Comparing different approaches to homeopathy

As you know, I have spent quite a lot of time researching different methods of healing, and I have read many blogs of parents who are healing their autistic children (blog list is here).

My observation is that for difficult-to-treat cases, the parents who are having the greatest success in recovering their children are using some form of energy healing (most commonly homeopathy, but sometimes, another form of energy healing) combined with biomedical treatments.

For those who don’t know that there are different approaches to homeopathy, I thought that it would be useful to compare the different types of homeopathy, in particular: classical homeopathy, CEASE therapy, Homeopathy Center of Houston and Heilkunst homeopathy. I’ve tried to make this a balanced article as I know that each of these approaches have been beneficial to some individuals.

Classical Homeopathy

Principles of Classical Homeopathy:

• Homeopathic prescriptions based on the characteristic symptoms of each child or adult, rather than on routine or ’sequential’ approaches that fail to match the individualising symptoms of the patient.
• Only one remedy prescribed for use at a time so that clarity of treatment is maintained, rather than the case confused by prescriptions of complexes (combination remedies) or multiple remedies in sequences.
• Remedies usually prescribed in liquid form rather than as pilules so the remedy dose can be easily adjusted to suit the sensitivity of the child or adult being treated.
• The prescription of a test dose at the beginning of treatment so the child or adult’s sensitivity can be determined.
• Sufficient time allowed for the initial consultation so that the child or adult’s symptoms can be adequately collected and analysed; at least an hour for toddlers, and 1 1/2 hours for children or adults.
• Practitioner able to be contacted by the parent or patient between appointments should minor adjustments to treatment be needed.
• Only homeopathic treatment so that the practitioner has not confused or complicated by the addition of other unrelated treatments or therapies. (Source)

Pros

• Affordable
• Treatment is simple
• Common and well known approach; easy to find several practicing classical homeopaths in one’s city
• Some individuals have reported success with classical homeopathic treatment
• Generally excellent support from your homeopath

Cons

• Not a quick fix
• Aggravations – things can get worst before they get better
• Your homeopath may want you to stop all other all other supplements and therapies
• Can be difficult to find the “right” remedy

Examples

• Recovered from Autism – excellent resource describing the steps that Kaeden’s parents took to recover their son. They consider their son completely recovered from autism, and classical homeopathy was a key component of their son’s recovery.
• The Light  - recovering E. and B. Mom says that classical homeopathy has exceeded her wildest expectations.
• Recovering Nicolas - After years of research, supplements, hbot, etc. Nicolas’ mom decided to try Classical Homeopathy. Since moving from a heavy and costly biomedical regiment to using a single homeopathic remedy, Nicholas no longer has any symptoms of autism. Read her update story (“living life autism-free”) here. Nicolas’ mom shares other autism recovery stories here.
• Classical homeopathy case studies here.

Our personal experience

• We consulted with three different classical homeopaths, including one who specialized in children with eczema and an author of a book about treating children with eczema with homeopathy. We didn’t find a noticeable effect, although Moses’ rashes got extremely worse. That being said, I know that some people have had amazing results from classical homeopathy (see above).

For more information

• Homeopathy for Autism website (Classical Homeopathy) - here.

CEASE therapy

CEASE therapy treatment consists of a number of steps and therapies.

• Detoxification (homeopathically) of the most relevant stress factors in the patient’s history: vaccines, anaesthesia, antibiotics, childhood diseases, etc. In cases with a history of difficult delivery and/or caesarian section, osteopathic help will be called in. Osteopaths are of the opinion that the meningae are often too tense leaving the brain insufficient room to grow (causing stress!).
• Secondly the oxidative stress of the celebral cortex is treated with fat soluble vitamin C and the brain is nourished with omega-3 fatty acids (EPA and DHA) which are important building blocks for the brain.
• Thirdly the metallothionein function in the bowels and the brain can be restored with the use of zinc. For this we use an ascorbate complex (water soluble vitamin C combined with potassium, magnesium (tranquillizer) and zinc). This also restores the integrity of the bowels. In addition Saccharum Officinale D6 likewise yields good results in restoring intestinal flora and function.
• Next, specific aspects of the austistic behaviour can be addressed by constitutional homeopathic treatment of the child, whereby a remedy is selected that is largely based on the behaviour of the child. The remedy Saccharum Officinale and other constitutional remedies are important elements in restoring eyecontact, contact with the outside world and the emotions etc. Cuprum Metallicum can offer the solution to the typical rigidity and obsessiveness. Both remedies are part of Inspiring Homeopathy and not yet very well known in the homeopathic world. (Source)

Pros

• It sounds as though individuals who are using CEASE therapy are happy with the treatment.
• Affordable.
• Well known approach.
• Generally excellent support from the CEASE therapist between sessions.

Cons

• Not a quick fix
• Short-term aggravations – things may get worst for a short period of time before they get better.

Examples

• Alex’s Journey out of Autism – recovering Alex using CEASE therapy
• Boy Connected – recovering Dante using CEASE therapy
• I Love Queen Anne’s Lace  - recovering Lizzie using CEASE therapy
• Other blogs using CEASE therapy are listed here.
• Read about some successful cases here.

My personal opinion

• I feel that detoxing vaccinations and other toxins are an important step in healing autism.
• I feel that CEASE therapy can be a successful treatment. My personal opinion is that after detoxing the vaccinations, if further healing is necessary, then addressing the chronic miasms may be a missing piece.

For more information, CEASE Therapy’s main website is here.

Homeopathy Center of Houston

The Homeopathy Center of Houston’s homeopaths devise a plan for each client by uniquely combine many widely practiced homeopathic approaches including:

• Sequential homeopathy (the framework for chronological healing)
• Classical homeopathy (the basis of all homeopathy)
• Homotoxicology (to help reverse deterioration from toxicity)
• Gemmotherapy (a plant-based approach to drainage)
• Oligotherapy (enhances cell metabolism through nutrient absorption)
• Enderlein’s Pleomorphic Remedies
• German Biological Remedies
• Cellular Re-Programming Therapy (CRPT)
• Spagyric homeopathic remedies
• Custom formulated proprietary HCH complex remedies (remedy and/or potency combinations) developed by our homeopaths, specific to our clients’ needs, unavailable except to our clients.
• Proprietary HCH Genetic snp based Remedy complexes for certain genetic markers based on genetic research in autism and detoxification pathway problems (source)

Pros

• Some parents have reported remarkable recovery stories.

Cons

• Parents have said that this treatment is quite expensive.
• Distance treatments if you don’t live in Houston
• Aggravations – things can get worst before they get better
• Not a quick fix

Examples

• Drew’s Autism Recovery Diary – Joanna (Drew’s mom) lists sequential homeopathy as one of the most helpful treatments that have contributed to Drew’s recovery. She has great tips on other treatments that help Drew’s recovery here. You can read about their sequential homeopathic experiences here.
• A Ventography! – Sequential homeopathy combined with cranialsacral therapy significantly helped Annie (a five year old girl with autism). Read more here. Read about the other treatments that she found helpful here.
• My Child: A Former “Non-Responder” – an amazing story of how Michael, an 11 year old former “non-responder” to biomedical treatments, made remarkable improvements with sequential homeopathy.
• Autism testimonials for the Homeopathy Center of Houston – here

My personal opinion

• From what I’ve read, it sounds as though the treatment at the Homeopathy Centre of Houston is similar to Heilkunst treatment (i.e., sequential homeopathy and treatment of chronic miasms). I would endorse this clinic.

For more information, the Homeopathy Center of Houston’s website is here

Heilkunst Homeopathy

“Heilkunst goes beyond the limited treatment of only symptoms, and is built on a foundation of many inter-related jurisdictions. While a Doctor of Medical Heilkunst will use homeopathic medicines to address the roots of disease, the remedies will also be used simultaneously to annihilate the negative effects of drugs, balance your Constitution, in addition to also treating present symptoms.

At the initial consultation you may be asked to complete a “sequential timeline” describing the emotional and physical traumas incurred over your lifetime. This exercise forms the “map” or guide during your treatment and each layer will be effectively peeled off like the layers of an onion. For example we would treat the car accident you had in March, of 2001, antibiotic use for bronchitis in November of 2000 and the death of your beloved grand father in May of 2000. By getting at the roots of these events, the symptoms effectively lose their anchors.

The next juncture is often the patient’s vaccinations. Although based on the Law of Similars in preventing childhood diseases, they contain many toxins, such as formaldehyde and Thimerisol, which will leave a cellular residue for up to 60 years.

The patient’s own birth trauma is next and then we address the Chronic Miasms which are your genetic inherited diseases. Most of us will carry at least 1-2 of these heavily laden black bags throughout our lives. Your grandfather’s Tubuculosis can show up in you as chronic Bronchitis, your great grandmother’s Rheumatism can be the anchor for your Allergies, and your Uncle Bob’s diabetes can show up as Cancer down his family line.” Source

Note: Whereas a classical homeopath will only prescribe one remedy at a time, Heilkunst will prescribe several remedies and combinations of remedies simultaneously (for example, my son typically has one dropper that addresses his constitution and his emotional state; another for any other symptoms he might be having; and he will typically be clearing something major (like a chronic miasm) using a homeopathic powder — it might take 3 weeks to clear one dose of his homeopathic powder, so he doesn’t take this very often). Currently my son takes 4 homeopathic droppers a day (actually, he just smells them) and each of the droppers has a number of different remedies within them. He takes one of them once a day and three of them 2-3 times a day.

Pros

• The framework is highly successful at addressing chronic, difficult-to-treat conditions
• Affordable (my Heilkunstler is very affordable; some well-known Heilkunstlers are more expensive, but still a lot less expensive than the Houston Center)
• Excellent support between sessions.

Cons

• This approach to homeopathy is not well known and not all cities have a practicing Heilkunstler (note that distance treatments are available).
• Not a quick fix — the first level of healing (sequential homeopathy) typically takes one year, although most individuals notice an improvement within three to six months (we noticed a difference with the first 7 weeks).
• Some of the short-term healing reactions can be de-stabilizing (however, after the healing reaction, individuals always experience a greater level of health).

