Moses is healing

Hello friends:

It feels like it’s time for an update.

Moses is doing well. Really well. No more abscesses (which as you know was a huge source of stress for our family last year). His skin is really clear. Emotionally, he’s doing well. DH is completely on board with the essential oils. It feels so good that we both agree on Moses’ treatment at the moment. A huge source of stress is gone from our lives.

That said, Moses has had a couple of bouts of illness in the last little while. He had strep throat a few weeks ago, but he recovered quickly and easily. Only missed two days of school.

We had a quick trip to the ER a couple of weeks ago. I think it was a healing reaction to frankincense that I put on his chest. Moses came home from school and was having a difficult time breathing and I put frankincense on his chest. Later that night, he threw up globs of mucous (which I think is a good sign) — I think the oils have been releasing and bringing up phlegm from his system, but Moses doesn’t know to spit it out, so he just swallows it all. (I actually found when I started using the oils, I was also bringing up phlegm myself, and I didn’t even realize that I had a mucous problem). He was still having difficulty breathing after he brought up the mucous, so we brought him to the ER. By the time he saw the triage nurse, he only had a slight wheeze, and by the time he saw the doctor, he was not wheezing at all. They sent us home without any treatment. Yay! I should also mention that I started doing the Healing Code when we were in the waiting room, and I think that really helped too. I will share more about the Healing Code soon!

So basically, many things have resolved for Moses, except he still has congestion in his lungs. I am hopeful that with time, the oils will help Moses’ lungs. I’ve read time and time again that they have helped others with asthma and respiratory problems. In fact, a friend’s dad who had chronic bronchitis now hardly needs to use an oxygen tank to breathe as a result of using the oils. I have faith that I will find the right combination of oils that will help Moses. I just need to be patient (which truthfully, is not my strongest quality).

Starting today, I’m going to change the oils that I’m using on Moses. (This post describes what we were doing up until now, and I feel that it has been very helpful at keeping the MRSA infections in check).

This is our new essential oil protocol (focuses more on healing his allergies, and I actually had a dream a few weeks ago to start using the allergy trio on him).

• Morning: lemon (natural antibiotic), peppermint (good for his lungs) and lavender (calming to his system) (together, these oils are considered the allergy trio, and I have found that they completely eliminate my own allergic symptoms to dogs and cats, which is actually pretty amazing considering that I am VERY allergic to animal dander).
• Evening: peppermint (good for lungs), melaleuca (natural antibiotic) and frankincense (so healing, good for so many things).

Just one drop of each, rubbed on the bottom of his feet. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Other considerations

Yesterday, I received a couple of recommendations, which I’m considering.

A friend of mine is very enthusiastic about the oils at Native American Nutritionals. I talked to the owner and he made some suggestions for Moses (Defense, black cumin oil, Rejuvenate and Breathe EZ). My friend thought the DNA Repair may also be helpful considering that Moses has a genetic disorder. DH isn’t interested in trying anything new right now, so I don’t think I’m going to change anything at the moment, but it’s something that I’m considering.

Also, a healer whose opinion I really trust recommended a karmic healer. Something else for us to consider. I’m interested, but DH is not.

As always, I’ll let you know how things continue to unfold for our family.

Vaccines increase IgE levels and allergic risk

Today, a reader commented on one of my blog posts:

My daughter is also suffering for hyper IgE syndrome. She has been diagnosed a few weeks back. Her value was 14,000 first. Then we got her vaccinated and it got 28,000. I think that vaccination increased it. She is also allergic to cow milk and egg and wheat.

To put this into context, IgE refers to immunoglobin E.

Immunoglobulin E, a class of immunoglobulins that includes the antibodies elicited by an allergic substance (allergen). A person who has an allergy usually has elevated blood levels of IgE. IgE antibodies attack and engage the invading army of allergens. The E in IgE stands for erythema (redness).

Normal IgE levels would be less than  130 IU/mL or 312 micrograms/L.  Anything over 2000 IU/mL is considered “hyper” (although doesn’t necessarily mean that one has Hyper IgE syndrome, which refers to a specific gene mutation). An increase of IgE levels from 14,000 to 28,000 is a dramatic increase in IgE levels.

This highlights one of many reasons why we no longer choose to vaccinate our son. Vaccinations increase IgE antibodies. And as IgE levels increase, this leads to an increase in allergies and sensitivities.

There’s at least one scientific paper that has demonstrated this link (i.e., that aluminum adjuvants in vaccines induce the production of IgE antibodies):

• Fiejka, M. and J. Aleksandrowicz. 1993. Aluminum as an adjuvant in vaccines and post-vaccines reactions. Rocz Panstw Zakl Hig. 1993;44(1):73-80.

I know that people are always wondering why the current generation of children have so many allergies. Why are all of our children so allergic?  I believe that the 36 vaccines that today’s children receive by the time they are 6 years old have a major role in this.

Anyway, I’m sharing all of this information because every single time we have an appointment with Moses’ pediatrician and allergist, they stress the importance of getting Moses caught up on his vaccinations (and they are not above using “scare tactics”). When they ask “what are we afraid of”, I mention that vaccines are known to increase IgE levels. It just doesn’t make sense to us to  inject Moses with toxic substances that are known to increase IgE levels when his levels are already greatly elevated.

