What Does A Reaction Look Like?

I refer to Makayla's food intolerences as "allergies" because it's the easiest way to explain to others that some foods may as well be deadly to Makayla, and to get across the seriousness of these intolerences.  In Makayla's case, we have NO diagnosis, as we have yet to find a doctor who believes us or will agree to preform a single test, but it's likely that she has something similar to this disorder, or an auto immune disease, or a mast cell disorder.



I'm sharing this so people understand that what we deal with is not a "high maintenance" child, or a some mild bloating and discomfort. She does not have Sensory Processing Disorder, or Autism, like some doctors have implied.  We have a child who becomes VERY ill from eating foods the rest of her family can and does eat on a regular basis, and foods that are absolutely unavoidable, such as corn.  Like the sister in this video, she regularly watches and sees her twin bother and family and friends eat foods she will likely never get to enjoy.  She also becomes very ill when she comes in contact with some foods and chemicals merely by smell or touch.

Gerber loves their GMOs

Earlier today, GMO Free USA posted this image on their facebook page:

Photo Source: GMO Free USA

Curious, I had to check out Gerber's facebook page and see what, if anything, people are saying to Gerber after seeing this image.  I found this post where another GMO Free USA fan posted their disappointment with Gerber's use of GMOs and Gerber defended their use of GMOs, as well as their stance on fighting the labeling of GMOs, and deleting comments they disagree with. 

In speaking with the original poster, I was informed that the comment Gerber deleted said, "We both know that GMO contains pesticides. Are you saying giving pesticides to babies is healthy?" I think this conversation demonstrates Gerber's intentional ignorance of the facts. As a mother, I think it's very alarming to see a huge entity in the world of baby and children's products to choose profits over the health of our children, and this conversation is worth sharing with any and all parents that will listen!

Shark!

Shark Steam Pocket Mop, that is!

I've been using a Shark Professional Steam Pocket Mop for a few weeks now in our ongoing attempt to switch over to natural ways of cleaning.  The Shark Steam Pocket Mop uses only steam to break up dirt and sanitize your floors.

No chemicals.  No soaps.  No fragrances.  Just steam!

With two toddlers, a large dog and two cats, there's is no shortage of mess on my floors.  But this past week, we also hosted a splash pool and craft play date, with lots of little wet feet running in and out of the house, smashing stickers and glue into our tiles floors.

This was the week to put the Shark to the test.

There is just no reason for anyone to clean their floors with chemicals.  Your kids and your pets will thank you.  Just an easy once over picks up sticky juice, muddy foot and paw prints, and it peeled stickers right off the ground.

A big difference I have noticed is that when using cleaners in the past our shoes would stick to the tacky floor, after I mopped.  But, after the Shark, the floors are smooth and clean.  I realize now that that sticky feeling was the cleaners residue left on the floor, when my dog could lick it up and that it's sticky nature was making my floors dirty more quickly!

One of my favorite things about the Shark is how quickly the steam dries off the floor.  It's instant.  I don't have to worry about the kids running around and slipping on the wet floor, as soon as I move to a new area, the last area is already dry.

Another reason I'm sold on my Shark, and will never look back, is the cost!  I bought my Shark, and the extra mop pads, and I'll never need another thing to use it.  Shark also has an reputation of making products that last!  With my last mop, I have to spend about $15 on solution for just about every time I mopped, plus the $15 on disposable pads every three to 5 mopping.  I could have bought my Shark a few times over, with all the money I spent on my last mop. I should have switched sooner!

Food Phobia

Twice, this week, I've had full blown anxiety attacks in the grocery store.

Heavy breathing, lightheadedness, nausea.  I'm talking, the real deal.

I've been reading and scrutinizing food labels for a little over three years now, and when you are forced to look, every single day, at what is in every single food you offer to your family, you can't help but acknowledge and face the fact that there is very little food in most of our food.

Let's be honest.  We're feeding our pets better than we feed ourselves!

Source: Zamzows.com

I worked a short time at a pet food store, and my husband also currently works in the pet business, and one of the first things you learn, in the pet business, is how to read a food label to know the difference between a premium food (a balanced diet for your animal) and a grocery store food (garbage).

(Bear with me, I know this seems like a tangent, but I promise, there's a point to all this)

First, a premium food has no corn or grains listed in the ingredients, and mid grade food, may have some corn in it, but not in the first five ingredients, and a grocery store brand likely has corn in all of the first three ingredient.

The next factor you look at, how many cancer causing chemicals are listed?

