Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Kids with Food Allergies Starter Guide
Here's a free guide to parenting a child with food allergies published by the group "Kids with Food Allergies." To learn about coping with diagnosis, signs and symptoms, treatment, nutrition information, allergen avoidance lists and much more, click on the 'starter guide' link: Kids with Food Allergies starter guide
Saturday, March 26, 2011
Flowers & Pollen
For our last two treatments we moved away from foods and segued back to environmentals before the flower and pollen season really takes off. It's been quite cold where we live, so I especially wanted to get these out of the way before we're forced to spend a beautiful day inside during the treatment period.
We've slowly been introducing wheat. I found some Annie's pretzels that have a minimum amount of ingredients in them, so my son has been having a handful each day. He also got to have some ostyer crackers from a restaurant, which was a big deal because I didn't have to tell him 'no' yet again. Did I tell you we also found a gluten-free bumpy cake cupcake?! It's incredible. Even though we're introducing wheat, I'm still proceeding with cautious in case more work needs to be done, hence the 'gluten-free.' Over the past couple of weeks I noticed that he had some purplish circles set in under his eyes, and his eyelids were looking a bit red. At first I thought it was probably one of the new foods, but then I recalled that each March he looks like this. I can look back at pictures from this time of year going back to when he was 10 months and he has huge shiners. One of the office ladies commented on it while at our NAET treatment yesterday, which we treated for pollen. By the time we got home the purple and red were gone, and a day later are still gone. It's really amazing. This summer will be a true test of NAET, and I'm looking forward to it.
We've slowly been introducing wheat. I found some Annie's pretzels that have a minimum amount of ingredients in them, so my son has been having a handful each day. He also got to have some ostyer crackers from a restaurant, which was a big deal because I didn't have to tell him 'no' yet again. Did I tell you we also found a gluten-free bumpy cake cupcake?! It's incredible. Even though we're introducing wheat, I'm still proceeding with cautious in case more work needs to be done, hence the 'gluten-free.' Over the past couple of weeks I noticed that he had some purplish circles set in under his eyes, and his eyelids were looking a bit red. At first I thought it was probably one of the new foods, but then I recalled that each March he looks like this. I can look back at pictures from this time of year going back to when he was 10 months and he has huge shiners. One of the office ladies commented on it while at our NAET treatment yesterday, which we treated for pollen. By the time we got home the purple and red were gone, and a day later are still gone. It's really amazing. This summer will be a true test of NAET, and I'm looking forward to it.
Saturday, March 19, 2011
Children With More Severe Eczema Less Likely To Outgrow Milk, Egg Allergy
This link takes you to a story published by Medical News Today discussing the findings in a recent egg allergy/eczema study conducted by researchers from Duke, Johns Hopkins, Mount Sinai, National Jewish, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and the University of Arkansas on over 500 children.
Friday, March 18, 2011
A Day In the Life since NAET
I'm sitting here thinking about all the foods my kid has enjoyed today, many of which have been recently reintroduced since his NAET treatments. Here's what his day looked like today:
Breakfast:
Granola Bar made from Oats, Soy, and Honey--all of which use to cause mega hives.
Taste of egg yolk--he did fine, but waited too long and they got cold.
Corn Flakes w/coconut milk--Corn was a big no-no, always causing a tummy ache
Snack:
Turkey stick from Whole Foods with lots of spices.
Lunch:
Rice Noodles with Tomato Sauce--tomatoes use to cause hives but are now a favorite.
NAET treatment for yogurt and whey. We're moving on to milk products! Next week we're planning on treating for cheese, possibly milk, and pollen before spring really arrives around here.
Snack:
Annie's Pretzels made from Wheat--this was a first after passing his wheat mix NAET treatment from Monday. It's been a few hours and so far so good, we'll see if there's any itching at bedtime.
Dinner:
An old standby, grilled chicken & sweet potato with coconut oil and cinnamon.
Snack:
Veggie Straws, introduced about a week ago as they were previously avoided due to the tomato.