More reading:

• Vaccination Risk Awareness Network’s article about “Can Vaccines Cause Immune Dysfunction Resulting in Allergies, Asthma and Anaphylaxis?”.
• Scientific research about vaccinations here.
• Stories of vaccine-injured children here.

In case you missed this video earlier, it’s worth watching. (It’s short, but very informative and easy to understand):

In a classroom of 30 children…

In a classroom of 30 children have you noticed:

• 3 have learning disabilities
• 3 have food allergies
• 3 have respiratory allergies
• 3 have skin allergies
• 3 have asthma
• 3 have attention disorders
• 1 has autism

Have you ever wondered why?

This is an extremely well-done video. I cried when I watched it. (Because of the seriousness of the epidemic that our society is facing. Because of all of the intentional and deliberate misinformation that is out there. Because our children and families are suffering).

In my son’s Kindergarten class of 14, there are:

• 2 with life-threatening food allergies;
• 2 with autism; and
• 1 with attention disorder.

That’s a third of his class! All of them boys. Our boys certainly are having a difficult time of it.* I’m not sure how many children may have asthma or learning disabilities in the class, so this number could be higher.

I don’t understand how as a society and a community, we are allowing this to happen. It’s heartbreaking to me. We need to start waking up. Our children need us to.

* In case you are curious about why boys are more often affected than girls (Read Dr. Russell Blaydock’s complete article here):

One of the enigmas of autism is why it occurs in males more often than females.

Actually there are a number of toxins that have this gender selectivity. Studies have shown, for example, that both mercury and monosodium glutamate (MSG) have greater neurotoxicity in males than females.

The reason appears to be the enhancing effect of testosterone on both substances’ toxicity.

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.

Oct 14, 2012 – We tried the icing recipe with 2 cups of icing sugar and it was still way too sweet. We’ll try it with 1 cup of icing sugar next time… A friend of ours also made a fruit topping for the cake (she heated frozen strawberries, frozen blueberries and maple syrup). yum, yum!

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.

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.

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.

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.

March 2, 2013

Another thing I discovered recently was Macrobiotics. some dried dakon and wild pine shitake donko simmered in water purifies the blood and mucus. there’s a lot of healing using the macrobiotic foods, especially when they were using it to heal people from the nuke’s that fell in Japan. I don’t do whole Macrobiotics but its easy as its mostly vegan and besides it helps adding variety to T.’s diet. Also don’t forget unpasteurised miso soups! Yummy, filling and good for the gut as well. Tyler is doing much better now, but we still have a lot of healing to do (gut, inflammation) and the big emotional stuff

Healing my highly allergic child

I wrote this article for Allergy Kinder in January 2012. It’s a good synopsis of our family’s healing journey to date.

My five year old son was a highly allergic child. So allergic, that when he was two years old, he was sensitive or allergic to 40+ known foods, in addition to chemicals, food additives and environmental allergens. Allergic to just about everything. His allergies were serious and he even had three anaphylactic reactions when he was two years old and was hospitalized for four days because of accidental ingestion of eggs. We were at the ER just about every week for other allergic reactions (breathing difficulties). We were at the ER so often that the staff would remember us as the “parents of the boy who had so many allergies”. Every time we went for a playdate to someone’s house, my son would get sick (even if he didn’t eat anything there). He would often vomit after playdates.

There was a period for several months when the only safe foods were: organic hemp hearts (which he didn’t like), organic lamb, organic quinoa, organic ketchup, organic corn, organic bananas and organic apples.  That’s it. (Thankfully, he wasn’t allergic to tomatoes or corn, both of which are common allergens).

When he was four years old, we found out the cause of his allergies — he was diagnosed with a very rare immune disorder, Hyper IgE syndrome or Job’s syndrome (named after the biblical character’s terrible skin afflictions), which explained his highly allergic nature and terrible rash. An allergic person usually has elevated blood levels of IgE. A normal IgE level is typically less than 130 IU/mL and his measured at 70,000 IU/mL. We were told that there was no cure for his condition. The best treatment that the immunologist could suggest was for my son to be on a lifetime course of antibiotics and antihistamines for his skin, his lungs and whole body. A lifetime of allergies, asthma, rashes, abscesses and illness.

I have spent the last five years on a mission to heal my son’s health issues. My husband and I have tried literally everything under the sun to help our son.  Abdominal castor oil massage.  Acupressure. Body Talk. Chinese herbal medicine. Cranialsacral therapy. Chiropractic. Countless creams. Crystals. Dowsing. Eating for your blood type. Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT).  Energy Healing. Fermented foods. Heilkunst homeopathy. Himalayan salt sole. Nambudripad’s Allergy Elimination Techniques (NAET). Naturopathy. Prayer. Probiotics. Sedona Method. Shamanic healing. Special baths. Supplements galore.  Total Body Modification. Visualization.

Some treatments helped. Others didn’t.

