Summer Adventure to Heal Allergies, Asthma and Migraines

this is what the boys toothbrush drawer looks like

Have you noticed I haven't been posting many recipes or any kind of posts of late?  Sorry about that.  I've been distracted by all the learning and preparing  that goes on before you make a major diet shift.

Today we start an elimination diet, a very restrictive elimination diet.  This diet will change the landscape of breakfast, lunch and dinner around here for a while.  I'm embracing all the change.  Our whole family is doing this elimination diet as an alternative to all the steroids my sons inhale and squirt every day to keep them out of the hospital during the pollen months.

In the 2010 allergy season, big boo woke up abruptly with a deep cough that made it hard to go back to sleep.  He missed many days of school, and we spend a good bit of time at the allergist office.  One visit the doc said "I'm glad you brought him in this morning, any longer and he'd be in the hospital with a collapsed lung."  In the 2011 allergy season, little boo had many nights where he woke up coughing and I thought it was croup.  Little boo has has croup ever 4-8 weeks since he was one.  I was told he'd grow out of it by 4, but  he's 5 now and croup episodes seemed to be getting worse.  It wasn't just that seal cough, now his breathing was gurgley.  It sounded like he was breathing water.  One night was particularly scary, when he woke up he couldn't stop coughing.  We tossed our shoes on and ran to urgent care.  I was told they'd stabilize his breathing and then transfer him to the hospital where he'd be admitted for more breathing treatments.  Luckily, even though his blood pulse oxygen level was low at 87%, he responded well to the nebulizers and oral steroids and he was able to go home home with the directions to head right back to the ER if his breathing began to get labored again.  Both boys, narrow miss of hospital.  Eek.

The boys and I also suffer with frequent headaches.  Mine are actually less frequent, than when I was a kid but more of them are migraines.  There don't seem to be too many days when one of the three of us don't have headaches.  When little boo was 4 he started getting migraines.  That broke my heart.  If there is any way for me to give him a life without migraines, I'm doing it.  Migraines are a kill joy.  I suspect food triggers, so we'll see if we can solve that mystery too while we're on the elimination diet.   

Angry about Food
I've spent many months wondering why our clean diet hasn't been enough to keep my kiddos healthy.  I've questioned whether or not the resources we've spent both in money and time to prepare food from scratch have been worth it.  Why go to the trouble to eat clean food, if you don't benefit with good health? Here we are with asthma, allergies and chronic headaches.  If clean food doesn't work, then what does?  After reading Dr Bock's book and Dr Natasha Campbell McBride's book, I actually feel overjoyed that my family has invested in food the way we have.  I believe now that if I hadn't been so careful about what we eat, my kids health would have deteriorated faster and instead of involving mostly their respiratory system it might have impacted their neurological function more.  Thankfully we are not dealing with learning disorders, both boys are at or above school milestones and don't seem to have any trouble functioning in the school environment. 

As an asthma parent you hear all the time that kids grow out of their allergies/asthma.  Of course I hope that's the case for them.  And if they don't?  Little boo didn't grow out of croup when he was supposed to.  I'm not very hopeful they are going to follow that path.   What if they are the kids who don't grow out of asthma/allergies?  Like the kids who approach early adult hood and all the sudden the steroids they've been sucking up all their childhood stop working and the fall prey to a virus or pneumonia and end up sick sick sick in the hospital or worse, dead.   I can't leave their health in the hands of fate, hope and Rx drugs. 

I don't want my kids to maybe grow out of allergies and asthma.  I want them to heal from allergies and asthma.  Is that possible?  I don't know.  Some people claim to be healed from allergies/asthma after they remove trigger  foods from their diet and/or heal their gut dysbiosis.

I'm placing my faith in the healing powers of the human body, and food to put our allergies and asthma behind us.  I honestly don't know if we can heal and get off all the puffers, immunotherapy, steroids and nose squirts.  I don't know if it's possible for my kids to enjoy spring instead of spending the cool, blooming months hacking and wheezing and working hard to stay out of the hospital.   But I have a lot more hope that their bodies can heal than in the Rx drugs getting us through the 15-20 or more allergy seasons between now and the age where they might grow out of asthma.  My dad had mild asthma.  It onset in early adolescence and by the time he was in his mid 20s he could leave his puffers behind.    Big boo was diagnosed at 3 years old, and Little boo at 4 years old.  They have almost a decade on daily meds before they even get to the point where their grandpa started taking medication.  The medications don't control symptoms forever. 

Blog Posts May Be Spotty
I can't predict what this summer will be like for us.  I know I've got a busy business to operate and a lot of learning to do in the kitchen.  I know we'll all be busy getting healed.  Anything that isn't work or healing related may get shoved to the back burner, including the Food with Kid Appeal Blog.  I'm sure I'll eventually write about our experience on the healing diet, but I'm not sure I'll have the time or energy to share as it's happening.   If our bodies do a truly amazing thing, and heal from allergies, and headaches I won't be able to keep it a secret.  It's hard not to share understanding, especially the kind of understanding that could relieve many families of the fear, anxiety and discomforts of living with a chronic illness.

GAPS program
The elimination diet we're following is the GAPS program which is based on the SCD diet with a few added directives.  GAPS and SCD are well written about so if you're curious about our healing diet, you can poke around and read many of the online resources covering these programs.

What are You Cooking?
There is always an open invitation for readers and bloggers alike to share stories of your recipes, your feeding the family challenges and successes.  See here for more details on how to submit a guest post, story or article.