A day of exhaustion

I typically like to keep a level head when it comes to all of this craziness around us, but today is an exception.  Today I think I actually know what it feels like to be my kids during treatment.  I have decided to treat myself for pathogens like yeast, bacteria, viruses and parasites.  I started two days ago with grapefruit seed extract (GSE) and yesterday I added black walnut hull, I had already been doing olive leaf extract (OLE) periodically before all of this too.  So today I took all three twice and I have felt extreme exhaustion like I could sleep standing up, worse than when I was pregnant, I have severe brain fog, I'm highly irritable and I almost feel like I don't care about anything around me.  It's no fun I tell ya!  And I can't even imagine adding in chelation (moving metals) while trying to cope with all of this.  I won't even share the details of the physical symptoms I have had, lol, I will spare you those details.  Let me just say, something is brewing for sure. 

Sometimes I feel like the hermit family.  We don't go out as often as I would like, but that is because it's such a chore and we often don't feel well on weekends from chelation (us being tired from all night dosing and the kids just being effected to some degree by the chelation itself).  We have to pack all of their foods, snacks and meals, drinks, supplements (especially during chelation when they are SO important, which is on weekends when we would normally be on the go more), enzymes and chelation dosing.  It involves an insane amount of preparation and space, lol, our diaper bag is barely enough room for it all.  Then we have Gavin's nap right smack in the middle of the day so when we go through all of this preparation to go out, we are limited on free time.  Unfortunately, it's just easier to stay home.  We hope to use this time to enjoy their youth while we have them at home with us.

Shake the sickies out

Tis' the season for the sickies. Grayson was always that kid who never got sick, that is, until he started preschool, ha ha ha. I was warned that when they start school for the first time, everything that goes around, comes home! He has been sick three times since the start of the school year, so we are averaging about one illness per month. Anytime we are dealing with a virus, we end up with regression in his SPD symptoms in a bad way! Viral die-off causes an overgrowth in yeast, and this makes him much more sensitive to his sensory aversions and his need for input becomes greater. So a typical day for us includes a lot of swatting at his head, ears and face, increase in bumping, crashing and touching, clothing bothers him, blankets are never on right, the coat is on wrong, shoes are too tight, the sun is too bright, pajamas bother the armpits, the fork doesn't work, the chair is pushed in unevenly, get the picture? When there is viral die-off and an increase in yeast, the two best natural remedies are grapefruit seed extract (GSE) and olive leaf extract (OLE), however, he is slightly sensitive to both, so we must administer each of them along with a No Phenol to reduce a possible reaction.

Oh, and just for the record, viruses are not living things, they are particles made of proteins and DNA so technically, they don't really "die-off", this term refers to what is happening when you are trying to get rid of a virus. Here again, enzymes come to the rescue (they are powerhouses). A virus is surrounded by a protective protein which is digested by our friend the protease enzyme! Once that coating is stripped away, the virus is unprotected and vulnerable to antivirals (OLE to the rescue)!

Grayson's latest virus is croup, which amazingly is an influenza virus (diphtherial) and can actually be caused by coming in contact with someone who has just had the measles or flu vaccination! Ironically, the Hib vaccine is supposed to protect against this very virus, which he has had. Vaccinations do not make our kids bulletproof.

Sorry to cut this short, but I am needed to help unveil our HUGE Christmas tree, let the festivities begin....

Does he really need ALL of those?

I think I could write a book on Grayson's daily intake of supplements alone!  When a child needs so many healthy foods removed from his or her diet, supplementation is the name of the game.  The list is long and can vary from day to day depending on his needs for any given day. The usual looks like this: two enzymes for gluten and casein, two enzymes for carbohydrates, a No Phenol enzyme, two multivitamins, four cod liver oil gel tabs, two drops of grapefruit seed extract, liquid calcium, and one probiotic....on days when he is coming down with something or has a cold, we add zinc, vitamin A and additional vitamin C.   Another challenge with supplementing is that we need to be very cognizant of the ingredients to be sure they don't contain anything he is allergic to and just about every supplement has a filler of some sort, mostly likely containing gluten and/or casein.  Probiotics are often made from dairy and vitamin C from citrus.  Many, many children's chewables are made with "natural" citrus or pineapple flavors.  So we buy most of our supplements from specialty providers online, like Kirkman Labs and Houston Enzymes.

The role of enzymes in this diet is huge and may even allow us to reintroduce many of the foods he is slightly sensitive to.  If you were to ask Grayson what the enzymes are for, he will tell you that "they are for badestion", ha ha ha.  Translation = digestion.  The link between food allergies and the lack of enzymes is very common, so with the added enzymes every time he eats, they provide him with the ability to break the foods down further.  Leaky gut syndrome comes from undigested food particles which actually make their way out of the intestines and into other parts of the body!  Weird, isn't it?  There are enzymes for many different foods and just about EVERYONE would benefit from additional enzymes in their diet.  Enzymes are naturally occurring and are only available in raw foods so once you heat a food over about 100 degrees you kill the enzymes, which then requires your body to use it's "stash" to digest the food you've just eaten.  You can actually deplete your body's enzymes by eating only cooked foods.  Raw foods provide just enough of their own enzymes to break itself down, there is no excess.  So when your body is forced to give up it's enzyme stash to digest foods on a daily basis, other parts of the body begin to suffer and you become more susceptible to illness.  When you see a fruit decomposing, going bad, those are enzymes at work.  The reason you don't feed a baby from a baby jar, put it away and then continue feeding from that same jar again later is because of enzymes.  The mouth contains enzymes and when you put the spoon back into the baby jar, the food in the jar comes into contact with the enzymes on the spoon, digestion actually begins to occur, yummm!

This child never ceases to amaze me.  He saw me swallowing my cod liver oil and wanted to do the same with his, which are of course chewable.  I promptly explained that his are chewed and mine aren't.  He was content with that answer...that day.  When we ran out of his cod liver oil and again he witnessed me swallowing mine.  He said, "It's fine mommy, I can just take yours!"  I told him he would have to swallow it like I do and he very convincingly told me he could do it.  So who am I to hold back a child?  I handed him one and expected to see him gag and choke on it, but you've got to live and learn, right?  He immediately popped it in his mouth and like a pro, guzzled some water and proudly opened his empty mouth for me to inspect!!  Can you say determination??  Who said reverse psychology doesn't work??  If you want to get a three year old to do something, just tell him he can't and you will be greeted with childhood optimism I wish we all still had.