More Insight into Food Ingredients

Check out this YAHOO! article titled "8 Ingredients You Never Want to See on Your Nutrition Label"

It appears to be an article taken out of Men's Health magazine.  It's nice to see some of this go mainstream, as it makes me feel a little less crazy in my everyday quest to avoid food additives and preservatives.  It would be so much easier if the food we ate was viewed differently by the public. For instance, shouldn't "organic" food be the normal everyday stuff "aka conventional", and the other food be referred as "chemically laced food."  If we called it what it was, it would be a make it much less appealing, don'tcha think?

This article covers BHA, parabens, nitrates, carmel coloring, and a handful of others.  Although the most digusting might very well be a natural ingredient known as castoreum.  Apparently, according to the article "this is one of the many nebulous “natural ingredients” used to flavor food. Though it isn’t harmful, it is unsettling. Castoreum is a substance made from beavers’ castor sacs, or anal scent glands. These glands produce potent secretions that help the animals mark their territory in the wild. In the food industry, however, 1,000 pounds of the unsavory ingredient are used annually to imbue foods—usually vanilla or raspberry flavored—with a distinctive, musky flavor.  You’ll find it in: Potentially any food containing 'natural ingredients.'"

Medical Update

My son had a check up with his allergist today to get our ducks in a row before school starts.  We always have to fill out a scorecard on the asthma symptoms, and today he scored 100% perfect. The doctor wants us to back off of the Flovent, down to one puff in the am and one in the pm.  I know we tried backing off a year ago, but I can't recall at what amount and frequency.  I'm still not convinced that this is the best time of year to try this seeing how school is starting up and heading into the prime virus season.  He also did a breathing test, which was a first for him.  The results were normal.   The doctor did comment that my kid needs to gain some weight and started trying to help me come up with food ideas.  Believe me doc, our world revolves around food and my kid has been eating like a champ.  He can put away a pizza like no tomorrow, but for the most part he eats healthy--lots of veggies, fruit, meat--and never things like soda, Cheetos, or Twinkies.  Bottom line is that we're not big people (my husband graduated highschool at 130 pounds!)  Other than that, we had a couple of medication forms filled out (the ones we keep in his emergency pack), and we were good to go.

We left the allergist's office and headed to the NAET office.  For the last few weeks we've been working on a combination of various hormones and enzymes.  It's been nice since there is nothing to avoid during the treatement timeframe.  We still have yet to get to nuts, but hopefully soon . . .

More DQ news!

We made another stop at DQ yesterday, and this time my son requested to try chocolate & vanilla twist ice cream.  He LOVED it, says it's the best in the world--way better than just vanilla.  Even better, he did great---no allergic reaction of any kind.

Another First--DQ!

I had the pleasure of witnessing another first for my 6-1/4 year old.  After 75 months of being alive on this planet, he was able to enjoy his first vanilla ice cream cone from Dairy Queen.  This was not planned, however, as we had anticipated him ordering a slush.  So when he made it to the front of the line and was told, "Sorry, the slush machine is broken today" my heart sank.  I wrestled with the idea of just leaving, which would be like literally taking candy from a baby.  As I stood there and stared at the menu I knew I couldn't guarantee that anything else would be safe.  So with his emergency pack in hand, I proceeded to order him a vanilla ice cream cone.  I asked for a list of ingredients, which they pointed me to their 'list of allergens.'  It's a start to know that my order has dairy, wheat, and soy but not the same as knowing exactly what goes into making the product.

As I handed my son his first DQ ice cream I tried to bury my anxiety.  He took a small bite, and then another.  No reaction.  As he continued to reassure me that he was doing fine and there was no strange reaction with his lips, mouth, throat, or stomach I was able to relax.  My focus then moved to teaching him how to eat an ice cream cone so it doesn't drip everywhere.  He proceeded to eat the entire cone, heck he may have even ate the paper wrapper that they put around the cone. It was a good day.

I was able to snap this one picture of his cone experience.  My first reaction was,'not the best picture.'  Followed immediately with, "This is the best picture in the world!  Look what he's holding, look what he's eating, look what he's indulging in!"

An Award?