With the grace of God, I am happy to say that  we have been able to reduce his allergy list to five foods: dairy, gluten, fish, eggs and some tree nuts. His IgE levels have dropped to 16,600 IU/mL (a 76% decrease in one year). My son’s terrible rash is cleared and his asthma is  under control. He is thriving.  He is doing well emotionally. If you were to meet him now, you would see a bright, funny, sensitive, healthy, strong, and vibrant boy. I am so thankful!

I feel that my son’s healing has been so remarkable because we have pursued all three levels of healing (i.e., healing his physical, energetic and spiritual bodies). His physical body through supplements, chiropractic and cranialsacral therapy. His energy body through Heilkunst homeopathy and  Total Body Modification.  His spiritual body through shamanic healing, prayer and visualization.  Healing that occurs at  the spiritual level is the most powerful healing that can occur. For example, taking a vitamin can help address an imbalance in the the physical body, but not the spiritual body. A healing intervention must be on the level where the illness was created or one of the higher levels. This is why traditional medicine is generally not helpful in addressing the root cause of disease — because it addresses problems solely at the level of the physical body. This is also why we found the Heilkunst (homeopathic) healing and shamanic healing to be so effective and profound.

If you are looking for deep healing for your child, I want you to know that is that it is possible. Visualize your child as being healthy and strong and her allergies as already healed. Connect with the divine and all knowing part of you that has access to all of the answers. Ask for guidance on what it is that your child needs for healing, and follow those impulses. Follow your intuition. Know that your child chose you as his parent, and you know best what your child needs. Be grateful and celebrate the gift that your child brings. It’s as simple as that. Simple, but not necessarily easy.

Camel Milk for Health

Something that I’ve been recently thinking about is camel milk. That’s right, camel milk…

Several months ago, someone on one of the Job’s syndrome FB groups mentioned that camel milk is known to decrease IgE levels. I immediately dismissed it because well, I assumed that it wouldn’t be easy to get camel milk in Canada, and since Moses is allergic to cow’s milk, I didn’t think that it would be something that would be safe for us to try.

Then, out of the blue, a couple of weeks ago, one of my blog friend’s (Tamara) posted a comment about camel’s milk on my blog. Again, I didn’t give it much thought for the same reasons as above and the fact that Moses was in the hospital at the time. But then, Tamara FB’d me about it, asking me if I’ve tried it yet and mentioned that it was good for high IgE levels. And then, one of the blogs that I am now following (You are What you Eat) just posted a video from TEDx NHH about camel milk.

When something is brought to my attention three times, I start to pay attention.

And, in particular, I pay attention when parents of sensitive children say that something is unequivocally helping their children. (And as you know, I pay particular attention when something helps autistic children because I have found again and again that these same treatments also help my son)

I’ve since learned that individuals who are allergic to cow’s milk are, in fact, safely able to drink camel milk (I haven’t found any instances of individuals who don’t do well on camel milk). In fact, camel milk helps to heal the allergies of highly allergic children, including children who are allergic to cow’s milk.

Camel milk is nothing like cow’s milk, they are not even in the same family and camel milk does not contain the beta-casein, which is what causes the opiate-effect with cow’s milk. Allergies to camel milk are very rare.

[Note: Although camel milk still does contain casein, but camel milk does not contain the 2 caseins (including beta-casein) that are allergenic.  Thus people with cow's milk allergies generally have no problem drinking camel milk. In addition the problems with an immune system are healed with camel milk].

Other things that I’ve learned from the Camel Milk website is that:

• Camel milk can be easily digested by lactose-intolerant individuals.
• The lactoferrin in camel’s milk has antibacterial and antiviral properties. It also has anti-tumor properties (Ueda et al., 1957).
• Camel milk has an apparent positive effect on breast cancer (Eiseler et al., 1998).
• Camel milk has three times the amount of vitamin C than cow’s milk.
• Camel milk has been used for centuries to treat liver disease, and studies have been performed for hepatitis and liver cancer with promising results.
• Camel milk is rich in B vitamins and iron.
• The immunoglobulins in camel milk have been shown to protect against types of cancer (Fage et al., 2005).
• Camel milk has been used to cure the following illnesses:
  • Autism (Shabo and Yagil et al., 2005);
  • Milk allergies (Shabo et al., 2005);
  • Tuberculosis (Agarwal et al., 2005); and
  • Crohn’s Disease (Shabo et al., 2005, 2006; Donechenko, 1975).

I’m still reading and learning about camel milk, and deciding whether this is something that I’d like to try with Moses. I know that others in Canada have been able to access it by getting frozen camel milk FedEx’d to your home, but it’s pricey to do.

Nonetheless, I wanted to share some resources about camel milk, in case it’s something that might be of interest to one of my readers. If you do wind up trying it, let me know what you think!!