Examples

• Raising a Sensitive Child – my son’s healing journey
• Adam’s Journey – healing her autistic son with Heilkunst homeopathy; read about Adam’s amazing progress after 18 months of treatment
• Healing with Heilkunst – healing her two children (one is on the autistic spectrum) with Heilkunst homeopathy
• Went to a Farmer’s Market – using Heilkunst homeopathy to heal herself and her sensitive sons
• More complete blog list here
• Read a case study here

My personal opinion

• From witnessing my son’s remarkable healing journey over the last two years, I highly recommend Heilkunst homeopathy, and feel that the framework (sequential homeopathy, addressing chronic miasms) is highly successful at addressing chronic conditions. Read my post about how Heilkunst offers hope to parents of “non-responders” here.

For more information:

• Hahnemann Center for Heilkunst and Homeopathy’s website is here.
• I’ve listed more links about Heilkunst here.

Feel free to share your own experiences with these homeopathic treatments.

Adventures in allergy-free cake baking

Disclaimer: I am sharing our story to share our story, and am not offering medical or food allergy advice.

A couple of weeks ago, we discovered that Bulk Barn has a glutenfree white cake mix. Generally people with allergies need to stay clear of bulk foods, but now that we’re not as concerned with potential cross-contamination with tree nuts (or so I thought) or anaphylaxis (or so I thought), we figured it was an easy way to make an allergyfree cake for Moses.

Ingredients:

• sugar, potato starch, tapioca flour, whole grain sorghum flour, baking powder (monocalcium phosphate, bicarbonate of soda, cornstarch), sea salt, xanthan gum, natural vanilla powder (sugar, cornstarch, vanilla extract).

Just add:

• egg replacer, vegetable oil and water (but we added almond milk instead because Moses has been drinking almond milk daily for the last several months).

All safe ingredients for Moses (although not the best for him since the first ingredient is sugar).

Our cake kind of looked like this. Recipe and photo credit for the Best White Cake (but not GF) here.

Take 1

We made it for the first time a couple of weeks ago to bring to a birthday party and added some allergy-free chocolate chips to them. We didn’t even need to make any icing. Moses thought it was delicious. We were thrilled!!!!!!!  Yay!!  Moses can eat cake, and it’s easy for us to make!!! He acted like a crazy maniac after eating it (Moses doesn’t do well on sugar), but we didn’t care too much because when we go to birthday parties, we want him to be able to eat cake. Big success!

We put some of it in the freezer to save for another day.

Take 2

A couple of days ago, I gave Moses a tiny bit of the cake as an extra treat. He complained that his tongue was itchy and we told him to wash his mouth out with water. We didn’t know if it was a fluke (since he didn’t react to the same cake a couple of weeks ago), and didn’t think much of it.

Take 3

So then yesterday, I gave Moses a bit more of the cake (I’d completely forgotten about the fact that it had made his tongue itchy the day before), and right away, he told us that his tongue was itchy again.

My boy is such a character…  As he was rinsing his mouth out with water, spitting water into the toilet (easier for him to reach than the sink), he yelled out, “Dad, you still make the best cakes ever!”

Then within minutes, his lips were completely swelled up. Uh oh.

Thankfully, his tongue didn’t swell and he had no other allergy symptoms. We immediately gave him some Benadryl and Aerius, and went directly to the ER. Within about an hour, the swelling of his lips had subsided. They also gave him Decadron (a corticosteroid and anti-inflammatory).

We all stayed in pretty good spirits the entire time. DH and I didn’t panic, and Moses remained in good spirits as well.

The next day

But, now that it’s the next day, DH and I are kind of going WTF?! This was Moses biggest allergic reaction for a long, long time.

What did he react to? Was it because the cake mix was cross-contaminated with something? What was that something? Did he react to the almond milk? (But, since he drinks almond milk daily, it shouldn’t be that). Obviously, we’re going to stay clear of buying cake mix at the Bulk Barn, but should we also cut down on his almond milk?

I should mention Moses very rarely actually eats almonds (he generally doesn’t like the taste), but a couple of weeks ago, I gave him 4 almonds and he immediately had severe stomach pains afterwards and diarrhea (whereas, he’s eaten them before with no ill effects).

I tried to get a hold of Moses’ allergist, but she’s out of town for a month, and the earliest appointment that we can make is in December! I also tried his pediatrician and we can see her in a month’s time.

So this is our plan…

• No more Bulk Barn cake mix (or bulk foods for that matter);
• No more whole almonds;
• Back to being hyper-vigilant about potential cross-contamination with tree nuts; and
• Continue to give him almond milk once a week (but cut it back from giving it to him daily). We’re going to do this because when we told our allergist that we’d given Moses a break from eating peanuts for 6 months because I thought he was sensitive to it (after he’d passed the peanut challenge), she had told us to NEVER EVER EVER again give him a break from eating peanuts because we run the risk of turning peanuts into a potential anaphylactic risk. She says that it’s much better to continue to let his body have a little bit of it every once in a while rather than cut it out completely. For this reason, we don’t want to stop giving him almond milk (unless done under advisement from his allergist), since his body seems to be used to it. (By the way, Moses is back to being able to eat organic peanut butter with no problems).

Heilkunst view

I asked his Heilkunstler about it and she wondered whether it was the type of almond (i.e., Moses might have negatively reacted to the whole almonds because of the pesticides — I can’t remember if they were organic or not), or the freshness of them. He may be super-sensitive to anything fungal, or slightly rancid oils in the nuts. That would explain his negative reaction to eating the 4 almonds, but why did he react to the cake?

Moses just started clearing the carcinosin miasm (cancer chronic miasm) and I wondered if he’s just extra sensitive at the moment (he’s just getting over a healing reaction related to the first powder — night terrors, flu-like symptoms).

His Heilkunstler replied:

Carcinosin tackles the super-sensitive state, as it removes the sacrificial state of mind.  Sensitivity comes when a person doesn’t have robust boundaries because their sense of self is weak, so they don’t know what is them and what isn’t, so they have a hard time keeping “not me” things out, or have super-sensitive boundaries that over-react to keep EVERYTHING out.

Treating this round of Carcinosin will help to ground him in his sense of self and thus help with the allergies, though while he is working on it his sensitivity may flare up at times.  The best foods for this state are vegetables (especially greens), fruit and light protein, and to avoid grains/sugar as much as possible.

Makes sense to me.

So, even though this seems like a big step backwards (a snake, if you will), I’m not too worried about it, and feel that this is just part of the ups and downs of the healing journey.

Cake Solutions

We need to find a new solution to our cake dilemma because we are inviting all of the kids in Moses’ class and his dayhome to a birthday bowling party in 10 days. Yikes!

I mentioned before that we have an allergy-free cake recipe that involves four different flours that I tried baking for Moses’ third birthday. It was a complete flop, and I was so discouraged that I stopped baking for a long, long time.

The last two years, we bought allergy-free cupcakes / cakes from local bakers  that were delicious, but DH wanted to make Moses’ cake this year. Also one of them is sadly no longer offering her services and the other one did so as a special favour for us. I would have asked the latter to bake Moses a cake again this year, but DH was certain that we’d figured out the birthday cake dilemma (i.e., Bulk Barn GF cake mix).

DH is persistent and found out that Glutino has a chocolate GF cake mix that he is going to try to make this weekend. Moses sometimes likes chocolate and sometimes doesn’t, so we hope that he likes it this time.

We also need to figure out icing! Ack! Wish us luck! (Thankfully, DH doesn’t get stressed out about baking like I do, so he’s on it). And, as Moses said, “Dad makes the best cakes ever”.

Recipes

• Simple vegan white cake that I think we could easily make into a GF recipe by using 50% brown rice and 50% GF oatmeal.
• Glutenfree, eggfree, dairy free white cake recipe here. I think I found a winner here! She also has recipes for allergy-free frostings.

Updates

May 10, 2012 – DH baked the Glutino chocolate GF cake mix with egg replacer and it is absolutely delicious! It’s very moist and very chocolaty, but didn’t rise very high (maybe because we didn’t use real eggs)??  I think we’ll need to make 3 or 4 of them to feed all of the kids.

May 16, 2012 – DH made another Glutino chocolate cake for Mother’s day dinner (for the whole extended family) and it was a big hit. DH’s mom wants us to make it every time we have dinner over at her place.  We made it with this dairyfree icing recipe here (scroll to the bottom of the post — yum, yum — it was too sweet for our taste when we made it with 2.5 cups of icing sugar, so we’ll cut back on the amount of sugar next time we make it…) and put strawberries on top. Such a rich dessert — you don’t need a very big slice to feel like you’ve eaten a slice of heaven.

Healing sycosis miasm – Heilkunst round 17

Moses just finished healing the sycosis chronic miasm to the 10M potency.

Sycosis is one of the eight chronic miasms, or archetypal diseases.

Sycosis is related to excesses in mind and tissue.  People with an active sycosis miasm are susceptible to vaccine damage.

The main expression of sycosis is excess in all areas. You may have an increased appetite for food, excitement, action. Sycosis is the root of most “-itis” diseases, with inflammation and copious discharge. Memory problems and slowness are typical.

(Read Jeff at Arcanum Wholistic Clinic has to say about the sycosis miasm here).

This miasm was a doozy for us to get through. We started clearing the first two potencies of Medhorrinum (the remedy for sycosis) back in November, and then took a much needed four month break before clearing the third potency in early March. He developed a chalazion (a small bump that results from the blockage of an oil gland) on his right eye (i.e., his good eye). The last time he developed one of these  (on the same eye) was three years ago, and he needed to have it drained under general anaesthetic. His eye doctor started him on a topical antibiotic and an oral antibiotic. His Heilkunstler started him on a homeopathic remedy for it. It started to resolve within days. Whew! The good news was that 6 days later, the eyesight in his left eye improved to 20/40 (with his glasses on — you may remember that his eyesight in his left eye is still slowly healing from an eye shield ulcer). We were thrilled with this improvement.

