18 years ago… July 24, 2017

Eighteen years ago, I had this brand new, sweet and healthy, blue-eyed, chubby little girl. After her first round of vaccines she stopped growing. At four months old I was told to start solids early to try to get her to gain weight; that just weakened her immune system and she got sick. She was diagnosed with Failure to Thrive soon afterwards. At this point she was so tired of throwing up after each feeding that she would nurse as little as possible and suck her fingers instead to avoid it.

On my own accord, I had began weeks earlier trying to change our families diet for the better to fix some issues. I took away dairy, then wheat, but it wasn't until I took out gluten that I noticed that the baby stopped throwing up after nursing. It only took three days of that and it was gone. After my daughter was no longer reacting to the food I ate, I worked several months to wean her from sucking her fingers and taught her to be a good little nurser. She was able to maintain her weight and slowly gain weight, she was weight checked every month and continued all her scheduled "well" visits. At a year old, she was only sixteen pounds, but she had good muscle tone and was content. She didn't start to gain weight at a more normal rate until I stopped vaccinating her after eighteen months old. She had a growth spurt years later, when I started detoxing her body of the vaccines.

At the same time my daughter stopped throwing up, I also noticed that our new gluten free diet had cleared my two year olds infant acne that he had since he started solids. This started the long journey to where I am today and the decisions I make about food, medicine, doctors, child- rearing, education, etc.

Over the years I have gone through times that I doubted what I had learned and I tried to just forget about it all, but there was always a physical or emotional side effect from someone making me go back to it. Believe me, it is not easy to be the odd one out, never fitting in, and having very little support.

So before you try to educate me with the latest research, please consider that I have already done the research and have seen the results myself. You can find research out there to support any outcome you would like to believe, but how do you know what is real? I live with the results everyday. Please don't try to dis-prove me, all you end up doing is discounting the last eighteen years of my life, with or without realizing it. We all try to do what is the very best for our children, I am no different. Please respect that and the things I do and I will do the same for you. I am all for knowledge and research, but do your own research, or at least research where the research is coming from. You'll be surprised at some of the sources and who funds specific research. I trust what I have learned from my own experiences as a mother and as a volunteer who has helped many new mothers. I've seen the results myself, not in theory.

So what was it back in 1999? July 28, 2008

Well, apparently our daughter was allergic/sensitive to all kinds of food, but especially gluten.  Within three days of not eating gluten she was able to hold down her breast milk, but of course she was over six months old when we figured that out.  From the time she was born she would projectile vomit basically after each nursing.  She didn’t stop gaining weight until after her three-month “well baby” check-up.  At that point she was being regularly vaccinated and started sucking on her fingers instead of eating as much as she should.

It was not the doctors that told us the problem.  All they wanted to do was poke and prod and accuse us of being unfit parents. We took it upon ourselves to figure out the root of the problem. Our son, who had just turned two at the time, poor thing, became our guinea pig.  He had eczema on his face starting at six months when he began to eat solid foods.  We were told it would clear up, it was just baby acne, put some medicated cream on it and eventually and would go away.  Well it never did. When we started experimenting with his diet we noticed a change.  The poor kid didn’t get to eat much of anything until we figured out what we needed to eliminate to get rid of his eczema.  We took away all high allergens (i.e. dairy, wheat, corn, etc.)

The magic ingredient was gluten (wheat, oats, barley and rye). Then it occurred to us, “if mom stops eating it too, it would no longer be in the breast milk.”  It took three days for the vomiting to stop.  It took three months to wean her from sucking on her fingers instead of nursing.  By the time she was one she was about sixteen pounds, but she was gaining weight each month.

Unfortunately for her, we were still going to well baby visits and still getting her vaccinated, which just added to her problems. We stopped after 18 months, but that was after the big MMR shot, she was so desensitized at that point, she didn’t even flinch as they put it in her.  Very sad, I know; I still can’t believe I let it get to that point.

The MMR still shows up in her system today.  We just had her tested (non-evasive biofeedback) and are now treating her for vaccine injuries homeopathically.  She also has many emotional problems from her traumatic beginnings.  She is being treated homeopathically for those as well, in addition to her many allergies/sensitivities.  It is hard practice attachment parenting when your baby is suffering like she did.  I would wear her as much as she would let me (in a sling); this is one of the things you do in Attachment Parenting. Once she believed that nursing and cuddling with her mommy were happy, good things she did it all the time, but she was still injured from her start.  A good start is so important.