If you want to learn more:

• Jessica’s  “You are What you Eat” blog posts about camel milk and how it is helping her sensitive (allergic) boys, one of which was once considered on the autistic spectrum – here.
• Drew’s Autism Recovery Diary — Drew just recently started camel milk. Read about that here.
• Alex at Alex’s Journey out of Autism has started camel milk. Read more about that here.
• Camel Milk in the Spotlight – TEDx NHH video about camel milk here.
• Camel Milk for Health  – read about Dina’s son’s remarkable recovery resulting from drinking camel milk (her son’s IgE levels were 6,000 and decreased steadily as he continued to drink camel milk). It only took two days from the time that he started drinking camel milk for her son’s health to start to improve.
• Scientific studies done on camel milk, including:
  • Etiology of autism and camel milk as therapy  
  • Camel milk for food allergies in children – follows 8 highly food allergic children (many of whom were allergic to cow’s milk). All suffered from severe allergic reactions. The most prominent symptom was diarrhea and vomiting after eating. Other accompanying symptoms were skin rashes, lactase deficiency, chemical imbalance, and asthma symptoms.Within 24 hours, all children’s symptoms decreased after having camel milk. Within 4 days, all of the allergic symptoms that the children were experiencing were eliminated. No recurrence of the allergic symptoms were reported.
• Camel Milk: Healing or Hype?  A great article about some of the science (in layman’s terms) for why camel milk is beneficial for the immune system, as well as for autistic children.
• Camel Milk for Health Facebook Group – connect with others who are using camel milk for health and find out where to get it.
• Healing with Camel Milk – connect with others who are using camel milk to heal their children and get your questions answered. It’s a closed group, but you can ask to be added to the group. Take a look at their “Docs” section, which has a lot of useful information.
• Dr. Reuven Yagil’s conference speech on video.  Video #3 is the one with most of the technical information about how the milk heals and why it’s tolerated by those with dairy allergies.  This is a MUST, if you are interested in healing with camel milk. http://www.camelmilkforhealth.com/symposium.php
• Camel milk for children with autism
• A camel milk association in the US, where you can get camel milk (but they don’t ship to Canada) – unfortunately, they are currently (Dec 2011) not accepting any new members
• Oasis Camel Dairy - America’s first camel milking farm – they do not currently sell camel’s milk, but you can contact them for a list of American herd share programs.
• Healthy Self’s son started drinking 150-300 mL of camel milk daily, in addition to megadoses of vitamin C. Her son now has clear sinuses and his other allergy symptoms have dramatically decreased so that he no longer needs two of three medications.

Update:

December 13, 2011 – My friend has ordered camel milk for her son with Job’s syndrome. Can’t wait to hear how it goes!!!

December 20, 2011 – Well, my friend’s son had a strong healing reaction to 1 teaspoon of camel milk (he was having difficulty breathing and his nose became very runny, like he was having an allergic reaction). My friend has decided to wait until she consults with his medical team about continuing with camel milk. Given that he is highly allergic, her fear is that he might be allergic to the camel milk (which is very uncommon, but then again, his condition is very uncommon and he is so highly allergic to everything, it is so hard to tell…).

April 4, 2012 – We haven’t tried camel milk yet. Truthfully, I likely would have tried it if it wasn’t for the fact that my husband is *very* skeptical of trying new things. I decided that since Moses is doing so well on his current treatment that I wouldn’t push trying to convince my husband that it was worth it to try camel milk as well.

My son can now eat almonds!

When Moses was a year old, I wasn’t thinking and gave Moses some almond butter. Fortunately, he didn’t have an anaphylactic reaction, but his back broke out in huge hives and it sure frightened us. That was the last time he had any tree nuts.

Since then, his allergy scores have been high for tree nuts (re: RAST test, blood tests, prick test and IgG tests). But during his most recent prick test last month, he showed absolutely no reaction to the tree nut mixture.

I’m thrilled to share that Moses passed his almond challenge today with flying colours. During the 2.5 hours that we were at the hospital, he ate 15.5 g of almonds in 5 doses. He can now officially eat almonds! Next time we go to the store, we are going to stock up on almond butter and almond milk! Oh, how I love almond butter!

We need to talk to his allergist to figure out our next steps with respect to trying other tree nuts, but my gut is that if almonds are safe for Moses, then other tree nuts will be too (especially given that the prick test tested a tree nut mixture). We’ll introduce the other nuts one a time though (spacing out by at least 4 days before trying a new food). If you recall, Moses is already eating peanuts.

This is something that I didn’t know, tree nuts come from a variety of different plant families. Almonds belong to the plum family.

• walnut family: walnuts, pecans;
• mango family: pistachio, cashews;
• legythis family: brazil;
• beech family: beechnut, chestnut;
• birch family: hazelnut, filbert, hickory nut;
• plum family: almonds;
• macadamia family: macademia.

Tree nuts were the only food that we were still concerned about a potential for anaphylactic risk for Moses. Moses is still allergic to wheat, dairy, fish and eggs, and sensitive to gluten, but none of these are anaphylactic risks for Moses (and we hope that he’ll heal these allergies as well). We’ll still carry around Moses’ epi-pen wherever we go, but the great fear of anaphylaxis isn’t there anymore.

(Just to bring any new readers up to speed, when Moses was one years old, he had three anaphylactic reactions to unknown sources, so the fear that we had about the potential for anaphylaxis is a real one, but one that we are ready to let go. I currently think that his past reactions were to chemicals and not to foods per say, and was also related to his sky high IgE levels).