It's not that complicated is it?  Yet, it took me a good ten years, until I had my children, to read my own families food labels that way, and only because I had to.  I really thought just buying the "whole grain" and "low fat" was good enough.

I challenge you, next time you're in the grocery store, pick up any ten packaged foods and count how many of them don't fall into that garbage food category.  Go ahead and pick up "heath foods" and see if they even make the cut.  I'd really love to hear your replies too!

I have no choice in how I feed my children (I guess that's the perk of living with food allergies).  But then...in case shopping for food free of corn, legumes, dairy, tree nut, and egg for my toddlers, wasn't difficult, stressful and expensive enough already, I stumbled upon this TED video a few weeks ago by Robyn O'Brien, which has me rethinking the way our whole family eats.





And this is why I have panic attacks in the grocery store.  And why I am on day four of no soda, and if you know me, you know that is a huge deal!

I'm not one to buy into propaganda or the latest trendy diet, but combining what I've learned about food in the last three years, with these GMO statistics, I've officially developed a phobia of food.

Here's where my brain goes:  Corn is in everything.  EVERYGODDAMNTHING.  Even if a product doesn't contain "corn" in the ingredients, it almost certainly contains a derivative of corn (see, Also Known As), like vanilla extract, yeast, baking powder.  And 90% of corn in GMO.  Even if you buy "whole foods" like fruits and veggies....which are sprayed, almost always with a corn based pesticide (yes, even organic, either by their "organic spray" or by the blow over from the neighboring standard crop).

So, organic chicken and dairy the, you say!  But what was the animal fed?  Corn probably...   And if you're willing to go through the trouble to find grass fed, and locally grown (like, as in, your own) produce, you're probably going to have to travel near and far for it, and pay quite a bit more, and commit two to three times the time the time for prep and cooking.  And that's just the corn!

And....here it comes.  Another panic attack.  Like Robyn said, you just can't unlearn this stuff...

Allergy vs Intolerance

Sometimes I call Makayla's reactions allergies, and sometimes intolerances.  But the truth is, according to the doctors, she doesn't have a "true" allergy to anything.  

Here is the definition pf Food Allergy from Mayo Clinic: 

Food allergy is an immune system reaction that occurs soon after eating a certain food. Even a tiny amount of the allergy-causing food can trigger signs and symptoms such as digestive problems, hives or swollen airways. In some people, a food allergy can cause severe symptoms or even a life-threatening reaction known as anaphylaxis. 

Food allergy affects an estimated 6 to 8 percent of children under age 3 and up to 3 percent of adults. While there's no cure, some children outgrow their food allergy as they get older. 

It's easy to confuse a food allergy with a much more common reaction known as food intolerance. While bothersome, food intolerance is a less serious condition that does not involve the immune system.

It is true that Makayla doesn't have any of the anaphylaxis reactions to foods or environmental triggers.  All of her reactions are gastrointestinal to food.  To environmental triggers, we know she sometimes has an eczema reaction, and that she becomes extremely irritable and unable to function to other environmental triggers, but since she s three, she can't explain what those feel like yet.  However, I have a strong hunch that her reactions are an immune system reaction, caused by an auto immune disorder.  

I don't have any sort of diagnosis to back that hunch up.  Not because doctors have been unable to find or confirm my theory, but rather, because every single GI doctor, and allergist (five, in total now, all from highly regarded medical facilities, such as UCSF, UCLA and a local Asthma & Allergy Center) has dismissed her reactions as non serious food intolerances.

  

Natural Multi-Purpose Cleaner

At the start of all this, trying to learn to cook for my family without corn, soy and dairy (the most difficult foods to remove from our diets) was such an overwhelming task, that it's taken me well over a year to accept the fact that Makayla is absolutely reacting to environmental triggers as well.

After a few recent undeniable, and obvious reactions to environmental riggers like perfumes, hairspray and cleaners, we've decided to start making to move to chemical free cleaning in our home.  Yesterday was our first go-round with a homemade vinegar based multi-purpose cleaner.

The Recipe:
10oz Bragg's Apple Cider Vinegar (Distilled white vinegar is derived from corn)
10oz Distilled Water
Orange or Lemon Peels

I filled a large mason jar with orange and lemon peels a few weeks ago.  I think about three oranges and three large lemons worth, and then covered them in the ACV and let them soak for several weeks, until the peels looked obviously pickled.

I noticed a lot of orange and lemon pulp floating around the jar, so I used a coffee filter to strain the ACV solution into a new mason jar, before adding it to my spray bottle with the water.

