I don’t know if it was the induction. I was urged to be induced because he might be “too big” and he came out a skinny, wrinkly 6.8 oz baby covered in vernix. He was not ready. He could have grown stronger in the womb for a week more at least. He ended up being allergic to too many things to write here without losing your interest; a myriad of food, environmental and animal allergies.
I don’t know if it was the vaccines. I gave my son the slew of them. Everything recommended, even the one with five at a time. After that one he started getting random 24 hour fevers and rashes. He had a febrile seizure in the car that nearly had my husband crash the car from panic.
I don’t know if it is the environment. We have lived in homes with synthetic carpeting and synthetic flooring. House cleaners with toxins, plastic house wares with estrogens and cabinets with formaldehyde, so I hear, pressed into the wood that slowly leaks out and gives housewives a 60% increase in cancer. As there is in most homes, I am sure there is mold in our walls; I smell it when it rains. I am sure the electronic waves from the TV, microwave, cell phones and iPad are inundating our bodies with stress. Toxins, they say, weakens the immune system and could lead to increased allergies.
I don’t know if it is the effect of the food over time. We gave him food that was as healthy as we knew how. Soda and chips only at Nana’s or birthdays. No junk cereal. Once organic became more prevalent, we did that for berries and fruit and some veges. But we also gave him the processed breads, pastas and treats. We did. We gave him corn that we now know has pesticides engineered into the DNA. And now he, and my other sons have allergies to almost everything out there.
I don’t know if it is the effect of the GMO’s, it could be the preservatives. It could be the food dyes, high fructose corn syrup or the food fillers. But the overall reason for his many allergies might very well be the amount of acidic foods he eats, which thins the stomach lining and allows the food particles, whether they be GMO or not, to escape into the blood stream and cause the body to react and attack. The attack shows up as a rash on the body. But I do suspect all of the above, especially the foods.
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Whatever the cause is of my son’s extensive allergies, I do know I am going to find out. I am going to keep trying. Because the future we now have is unacceptable. It need not be this way.
We cannot eat out at restaurants and going to parties is heart breaking. No cake, no pizza, no hot dogs,no ice cream. It’s a nightmare. My son wailed and cried that he would rather not go last time. I found it hard not to curse God. After he slips and eats a little gluten he is out of control emotionally. If he eats nuts by accident in Thanksgiving stuffing, we are sticking his thigh with an Epi pen, and as blood spurts from his leg, we dash to the hospital. At Cub Scout events we have to bring our own food and sequester ourselves. I have to hoard our food and protect it from the hands of other starving eight year olds. They wonder why he is different.We explain it all but still…he feels odd, fearful for his life and weak…sickly…an outcast. All he wants is to be strong.
Many kids feel like this and don’t KNOW that they have a food or ingredient allergy. One friend confided, after I told him about my son’s allergies and the children’s book I am writing about it, that his son would punch holes in walls and was furiously disturbed for years until they did a food elimination diet and slipped one day and gave him a strawberry ice cream from the ice cream truck. The Red Food Dye 40 was the cause. Once they found out he became a different kid, in a good way. And all along he had been given ADHD drugs, psychotherpay, punishments etc…there are children who want to focus at school but can’t. There are kids who feel depressed and don’t know why. There are divorces happening that need not. There are suicides and violence everyday that are in many cases, I believe linked to food and ingredient allergies….the question is do we have to just put up with it? Just survive it?
We do know… we miraculously did find out recently that the red painful and embarrassing rash around his mouth is a Carrageenan allergy. (in ice cream, hot dogs, sauces, dressing, lunchmeat and toothpaste.) We know about the gluten/wheat, nut, peanut, mushroom and my other son’s egg and dairy allergies as well as others…we know about those. What we don’t know is why.
We have a hunch about this acidic/alkaline theory and we are altering our lifestyle to eat alkaline. It wasn’t a usual pathway we took to get this possible answer. We went to an Iridologist, someone who reads the iris of your eye like a tree trunk. She could see I was anemic when I was seven. She could see that my mother has arthritis in her left knee even though she doesn’t limp. She could see that my son’s stomach was too acidic. She could see his Carrageenan allergy…something a western medical doc would take many months of painful blood tests to find out if they even tried. Mostly they would just prescribe a cream and tell him to stop licking his lips. As if it’s his fault.
This Iridologist was shared with me by a friend. I am forever grateful to her.I would never normally go to a doctor who looks at your EYE to diagnose me or my kids. That’s crazy woo woo. But I was desperate…and anything is possible. So I went along time ago and have gone back twice with my son. She told us all about acidity and alkaline foods and how we can balance our diet and heal his stomach. She gave us a pathway that we are trying, to eliminate allergies altogether. We don’t KNOW, but we will try it.
In the meantime, she told us that the red flare up around his mouth was a Carrageenan allergy (a what allergy??? a food thickener made of processed seaweed or moss) and I made the mistake of giving him organic chicken lunch meat with Carageenan in it and it flared up again, I researched it some more. I found out, that if left undiscovered, if we just slapped a cream on it or shot him up with a steroid or make him drowsy with allergy medication…if we just accepted that this is the way it is, got resigned and doubtful about it…the Carageenan allergy would create ulcers in his stomach and eventually cause cancer. My son.
Other kids might have a different allergy and their parents are struggling with behavior issues, creams, steroids and meds too. They may be resigned too. They may now know…not only what is causing the behavioral or allergic reaction, but they don’t know that this is life or death. And they don’t know that they don’t know.
I wish to empower parents and children to find out for themselves. Try alternative health care. Try Holistic, Naturopaths, Iridologist, Reiki and Energy healers, Try Chinese herbalists. Find what works for you. Don’t just go to a doctor who says take this medication…for the rest of your life....don't let acceptance actually become resignation. Wonder and try! Share with your friends what you learn from alternative, integrative and holistic healthcare. You may just be inspiring someone and saving a life.
Zen Honeycutt
Mom of three boys, 9, 7 and 3