After we’ve introduced other tree nuts to Moses’ diet, we’ll also be able to let him eat foods that have had the potential to be cross-contaminated with tree nuts. As I’m sure most of you know, most foods have had the potential to be cross-contaminated with tree nuts, so this is going to open up our world like crazy!

So very thankful!

Blog list: Healing with Heilkunst homeopathy or Sequential homeopathy

Well, as you know, I love to compile blog lists. Here’s a blog list of individuals who are healing with Heilkunst homeopathy. I am sharing this list because I have found Heilkunst homeopathy to be integral to healing my son’s chronic illness (symptoms related to his Hyper IgE diagnosis), and want to share this method of healing with the world.

Heilkunst Blog List

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

The Mama Files –  using Heilkunst homeopathy to heal her sensitive child

Treatment 4 Autism – healing her autistic son with Heilkunst homeopathy, in addition to biomedical treatments. Her son is now in general education school.

Raising a Sensitive Child - our journey of using Heilkunst homeopathy

Suzanne McRae – she is healing with Heilkunst homeopathy (in addition to to other forms of energy healing). She also has an autistic son, a young adult, who is being treated by Heilkunst. Especially read this post here.

At Home on the Rock – using Heilkunst homeopathy to help chronic fatigue syndrome (she doesn’t specifically mention Heilkunst homeopathy in her blog, but based on our correspondence, I know that she is specifically using Heilkunst homeopathy).

Arcanum Holistic Clinic - blog posts by a Heilkunstler. Very informative!!

One Particular Yogi - healing with Heilkunst homeopathy for 8 years

Sequential homeopathy blog list

I also feel that other forms of sequential homeopathy (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). 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

Heilkunst homeopathy testimonials and case studies:

Sam’s case study – Using Heilkunst to treat chronic disease (recurrent viral infections, chronic gastroesophageal reflux, severe asthma with strider, multiple food allergies. I found this case study inspiring to read when Moses was early in his Heilkunst treatment.

Testimonials on the Hahnemann Centre for Heilkunst and Homeopathy website

Testimonials on Healthy Dynamics website – treatment of digestive dysfunction; Fibromyalgia, Type II Diabetes, High Cholesterol, High Blood Pressure, Amenorrhea, Lack of Concentration, Zero Energy; boy with PDD-NOS and severe ADHD — anxiety levels decreased and no more need for ADHD medication; anorexia and bulimia; allergies

Testimonials on Holistic Health care website

A great article about what Heilkunst can heal (i.e., it can help heal any disease, illness, syndrome or symptoms, physical, mental or emotional). Really.

Testimonials on Arcanum Wholistic Clinic’s website

Autism: The Journey Back by Rudi Verspoor and Patty Smith — this book is a must read if you want to understand how Heilkunst works and also to read inspiring case studies about how Heilkunst has helped children with autism. This book helped me to understand Heilkunst more fully while Moses was early in his treatment.

Path to Cure by Allyson McQuinn. She healed herself and her son with autism, and now is using Heilkunst to heal others.

If you know of more, let me know!

Third egg challenge — failed

Based on the recommendation from Moses’ allergist, we tried an at home egg challenge today. Not good.

His last oral egg challenge was in April when his allergy test indicated a moderate response to eggs. His allergist mentioned that most people with a moderate response to eggs can tolerate eggs in baked goods (all but two of her patients). Back in April, he had a tummy ache after eating the equivalent of about 1/30th of an egg. She thought that it was time to try another oral challenge and during his last allergy test, his allergist didn’t even bother testing him for a response for eggs.

So today, while I was making GFCF pancakes for lunch, I had (what I thought was a brilliant) idea to add 1/4 of an egg to the pancakes. Moses ate about half of the pancakes, so he ate approx. 1/8 of an egg. Although the pancakes turned out fluffy, light and delicious (the best pancakes that I’ve made in the last 5 years), it turned out not to be a great idea at all. I really should have tried the egg in a baked good (as per the allergist’s recommendation) as eggs are cooked for a longer time in a baked good. Plus he would have eaten less egg if we had tried him with a baked good first. (I just wasn’t thinking about how pancakes are different from a baked good).

Moses started to complain that his tongue and mouth were tingly. We got him to drink some water. We should have given him some Benadryl right away. Then DH took him to Tae Kwon Do while I went grocery shopping. When I picked them up, DH told me Moses wasn’t feeling well. DH gave him some Benadryl right before I picked him up. He was very itchy and complained that his stomach was hurting him. His face had turned bright red. He was moaning and complaining like crazy.

When we got to the house, he projectile vomited all over the back seat of our car and then on the drive way. He vomited again and again and again. And then we knew he would be okay.

We got him into an epsom salt bath and calmed him down with an organic lollipop (I know — sugar isn’t great, but we wanted to give him something to boost his spirits, which it did). And now, he’s feeling better. His face is still bright red, but his stomach no longer hurts and he’s feeling better emotionally. And it will be a very, very, very, very, very long time before we try eggs again.