Three weeks later, he started clearing the fourth potency of Medhorrinum. On the good side of things, he didn’t wind up in the hospital (I’m always thankful when a healing reaction doesn’t result in a hospital visit), but he had a strong healing reaction. An increase in wheeziness. A red, pimply and itchy rash returned to his back, the back of his neck, the back of his elbows, the back of his knees, his groin, and then even started spreading across his face. Ack! He had two night terrors. He wet his bed on a number of occasions (something that he never does outside of healing reactions). Complained of a tummy ache one day. Stayed home from school on another day due to a low grade fever. Was a crazy hyper boy for a couple of days. What was odd was that the symptoms continued unabated for a month. It seemed to peak about three weeks after the dosage of the fourth potency of Medhorrinum, which is to be expected, but then his symptoms started to get worst again a week later.

I scheduled a session with his Heilkunstler and she thought that Moses’ increase in symptoms and state of mind was a sign that he was ready to clear the next chronic miasm (Cancer or Carcinosin), so we have started that journey without the break that we normally get between healing reactions. Interestingly, Lively Mom at Adam’s Journey described a similar long healing reaction to Medhorrinum and they also didn’t get a break before they were launched into healing Carcinosin.

This turned out to be a pretty major healing phase for Adam.  He discharged a lot of junk out of his body and probably didn’t feel so good while it was happening.  The runny nose and watering eyes seem like an appropriate healing reaction because the Medorrhinum miasm is commonly linked to seasonal allergies.  Remember that “symptoms” are the language of healing so Adam did A LOT of healing this phase.

As Hanna describes above, the greater the healing reaction, the deeper the healing that is occurring, so Moses’ strong healing reaction is actually a sign that a lot of healing occurred this month. Moses discharged a lot of junk out of his body, through his skin. Apparently, it’s still continuing.

Since we’ve been on this journey for two years now, I trust the Heilkunst healing process, but it’s still not easy. We never know how deep the healing reaction will be (especially for someone as sensitive as my son). I started him on the first Carcinosin powder today and last night, he had a terrible night (the worst night that he’s had in a long time, but then again, it was balanced out by an amazing miracle).

Some good news this month:

• Moses’ dental appointment went well – his teeth are in good health. Yay!
• We don’t have any follow up appointments scheduled with any doctors for a long, long time.

Cancer Chronic Miasm (Carcinosin)

This last month, I’ve been clearing Carcinosin (cancer chronic miasm), which is deep and strong in me. It unleashed so much anger. I was angry for most of last month. Interestingly, Lively Mom’s Adam was also raging when he cleared Carcinosin, so I think that it must be a typical response. It’s so good to get the anger that is locked up in the body out. Coincidentally, just today, Jeff at Arcanum Wholistic Clinic wrote a post about the cancer state of mind.

In psychological and emotional terms, the cancer state of mind is one which is “resigned” — either from having given up from stress or disappointments in life, and just accepting that that is all one can expect from their life, or in terms of a weakness of will to counteract the stronger will power of their family or friends, and just accept what others have dictated for them. In anecdotal terms, nurses on cancer wards have often said that the cancer patients who actually express anger (at their condition, at their caretakers, etc.) are the ones most likely to survive. The typically sweet, polite personality of the cancer state of mind is usually tied to a prognosis of death.

This makes a lot of sense to me since my outer persona (my cancer state of mind) is “sweet and polite”. As this miasm was healed in me this month, the part of me that has been locked deep inside and is angry and raging has been unleashed. I’ve felt like punching something for most of this month. It’s felt very uncomfortable, but my Heilkunstler is very happy that the “real” me is starting to break free. (The “real” me isn’t necessarily the angry me, but the real me will likely emerge after the angry me has had an opportunity to have a voice after having been suppressed for almost 40 years).

The cancer miasm is also strong in Moses, so we’ll see what will break for him during this next month. As always, I’ll keep you posted.

Read more about our Heilkunst healing journey here.

Healing angels

Well, it’s miracle week at Momastery, so I want to share a miracle of my own.

Last night, Moses was having a rough night. He was having difficulty breathing (maybe having a difficult time adjusting to this May energy). He needed his ventolin puffer again and again and again. I was afraid that we were going to need to bring him to the ER.

Moses was in bed with me and I silently prayed to God and the support of the Spirit world to help heal my son and to bring him ease. It was 2 am at this point and Moses was tossing and turning. Then, he sat up. I asked him to lie down and go to sleep.

He replied, “But look at all of the angels in this room. There are hundreds of them!” He laughed with delight.

“Wow — look at what they are doing — I love that they are coming together and forming the shape of the earth. Oh, wow, and now they are forming the shape of a snake*. Look at them coming in through the door. That’s funny because they don’t need to use the door — they can fly right through the door. Look, there are some behind me. They are all over the place. Look, they can fly!” He exclaimed with amazement.

He wondered which angel was his Grandpa Joe, and figured that Grandpa Joe was in Moses’ bedroom, where DH was trying to get some sleep. “Grandpa Joe is in my room, talking to Daddy in his sleep because Grandpa Joe is Daddy’s Daddy”, he explained.

Moses wished the angels a goodnight and he slept soundly for the rest of the night. This morning, he needed two more puffs of his Ventolin puffer, but was in good spirits and better health for the rest of the day.

A tangible and answered prayer. An everyday miracle.

* As a side note, snakes symbolize physical healing.

Hope for parents of “non-responders”

This is a message for parents of “non-responders”, for those parents whose children do not respond to medical interventions, biomedical treatment or even homeopathy. For those children who are not getting better despite all of the many therapies that your child is undergoing.

I share this message because my son is a former  “non-responder”. He did not respond favourably to many treatments. He was “too sensitive”. His system was so stressed out /over-taxed that even the gentlest therapies would cause his body to detox too strongly. (Now that we have his diagnosis, we know why – because his IgE levels were off the charts).

We tried supplement after supplement.

Treatment after treatment.

Naturopath after naturopath.

Homeopath after homeopath.

Cream after cream.

Physician after physician.

Antihistamine after antihistamine.

Medicine after medicine.

Specialist after specialist.

Healer after healer.

It feels like we had tried them all. We were desperate. We were frustrated. Yet still hopeful. We never did give up hope that something would help him. Every cell in my being knew that we would find something that would help my son.

Then one day, I met a local mother of two sensitive children. I mentioned how Moses was allergic to everything, and she very enthusiastically told me that the Heilkunst homeopaths at the Dynamis Health Centre could help my son. There was something about the way that she shared the information with me. Like she knew / had no doubt that they would be able to help him.

By this time, I was battle-wary and very skeptical. I told her that we had tried homeopathy. In fact, he was  taking two homeopathic remedies at the time. We had consulted with three different classical homeopaths, including a well-recognized one who had authored a book and had specialized in the treatment of childhood eczema.

She told me that this was different. Heilkunst homeopathy was different from classical homeopathy. Truthfully, I was kind of annoyed. I didn’t know that there was different kinds of homeopathy. I was actually tired of trying different things / seeing different specialists. I was annoyed by her optimism.

I tried to convince her – we’ve tried everything. Nothing has worked. Why would this be any different?

She told me her own story. That she had a highly allergic daughter who was no longer allergic to any foods and she had a son who would have been on the autistic spectrum had it not been for this therapy. She told me that their story was the same — she had also tried everything under the sun to help her two children, and nothing else worked.  But this had.

She sent me a link to this video, Heilkunst  and Autism: Removing Cause vs. Managing Symptoms.  The presentation is by Rudi Verspoor, the founder of the Hahnemann Centre and Heilkunst Homeopathy Clinic in Ottawa. She told me that it presented a “grounded way to look at health, treating chronic/complicated illnesses and cure”.

I didn’t watch the video right away. I was so skeptical. There is something about someone being highly enthusiastic about something that makes one put their guard up.

Besides, we were trying a new supplement, and I wanted to give that a go.

The truth is that I wanted his healing to come from a supplement. Supplements make sense. They are easy to understand. There’s an imbalance to something, so you give the body what’s missing. But in Moses’ case, supplements alone were not enough.

It took a crisis for us to consider Heilkunst. I can’t remember what the crisis was in particular. There were so many of them at the time. We were constantly in the ER. Moses was constantly sick. We were at our wit’s end. Moses was particularly in a bad state of health after he received the MMR vaccination. He wasn’t sleeping through the night. He was having deep night terrors on most nights. He was acting out during the day. Behavioural problems. On top of that, we were dealing with his multiple allergies. Asthma. Recurrent pneumonia. Terrible rashes (remember Job’s syndrome is named after Job, the biblical character who had a terrible skin affliction and who suffered greatly).  It would take me two hours to get him ready in the morning. It was a fight just to brush his teeth, his mouth was in so much pain. His whole system (digestive) was in chronic pain. His skin inflamed. We were worried that the MMR vaccination had been the last straw and that he might be on the autistic spectrum. None of the specialists (traditional medicine or alternative practitioners) were able to help us in a meaningful way.

I remember lying in bed with my husband, discussing our hopeless situation, and it was DH (my skeptical husband) who suggested it. “Let’s try it. Let’s give Heilkunst a try. I’m willing to try anything.”

I watched the video and I got excited about it. I blogged about my thoughts at the time here.

Within seven weeks of starting Heilkunst, I was convinced that we were really onto something. You can read about those first weeks here.  By the third round of healing, I was convinced that we were witnessing a miracle.

I kept telling myself that the “proof would be in the pudding” and so far this method of healing is delivering real tangible changes in Moses’ health. His asthma has cleared. He is medicine-free. He is no longer suffering from night terrors. He is generally a happy little boy. We’ve been noticing that he is less set off by things, and much more chatty than he ever was. Although he’s never had any problems verbally, his conversational skills have gone through the roof in the last couple of weeks. He’s been talking our ears off. And this is only month 3. I know that we still have a ways to go, but I look forward to this healing journey that we are now on.

Pure joy (Moses after the third round of healing)

That month, I emailed my Heilkunstler and told her: “Moses  has been doing great this month.  Skin is very broken out, but his lungs have been clear for most of the month.  No more asthma medications too!  Feels like a miracle!”

