Monday, 4 February 2013

Klaudia's symptoms (looking back) part 2




Continuing on from my last blog about Klaudia’s symptoms (looking back), corn was definitely a problem… and by excluding it from her diet, her face was clear for the first time in months!! However K’s other symptoms continued…. most concerning being her poor health…!

It’s very interesting to point out that K’s Pediatrician at the time would not accept ‘corn’ exclusion was what had fixed her face as she had not ‘tested’ for it as an allergy….. It appeared that her issues had to be ‘text book,’ otherwise it couldn’t possibly be happening!! … ??!! 

Please, as I go on to tell K’s story, at no point do I want to come across as ‘dismissive’ of the various medical professionals we have consulted!! I truly believe that without them, K would not be with us today. There were quite a number of times K ended up in hospital with very serious symptoms like severe swelling to her face/ hands/feet, an inability to breath properly, cellulitis all over face and the worst time being when her ‘white blood cell count’ was completely off the charts - for no apparent reason!!! With each stay, the various antibiotics administered and treatment of the symptoms I believe saved her life, it was just that we could never work out why they were happening in the first place!!!

So, knowing ‘corn’ was a problem….where to next. Again, Klaudia has NEVER tested positive to any allergies and trust me; she has had blood tests taken for almost all of them! It was becoming apparent that we needed to work with people ‘outside’ of the mainstream medical profession and after a few different consultations,  no one was still able to give us a definitive answer or at least a direction, so off we then went to a Naturopath.

Unfortunately this experience still wasn’t as great for us as it has been for a lot of others; however the Naturopath definitely got us looking in the right direction.

We took K to see a Naturopath recommended by our local Health Food Shop. The Naturopath conducted a test on K for 140 different sensitivities….. 68 of them came back with a 'high' response and most of the others came back 'moderate'!! At the time I was so relieved that something had actually shown up and felt we had our answer. The Naturopath then proceeded to sell me supplements worth over $400, told me to avoid the things highlighted in the report and sent me on my way! It wasn't until I got home that I started to wonder 'how on earth am I meant to give an 18mth old all of these supplements.... and what on earth do I feed her'?? I then tried to call her back and she never returned my call!!

It was here that I decided to go back to my GP, Naturopath’s report in hand, and together we started to look at what the results may actually mean. Otherwise, if I had just stuck to the Naturopaths instructions, K would have literally starved.  Finally it felt like we were heading in the right direction. So I then got back in contact with Tania Hubbard from www.glutenfreegrainfree.com.au  and Tania suggested we try removing gluten from K’s diet… and we haven’t looked back!!

To make it clear, the following is a summary of the most on-going symptoms K presented:

·        Her eyes would water or would ooze pus (swabs taken never indicated an ‘eye infection’)

·        Chronic rash down left size of her body that would quiet often become infected

·        Chronic nappy rash, this would sometimes spread to up her back and down her legs… this would quite often become infected

·        Chronic diarrhea. Please note here that I had already taken K off Cow’s milk due to our older son having an issue and I never being able to tolerate it (upset stomachs). K couldn’t handle Soy either and therefore was on Almond Milk (Rice is far too full of sugar!). The pediatrician again chose not to recognize this, and so I did what had helped me! Unfortunately towards the end of last year, K fractured her arm as a result of falling off a small block at school…. It was hear that we tried and succeeded with transition to ‘goats milk’ for Calcium value

·        K had never slept through the night

·        No immune resistance to anything! As an example to how extreme this was, If we went out to lunch somewhere and someone in the room wasn’t 100%, the next day Klaudia would spike 39-40+ degree temperatures which would then develop into either throat, ear, or chest infections – a combination of them – or all of them at once! K was chronically ill

·        K’s tummy was often sore, bloated and hard to press.  She also had trouble wearing shoes as her feet would quite often be swollen and by the end of the day she would complain her feet would hurt

Now… the following is a summary of some of the changes to K without gluten:

·        Her eyes no longer oozed pus!!

·        The rash down her side became just a small ‘hive’ looking mark under her arm

·        The nappy rash still comes and goes but she finally gets relief

·        The diarrhea is gone. I wouldn’t say she is ‘normal’ but without being too graphic, it’s no longer ‘water’… (Happy to be graphic directly to anyone who wants to talk about K’s symptoms!)

·        K slept through for the first time ever about 3 weeks after we removed all traces of Gluten. We still can have bad nights, but at least we are finally having good ones too!

Now.... the following is a summary of the most AMAZING changes to K without gluten:

·        Her immune resistance!!! As I tried to describe before, K was ALWAYS sick and needing antibiotics as her body just couldn’t fight! It wasn’t until about two weeks after making the change that my husband and I realised…. No mad rush to the Doctors, no antibiotic administering rituals (this could be 4 times a day at 5ml each time!) We could not believe it!! I am writing this as I’m ‘touching wood’ so as not to jinx us but seriously – unbelievable!!  To date, K has had a few viruses but has managed to slowly fight them herself!!

·        K is no longer ‘bloated’. I had no idea how bad it was until now when I look at her, her tummy is no longer her most prominent feature!

·        Her shoes fit!!! Again, no longer swollen!

·        K not only is happy, but she ‘looks’ happy!! K’s hair has thickened and grown, her eyes sparkle and she is sooooooooooooo active and busy. K has finally hit ‘10’kgs and appears to have grown about 2cm since the change!

K is now embracing the world of ‘terrible twos’ with both hands…. And we love it!!!

K still has a number of symptoms which we are trying to work through. We believe they are also related to food. There are also a huge amount of questions regarding why our ‘modern day allergy tests’ did not pick up Klaudia’s extreme responses to Gluten….. But that’s for another blog!
 
Cheers

Jess

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