DH is actually also sensitive to eggs. He can tolerate it in baked goods, but if a baked good has too many eggs, he responds in a very similar way to Moses (terrible stomach pains, dizziness, hot flashes, extreme fatigue). Anyway, now we know that all of the precautions that we are taking with respect to eggs are worth it. And, we’re thankful that the reaction passed relatively quickly (that he threw up the offending food and got it out of his system).

Moses’ allergies are healing

More tangible evidence of Moses’ healing…  he has fewer and fewer allergies!

According to the prick test, he only has three allergies:

• milk (4+);
• fish (4+) ; and
• gluten (3+).

He showed no reaction to peaches, peas, turkey and……. tree nuts! Yep, that’s right….  no reaction to tree nuts.

He is going to be scheduled an oral challenge for tree nuts in the hospital sometime in the near future to make sure that he can really eat tree nuts safely.  Will let you know how this goes!!!!!

At home, DH and I will gradually try to introduce some of these other foods (peaches, peas and turkey) to Moses’ diet. We gave him grapes the other day (a food that he used to be reactive to), and there was no reaction. We gave him peaches tonight, and so far, so good.

Yippee!!!!!

To put this into context (for any readers who are new), this is absolutely amazing given that my son was once allergic / sensitive to 40+ foods. His culinary world is starting to open up. We also need to test eggs again to see if Moses can tolerate eggs within baked goods. (Last time we tried, it gave him a stomach ache).

We are still sticking with organic foods as much as possible and avoiding foods with preservatives, artificial flavouring, artificial colouring, etc.

All this to say that, Moses’ body is healing. Since his body is less allergic, I’m taking this as a sign that his IgE levels have decreased. We’ll know for sure when his IgE levels are tested next month.

Thanks for all of your continued support and prayers for our son!

We are so grateful to Spirit!

Update:

Sept 24, 2011 – Peaches turned out to be fine. Eggs, however, turned out to be not a good idea at all. He is still very allergic / sensitive to eggs.

October 2011 – He can now officially eat almonds!!!

First day of school

Thursday was Moses’ first day of school and he was excited about it! DH, Grammie and I all walked him to his school to witness this important rite-of-passage. Our baby is growing up.

Moses was comfortable and happy that the girl from his dayhome is in his class, a familiar face. Within minutes, he was joking and laughing, having a great time. On his second day of school, he had gym, music and worked on some crafts, so that was fun too!

Ready to take on the world!

So far so good!!!! I’m starting to breath a huge sigh of relief… 

Some news about how the school is dealing with allergies – we learned that the assistant principal of the school has a child who is anaphylactic to nuts. It was wonderful to be able to talk to someone who really understands life-threatening allergies. There’s a picture and a medical plan of action for all of the children with an anaphylatic risk posted in all of the main rooms (i.e., classroom, main office, music room, library and gym). The teachers have all had recent epi-pen training. On the first day, his teacher made some announcements to the parents about how there are a couple of kids with severe allergies in the class, so the parents know not to pack snacks with nuts and eggs, and also sent home a note with this reminder as well. We’ve made it clear that Moses is not to eat anything other than his food. And we’ve told Moses to refuse any food that is offered to him. My fears around food allergies and potential reactions are starting to diminish. 

Today, he had his first day of Tae Kwon Do and he thoroughly enjoyed that too. One of the parents of a mutual friend remarked that “Moses tends to shine and do well and be comfortable regardless of the situation he’s in”. DH and I didn’t know how to respond. We were speechless. I think DH and I are still amazed that our child, who was once so anxiety-ridden and upset, is now simply happy, content and comfortable.

I’m very thankful.

Fermented foods and healing the gut

Dr. Mercola posted an interview with Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride today, who shares the techniques that she used to recover her son from autism. Dr. Campbell-McBride shares her insights about Gut and Psychology Syndrome (GAPS), which can make a child vulnerable to vaccine damage and the GAPS nutritional program which can help treat autism, allergies, depression, etc.. Her website here.  And a transcript of the interview is here.

There’s so much wisdom and great information on her website and within the interview that I wanted to share it. Basically talking about the science behind leaky gut syndrome and how autism, allergies, depression, etc. can be helped by healing the gut through the GAPS nutritional program (i.e., fermented and cultured foods, probiotics, etc.). As far as I can tell, it’s very similar to the Body Ecology diet, which is what Gina Laverde used to recover her autistic son.

It’s another reminder for me to start introducing fermented foods in Moses (and our diet). I’m just so intimidated about starting it. I need to find a culture starter, which I could buy from the Body Ecology website, but I want to find out if I can get it locally first. I need to find a container to do it in. I’m thinking that if I write about it, I might be motivated to start it… I know that Keely’s Kitchen is following the Body Ecology diet, and she recently posted about her favourite cultured vegetable recipe here.

I’d love to hear any tips / advice that you may have about fermenting your own foods.

