Sometimes my mind can’t help but get stuck thinking about why things arise as they do.
Our family is always embarking on something new and exciting it seems. Sometimes that means a new sport, sometimes a new project on our little farm & sometimes a new healthy addition to our daily diet.
Currently it is the latter and in a more extreme way than we have experienced before.
Our daughter has recently been Dx with a leaky gut. " Hypermeable intestinal damage or a leaky gut. LGS (Leaky Gut Syndrome) adversely affects the immune system and is classified as an autoimmune disease..(Pagano,2008).
Now for me this was hard for many reasons as you can imagine.
I am a mother, a conscious and aware mother and here my child is suffering from something that is related to what she is eating! I am partially in shock and wondering what the heck!I have spent my entire life “in motherhood” researching and executing the healthiest organic diet possible.
It is the foundation of my belief system that at the root of everything medical and health related is the diet. What you eat has profound effects on everything that happens in your body and therefore you’re LIFE. Food truly is medicine or poison depending on what you choose to eat.
Food, health & nutrition have been such a big part of our life. My kids eat so healthy and enjoy almost every fruit and vegetable out there.
We talk extensively on health & eating right and what that means in terms that they understand. This has been going since they were little ones.
So here we are embracing for 6months, hand in hand, a Gluten Free (GF), Dairy Free(DF), & Egg free (EF) diet for our 11 yr old daughter.
So how did it come to this?
On and off, until recently, our daughter has had unexplainable symptoms which included. An itchy rash on arms, legs, stomach and under her arms, fatigue, headaches, unexplainable stomach aches and intense craving for sugar that is unlike her. These symptoms would come and go. Sometimes she would present a few of them at once and other times not.
In the past 4months the symptoms have become more consistent. Typically showing up together as well as showing up after she would eat certain foods. I started to note and watch this carefully.
Now many people say, "well didn’t you take her to the pediatrician?" Yes, I actually did, at one point, to cover all my bases;
I can give you one guess what he wanted me to do….
Steroid cream for the rash that he could not explain, Maalox or Tums for her tummy & Motrin for her headaches. So you can imagine what I did with that information.
I then found two different Doctors (Naturopathic, one that is an MD but has gone onto practice naturopathically as well) who did really extensive testing including evaluating all the normal blood panels, physical exams, extensive diet and nutrition review & doing extensive intestinal flora testing.
These all proved to be very informative.
What we found was that Candida, which occurs normally in our bodies, was at levels in her that were basically through the roof. Her good flora was almost non existent because of this. That is a recipe for total disaster as far as our intestinal health is concerned! Our intestinal health is where it all begins and ends if you are not careful. The other thing we found was that her white blood cells were low and had been trying really hard to fight off something for a while now.
When we are off balance, that’s an important word BALANCE, our bodies go haywire.
Candida ( which occurs naturally in our gut) was able to take a hold of her system after a bad run with a flu virus almost 2yrs ago. At the time I would have never known. Until symptoms starting presenting themselves regularly in droves and I could not tie them to any one thing, I started to realize there was something bigger happening here.
So flash forward to 4 weeks ago, we are at the Dr. getting these results and this information.
My daughter, who is just simply amazing, said to the Dr. “Ok, tell me what to do, I’ll do it. I do not want to have problems later in my life”.
This is an 11yr old little girl embracing her health, I was speechless. She is so strong .
But, she is still a child, a baby really only on this earth for a mere 11yrs, and
not too many days into her new diet I found her a little mopey.
She was also starting to do a little detox with the Candida dying off and the good flora taking back its rightful territory so it can do its job and heal her tummy, but still she was feeling down. I asked why and she said
“I just realized I can’t really have any fun treats ever and that’s fine mom but I would really like a piece of zucchini bread maybe or a muffin sometimes.”
Little did she know I was already on this? Day 1 I came home and ordered a bunch of books & cookbooks. I don’t do anything half ass so of course I was going to find a way to make her a darn muffin!
Avoiding sugar in all forms as much as possible , especially in this first month is on the docket, but something small and overall so healthy is definitely a possibility to help a young girl work through this really big situation with a smile.
So here it is folks… baking day 1~ Successful, scrumptious GF, DF, & EF blueberry muffins. Healthy & delicious what more can you ask for!
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