She responded, “That’s wonderful!  It may feel like a miracle, but the beauty of Heilkunst is that we know why things are changing — principled application of informed medicine, therapeutic education and regimental support, along with lots of love!”

I told her, “I have a copy of the Autism: The Journey Back book that you recommended and I feel that I understand it a lot more now.  It’s hard to believe at first after trying so many other forms of healing.  I’m thrilled that we are on this healing journey.  I still find it remarkable.  Why don’t more people know about it? ”

She responded, “Well, the treatment requires confronting false belief, which not everyone is willing to do because it can be difficult.  For those of us already on that journey, Heilkunst simply provides a more comprehensive road map and the tools (homeopathic medicine, etc.) to move along the path more quickly and with less suffering.  Heilkunst is there for everyone to find, but not everyone will resonate with it.”

***

I’m sharing this because I want to tell you that it wasn’t a fluke that Moses has been healing. He has been healing because he has been undergoing “principled application of informed medicine” (i.e., Heilkunst treatment). If it can help Moses, who was a former “non-responder”, and who has been diagnosed with an extremely serious chronic genetic immune disorder, one that is considered incurable, it can definitely help your child. At the time that we started Heilkunst, Moses didn’t even have a formal diagnosis, and still it helped him. It continues to help him. I feel that without a doubt, it can also help your child. (Read more about how and why Heilkunst works here).

“The physician who can cure one disease by a knowledge of its principles
may by the same means cure all the diseases of the human body; for their causes are the same. ” Dr. Tilden

Still, it’s not an easy journey. If you have read any of my other posts about our Heilkunst journey, every month brings up healing reactions (the first two months actually “brought out pneumonia” in my boy). Even after two years of undergoing this treatment, I still find it difficult to understand my Heilkunstler at times. It’s like she talks a different language. Sometimes, I’m frustrated because I want to share Heilkunst with the world, but it’s so difficult to understand and explain that I don’t think many people resonate with it. But, the thing is, if you are looking for something that heals the root cause of disease, this works!

If you want to read more:

• Watch this video, Heilkunst  and Autism: Removing Cause vs. Managing Symptoms.
• I highly recommend reading Autism: The Journey Back . It is relevant for everyone (not just parents of children with autism), as it discusses how and why Heilkunst works.
• I have chronicled every step of our Heilkunst healing journey here 
• Read about how much Moses healed after one year of Heilkunst healing here.
• Read my latest update post about how Moses is doing (he’s essentially happy, healthy and well between healing reactions and only has 5 allergies/sensitivities [down from 40+]).
• Read about other parents / people who are healing with Heilkunst here (especially read Adam’s journey and Sam’s Story)
• Arcanum Wholistic Clinic has a great blog, written by a Heilkunstler, who tries to explain to the layperson what Heilkunst is and how it works.
• You can find a Heilkunstler in your city here. If you don’t have one in your city, they all do telephone consultations. Many of my appointments with my Heilkunstler have been by telephone. (When we used to live across the city from her office, it was just easier that way). And now, my Heilkunstler is moving to Ontario in the near future, so we’ll continue to have telephone consultations.

Sequential homeopathy

• An aspect of Heilkunst involves sequential homeopathy (treating for traumas one by one in a reverse sequence, with the most recent trauma first. A more clinical description of Sequential Treatment can be found here). I also feel that other treatments that involve sequential homeopathy, combined with tackling the chronic miasms (such as through Homeopathy Center of Houston) can help significantly.
• Drew’s Autism Recovery Diary – Joanna (Drew’s mom) lists sequential homeopathy as one of the most helpful treatments that have contributed to Drew’s recovery. She has great tips on other treatments that help Drew’s recovery here. You can read about their sequential homeopathic experiences here.
• A Ventography! – Sequential homeopathy combined with cranialsacral therapy significantly helped Annie (a five year old girl with autism). Annie’s mom tried sequential homeopathy as a “last ditch effort to recover Annie. I wasn’t expecting it to work. I couldn’t handle getting my hopes up only to be crushed once again. I fully intended to give up on my quest to recover Annie if sequential homeopathy was another giant disappointment”. Read more here. Read about the other treatments that she found helpful here.
• My Child: A Former “Non-Responder” – an amazing story of how Michael, an 11 year old former “non-responder” to biomedical treatments, made remarkable improvements with sequential homeopathy.

Our walk to school

Our short walk / bike ride to Moses’ school takes forever because he is constantly exploring his environment.

It takes especially long on wet mornings when there are snails, earthworms and slugs out on the roads and the sidewalks.

Moses calls them all, especially the snails, “my friends”.

It stresses both of us out when there are snails, earthworms and slugs on the road because, well, they need to be saved.

You have to remember that we live in Newfoundland — it’s constantly raining here, so there are always little critters that need to be saved.

Needless to say, we are always late for school, and we’re always in a bit of a rush.

“What about this one, mom.  This one needs to be saved,” says Moses, pointing to yet another earthworm on the road.

“I can’t save them all, Moses. There are too many of them,” I say, distracted and in rush. Worried because we’re going to be late for school. Again.

“But, we can save this one, can’t we?”, asks my boy, insistent and very concerned.

He snaps me back to the present. He reminds me of our purpose together. To be present with each other. For a moment, I stop rushing.

“Of course, we can, honey. We can save this one.” And, I gently scoop up the worm off the road and lay it down on a grassy spot.

My boy is my teacher. Reminding me that it’s important to do what we can do. That every little worm matters. Even if we can’t save them all. That worm mattered.

Quinton Isotonic Minerals

If you are looking for a mineral supplement, I wanted to share that Lucy at Alex’s Journey out of Autism has shared that after two days of starting Quinton Isotonic minerals, Alex started sleeping through the night and became very talkative!! This supplement was recommended by Sima Ash, a CEASE therapist / homeopath. Sima recommends that all of her autistic clients start with one vial of Quinton Isotonic or Hypertonic sea water in the morning and one in the evening on an empty stomach for two weeks before starting CEASE therapy. “This does such a phenomenal job in rebalancing minerals that we receive phone calls stating how much children have improved!”

Quinton™ Marine Plasma is nutrient-rich marine fluid that is harvested from the depths of an oceanic plankton bloom.

Quinton Marine Plasma is not just seawater. Discovered by French physiologist and humanitarian, René Quinton, in 1897, marine Plasma has proven to be an incredibly effective way to restore cellular homeostasis and mineral balance.

A complete spectrum of minerals is necessary to metabolize 100% of the amino acids we consume. When critical minerals are missing or represented in deficient amounts, our bodies fail to optimally metabolize and convert amino acids and enzymes into energy.

The molecular mystery of Quinton Marine Plasma is that, in its isotonic state, each of the minerals is represented in quantities that mirror, almost perfectly, those of human blood Plasma and extra-cellular fluids. Like human blood Plasma, it contains 78 minerals and marine co-factors – all at almost the perfect levels needed by the human body.

I’m considering trying it for Moses, but in the meantime, wanted to share it with you, in case it’s something that you think might help your child.  If you try it, let me know how it goes!! Thanks to my friend at Boy Connected for sharing this information with me!

Read more:

• Quinton website – FAQs
• Webiner by Dr. Garry Gordon – Introduction to the historical and current use of Quinton Marine Plasma here – starts at page 58
• Sima Ash, a CEASE therapist / homeopath recommends that all of her autistic clients start with one vial of Quinton Isotonic or Hypertonic sea water in the morning and one in the evening on an empty stomach for two weeks before starting CEASE therapy. Read more on her website here.  Sima also provided some interesting and informative information about using Quinton in the comments section of Alex’s Journey out of Autism’s blog site here (you can search for Quinton to find the comments).
• Lots of good info (usage and science) about Quinton sea water on Healing 4 Soul’s website (skip to the bottom of this page).
• Read about Dante’s response to starting Quinton Isotonic here.

Science:

• IMPROVEMENT OF SKIN SYMPTOMS AND MINERAL IMBALANCE BY DRINKING DEEP SEA WATER IN PATIENTS WITH ATOPIC ECZEMA/DERMATITIS SYNDROME (AEDS)” from ACTA MEIDCA 2002;45(2)r83-84.  A scientific study  (see p. 83) has been done with these deep sea water minerals and they been shown to improve skin conditions and decrease IgE levels.
• REDUCTION OF ALLERGIC SKIN RESPONSES AND SERUM ALLERGEN-SPECIFIC IgE and IgE-INDUCING CYTOKINES BY DRINKING DEEP-SEA WATER IN PATIENTS WITH ALLERGIC RHINITIS” from OTORHINOLARGYNGOL NOVA 2001;11:302-303. (This study also showed a decrease in IgE levels and allergic skin responses within 3 weeks of drinking the deep sea water).
• “HYPERSALINE NASAL IRRIGATION IN CHILDREN WITH SYMPTOMATIC SEASONAL ALLERGIC RHINITIS: A RANDOMIZED STUDY” from PEDIATRIC ALLERGY AND IMMUNOLOGY 2003:14:140-143.
• “SEA WATER OR ITS COMPONENTS ALTER EXPERIMENTAL IRRITANT DERMATITIS IN MAN” from SKIN RESEARCH AND TECHNOLOGY 2001;7:36-39.

Update:

April 25, 2012 – I asked my Heilkunstler if she heard of Quinton marine plasma, and she hadn’t. I was mostly interested in this mineral solution to help with Moses’ teeth. My Heilkunstler says that she normally uses tissue salts or Himalayan salt sole to help with re-mineralization. Given that I have Himalayan salt sole in my cupboard that I haven’t been using, I’m going to try to add this to our regime again.  I notice that this person also discusses Quinton marine plasma and sole as “self-care daily detoxification supplements”.

The Boy in the Moon

During the depths of my despair, when we were desperate to know what was going on with my son’s health two years ago (I can’t remember if this was before or after his diagnosis of a rare immune disorder that resulted from a gene mutation) and I was sharing my grief with a dear friend, she mentioned that she was reading a book, The Boy in the Moon, by Ian Brown. She thought that I might be able to relate to this story because Ian’s son was also born with an extremely rare genetic mutation, cardiofaciocutaneous syndrome (CFC).

