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Very quickly my son started showing signs of great improvements from cleaning our home of environmental toxins, specifically harmful chemicals. But I also took special care to dust better, clean out vents, get a better vacuum, ventilate our home frequently and change our sheets weekly. I wanted to make sure his room was extremely clean so we purchased an air purifier too.
The next step we took after much reading about children with allergies dealt with the food that we were consuming. This is the spot in our journey where we began fine-tuning and getting "nit picky." It didn't happen overnight... I didn't want to traumatize my kids (or husband for that matter) so the changes were quite slow and subtle. One thing at a time.
I do remember the first thing I got rid of were frozen chicken nuggets... not sure how I remember that, but I do. I found out that only 44% of those frozen tan chunks are actually chicken and the rest is a list of 38 added ingredients and preservatives... not what I want my kids eating and trust me, they were living on those "things."
We started to remove sugary foods like marshmallow-y cereals, Kool-aid, packaged cookies and crackers. I began to read labels more closely to avoid foods with high fructose corn syrup, bleached flour and color additives. Avoiding cow's milk was popping up in almost every book I read on children's allergies too. BIG FACTOR! Again, one by one we began to eliminate those foods.
This part of the journey was not easy. This was by far one of the biggest challenges I had faced because not only was I reading tons of material, I also had to plan meals and find recipes, be more creative in the grocery store, and basically put on a chef's hat that was never there before. Did I want to eliminate all these easy, convenient foods? No way. And was I even sure doing all this would even make a difference? But at the same time, did I want to face a future with a possible "problem child"... being labeled... heartaches... disappointments... making excuses? No way!!
During this time, we were ever clinging to God and conversing daily with him on this journey. We believed our son could be healed. We wanted to do our part in helping him, but we strongly relied on God to hear our prayers as well.
As the homeschooling year approached, nerves ran through my body at the thought of teaching him. We had many ups and downs during those first few months, but we slowly began to see glimpses of our son before the difficulties began.
Through time spent with a friend who had a son with autism, I learned of a book, Healing the New Childhood Epidemics: Autism, ADHD, Asthma and Allergies. Through it I connected so many dots of an array of other symptoms he also had that I never knew were connected to allergies... odd ones you wouldn't know of.
In the book, the author recommended children suffering from those new epidemics be on supplements. My dear friend opened her cabinet door and showed me all the ones her son was on and how she felt were aiding in some of his improvement. The next day I was ordering them for him too. I felt his immune system was compromised from trying to fight off all the allergens in his body and using up many nutrients (although not many from our junky diet!) just to keep him functioning. Some of the main supplements I would say we targeted were fish oil, a probiotic, vitamin C, D, E, and zinc.
Little by little, we began to see more smiles from him. Less belligerence. More kindness and patience. Less erratic behaviors. It seemed like a bad dream that was finally over and all of a sudden it was a new day and things were shining again.
Fast forward to today (5 years later)... I can say we hurdled many, many obstacles. Weathered some storms, but overall, we were committed to seeing him healed... and he is, by God's amazing grace. Today I love to cook. I love to plan meals for my family that will enhance their minds and bodies. I am so passionate for other families to experience health and wellness and I believe it can happen. That's why I blog here.
So as I conclude I want to thank you for reading and following me on this journey. It isn't always easy to eat and live perfectly, I know that. But those little changes you make will begin to pay off and you will see and feel the differences they make for the better.
Thanks for reading... continue to follow and share your bits along the way!
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