He's made lots of progress and enjoying more foods then ever. I can't wait for him to have REAL pizza on his 5th birthday, which is coming up in 7 weeks!
Breakfast:
Granola Bar made from Oats, Soy, and Honey--all of which use to cause mega hives.
Taste of egg yolk--he did fine, but waited too long and they got cold.
Corn Flakes w/coconut milk--Corn was a big no-no, always causing a tummy ache
Snack:
Turkey stick from Whole Foods with lots of spices.
Lunch:
Rice Noodles with Tomato Sauce--tomatoes use to cause hives but are now a favorite.
NAET treatment for yogurt and whey. We're moving on to milk products! Next week we're planning on treating for cheese, possibly milk, and pollen before spring really arrives around here.
Snack:
Annie's Pretzels made from Wheat--this was a first after passing his wheat mix NAET treatment from Monday. It's been a few hours and so far so good, we'll see if there's any itching at bedtime.
Dinner:
An old standby, grilled chicken & sweet potato with coconut oil and cinnamon.
Snack:
Veggie Straws, introduced about a week ago as they were previously avoided due to the tomato.
He's made lots of progress and enjoying more foods then ever. I can't wait for him to have REAL pizza on his 5th birthday, which is coming up in 7 weeks!
Aaachooo!
The following is written by Dr. Sue McCreadie, MD of NourishMD; she's a board certified pediatrician specializing in holistic medicine practicing in Ann Arbor, MI.
Allergy season is upon us, so my next few blog posts will focus on how you can help your child re-balance his immune system.
I work with a lot of children who live with allergies: food allergies, asthma, eczema and hay fever to name a few. Since the majority of the immune system lives in the gut, I always focus on re-balancing these children's digestive systems as well.
This is a difficult connection for some to make: what do allergies have to do with digestive health (or lack there of). The basic connection is this: around 70% of your child's immune system is in her digestive tract! That's pretty amazing don't you think? Who knew?!? Not me, until a few years back. Initially when working with children suffering from allergies, I would just focus on re-balancing their immune systems. Never realizing that the quickest way there, was through their gut. Now I know better, thank goodness!
The easiest way I know to get a snap shot of a person's digestive health is through a test called the Comprehensive Digestive Stool Analysis. I currently use a lab called Genova Diagnostics to do this test, and you can find a practitioner in your area to order this test for your child as well. This test evaluates how well your child digests and absorbs food. It also evaluates your child's bacterial balance, if he has enough beneficial bacteria (to support a healthy immune system) and/or if he has non-beneficial bacteria, yeast or parasites upsetting his bacterial balance. The beauty of this test is that it also measures two markers of inflammation. This is most enlightening. It allows a peek into a child's body to see how much, if any, inflammation is occurring. This is key since inflammation is at the root of most chronic disease, and must be reduced and eliminated to experience REAL health.
If your child is suffering from allergies of any kind, please find a practitioner in your area and have his stool analyzed. Sounds gross I know, but digestive imbalance is a problem vital to uncover if your goal is a healthy immune system.
Blesssings,
~ Dr. Sue
Allergy season is upon us, so my next few blog posts will focus on how you can help your child re-balance his immune system.
I work with a lot of children who live with allergies: food allergies, asthma, eczema and hay fever to name a few. Since the majority of the immune system lives in the gut, I always focus on re-balancing these children's digestive systems as well.
This is a difficult connection for some to make: what do allergies have to do with digestive health (or lack there of). The basic connection is this: around 70% of your child's immune system is in her digestive tract! That's pretty amazing don't you think? Who knew?!? Not me, until a few years back. Initially when working with children suffering from allergies, I would just focus on re-balancing their immune systems. Never realizing that the quickest way there, was through their gut. Now I know better, thank goodness!
