Almost. It's been a long journey and I've held back on blogging about these dang allergies. I really wanted to get all my facts straight before I started spouting off information. Well, one thing has led to another and I here I am with a very allergic child. It seems that over the years we have deemed Mia as our "emotional child" and just left it at that. Well, I couldn't settle with symptoms I was seeing and was not pleased at all with the pish/posh excuses that professionals in white coats were giving me. After some discussions with a friend, who has already traveled this road, I began to travel it myself. I began reading, researching, asking questions and I took the plunge. I pulled my girls off of gluten, wheat, dairy, peanuts, and a few other things. My husband was thinking the same thing, "what is there to eat?". No worries, we found plenty!! I've learned to cook gluten and dairy free (also called gfdf) muffins, cupcakes, cookies, and pancakes. The girls love it! Well, Kennedy changed immediately. She went from demon child to sweet child of heaven! I mean we could actually have full conversations without feeling like we were in a courtroom on opposing teams. I though "wow, what will it be like when she is a teenager?!!" I was noticing constipation, eczema, muscle cramps, stomach aches, and headaches in Kennedy. Mia was having diarrhea, muscle aches, stomach aches, and HEAVY mood swings, lots of tears. She was like a cat on a tin roof. I"m not trying to sound demeaning but it was getting to be like the crazy farm here! I just kept thinking that I must be an awful parent. I soaked my pillow most nights, nagged my friends about solutions, argued with myself, and pretty much thought that any mother could do a better job than me. It seemed like no matter what I did, nothing worked out. The girls were upset, whiny, angry, worrisome, anxious. Kennedy's 6th birthday about did me in. We took her out to Red Robin (way overpriced burger joint) and she was crawling under the table, refused to eat the spaghetti (which is her favorite), and showed no remorse. Paul took her out to van to 'chat' and that didn't even work. I could not believe this. He came back in and told me to get the check. The nice waitress came back, ready to sing to the birthday girl but she was no longer in the building. I collected the check, paid, and off to home we went. KK went to bed with no cake, no presents, and no songs. We tried again the next day. You see, the problem was physical, not behavioral. We didn't know. Of course, we had loaded her up on all her favorites that day: oreos with frosting, carbs, syrup, pancakes.......basically lots of dairy, gluten, and yeast!! Come to find out, she is allergic to these things! Sugar feeds yeast and she has an allergy to yeast. I can look back now and go "ohhhhh" duh! Mia is another story. Her counts are supposed to be under 60 for her immunity and she is in the 700s. yeah, wow! The doctor said she is so inflamed inside! So we have become very strict on the eating plan, taking probiotics with 50billion live, fish oil, Veema, and others. Our lives have changed. Instead of saving that 200ish dollars a month for hair color etc............we are at our local health store buying vitamins that are going to bring our girls back to some normalcy (whatever that looks like). I'm thrilled to know that we can help them. I can't wait to see how Mia feels/looks in a month. Not sure if she can even remember what it feels like to feel 'good' or 'healthy'. But in light of many tragic stories out there, we feel blessed. Neither of these allergies are life threatening. So, there you have it........allergies! Who would have thought that allergies would cause such a mood change? Oh, and she's allergic to Clifford :-( so sad. We are tackling it, one day at a time! That's all we can do and thankful for good advice from a friend. We are on the road to healing early!
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