It’s an honest, heart-breaking and heart-opening story of raising a profoundly disabled boy. I was already crying within a couple of pages into the book. I found the book extremely therapeutic for me as I revisited some of my old grief.

Any parent of a child with a syndrome remembers the day he or she is told to see the genetics department… What has been, to that point, a matter of health, something you could fix, is suddenly a matter of science, carved in genetic stone. I still remember the way that day closed in, the way time gelled, went still… (p. 32)

Although our own family’s experiences are not nearly as extreme as the Brown family’s experiences, I was struck by how many themes were similar (esp. when Moses was so sick). The sleeplessness. How all consuming it is to raise a child with special needs. All of the doctors appointments with the many specialists. All of the unanswered questions. The financial toll. The emotional toll. How difficult it is for marriages. The guilt (he even mentions the same bible passage that I discussed here). Feeling so alone and not understood. The exhaustion. And then, moments of sweet joy. How the experience recalibrates you. How it makes you contemplate the big picture. The whys. When I read books, I often dog-ear the pages that speak to me. Well, this is the most dog-eared book that I’ve ever read.

But there are other times too — moments of unstoppable pleasure… There is something, you see every time he is happy, he is as happy as he has ever been… Walker on the moon with joy. Minutes from his life. Everyday occurrences for a normal child. But I know their true value (pp. 66-67).

There’s a lot more that I could say, but I feel that I can’t really do it justice. I highly recommend reading this book, although if you are already feeling emotional and vulnerable, this might not be the best time to read it.

More reading:

• Read the Globe and Mail’s 3 Part, 14 chapter feature (including videos of Ian and his son, Walker) on The Boy in the Moon (The book was inspired by the Globe and Mail’s feature by Ian Brown).
• Read Ian Brown’s account of his son’s session with a shaman here.

Living with food allergies (a day in the life…)

Today, during breakfast, when Moses was eating an almond (and deciding that he liked the taste of it after all), he commented:

“Hey, I’m not allergic to too many things anymore…
Because I used to not be able to eat almonds, and now I can”.

My heart filled at that moment.

Hanging out in downtown St. John’s

We rejoiced with him and shared in his excitement that he is able to eat so many more different foods.

We gave him high fives and told him that over time, he’ll be able to eat more and more foods. We reminded him which foods he still needs to avoid: wheat (gluten), milk, fish, eggs and some nuts (like walnuts). And told him that very soon, we’ll be baking with a tiny little bit of an egg to see if he will also be able to eat baked goods with eggs.

He went off to do his own thing, and my heart rejoiced.

Moses doesn’t often talk about his food allergies. He just accepts them. Knows that it’s been a part of his life, his whole life until now.

He’s used to us bringing his own food to parties. Eating a different meal and dessert than everyone at extended family dinners and birthday parties.

When well meaning adults accidentally offer him a birthday cake, he is used to saying, “No, I can’t eat that. I have allergies”. He very rarely complains.

Sometimes, he asks why he can’t have a certain food, and we’ll explain to him that it has an ingredient in it that makes him sick. And, if we can figure out a way to make that certain food in an allergy-free way, we tell him that we’ll make it for him on the weekend.

I’ve learned to keep an organic lollipop in my purse at all times because he often gets offered candy from well-intentioned adults (even at his Taekwon-do class, the kids get candy at the end of each class — for several weeks, they weren’t allergy free and we had to take away the candy and offer him the organic lollipop. I’ve since sent an email asking them to re-think their policy of offering candy at the end of class — many children [mine included] don’t react well to sugar, or at least to offer allergy-free choices — happily, they now are).

The latest heartbreak (my own) was when the parents at Moses’ school wanted to throw a surprise party for his Kindergarten teacher, whose last day was on Friday (Moses’ new teacher is returning from maternity leave on Monday). The parents thought it would be a good idea to make a surprise cake for the teacher and wondered if we could make an allergy-free cake for the occasion. We do have an allergy-free cake recipe, but last time I tried to make it, it was a disaster. It calls for four different flours, and we still haven’t figured out a good icing. We didn’t want to experiment with his whole class since we typically find that “allergy-free baking” doesn’t taste the same as “typical desserts”. We offered to make an apple crisp. Our apple crisp recipe is easy and delicious! One of the other parents even offered to make a second double batch so that we could have enough for all of the kids.

Then, we were informed that some of the parents told the organizer that “some of their children don’t like apple crisp” (really, who doesn’t like apple crisp????), so it was decided that they would make a cake, and we could bring a special dessert for Moses (like always).

Oh, how, my heart broke. I thought how nice it would have been  for Moses to be able eat the very same foods as the other kids for one day.

So… we wound up making a special dessert for Moses. DH tried out a new recipe: a GFCF “blueberry buckle” (it’s like a moist coffeecake, but with blueberries) from the Food Allergy Survival Guide, and he sprinkled icing sugar on top to make it fancy. Moses loved it!

Moses’ normal seat in his classroom just happened to be on the very table where they decided to place the going away cake. It was decorated fancy and Moses excitedly pointed out how the cake had a chalkboard, tiny chalk, and a tiny eraser on it. But, never once did he complain that he wouldn’t be able to have any. He happily ate his delicious blueberry cake (while I longingly looked at the chocolate cake).

Anyway, all that to say that  a lot of things go on behind the scenes for families with food allergies. And, how thrilled I am that Moses allergies are healing. And that he is noticing and is happy about it too.

Update:

April 23, 2012 – We found a great gluten-free white cake mix at the Bulk Barn. Now that we’re not concerned with cross-contamination, we can shop at the Bulk Barn!  Moses loved the white cake with allergy-free chocolate chips that DH made for him, to bring to a birthday party. (He was crazy after though — Moses doesn’t do well on sugar).

May 9, 2012 – Moses actually had an allergic reaction to the GF cake mix (even though he tolerated it fine a couple of weeks ago). hmmmmm…. Read more here.

Tree nut challenge

As a follow up to Moses’ allergist appointment, we gave Moses some tree nuts in the parking lot of the children’s hospital ER today. We were advised to do it in the morning, in case there were any problems.

To bring any new readers up to speed, Moses is able to eat almonds and peanuts and he didn’t have a reaction to his last tree nuts prick test, so his allergist felt that we should be able to try feeding Moses the rest of the tree nuts on our own (and not in the hospital, as the almond oral challenge was done). We opted to do the rest of the tree nuts together because it is virtually impossible to get nuts that are not cross-contaminated with other nuts.  As it is, most nuts are cross-contaminated with Moses’ other allergies (milk and wheat), which makes it complicated.

We brought a lot of toys to keep Moses occupied, and he played with his toy cars in the snow next to the car between eating bits of nuts.

This is how we did it:

• 11:20 am – put  his hand in the bag of mixed tree nuts.  Then touch his lips with his hands.
• 11:30 am – bring 1/4 of a cashew to his lips.
• 11:32 am – eat 1/4 of a cashew
• 11:42 am – eat 1/2 of a cashew

He felt fine up until this point.

• 11:49 am – bring a walnut to his lips. Eat 1/4 of a walnut

Within a couple of minutes of eating the walnut, he told us that he had a tummy ache. He went to the bathroom and had diarrhea. He told us that he still felt sick after. After a few minutes, we drove home (we knew that he wasn’t having an anaphylactic reaction).

When we got home, he told us that his tummy didn’t hurt anymore, but he didn’t want to eat any more nuts.

So…

On the good side of things, we now know that Moses does not have life-threatening anaphylactic reactions to tree nuts!!! We  no longer need to avoid products that are cross-contaminated with tree nuts.  This will simplify our lives tremendously!!  But we will not actually feed him any other tree nuts for awhile. Based on his reaction (diarrhea and tummy ache), it seems like he still has an intolerance to cashews and/or walnuts. We might try another oral challenge in another month or so.

An answered prayer

Last night, I shared our story about an answered prayer with a friend.

In turn, he shared with me this story about his friend, Mark (paraphrased and all names have been changed):

Mark’s two year old, James, was  suffering from a life-threatening illness. The doctors thought that James might have  cancer. Mark was distraught and prayed to God that he would take on whatever it was that James was dealing with.

Sure enough, James miraculously recovered, and Mark was eventually diagnosed with cancer.  The good news was that it was a treatable form of cancer. Mark underwent treatment and had the cancerous cells removed.

Ten years later, the family is healthy and well.

A potent reminder of the power of prayer. And confirming to me about our own situation about the power of prayer.

We are a praying family, and Moses is on several prayer lists in several churches. Whenever we relate good news about Moses’ health to his Grammie Millie, she is fond of reminding us (so that there is no doubt in anyone’s mind as to the true source of Moses’ healing) that:

“More things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of.” – Lord Alfred Tennyson

 

Now this is curious…

Ask and you shall receive.

As you know, over the last couple of years, Moses’ food sensitivities and allergies have been healing. It’s been an answered prayer. From my perspective, Moses’ sensitivities and allergies have been healing as a result of prayer and the systematic treatments that he has been undergoing. I am not surprised by the fact that his health has been improving. It’s been very confirming that his treatments have been working.

But, there’s another side story that I need to fill you in on. DH’s. (And I have received his permission to share it). What’s fascinating is that three or four years ago, DH prayed his own prayers. He bargained with God, requesting that he take on Moses’ allergies and sensitivities in exchange for Moses’ health. To give you some context, DH is a healthy man. He eats well and consciously. He exercises regularly. He runs consistently. He is athletic. He does not have an allergic constitution. We always assumed that Moses’ allergies came from my side of the family since  allergies, asthma and eczema run in my family and not DH’s family. (We’ve since found out that genetically, Moses’ severe allergies were not inherited from either of us, but was the result of a very rare genetic mutation in the STAT3 gene that is related to his hyper IgE syndrome diagnosis).

Within months of DH’s prayer, DH started to experience gastrointestinal difficulties. He started to notice that he could not longer eat eggs or gluten. At the time, Moses’ health hadn’t noticeably improved and we kind of joked that God only heard part of DH’s prayer.

