she can swallow them without water. I would get exceedingly upset when she would drop a capsule or two on the floor, because it cost more than $.50 per capsule and I was fearful of dirt/dust, because for all I knew, it could my poor housekeeping that caused her breathing problems.

Since my DD only wheezed when she got sick (and at times it was difficult to tell if her shortness of breath was a stuffy nose or wheezing), I started to reason - what if I can help prevent her from getting sick as often? Everyone is concerned about their immune systems, especially during the cold/flu season, I just have more incentive to be concerned.

A few late nights on google "chasing rabbits" as a friend puts it, I discovered that the steroidal drug (Pulmicort) suppresses the immune system. No wonder my DD was sick so often and every time she got sick, she wheezed and it took her over a month to get over her colds sometimes. Her immune system wasn't working, because the drugs were preventing it from working by stopping the inflammation; inflammation is part of a healthy immune system. But for asthmatics, there is too much inflammation (immune system attacking itself, aka, "autoimmune disease") and if I took her off the drugs, then she would not be able to breathe. Six and a half dozen of the other, what is a mother to do?

I waited for a cheery season and just gave her Albuterol (no Pulmicort) whenever she had a cold, plus some over-the-counter cold medicine (which I no longer do, since I switched to homeopathic remedies). Albuterol is what's known as the "rescue medicine"; it is not a steroid, but a drug that opens up the lungs. I am not clear as to the side effects of it, but it was necessary as long as her chest would get overfilled with phlegm preventing her from breathing. I stopped the regular doses of Pulmicort/ Flovent HFA (which was once a day throughout the year, twice a day during winter months, which made no sense since her asthma started in the summer). She developed eczema on her legs and arms soon after the steroids stopped, which I learned was common. I applied all sorts of lotions and potions and my DD scratched and scratched, while I continued to try and boost her immune system, giving her every superfood and vitamin known to man.

At the age of 2, Alexa ate/took with my reason for feeding her this stuff in red:

• oatmeal from steel-cut oats with blackstrap molasses, virgin coconut oil, chopped figs and sometimes apricots

virgin coconut oil - has breast milk properties (lauric acid)
figs & molasses - calcium (crucial for non-dairy diets)
apricots - alkaline fruit, but only when fresh (didn't know it then - all dried fruit is acidic)

• rice congee with meats (grassfed ground beef, regular chicken) or fish (wild salmon, cod, halibut, flounder), chopped onions, chopped/shredded vegetables (broccoli, carrots, anything in the fridge)

My mother made this dish regularly when I was growing up - I "improved" upon her version with some brown rice (need white rice for glutinous consistency), added veggies and varying the meats/fish.

• Cheerios with rice milk every other day
• fruit & veggies whenever, wherever I could fit it in
• eggs
  

• Carlson's cod liver oil - anti-inflammatory, good for skin, essential fat that our bodies can't make, vitamin D, which is important for winter months
  

• Daily multi gummies from Costco (now she takes one with enzymes) - you never know what is missing in your child's diet, could be just a scare for vitamin companies to make you buy them but then again, it's not a lot to pay for a little insurance and peace of mind

Her wheezing/asthma seemed to have gotten better, but she developed eczema patches on her arm and leg, which I learned was a result of going off steroids. I had no idea what do about it and it wasn't until she was almost 3 that the patches went away.

The good news was that she was not sick as often as she was between the age of 1 and 2. Her immune system seemed to have gotten stronger, which you can attribute to age or the changes I made in her diet. It all depends on what you believe. Really. There is never a definitive explanation and even if there was, you need faith to do what it is you're doing in order for it to yield results. Isn't that how Faith works? We just Believe. I could worry less about her finally. I had given her so many drugs in the past (Dimetapp, Tyenol, etc.) and she reacted negatively to the ever-popular echinacea (made her wheeze), I felt utterly paralyzed for a long time.

History & Intro

Let me introduce my kids - Alexa is born 1/18/05, Travis is born 9/17/07.

A quick history. Alexa had baby eczema (on face only) at around two months, but it went away after a few weeks. She was also allergic to dairy. I breastfed her for one year and gave up dairy products. She developed asthma at 16 months, was hospitalized, then got another attack two months later and was again hospitalized. I camped out with her at the hospital both times. Neither of us got much sleep, since I was asked to administer her drug treatments at night every three hours. She was only at the hospital for one night both times, but she was prescribed Pulmicort and Albuterol for whenever she got sick or started wheezing. I did my best to avoid the use of these drugs, so I was very inconsistent with it. Then all of a sudden, her facial eczema returned and this time it looked like chicken pox. It took over six months before the red bumps went away and almost a year before the scars faded completely. She was 3 years old by then. After several months without using the drugs, eczema patches developed on her arm and on her leg. She spent a summer of scratching, peeling, bleeding and dried crusty pus. I learned later that this round of eczema was directly related to her coming off steroidal drugs. Steroids are immune suppressants, so when my daughter went off of them, the immune system suddenly had a chance to work again and it "overreacted."