Imagine my amazement when I was contacted by www.healthline.com and informed that my blog has won an award for "Best Skin Disorder Blogs."  That's fabulous and completely unexpected, but the most touching part of it all is the wonderful write up they provided on my blog--it literally brought me to tears:

Extinguishing Eczema

Extinguishing Eczema doesn’t seem like such a challenge when Eczema Mom is in the picture. This beautiful tale of hope, healing, and health follows a loving parent on her journey to care for her young son. Plagued by eczema, food allergies, and asthma, this is one child whose life has truly depended on the goodness of his mother.

Whether this lovely blogger knows it or not, each post she contributes to this fabulous blog convinces readers that eczema is manageable and that life is beautiful not because of the condition of our skin, but because of the condition of our love and relationships.

I'm really touched by such a heartfelt review.  I know my blog is not the fanciest, nor the best written, but I'm thrilled that my love for my son and determination to provide him the best life possible has shone through, and through this journey I may have even been able to help a few others. Thanks healthline.com for the kind write-up.

Baked Milk

An interesting study  from The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology that was referenced by The Allergist Mom as she prepared for her son's baked milk challenge.  The study was conducted on 100 children concludes that the majority (75%) of children with milk allergy tolerate heated milk.

Chemical Cuisine

The title says it all.  "Chemical Cuisine", that's what the majority of our food supply has become.  And if the food doesn't have artificial this and that in it, then it's either lace with hormones, antibiotics, or genetically modified.  I saw the other day that scientists are working on GMO apples.  The good news is the apples won't turn brown *sigh*

It's an uphill battle when one has allergies or sensitivities to food additives.  My son has been in heaven eating various wheat products these days:  boxes of crackers, pita bread, buns, croissants.  But only when they have minimal ingredients like the ones I can find at Trader Joe's.  The oyster crackers there basically are made of wheat, salt , baking soda, and one or two other ingredients.  He can also eat the Rudi's hotdog and hamburger buns just fine, check out the simplicity of the ingredients: 

Organic whole wheat flour, water,organic wheat bran, organic brown sugar, organic wheat gluten, yeast, organic high oleic sunflower and/or safflower oil, organic vinegar, sea salt, organic oat flour, organic molasses, organic barley malt, cultured organic whole wheat starch, ascorbic acid, natural enzymes

Compare that to a Wendy's bun that causes hives and itching for my son:
Enriched Flour (wheat flour, malted barley flour, thiamine mononitrate, riboflavin, niacin, iron, folic acid), Water, High Fructose Corn Syrup, Vegetable Oil (contains one or more of the following: soybean, cottonseed, canola), Yeast, Salt, Wheat Gluten, Contains 2% or less of the following: Dough Conditioners (contains one or more of the following: sodium stearoyl lactylate, calcium stearoyl-2-lactylate, ascorbic acid, azodicarbonamide, mono and diglycerides, DATEM, enzymes), Yeast Nutrients (may contain one or more of the following: monocalcium phosphate, calcium sulfate, calcium carbonate, ammonium sulfate), Turmeric, Paprika, Annatto, Natural Flavor, Calcium Silicate, Calcium Propionate (preservative). CONTAINS: WHEAT.

Trying to figure out what each of these chemicals are is a daunting task, but I found a wonderful website that lays it all out, or at least a large portion of it.  Check out http://www.cspinet.org/reports/chemcuisine.htm

My son use to react to 'sodium acid pyrophosphate' that I was able to identify through a process of elimination.  After having a NAET treatment for that, he's done just fine to the point he eats Trader Joe waffles with that ingredient in them every morning.  Before the NAET treatment he would get the same hives and itching from the waffles that he experiences with the Wendy's buns. 

So the detective work continues, trying to figure out which of these chemicals are the culprit . . .

Sunscreen Update

Sorry to be MIA for over a month.  My son has improved so much over the last year that I'm to the point where eczema and food allergies and asthma are not so top of mind and I don't have as much to write about (it's a good thing!) It's a nice place to be and it's wonderful to let go a bit and allow him to enjoy life without such a mother hen overseeing his every move.  Ok, ok, I'm sure I still do that, it's just not as extreme. 