Fast forward, three or four years later and Moses’ health has never been better. And DH’s sensitivities have actually gotten considerably worse. Through trial and error, he figured out on his own that he was sensitive to eggs, gluten, oatmeal (even oatmeal that is not cross-contaminated with gluten) and hemp seeds.  Even after avoiding all of those foods, he’s still been experiencing significant GI difficulties, so he decided to splurge on an IgG test that is done through a naturopath. It’s basically a blood test that can be used to find out which foods that you have a IgG allergy response to (IgG allergy responses are not life-threatening and tend to be gastrointestinal responses and skin responses — I think of them as sensitivities). You can read more about IgG tests here.

IgG allergies are difficult to diagnose because reactions do not occur until hours or days after ingestion of an allergen. This makes it extremely difficult to determine which foods are the causative agents.

We’ve only ordered IgG allergy testing for Moses once, when he was  two and a half years old. At the time, we were having difficulty pin-pointing exactly what he was reacting to, and combined with the results of the IgE allergy testing that his allergist did, this is how we found out that he was allergic or sensitive to 40+ foods. Ack!

A week after we received the great news about how Moses’ allergies are continuing to heal, we received news that DH’s sensitivities are much more extensive than we had thought.

DH is now highly sensitive to (and should avoid): almonds, baker’s yeast, barley, egg whites, chili pepper, corn, flax seed, kamut, oat, spelt, wheat. (The almond sensitivity can explain why DH’s GI system has been so out of whack — DH has been eating A LOT of almonds ever since we found out that they were safe for Moses to eat).

DH is also moderately sensitive to (and should reduce his consumption of): amaranth, bean sprout, Brewer’s yeast, brown rice, buckwheat, cashew nut, cheddar cheese, egg yolk, hazelnut, lima bean, milk, millet, navy bean, peanut, pistachio, quinoa, soy bean, watermelon and whey.

Holy moly!

It’s kind of funny when you think about it. DH and I find it all very curious. There’s really no obvious reason why DH should have developed all of these food sensitivities. We don’t really understand it. But, the only thing that seems like a plausible explanation is that it is literally an answered prayer.

DH prayed with all of his heart and soul, during the depths of his despair when Moses was so sick and so allergic, that Moses would be spared of his food allergies and sensitivities and that DH would bare it. He wanted to carry that cross for Moses. And, now it appears that he is (although a milder version of what Moses experienced).

So much love

DH isn’t really bothered by all of these extra sensitivities. He is just thanking God that it is not Moses. We both are.

He has an appointment scheduled with our amazing naturopath, who will hopefully provide him with ideas of how to avoid these foods. DH can safely eat meat (which he doesn’t like to eat), fish (which is difficult because Moses is allergic to fish and tends to have a reaction even when we cook fish), vegetables and fruits. Sounds very much like a paleo diet (minus eggs and nuts) to me, so I think that our family will be learning to eat in a different way.  (I know that some of you are paleo diet followers, so feel free to offer us some tips on doing so).

On the good side, IgG sensitivities tend to be short-term sensitivities that can change after you stop eating the offending foods for a period of three months or so.

Things continue to be interesting for our family. All things considered, both of us are still very thankful that it is DH and not Moses!

More reading:

• How to start a paleo diet. Optimal paleo diet foods include chicken, fish, shellfish, eggs, nuts, berries, carrots, turnips and avocados.
• Bulletproof executive – upgraded paleo diet

Updates:

March 21, 2012 – DH had an appointment with our naturopath and she thought that DH may have a yeast problem. She suggested that he start Citrigen (an antimicrobial) and HMF probiotics.

My son is healthy and well

Hello my dear friends.  Just felt like giving you an update on how we’re doing. Moses is doing great healthwise. He had an allergist appointment yesterday, and all went well. He received a prick test on a couple of new food items that we were curious about: kiwi and shellfish. He passed with flying colours!  No reaction at all. His allergist re-tested him with eggs and there was no reaction (which is in contrast to the violent throwing up episode that he had after eating a pancake made with 1/8 of an egg 6 months ago). She wants us to try baking with eggs to see if he’ll tolerate that. We’ll try it over the weekend. Will start off with a very little bit of an egg in GFCF muffins and see how that goes.

He’s still reactive to wheat and fish, and his allergist didn’t bother re-testing him with mixed nuts because for the last six months, he’s been able to drink almond milk every day with no problem. He doesn’t like almond butter or almonds, so he’s not eating them very often, but we’re no longer fearful of almonds. Next step is try feeding him the rest of the tree nuts. Our plan is to feed him some mixed nuts in the ER parking lot one of these weekends (we have his allergist’s support on trying this on our own!).  Soon.  Will be sure to let you know how that goes!

So his current allergy list is:

• wheat (we avoid all gluten since he’s likely sensitive to gluten and gluten is generally not great for most individuals),
• dairy;
• and fish.

Eggs are likely a sensitivity, but as I mentioned, we’re going to try them in baked goods and we’re at the point where we are not concerned with products that are cross-contaminated with eggs. We also avoid MSG, chemicals, additives and preservatives as much as possible. Moses is doing so well that the allergist feels that she doesn’t need to assess him again for a whole year. She is very pleased and surprised by how much his allergies have healed over the last couple of years.

Holy goodness! This is amazing, amazing, amazing!  (For new readers, my son was once sensitive / allergic to 40+ foods, so I really feel that his sensitivities / allergies healing are a true miracle). I am so grateful! I once prayed that Moses would one day only be sensitive to gluten and dairy. That was my prayer (at the time, this idea was inconceivable really), and three years later it’s essentially a reality. I even think it is conceivable that one day, he will no longer need to carry an epi-pen. I actually feel that he is no longer at risk for anaphylaxis (since I know that gluten, dairy and fish are not anaphylactic risks for him). My new prayer is that Moses’ sensitivities and allergies completely heal.  So be it, and it is so and so it is.

If you need a reminder of his current treatment / supplement plan, you can read about it here. I feel like I’m a broken record, but I really feel that Heilkunst homeopathy was the most important part of his healing. We do a lot of other things as well, but we were doing many of the other things before we started healing with Heilkunst, so I feel that the Heilkunst healing was the key.

His recent eye injury back in February healed quickly (within 2 weeks, his eyesight had essentially recovered to where it was prior to that injury). I feel that prayer, total body modification and increasing his glutathione levels contributed to his quick recovery.

He has been healthy and well for four months!!!  I feel that increasing his glutathione levels has also been a significant factor in how he has been doing in the last couple of months. Like all things that create true healing on a deep level, his body detoxed when taking only the tiniest bit of the glutathione accellerator. I’ve given his body a break for the last month from detoxing anything (we haven’t tackled any new chronic miasms [Heilkunst homeopathy] since November and even gave him a break from the glutathione supplement during the last month). The last month has been heaven as Moses is really at a great point in his health. His health has stabilized and he’s generally happy. He is now a typical healthy five year old.

My boy loves Taekwon-do!

He has a powerful punch!

During our last appointment with our chiropractor (who does TBM and cranialsacral therapy as well), he assessed Moses and me, and commented that our bodies are the best they have ever been since we’ve started seeing him. My body is “less reactive”. Moses’ body is feeling “more normal”, less tense and more at ease. I really feel that our current treatment plan is really, really working!!

Now that his allergist appointment has passed, I’m going start clearing the last two levels of the Sycosis miasm (details about the first two levels here — it was a doozy). I’m a bit apprehensive about it, but feel that it’s important to do, to continue his healing journey. As always, I’ll let you know how it goes!

Some extra goodies:

• CBC radio had a special on gluten-free baking. DH called in to offer some of our tips (esp. baking with 50% GF oatmeal flour and 50% brown rice flour). Interestingly, the dietician mentioned that many individuals with a gluten sensitivity don’t do well even with oatmeal that is not cross-contaminated with gluten since a protein in oatmeal (avenin) is similar to the gluten protein.  Fortunately GF oatmeal is not a problem for my boy (although DH is actually sensitive to oatmeal). You can listen to DH (he’s got a great voice – so natural and at ease on the radio) at minute 34 to 38 of the show (the third recording on this page)!
• I recently heard this fun Wiggles song about allergies (thanks to Allergy Kinder’s FB recommendation). Check it out!

Updates:

March 10, 2012 – Moses had his first bit of kiwi. So far, so good!

March 18, 2012 – He ate 3/4 of a cashew and 1/4 of a walnut and then had a tummy ache and diarrhea.  On the good side, he’s not anaphylactic to tree nuts anymore, but seems to still be intolerant to them. Read more details about the oral tree nut challenge here.

Jack the Fish

A couple of weeks ago, we welcomed a new member to our family: Jack the fish!

Jack looks a lot like this betta fish

We are thrilled to have a pet again! Our family loves having a pet to love. To bring you up to speed, we had to find a new home for our two cats shortly after Moses was born due to his allergies. (Happily, we found a great home for them). When Moses was three, we got a puppy because we thought that he wasn’t allergic to dogs (so the initial allergy test said), but after a few months, Moses developed an allergy to our dog, so we had to find a new home for Cookie Dog as well…  (This story had a happy ending because our dear friends took Cookie into their home and hearts and now we get to see her all the time). Posts about this here and here.

We’re so happy to have Jack in our lives. He’s so beautiful and calming to watch. And easy to care for. We got a bigger tank than the original one that he came in (we’ve read that betta fish should be in tanks that are at least 2 to 5 gallons in size, even though they are often sold in tiny little fish bowls).

DH even found that his stress levels decreased after we got our fish. So calming for us to watch. We spend a lot of time with our hearts beaming, love overflowing as we watch our fish swim around in his little tank. I didn’t realize that fish had such personality! He likes to rest in the plant, flare at his own reflection, hide behind the rock, fish towards the stream of filtered water, and rest against the filter vent when he sleeps at night. Sometimes he greets us and says hi. He even likes it when we change some of his water — very interested in what we are doing with the turkey baster.

Moses was excited to have a new pet as well, but then became a bit jealous of all of the attention the fish was getting in the first couple of days, so DH and I have calmed down on our enthusiasm a bit. I knew things would be okay when Moses showed the Jack his new toy that he got the other day, and now he’s feeding Jack as well.