Travis developed cradle cap and eczema at three months. His eczema is just about clearing out, much to my surprise, and the process which I underwent to finding its "cure" is the purpose of this blog. His eczema was on his face only. He was breastfed until he was nine months and after two weeks of fighting with him, I put him on goat milk with some brown rice syrup and a generic infant liquid multi, following Dr. Sear's advice. The goat milk formula gave him severe constipation and anal bleeding. Then I found Sally Fallon's homemade infant formula recipe with goat milk, which was fantastic for one week and then he had the worst case of eczema ever. It was so bad, I had to take him to see the pediatrician, who was equally horrified, gave him antibiotics, applied a multi-antibacterial cream on him and swabbed the cold sores in his inner cheeks and tongue with a Maalox/Benadryl mix. He could not eat well, because the sores had yanked his upper lip open such that he could not close it to chew. He cried and I cried with him for over a week before he started healing up again.

My daughter currently has no eczema, no asthma and has not taking a single puff of either Pulmicort or Flovent HFA or Albuterol in over two years.

Here is a photo of my sweet prince taken 5.28.08--

Taken 6.12.09--
Taken 6.19.09--

I can't take credit for the Divine power who guided me in this process, but I can take credit for not having given up and would encourage anyone to do the same. Your kids will thank you when they grow up, especially after you "torture" them with stories of your angst and suffering! I hope my sharing the journey blesses you.

Lotions & Potions

When Alexa was an infant, I used Aquaphor and breast milk on her face. Since I regularly sprayed milk all over her face while nursing her, I did not honestly see how breast milk could help. Yet some people believe breast milk is the nectar of the gods and that it would cure any ailment known to man. It was worth a try, but I did not see any real difference after two weeks. Baby eczema is supposed to be quite common and it went away shortly, so I didn't think much of it.

When she got older, I used Lanacane and Eucerin anti-itch spray to prevent her from scratching. The problem was that the effect would wear off after 2-3 hours and I just didn't have the discipline or could afford the time/patience to chase after her with a tube or bottle. Also, anti-itch creams offer no emollients, so I was always torn between treating the dry skin or the itchiness. Sometimes I went with the dry skin and used Eucerin, Cetaphil, Aquaphor, other times I tended to the itch. When the eczema was on her face, I used purer oils such as unrefined shea nut butter from Ghana, emu oil, tamanu oil, Bio oil or virgin coconut oil.

With Travis, I used shea nut butter, olive oil and virgin coconut oil only, but then started wondering if he was allergic to nuts. I gave up nuts while I breastfed just to see and his face seemed to have cleared a bit. So I stopped using shea nut butter on him, just used the virgin coconut and olive oil (alternating between them); occasionally I would use Aquaphor too.

Then someone told me to try Desithin for the eczema and I discovered it to be a good cover-up, since it is pasty white and it did a fine job lightening up the red spots. It was also handy too, since a tube of it could easily be kept in the diaper bag.

Amongst other topical solutions I used are creams from Earthworm Herbals, Dr. Christopher's Complete Tissue & Bone ointment, Hylands calendula cream and neem oil. In September 08, I had gotten the idea from Donia Alawi, a former eczema sufferer, that anything you put on the skin should be edible; so I stopped using Aquaphor, because it was full of chemicals. The herbal creams are not wholly ingestible, as they contain comfrey and other ingredients not meant to be in your stomach. But an herbalist I emailed disagreed with this view (comfrey is a powerful healing tool) and these creams seemed safer than steroidal creams or the mysterious, ever-popular, non-steroidal Atopiclair. I did try Atopiclair on T for two weeks when he was 3 months old, but it didn't have much of an effect. I had used up the sample from the doctor and at $100 per tube, I did not bother getting a prescription.

Another interesting product worth mentioning on its own is colostrum, bovine colostrum from a cow. It is supposed to have the same antibacterial proponents as human colostrum, plus a whole bunch of other benefits. Goat colostrum is also available (from another site), but I used the one from cows and after speaking with the owner, I purchased the liquid. He offered a 100% money-back guarantee if it didn't solve all my (son's) eczema problems, which I could have taken advantage of, but somehow it meant I'd have to admit failure. I used it religiously for two weeks 3X a day, as with any new topical solution, and the results were good. But after two weeks, things tapered off and were back to where I had started.

When I read up on the causes of eczema, I looked for all-natural, anti-inflammation products and found a juice called, "Limu Plus," that helped tremendously. I gave him 1/2 to 1 ounce of the juice to take internally as well as applied the juice directly on his face 3X a day. Together with some other oral supplements, his eczema was reduced to one patch on his chin. This patch was my final battle.

I learned that the active ingredient in Desithin that helps heal skin rashes is zinc oxide, of which Desithin (original, not the creamy) has 40%, the highest amongst all diaper creams (Canus Li'l Goat cream also has 40% and smells a lot better). Then I found Margarite tinted zinc cream, which I now use and it does an even better cover-up job.

During a recent trip to the pediatrician's office, I was told to give T an over-the-counter anti-fungal cream, because the patch on his chin was starting to get bright red and ooze again. I had some tea tree oil in my medicine cabinet, so I applied it to his chin. The redness calmed down within a day.

But since this spot was so close to his lips, I worried that he would ingest it. So I found a safer anti-fungal, grapefruit seed extract (GSE). I mix a few drops of GSE into 1-2 teaspoons of water with 3-4 drops of Vita Enhanced water and applied it to his chin when he was awake, usually before and after a meal. Before naptime and bedtime, I apply tea tree oil, Dr. Christopher's ointment or the EH herbal cream. This regimen coupled with the dietary changes, plus supplemental nutritional support is what took him to being 98% eczema-free. I believe it's just a matter of time before the minor scaliness will be 100% smooth. If not, I can at least feel good about having spared my kids of high school humiliation due to bad skin.