The Review:
I was hesitant about this from the start.  I like to see my cleaners work.  I don't like to use a lot of elbow grease.  And, anyone who knows me knows I hate the smell (and taste, for that matter) or vinegar!

I used it on my kitchen counters.  On my stove.  On my LCD television screen.  On the bathroom sink.  On my walls.  And on my wood furniture!

Well, I'm happy to report that you can see the solution working!  And, using it required very little elbow grease, if any at all.  It pulled up coffee and wine stains, with one easy wipe.  Added a sparkle to my stove that I've not seen since moving to this house almost two years ago.  It even lifted off all those pesky toddler finger marks form the doors and walls that the other cleared just sort of smeared around.

As for the smell, I felt pretty good about it.  It did have a vinegary odor to it, but I felt that the orange and lemon sents cut through to neutralize it, and that once it evaporated, it was really a non-issue.  The hubs however is still out.  I knew them moment he walked in the door and wrinkled his nose that I wasn't fooling him.  I think with my next batch I'll try adding some essential oils.  More lemon or orange?  Or maybe something minty?  I open to suggestions if you've got them!

The Final Word:
All in, all, I'm a happy camper.  This cleaner is just as good, if not better than all the Windex, 409, and Mr. Clean I've been using for the past 15 years.  I'll keep using it, and tweaking the oils until I get a smell that we can all live with.

How We Got Here

I didn't start out with a vendetta against corn.  I loved corn!  Corn on the cob, cream of corn, popcorn candy corn!  I even included corn on the cob in so many meals, one summer, that the hubs begged for, anything but corn.  But, a little over three years ago, corn and I had a bit of a falling out.  Ok, a lot of a falling out.  These days corn consumes most of my daily thoughts, triggers grocery store panic attacks and is pretty much my archnemesis. 

(Ok. So, the long story of how we got to this point!)

Three years ago, when we brought our twins home from the hospital, almost imminently, our daughter started violently, projectile vomiting after every feeding.  Doctors assured us, it was "normal premie reflux," and that as long as she gained weight there was "nothing to worry about," and nothing that could be done.  

So we kept on.  

We cleaned up countless messes.  We laid awake every night hanging on every burp, hiccup or cough, scared to death she was choking on her vomit.  

Until one day she started refusing my breastmilk, and every formula we offered her.  The doctors explained, it was "normal" and simple, she was allergic to dairy or soy, maybe both...no big deal, we'll put her on an elemental formula and be the time she's off formula, she'll outgrow all this normal baby allergy business and life will go on happily ever after.

So I went home, and I fed my starving baby a big ol' bottle of this elemental formula, that's supposed to be free of all things that could hurt my baby...........and, about halfway through the bottle, she turned red, broke out in an instant fever, got small, fine hives, all over the trunk of her body and projectile vomited harder and more violently then anything I had experienced before.

We both cried.

Elecare Ingredients Label

I read the ingredients to the formula, and found it was loaded corn! (Two side notes here: 1) Honestly, a little shocked at first, because, being nor a totally food dummy, I know that corn is simply a filler with no nutritional value, but whateves. 2) Doctors still fight me and argue with me when I tell them that the elemental formulas, such as Elecare, and Neocate, contain any corn at all.)  

Ah-ha!  She's allergic to corn!  So, I march right into GI and tell them my findings....and I kid you not, the doctor slapped her knee, laughed out loud and said, "No one is allergic to corn."  They insisted that it was still an intense reaction to soy and/or dairy and that we would just have to start feeding out three month old baby a diet of solids.........

While researching corn allergies, I attempted to make my own formula from scratch, using condensed milk and vitamins, and I can't even remember what else (because it was a total failure), before finding a formula that was free of corn, soy and dairy.

Alimentum, Ready to Feed.   Our lives were changed.  Finally, our daughter was happy, gaining weight quickly, and no longer throwing up.

I was told that babies outgrow these intolerences be a year or two, so we didn't hesitate to offer her dairy, soy or corn, once we started adding solids to her diet, and she seemed ok.  That is, until she was off of formula and getting all of her diet in the form of these solids.

That was at 18 months old.  Over the next year and a half we slowly removed foods back out of her diet.

First dairy, then soy.  Eggs.  Corn.  The rest of legumes.  Finally tree nuts.

Corn is an ongoing process, and the most difficult to remove from one's diet.

Makayla is still not free of reactions on most days.  We have found that as soon as we remove a corny product from her diet, she does well for a week or two, and then starts reacting again to the corn still in her diet.