The easiest way I know to get a snap shot of a person's digestive health is through a test called the Comprehensive Digestive Stool Analysis. I currently use a lab called Genova Diagnostics to do this test, and you can find a practitioner in your area to order this test for your child as well. This test evaluates how well your child digests and absorbs food. It also evaluates your child's bacterial balance, if he has enough beneficial bacteria (to support a healthy immune system) and/or if he has non-beneficial bacteria, yeast or parasites upsetting his bacterial balance. The beauty of this test is that it also measures two markers of inflammation. This is most enlightening. It allows a peek into a child's body to see how much, if any, inflammation is occurring. This is key since inflammation is at the root of most chronic disease, and must be reduced and eliminated to experience REAL health.
If your child is suffering from allergies of any kind, please find a practitioner in your area and have his stool analyzed. Sounds gross I know, but digestive imbalance is a problem vital to uncover if your goal is a healthy immune system.
Blesssings,
~ Dr. Sue
Sunday, March 13, 2011
Eggs & Spices
I'm happy to report that my kid is now eating baked egg! We've tried it a couple times with turkey meatloaf and eggplant parmesan, and absolutely no reaction. He was also treated for the 2 NAET spice mixes on Friday as I've noticed a couple mild breakouts on his eyelid (his trouble spot indicator) after eating foods with chili and garlic powder. Tonight for dinner I made fish tacos with homemade taco seasoning which consisted of :
And there was absolutely no reaction. He was yelling "WE'VE GOT A WINNER! THIS DINNER IS AWESOME!"
In case you're interested in the rest of the recipe:
1 lb cod or white fish fillets, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 Tbsp vegetable oil
2 Tbsp lemon juice
1 Tbsp vegetable oil
2 Tbsp lemon juice
2 t taco seasoning
In medium bowl, combine cod, vegetable oil, lemon juice, and seasoning; pour into large skillet. Cook, stirring constantly, over medium-high heat for 5 to 10 minutes or until cod flakes easily when tested with a fork.
I made 'Riced Spanish Cauliflower' to top the fish:
1 head cauliflower, cut into florets
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 onion, chopped
1 green or red pepper, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
8 ounces canned tomatoes, chopped
Salsa to taste
Salt and pepper to taste
For the cauliflower, I use my mini food processes/magic bullet to grate it (small handfuls of florets at a time.) Or use the 'S' blade on your food processor. Microwave in a glass bowl for 5 minutes.
MEANWHILE in a large skillet, heat the olive oil on MEDIUM til shimmery. Add the onion and green pepper and cook, stirring often, until golden. Add the garlic and cook for a minute. Add the tomatoes and stir in. When the cauliflower is cooked, stir it in and continue to cook, breaking up the cauliflower and tomatoes with the edge of a spatula while stirring. After cooking awhile, stir in the salsa. Keep cooking, keep tasting, adding more salsa and salt and pepper as needed. The dish is 'done' when the liquid has cooked off, the salsa and seasoning are perfect, and the rest of supper is done too!
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 onion, chopped
1 green or red pepper, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
8 ounces canned tomatoes, chopped
Salsa to taste
Salt and pepper to taste
For the cauliflower, I use my mini food processes/magic bullet to grate it (small handfuls of florets at a time.) Or use the 'S' blade on your food processor. Microwave in a glass bowl for 5 minutes.
MEANWHILE in a large skillet, heat the olive oil on MEDIUM til shimmery. Add the onion and green pepper and cook, stirring often, until golden. Add the garlic and cook for a minute. Add the tomatoes and stir in. When the cauliflower is cooked, stir it in and continue to cook, breaking up the cauliflower and tomatoes with the edge of a spatula while stirring. After cooking awhile, stir in the salsa. Keep cooking, keep tasting, adding more salsa and salt and pepper as needed. The dish is 'done' when the liquid has cooked off, the salsa and seasoning are perfect, and the rest of supper is done too!
I added 1-2 teaspoons of my taco seasoning that definitely gave it a kick! You can top the 'rice' with cheese, salsa, sour cream, etc. And it's all gluten free if you use lettuce wraps.