Exciting news on the sunscreen front . . .he's no longer breakng out in hives to a brand we've had trouble with in the past.  After the extreme hive reaction to Neutrogena Sensitive a few years back I made the switch to a brand called Badger which gets the highest ratings from EWG (love that site!)  I really love that sunscreen, but it is a bit tacky and my son has never been a fan of it because it doesn't rub in completely.  Over the last week we re-tried the Neutrogena, and viola--no reaction.  We also tried Aveeno Baby that is a combo of zinc and titanium dioxide, and he really likes that one.  I'm still want to find a safer sunscreen without so many chemicals, but until then it's good to know we're on the right track.

I have a list of NAET updates that I need to get around to posting, more on that later . . .

Acupuncture & Lung Study

This study was recently highlighted in Reuters which summarized the results of COPD patients utilizing acupunture. What I found interesting is that "the benefits seen with the alternative treatment were on par with, or better than, what's been shown for conventional drugs and exercises used to treat the disease..."  "We don't know if this is going to extend life, but the study suggests it improves quality of life," said Dr. George Lewith, from the University of Southampton in England.  "If I had enough money and I was the patient, I would give acupuncture a try."

There were two groups, one who received actual acupunture treatments and the other that received fake treatments where the needle didn't pierce the skin.

Paraphrasing from the article:
In the real acupuncture group, shortness of breath was initially rated at 5.5 out of 10 after walking. After 12 weeks of treatment, that fell to 1.9. The average distance those patients were able to walk in six minutes also improved, from about 370 meters to 440 meters.


In the comparison group, breathlessness scores held steady -- at 4.2 before treatment and 4.6 after -- and there was no improvement in patients' walk distance.

"In a disease like COPD, we need to expand our thinking and come up with varying strategies to improve quality of life and relieve breathlessness," said Dr. Ravi Kalhan, head of Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine's asthma and COPD program in Chicago.


Some patients respond better to conventional medications than others, he said -- and it's promising that people in the new study seemed to benefit from acupuncture over and above the effect of those drugs.

...for people who can spare the cost, the researchers agreed there's nothing stopping them from trying out the alternative therapy.
"For me, as long as the therapy is safe and someone wants to try it and it might help and won't hurt, I absolutely encourage it," Kalhan, who wasn't involved in the new study, told Reuters Health.

The full study can be found on JAMA.

Just Because

As I was putting my son to bed this evening, he asked me to rub his back for him until he fell asleep.  This is not an unusual request, but tonight it struck me how different things are these days from the past few years as I felt his smooth, baby-like skin.  We were both commenting on how smooth his skin is, and we kept trying to find spots that were even smoother . . .the tip of his nose, his belly, his back, his cheek.  This was missing when he was an infant and toddler, I envied children with "baby-skin" as my son always felt like sandpaper, not to mention the rashes, flaking, and staph infections.  As I marvel at his progress, I almost forgot how for years his privates were so itchy that he would dig until they bled and scabbed over.  It was so painful watching him suffer and hear him beg for relief; if he could have torn it off he would have.  I worried that he would be permantely scarred both physically and mentally. It dawned on me this evening that it has been a good portion of a year since his privates have itched.

There were nights when I would be up for most of the night holding his hands while he slept to prevent him from doing further damage to himself.  One night in particular I rubbed his face for seven hours so he could rest.  This went on for several months, and I felt as if I aged twenty years. It's all a distant memory now, I just hope he forgets completely one day.

He begs for a baby brother or sister, but I know I have all I can handle.  I've been blessed that he's a loving, empathetic, and bright child.  But I've given all of my energy to healing him, and know I don't have it in me to start all over again.  What if he's my healthy one?  That thought scares me to death.  I hope he doesn't resent being an only child.  And if he does, he'll understand once he has a child of his own just how hard his mom worked at keeping him healthy.  Since I've become a mom I have often wondered if my mom loves me as much as I love my son.  I know the answer is 'yes', but it's hard to understand until you have a child of your own.  Which leads me to my favorite quote: “Making the decision to have a child - it is momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body. ” Elizabeth Stone