If you are looking for an allergy-friendly and easy to care for pet, we highly recommend a betta fish!

Drumming circle

Moses loves to drum (he loves to “rock out”) and I love drumming circles, so I was excited to bring Moses to his first drumming circle last week. We met two of our dear friends there. I thought that he would either love it or hate it (over-stimulation), so I was curious how he would find it.

His reaction was somewhere in between. He was a bit hesitant when we arrived as the room is darkened and he tends to be shy in new situations. When the drumming started, he joined in right on the beat and my heart filled during this experience of sharing something that I love with my son. A meeting of our interests.

(Click here to see a short video of the drumming circle — you get a glimpse of Moses on the right at around the 30 sec mark in the video).

After 15 minutes, his hands started to get sore and was ready for a change of instrument, so we got up and went to look at what other instruments there were. He whispered to me that he wanted to go home and I was ready to take his lead when he changed him mind and asked to stay. We returned to our seats and he grabbed his blankie and had a little snuggle with it while I returned to drumming. After awhile, he asked for some water and a snack and then climbed onto my lap for more snuggling. It was after his bedtime, so he was tired. We soaked up the rhythm of the drumming. Heaven.

During the stress-releasing portion of the night, when participants are asked to drum and scream as loud as they can to release the stress of the week, Moses covered his ears and I helped to cover them as well and held him close to me. Still, he wasn’t terribly distressed and I was amazed by how well he did, given that he was once so easily over-stimulated. A couple of years ago, it would have been unthinkable for us to bring him to a drumming circle — it would have been too much noise and stimulation for his system.

After 50 minutes, it was break time and he enjoyed the juice and fruit. The quickest way to Moses’ heart is through his belly.

Overall, it was a great night. On the way home, I asked him if he enjoyed it, and he told me that he wouldn’t want to go back, it was too loud. I asked him again the next morning and he told me, “Well…  if we brought ear plugs next time, it would be okay…”, so if he’s game, we’ll try it again next month. We might even be able to convince DH to join us.

By the way, in addition to creating music, having fun and connecting with others, there are also health benefits to drumming circles, including:

• reducing stress and anxiety;
• natural pain control;
• decreasing anxiety and depression;
• an increase in natural killer cell activity and an enhanced immune system; and
• stimulating the entire brain.

Read this article for more details about the health benefits of drumming circles.

Updates:

March 23, 2012 – We went to the drumming circle again tonight. This time we came prepared: ear plugs (which he didn’t need) and a drum that he could hit with a stick (since last time, his hands got tired). He had a great time, drumming for about 10 minutes, after which, he had an even better time because he found a playmate and a room full of toys in the next room. I loved having him there, part of a community event that I love to participate in and also that he was present and soaking in all of the healing benefits of the drumming circle. We will definitely be back!

May 25, 2012 – Moses is now used to the drum circle (doesn’t need ear plugs at all). He only drummed for only about 1 minute before he went to the play area to play with the trains and build a train track. I *love* having my boy playing in the play area while I drum to my heart’s content…

Finding balance

You might recall that my intention for this year is to experience balance, ease and joy.

I’ve been reading Dr. John Demartini’s book, The Breakthrough Experience, and it’s been really shifting my views on what balance really means. I read it four years ago and found it to be an interesting read at the time, but now as I’m reading through it again, I’m finding that I’m hearing his teachings on a deeper level.

He teaches that in every moment, our lives are always in balance. We’ve all heard it before… “in every crisis, there is a hidden opportunity and a blessing”, yadda yadda yadda….  Sounds like such a simple teaching, but somehow, this teaching is going in deeper for me.

Through his process, the Breakthrough Experience, he leads you through an exercise of “collapsing” charged experiences and through the experience, you can find the blessings, the divinity, the balance and the perfection of it all. The process essentially involves listing all of the “negative aspects” of a person or event (say at least 50 of them), and then an equal number of “positive aspects” of a person or event, and then you need to acknowledge and find all of the ways in which you embody these same negative and positive aspects. The objective of the exercise is to acknowledge that every person and every experience in our lives are actually neutral events (neither fully positive nor fully negative) and that we are all the same in that we all embody, in some way, shape or form, the same qualities that we dislike and the same qualities that we admire in others. The people who trigger us the most, generally offer the greatest gifts for us because it helps us to acknowledge and accept our own shadow and disowned pieces of ourselves since those that trigger us tend to be those that mirror our own shadow pieces.

I haven’t fully gone through the exercise exactly as he’s described how to do it (yet), but I have often attempted to find the blessings in each challenge (like here and here for example).

What I find different about John Demartini’s theory is that not only is there a hidden blessing in each crisis, but he believes that the blessing occurs in the exact moment as the crisis.

All positive and negative particles in the universe come in complementary pairs; at every level of creation they come into existence simultaneously. Everything has two sides. (p. 42)

Have you ever been cocky and elated about some part of your life, your finances, your career or your relationship, and had something happen right at that moment to humble yet? That’s not mistake or error; it’s exactly the way the universe makes sue you learn to love. The second you see more positives than negatives, you attract a situation where you see more negatives than positives to get them back to balance. (p. 30)

All phenomena are universally full-quantum. Looking at that law, I thought, “That implies there must be no such thing as happiness without sadness, or sadness without happiness. (p. 30)

I’ve been pondering that notion and can see that it is true on lots of levels. But, he also challenges his readers to apply these same concepts to terrible situations like rape, murder, domestic violence, etc. Challenging to say the least.

In my own family of origin, traumatic events that have occurred, and I have looked for the blessings and have found them, so I know that it is possible to find the blessings, yet I’m not convinced that the blessings also occur in the exact same moment as the crisis occurs. I’m still trying to make sense of it. It’s comforting to think that they do. I think to find the blessings in extreme situations, you need to be able expand your view and acknowledge all of the spiritual support that is available to individuals at all times.

Anyway, I’m still sitting with some of this information, but I have still found great comfort in this overall message.

Throughout this week, I’ve been looking for the balance in all things, and in so doing have also had a greater appreciation for some things that I’ve struggled with. For example, it has helped me to appreciate the divine balance that my husband brings to our relationship and to our parenting style (e.g., his skepticism is a balance to my openness).

I see how my mother is a balance of my biological father. And when I take the two of them together, there is wholeness and divinity. Perfection.

This theory may also explain why healing reactions occur (i.e., why symptoms may get worst when true healing is occurring). In my experience, the healing modalities that create true healing tend to be the ones that cause discomfort in the short-term (like homeopathy, shamanic healing, detoxing).

This also helps me to know why I don’t believe in “positive thinking” (I believe in the importance of gratitude, which is different from “positive thinking”). I feel that it’s important to acknowledge the truth of how one feels moment to moment, and when we are able to acknowledge the truth in the moment, we can let go and be open to what the next moment may bring.

People who try to be positive to everybody, at home and in the world, end up negating themselves. You cannot get rid of the positive and negative balance. If you try to put on a facade for the world about how positive and upbeat you are, there will be chaos in your private life or your personal health. (p. 76)

You are not here to be a one-sided being; you’re here to embrace both sides of yourself… We’re here to be whole beings, and positive and negative are two sides to teach us that. (p. 77)

This idea is helping me to appreciate more fully everything that encompasses the human experience. The highs and the lows. To fully experience the highs, you need to be able to fully experience the lows. In the meantime, I’m trying to find and walk the middle road, the road of balance and moderation.  And, it’s comforting to know if that when I fall off that road (as I inevitably will), the universe will be there to help me find the middle road as the universe is constantly bringing us back to balance.

Not too hard and not too soft. Just right.

More reading:

• Beyond Sadness – a post by someone who is trained to facilitate The Breakthrough Experience and his reflections on this process.

Power up your Brain

I highly recommend the book, Power Up Your Brain, by Dr. David Perlmutter (a neuroscientist) and Dr. Alberto Villoldo (a medical anthropologist and shaman). I had mentioned this book earlier in this post here, but that was before I had read the book.

I loved this book because Power Up Your Brain spoke to both sides of me: the scientist and the shaman. My left brain and my right brain. It spoke about the science behind the right supplements and therapies, and how important energy healing is as well. Dr. Perlmutter spoke about how he found that his neurological patients who experienced “miracles” in their healing, were typically those who engaged in some form of meditative or spiritual practice. This spoke strongly to me. Many of them were also fasting from time to time, exercising regularly and taking some form of DHA (omega 3 supplement). I loved this book because it spoke about the importance of physical healing as well as spiritual healing. I believe they are both equally important in healing, especially when tackling chronic and serious illnesses and disorders.

At the back of the book, they describe a five week program designed to power up your brain. I highly recommend purchasing this book for the description of this program alone. I am going to start suggesting this program for my own clients.

I do feel that our brains (and our children’s brains) are starved of the right nutrients and the right fats. Hence the importance of healthy oils (they recommend 1,000 mg of DHA, 1 tablespoon of organic virgin olive oil and 1 tablespoon of organic virgin coconut oil). The book also speaks about the importance of glutathione for our brains, and as you know, I highly recommend Dr. Robert Keller’s Original Glutathione Formula  for increasing glutathione levels. They speak about the importance of exercise (of course) and yoga. In addition,  they outline several very simple yet powerful and transformative shamanic exercises that you can do on your own. Meditation. Sky gazing. Radical forgiveness. And others.

It was fascinating for me that they spoke about the importance of fasting because my own spiritual awakening began during a 10 day spiritual fast that I attended in 2001. It was a transformational experience for me and my view of the world was forever changed during that time. I attended a second 10 day spiritual fast in 2002, and experienced the “dark night of the soul” and haven’t been able to bring  myself to fast again (and I’m not sure if I ever will as a result), but still, I find it fascinating that they spoke about the importance of this powerful cleansing technique. They don’t recommend fasting more than one day at a time in their program.

There is a lot more to their program. I just highlighted some of the key points that spoke to me. I feel, as they do, that this program can be dramatically transformative, improving your physical, mental and spiritual health.

Introducing… Allergy Kinder!