Recipes

Cultured ketchup recipe

Fermented pickles

Fermented salsa

Coconut Kefir

Results of the egg challenge

Big news this week is that we fed Moses GFCF banana bread with 1/3 of an egg. He had about 1/10 of the banana bread, so he had about 1/30 of an egg. His allergist has been encouraging us to try baking with an egg because his last allergy test only showed a moderate reaction to eggs, and she finds that eggs that are baked in foods are generally tolerated well by individuals who are moderately allergic to eggs.

I’ve been reluctant to try eggs. When he was two, he was actually hospitalized for four days due to accidental ingestion of eggs (it caused gastrointestinal bleeding). And the last time, we tried baking with 1/4 of an egg, his rash got a lot worse. DH is also very sensitive to eggs.

But, based on our allergist’s recommendation, we went for it. The truth is that we didn’t notice a reaction at all, but Moses later told us that it gave him a tummy ache and he didn’t want any more banana bread. Although we will continue to avoid eggs for now, this still shows tremendous progress relative to how he used to respond to eggs. We now consider eggs to be a food sensitivity and not so much of a food allergy (i.e., it’s not a potential anaphylatic trigger for Moses).

Simple glutenfree and dairyfree meal ideas

Moses will be starting at a new dayhome in a couple of weeks. Given his food allergies / sensitivities, his dayhome provider wanted some ideas for meals.

His current list of allergies: tree nuts (Oct 2011 – he can now eat almonds! update here; we will slowly start to introduce other tree nuts over time, but in the meantime, we are still avoiding other tree nuts until we know for sure they are all safe), dairy, gluten, fish

Sensitivities: peanut (May 2011 – now eats organic peanut butter every day), soy (can tolerate in small quantities), eggs (recently downgraded to sensitivity from an allergy), turkey (Sept 2011), mangoes (May 2011), peas (Dec 2011), grapes (Sept 2011),  MSG, preservatives, artificial colours, artificial flavours, etc.

This is much, much, much less than what it once was (once was 40+ food allergies/sensitivities).  Yay, yay, yay!!

Generally, we try to feed him as much organic food as possible, which is very limited where we live, unfortunately. We try to buy local, organic chicken as much as possible, and we only buy local, organic lamb and beef directly from the farmer.

Breakfast:

• glutenfree oatmeal with blueberries / raspberries / strawberries /bananas and maple syrup
• hot brown rice cereal with fruit and maple syrup
• fruit shake (frozen blueberries, banana, hemp seeds, water, lettuce)
• another morning shake recipe here
• glutenfree, dairyfree, eggfree French toast
• glutenfree toast with olive oil and avocado
• grapefruit with drizzled with some maple syrup
• hemp hearts in apple juice with blueberries
• glutenfree granola cereal with hemp hearts, chia seeds and water or apple juice (instead of milk)
• GFCF eggfree pancakes
• Occasionally (around once a week or so), he can have organic peanut butter and strawberry jam sandwich (he likes it with bananas and we use his allergyfree bread, of course).  Peanut butter is a sensitivity, but not an allergy.  We were avoiding it for a few months, but recently have reintroduced it back with moderation. (Update – May 2011 — he can now have this every day)
• I try to hide 1 tsp of flax seed oil in whatever he’s having for breakfast.

Lunch/dinner:

• organic brown rice and chicken and veggie (grated carrot, corn, broccoli, avocado, mushrooms, cucumber, peppers [green, orange, red], zucchini, lettuce, tomato, etc.);
• glutenfree, eggfree, dairyfree brown rice bread chicken sandwich;
• brown rice or corn pasta with organic spaghetti sauce and ground chicken;
• chicken with mashed potatoes and veggies;
• chicken barbecued on the grill with organic ketchup instead of bbq sauce;
• barbecued veggies on the grill (e.g., peppers, mushrooms);
• easy brown rice with vegetables;
• sweet potato fries (cut up sweet potatoes and put it in the oven with oil, or check out this recipe);
• Bone broth — we use this to make chicken soup or squash risotto
• One of his favourite meals:  squash and chicken risotto (chicken, brown rice, chicken broth (saved from baking a chicken), butternut squash, Bragg’s sauce (a “healthy” soy sauce), some onion and garlic)
• His other favourite meal: homemade chicken soup (chicken, chicken broth, celery, carrots, brown rice, millet, quinoa, Bragg’s sauce, garlic, onion.  yummy!)
• quick and easy stirfry (tonight we had a stirfry with leftover chicken, leftover brown rice, avocado, orange peppers, mushrooms, garlic, onion and Bragg’s sauce. yummy!)
• Instead of chicken, he can also have lamb and organic beef with rice/potatoes. I normally bake his chicken, lamb and beef steaks in the oven in a covered pan with a little bit of water.
• veggie burger (we haven’t tried this recipe yet, but looks delicious!)
• dairyfree chicken tetrazzini (yummy!)
• GFCF mac and cheese (or in our case, just sprinkle nutritional yeast on the pasta, along with some pasta sauce).
• organic meatloaf muffins (yummy!)