Friday, March 11, 2011
The Vitamin D Council Newsletter, Oct 2010
Vitamin D Newsletter October 2010
go to newsletter archives
Asthma, Eczema, and Vitamin D
Dear Dr Cannell:I have a few questions which I hope to you will be able to help me God willing:
Firstly, My wife is currently breast feeding our first child who is a 5 months old girl and she has is currently suffering from a very, VERY common condition called eczema or atopy, which seems to be affecting almost all new born babies and toddlers in the UK. She also has asthma, which is getting worse. My wife has cut out everything from her diet that it is typically linked to the causes of atopy and she is currently taking vitamin tablets which the NHS in the UK give out free to all women who are pregnant and are breast feeding the content of each tablet is as follows:
- Vitamin D
- 10 ug (400 IU)
- Vitamin C
- 70 mg
- Folic acid (Folacin)
- 400 ug
and we are currently giving our daughter 'Children Vitamin drops' which we instructed to give 5 drops and the 5 drops contain in total:
- Vitamin A
- 233 ug (700 IU)
- Vitamin C
- 20 mg
- Vitamin D
- 7.5 ug (300 IU)
Now would this amount be enough for both mother and baby's Vitamin D level and could there be a link between the eczema/asthma and Vitamin D level?
Secondly, I myself suffer from eczema for a long time since about 2003 and I am 30 years old now. It has been on and off and it especially flares up in winter indifferent places on the body, I have generally managed to control it by watching what I eat especially at winter, now I have read quite a lot from your website and as far as i can understand that i should be taking 1000 IU of Vitamin D for every 25 pounds of body weight and as for the blood test I should take that after 8 weeks of starting the Vitamin D supplement.
Thank you for reading my rather long email but I am learning to avoid that winter fatigue and maybe find out if I can get rid of a few other problems for myself and loved ones.Thank you Geoffrey Bingham Birmingham UK
Eczema is a form of atopy, a disease characterized by a tendency to be "hyperallergic". A patient with atopic allergies often has atopic eczema or atopic dermatitis since infancy and asthma as they grow older. Atopic eczema is an extremely itchy skin condition with a hallmark rash that can involve almost every region of the body. Crusty, scaly, flattened, reddened lesions of atopic eczema can appear almost everywhere, but are worse in certain areas or after exposure to certain irritants (e.g., allergenic soap, freshly cut lawns).
The single most important feature associated with atopic eczema lesions is that they are extremely itchy, and the itch can occur even before the lesions erupt on the skin and are visible. The itchiness often leads to secondary infections.
Atopy and asthma have a complicated relationship to vitamin D, with some studies showing vitamin D — especially cod liver oil in infancy — making eczema worse in later life. However, one would be silly to stay vitamin D deficient, and all that entails, on the chance your eczema will not worsen. Furthermore, in my experience atopy, including asthma, will slowly improve with physiological doses of vitamin D. Like asthma, eczema can become life-threatening if infection occurs. Such infections are thought to be secondary to reductions in the skin of naturally occurring antibiotics, such as cathelicidin.
Recently, Dr. Tissa Hata and a group at UC San Diego conducted a randomized controlled trial that demonstrated a remarkable seven-fold increase in cathelicidin in the skin after adult eczema subjects were given 4,000 IU per day for 21 days.
Hata TR, et al. Administration of oral vitamin D induces cathelicidin production in atopic individuals. J Allergy Clin Immunol. 2008 Oct;122(4):829—31.
Even more important, Dr. Urashima and colleagues at the Jikei University School of Medicine in Japan conducted a randomized placebo controlled trial of young teenagers and found that those with asthma were much less likely to have an attack if they were on vitamin D. Asthma attacks are not an uncommon cause of death among children. They also found that vitamin D significantly reduced the risk of influenza A, which can be much more severe in asthmatics.
Urashima M, et al. Randomized trial of vitamin D supplementation to prevent seasonal influenza A in schoolchildren. Am J Clin Nutr. 2010 May;91(5):1255—60.
