A New Journey

I'm finally home. Yes, that's right, HOME! More on that later. :)

Five years ago, I started a journey--a journey into motherhood. When my first son was born and around the age of 2 weeks, started crying non-stop, had painful gas, wanted to nurse non-stop, would only sleep in his car seat or on me, would wake up the instant you laid him down, and often would only calm to the sound of the vacuum cleaner, my brand-new mother's intuition told me something was wrong. But the highly-recommended pediatrician and her staff told me it was "colic" and I just had to deal with it. So, I did, but let me tell you it was not easy. I spent many a night/early morning walking him up and down the sidewalk in his stroller to try to get him to stop crying, driving around at 3 a.m. with the radio tuned to static or driving and cursing the stop lights or drivers in front of me because if we stopped the vehicle, he started crying. As long as he was moving, he was happy. The incessant crying finally stopped around 4 months of age but sleep was an issue for him for quite a while and well, let's just say there are still issues we're dealing with. "Everyone" told us that colic only happens in one out of 4 kids so when we decided to try for another, we were confident that it wouldn't happen to us again.

Can you guess? Yes, not only did it happen again, it was WORSE, much worse when my 2nd son was born 2 1/2 years after the first. However, this time we had a pediatrician that said, "If Mom is calling this much, tell her to bring him in." He diagnosed him with Milk and Soy Protein Intolerance (MSPI) and GERD (severe reflux) and told me that if I wanted to continue to nurse, I would have to eliminate every single trace of milk and soy from my diet. So, I did, but it wasn't enough. He was intolerant of much more than just dairy and soy and was eventually diagnosed with Multiple Food Protein Intolerances (MFPI). After several months of misery for my son and me, I finally made the very difficult decision to try hypo-allergenic formula. We tried three high-dollar formulas before finding one he could tolerate.

By this time, I had been reading mountains of information about diet and what a difference it can make in your health. One turning point came when I read the book Healing the New Childhood Epidemics: Autism, ADHD, Asthma, and Allergies: The Groundbreaking Program for the 4-A Disorders by Kenneth Bock and Cameron Stauth. It really opened my eyes to a biomedical approach to living. Based upon what I'd read, I very quickly began a strict gluten- and dairy-free diet and put my oldest son on the diet as well. Gluten includes wheat, barley and rye. After just a few months on the diet, I was able to completely eliminate the daily asthma medication I had been taking for 15 years. I credit the diet with eliminating my son's hypercalciuria condition affecting his kidneys. He also was on prescription medication and was able to stop it after being on the diet for several months. He no longer has any trouble with his kidneys. My youngest son, now 2 1/2 years old, still cannot tolerate pasteurized/homogenized dairy, wheat gluten and various other foods.

What about you? Why do you eat the way you do? Have there been any major events that have changed your health or has it been a gradual change?

I will continue in the next few posts to detail my journey home and I hope that you will join me for the ride.

Julie