Salads

• Carrot, beet and avocado salad

Fermented Foods:

• Importance of fermented foods here.
• Fermented salsa

Snacks:

• organic rice cake with apple butter
• organic apple sauce
• fruits (apples, bananas, oranges, berries, watermelon)
• plain potato chips (potatoes, oil, salt)
• peanut butter balls (if your child is allergic to peanut butter, you can use pea butter) — highly recommended!
• homemade apple juice popsicle; check out what this mama is putting in her homemade popsicles, and this mama makes popsicles with fruit (blood oranges).
• peanut butter Larabars (They only contain peanuts, dates and salt). You can make your own here:
• rice crackers (as long as there is no cross-contamination with his allergens)
• popcorn popped in an air popper with olive oil and a touch of sea salt
• raisins
• cranberries
• “ants on a log” – celery with peanut butter and raisin
• kale chips
• roasted quinoa (take quinoa and fry up in a pan with some canola or olive oil [we use canola oil for frying because I've read that olive oil breaks down at high temperatures], lightly salt with sea salt).  We used this as a snack when my son’s diet was very, very limited.
• Old Dutch Corn Twists (a “new to us” snack — a bit more variety than plain potato chips when we’re out and about)
• organic babyfood (homemade or store bought) — we generally don’t do this, but it’s an idea. Gave him organic prune babyfood when he was sick.
• on special occasions: organic lollipops (If you live in St. John’s, NL, you can get them at Food for Thought, Natural Health Shop on Stavanger and Winners)

Dessert:

• apple crisp
• apple juice “jello”
• glutenfree, dairyfree banana bread (one of our favourites)
• one bowl allergy-free muffins (we make this all the time, but use 50% GF oatmeal flour and 50% brown rice flour). Add raisins and it’s raisin muffins!
• baked banana
• vegan corn muffins (we found these a bit dry)
• dairyfree organic blueberry/raspberry sorbet (with no cross-contamination with potential allergens). We even found GFCF ice cream sorbet cones at Dominion.
• homemade easy-to-make mango sorbet
• healthy chocolate chia pudding (haven’t tried this yet, but looks yummy!)
• Glutino chocolate GF cake mix with egg replacer (yum, yum!)
• Glutenfree, eggfree, dairy free white cake recipe here. She also has recipes for allergy-free frostings.
• dairyfree icing recipe here (yummy!)
• in dessert recipes, 1 whole egg can be replaced with: 1TBSP Ground Flax & 3 TBSP water (whipped together)
• peanut butter chocolate pillows (haven’t made this yet, but looks delicious!)
• crunchy dark chocolate and peanut butter (haven’t made this yet, but looks delicious)
• frozen chocolate peanut butter banana bites (again, haven’t made this yet, but looks delicious!)
• brown rice pudding
• chocolate chia pudding (haven’t tried this yet, but looks delicious)

Beverages:

• water
• apple juice, orange juice, pineapple juice, cranberry juice
• homemade hemp milk (blend up a 1:5 ratio of hemp seeds to water). Recipe here.
• glutenfree oat milk
• green smoothie
• peanut butter bomb smoothie and peanut butter crunch bars. Recipes here.

Condiments:

• Instead of butter or margarine, we use olive oil or coconut oil (Update [January 2012] – we now use Earth Balance, a dairy-free “buttery” spread)

Eating out:

(Of course, always doublecheck with serving staff about potential sources of cross-contamination with allergens)

• Swiss Chalet Fries and Chicken (note: they fry the fries in oil where they also fry stuff with gluten, dairy and fish, but seems to be okay for Moses);
• Montana’s – Moses can eat their rotisserie chicken, fries and carrots sticks (basically the same as what he can eat at Swiss Chalet).  More expensive, but DH and I have a lot more variety to choose from than at Swiss Chalet.  Montana’s allergy information is here.
• Fries at New York Fries (note: no cross-contamination with any potential allergens);
• Jugo Juice or Booster Juice: smoothie made with banana, strawberries and apple juice
• Hava Java (in St. John’s): freshly squeezed orange juice or carrot juice
• convenience store: plain potato chips, apple juice, orange juice
• The Rocket — has organic lollipops that Moses can eat,  chips that Moses can eat, and a fruit salad (but we haven’t asked staff yet about potential sources of cross contamination).
• misc. restaurants: fruit salad

Of course, there are other foods that he can probably be eating, but he’s not a very adventurous eater and I’m not a very adventurous cook.  I’m learning though! Would love some additional ideas too!

***

For more GFCF meal ideas and recipes:

• For more simple GFCF meal ideas, read Shannon’s post about what Gem eats at Autism Miracle in my Kitchen.
• Jaime at Keely’s Kitchen has great ideas for feeding her daughter, Keely, who has 35 food sensitivities. She’s currently following a Body Ecology diet, and was following the Specific Carbohydrate Diet (SCD). Check out Jaime’s 2-week meal plan.
• Real Sustenance — delicous GFCF recipes
• GFCFetcF Kitchen Chemistry – diet that is free of gluten, dairy, soy, and a variety of other foods
• Tori’s GFCFSF Blog - GFCF and soy-free diet
• Whole Food Healing - a journey of dietary renovation to treat Autism and ADHD
• Shakti Yoga recipes (not all are GFCF, but some are)

GAPS / Paleo recipes

• Keely’s Kitchen’s GAPS / Paleo recipes