Geoffrey, both you and your baby need to stop all vitamin A supplements, as they will interfere with the vitamin D, and begin taking vitamin D; your infant needs 1,000 IU/day and you need 5,000 IU per day. I wish I could tell you the eczema will rapidly disappear; it will not. However, over a period of several years I predict both the eczema and asthma will slowly improve. More importantly, both you and your infant will have a decreased likelihood of getting a secondary infection in both your skin and your lungs.
John Jacob Cannell MD Executive Director
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Saturday, March 5, 2011
Peanut Patch?
Came across this interesting article:
Can your peanut-allergic child be treated by simply wearing a patch? That’s what researchers at National Jewish Health are investigating. National Jewish Health, along with four other institutions in the Consortium of Food Allergy Research (CoFAR), are currently testing the safety of a peanut patch.
The peanut patch would seek to desensitize allergic patients by exposing them to increasing amounts of peanut protein, similar to the way allergy shots can desensitize people to pollen. The protein would be delivered through the skin from a patch, like nicotine patches used by people trying to quit tobacco.
Read the full story at:
http://www.nationaljewish.org/about/mediacenter/pressreleases/2011/peanut-patch.aspx
Can your peanut-allergic child be treated by simply wearing a patch? That’s what researchers at National Jewish Health are investigating. National Jewish Health, along with four other institutions in the Consortium of Food Allergy Research (CoFAR), are currently testing the safety of a peanut patch.
The peanut patch would seek to desensitize allergic patients by exposing them to increasing amounts of peanut protein, similar to the way allergy shots can desensitize people to pollen. The protein would be delivered through the skin from a patch, like nicotine patches used by people trying to quit tobacco.
Read the full story at:
http://www.nationaljewish.org/about/mediacenter/pressreleases/2011/peanut-patch.aspx
Friday, March 4, 2011
Big Score Today at Whole Foods!
Each and every Friday morning starts off with a visit to the NAET doctor and then to Whole Foods. Today feels like we struck gold at the store--3 new products to try! Plus they had a bunch of samples out that my kid could actually enjoy--popcorn, beef sticks, and fruit. The kid was grinning ear-to-ear!
We found a new item by So Delicious Coconut Milk--it's juice box style chocolate milk! Last week we found the So Delicious Cultured Strawberry Coconut Milk which tasted like a thick smoothie, and this week we noticed a chocolate flavored one on the same shelf. The other major score is an all natural jello without any fake dyes or gelatin, but uses a vegetable gum instead. It's by Natural Desserts, and we picked up a box of raspberry and strawberry. So exciting to find new, tasty foods!
As for NAET, we're still plugging along. Over the last few weeks he treated for artificial colors, artificial preservatives, and dried bean mix. The bean mix contained various beans along with peas and chick peas, which the doctor didn't have vials to test specifically for so I brought in my own samples. Turns out he needed to be treated for peas & chickpeas as well, which is what he did today. Seems like it's a tough treatment for him, as he says he feels the itch, is rubbing his eyes, and wanted to take a nap. Usually those are signs that it's working.
We found a new item by So Delicious Coconut Milk--it's juice box style chocolate milk! Last week we found the So Delicious Cultured Strawberry Coconut Milk which tasted like a thick smoothie, and this week we noticed a chocolate flavored one on the same shelf. The other major score is an all natural jello without any fake dyes or gelatin, but uses a vegetable gum instead. It's by Natural Desserts, and we picked up a box of raspberry and strawberry. So exciting to find new, tasty foods!
As for NAET, we're still plugging along. Over the last few weeks he treated for artificial colors, artificial preservatives, and dried bean mix. The bean mix contained various beans along with peas and chick peas, which the doctor didn't have vials to test specifically for so I brought in my own samples. Turns out he needed to be treated for peas & chickpeas as well, which is what he did today. Seems like it's a tough treatment for him, as he says he feels the itch, is rubbing his eyes, and wanted to take a nap. Usually those are signs that it's working.
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