My dear friend, Aliki of the Mama Files, has recently launched a FB page, Allergy Kinder, which is an alternative space to share and connect with others that exercise an alternative approach to allergies

Allergy Kinder’s  mission is to provide you with:

• An alternative, unique, insightful and informative space related to allergies and children.
• A space where we can celebrate the unique children that are coming through to be with us.

I invite you to check it out and like Allergy Kinder on Facebook!

 

 

And then, there were three

I recently “met” another holistic mom who is raising her five year old son who has multiple allergies, hyper IgE (15,000) and a rare immune disorder Chronic Granumatolous Disease (CGD). With her permission, I’m sharing her story below so that we can all learn together. What interests me is how this mother is also using very similar treatments as myself and another holistic mom of a 12 year old with Hyper IgE syndrome. All three of us are using homeopathy and biomedical treatments. Her son is on a GFCF diet, is no longer receiving any additional vaccinations (he had a strong negative reaction to them)  and is not on a prophylactic antibiotic (which is the general treatment for CGD and Hyper IgE syndrome), and gives me more hope that one day my son will also be off of his prophylactic antibiotic (just need to get DH on board). Not surprisingly, she feels that her son’s health has definitely improved as a result of the natural remedies.

Her story is below:

When I was pregnant with T., I had some amalgams removed, thanks to ‘good advice’ given by a friend. Then I had a prolonged labour, to which T. was pulled out using forceps and I ended up with a blotched episiotomy which required me to administer high dosages of antibiotic solution directly to the wound and consume tons of pain killers. I was told none of this will go to T. via the breast milk. At 3 months I had to stop breastfeeding as I was travelling for work and he was put on dairy formula.

He started having ear infections, eczema and then chronic constipation. I had to use enemas. He was tip-toe walking, looking out of the corner of his eyes, all symptoms of autism as we now known. Then he started falling ill very often, and then he had a bad viral infection, follow by the Ah1ni, and numerous trips to the hospital for bronchitis and pneumonia. Mid 2010, we did a skin allergy test and found out he had 3 allergies, then in August 2010, he was hospitalised for 2 weeks, at which his white cell count was low. I finally insisted on a full allergy test (IgE) trying to find out what could have caused his body to be so weakened. The results came back with over 18 allergies.

I took the same test back to his immunologist in another hospital and he did further testing (lymphocytes, etc), to which he was ‘labelled’ as having Chronic Granumatolous Disease (CGD); (apparently 1 step better than Job’s Syndrome. His body apparently can’t handle bacteria and fungi). I was totally floored when I received the news. You normally hear of ‘rare’ illnesses in America. I thought this was something like the movie, Lorenzo’s Oil.

I’m very pragmatic and decided that a life-long treatment of antibiotics is not going to help T., instead kill him. So I was left with no other option, but instead look towards the natural way of doing things. And this has converted my whole outlook of medicines and health in general. It has revolutionised the way I look at things.

I decided to first try to heal T. of his allergies, telling myself that if he indeed has a genetic ‘problem’ meaning if he was born with a genetic defect or missing a gene, then there’s nothing much I can do except stem cells at a later stage. Hence I thought lets heal him first of his allergies which I have heard of people doing in the past. This led me to Dr Kenneth Bock’s book, DAN and biomedical protocol.

I consulted with a DAN doctor and did the first tier protocol. Then I decided to try classical homeopathy. So far the 1^st classical homeopathy had stabilised T. but still I knew there were a lot of underlying issues. By doing the biomed and classical homeopathy, and Epsom salt baths, and Dr Rath’s protocol of high vitamin C and Lysene, I discovered that T. had in fact started to chelate metals mildly. That’s when I decided to try another form of Homeopathy that chelates using multiple remedies to address the various metals in his body.

Now he is going through a serious healing crisis and the eczema is really bad. We do the Epsom salt baths with tea tree oil, and sometimes Apple Cider Vinegar. I also give him Magnesium, Calcium, Zinc, Vitamin C, P5P, B12, Probiotics, Kefir, Omega 3, DHA, Aloe Vera juice, Virgin Coconut Oil, Selenium, Zeolite. And we also do CST (Cranial Sacral Therapy).

So far he is s trooper. But I think I’ll need to add Culturelle for the Lacto GG, Biotin and Oil of Oregano to help fight the yeast that commonly comes up when they are chelating. I’ve also been introduced today to Far infra ray which also apparently helps with Chelation.

And of course to top it off, prayer to God.

I wish T. and his family the best in T.’s healing journey and will continue to post updates regarding his progress and any changes to his treatment so that we can all learn from each other’s healing journey.

Updates
May 12, 2012 – Her thoughts on healing the gut using the GAPS diet and natural food

I feel that my kid cannot be on gluten free and casein free diet for the rest of his life. And if this is my point of contention, then what am I going to do about this problem? So I do reverse engineering. I work backwards.

I asked the question: since T.’s gut cannot handle casein and gluten, what can I do, that will change that? How can I get his gut to a point where it can handle gluten, where it can tolerate casein? Hence, since T. has now improved his immunity (no more episodes of high fevers, no more upper respiratory issues like pneumonia, etc) and is out of the ‘danger zone’ for over 1.5 years now, I think its time to heal the gut and nip this allergy in the butt. So I researched patients, parents, doctors and protocols that have claimed to do so, without the use of allergy drugs, etc. How did they do it?

I went to the importers of food stuffs for hotels and got Norwegian salmon, Australian grass fed lamb and beef and started boiling away for a whole freaking day to make broth. I bought tons of tupperwares and I borrow freezer space to stock up. I ain’t not saint, but I cannot do it without planning. I started to learn how to make water kefir, fermented foods for enzymes, etc. Bought tons of books, etc.

I won’t be able to control T.’s diet 100% but for me, its about tipping the scales, from gluten free, to more natural foods. Drinks, I give fresh juices and kefir (water kefir with fruit juices), less rice milk. More stews, casseroles, and pies, and just protein and vegetables, etc at home; less pastas, pancakes, bread. The vegetables, fruits and lemons we use are to alkalise the blood from the protein he takes and overall we limit the carbohydrates for when we are out and about.  Breakfast is tough, so I too give almond milk and some rice puffs, but there are days, he just eats a bowl of fresh fruits.

Yes I agree it’s not easy, but I do a lot of prepping. A lot of meat/fish gets cut, marinated, meat balls get made and rolled up and all packed and frozen. T.’s can’t take diary because of the casein, but I found that fermented milk kefir (which is stronger than yoghurt and definitely better than commercial stuff in the supermarkets) was ok for him, and so was fermented clarified butter with the milk solids removed. Crazy right? I tried with just 1 table spoon to watch for reaction, so now he is slowly taking it. His eczema was already there before I introduced it, so it wasn’t related. I do simple things like stopping vegetable oils, and only use coconut oil, clarified butter and olive oil for example.

For me personally, I think the eczema is the 2^nd last round. Heal the gut, heal the eczema. I know its going to be complex, not tough. I was told its normally a 1-2 year period. But hey, time flies when you’re having fun J sorry just being sarcastic (me being fed-up of being fed-up). You know, it’s not another way of eating, it’s just our mother or grandmother’s way of eating. I’m more concerned about the last round of healing actually. The emotional part.

It was hard for me. Lots of re-educating myself once again, having trust in this new ‘diet’, learning how to prep for it and getting my game plan into action. 90% is really about getting the game plan right, then the 10% is the execution. You can google Dr Natasha Campbells’ GAP protocol on youtube. Both she and Donna Gates are in it. I think this is the link for it http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLP0Ijo2CK4 and there’s ton of help on forums, etc.

A good vegetarian omega 3 oil

I’m thrilled that a new Natural Health Shop opened up in our end of town.

I was in there today to pick up a fish oil for DH and I.  We were introduced to a new line of fish oils that are produced in Nova Scotia (close to our neck of the woods). We choose Ascenta Health NutraSea for us. (The lemon flavour tastes good!)

Even more fabulous, I learned that they have a vegetarian omega 3 oil, which is allergy-friendly (Moses is allergic to fish).  We have him on a flax seed oil, but I always felt that he needed a better source of omega 3 oil. Well, I think I found what I’ve been looking for!

It’s called Ascenta Health NutraVege.

Echium plantagineum, a common plant native to many parts of the world including western and southern Europe, represents an exciting alternative source of omega-3. Unlike flax seed oil, echium oil contains the omega-3 stearidonic acid (SDA), which readily converts to EPA. Studies have demonstrated that SDA from echium converts to EPA at a rate of up to 30% (compared to 3.28% for flax). A further advantage of echium is that it is also a natural source of the omega-6 gamma-linolenic acid (GLA).

Unlike most omega-6 fatty acids, GLA supports an anti-inflammatory effect in the body and promotes healthy skin.

Algal DHA, from the marine algae Schizochytrium sp., is an exceptional source of DHA. Unlike land plants, certain aquatic species have the ability to synthesize the omega-3 DHA. The DHA content in most fish originates from the consumption of algae; therefore, the DHA present in NutraVege is identical to that found in fish.

Ingredients
echium oil (Echium plantagineum), algal oil (Schizochytrium sp.) medium chain triglycerides, high oleic sunflower oil, all natural flavouring, lecithin (from sunflower oil), green tea extract, natural tocopherols (derived from non-GMO soy), ascorbyl palmitate, rosemary extract

Check out this comparison of NutraVege vs.  flax seed oil here. NutraVege exceeds the recommended dose of EPA+DHA (500 mg). Plus NutraVege includes the beneficial omega-6 GLA that flax doesn’t have.

I’m thrilled about this!  I still need to purchase it (I wanted to read about it before we picked it up). We’ll buy it early next week and then will hide it in his shakes and on his GF toast (like we’ve been doing with the flax seed oil). Will let you know how it goes!

February 19, 2012 – We gave Moses about a teaspoon of Nutrevege and so far so good (i.e., he doesn’t seem to be allergic to it). He didn’t like the taste (even though it’s quite palatable — my husband says that it tastes like bubblegum, although it’s citrus flavoured). We chased it with pineapple juice.