Candida?

I believe that Candida is possibly the root cause of my acne and my intestinal problems. I havec taken many of the Candida questionairres and all of them have come back positive for Candida.

Here's my history:

Back in 1998, I went to see Dr. Levin (an internal medicine doctor who specializes in preventative medicine) and through a stool sample and history (I was on antiobiotics for 4 years for the acne!), he told me I had a yeast buildup. This can occur when you take antiobiotics and never replace the good bacteria that was wiped out from the antibiotics. So I went on Diflucan for a month and took Turkey Rhubarb (colon cleanser) and Oregano (which is another antifungal). I never changed my diet or took a probiotic. Then I went on the pill for about 9 months. Ever since coming off of the pill (pregnant within a few months), I have struggled with acne on and off.

I took dairy out last fall and my acne went away for about 6 weeks. Then I had a horrible break out for no explained reason. Then I got pregnant with Addie a few weeks after that and the acne continued until my 2nd trimester which is when the estrogen kicks in and the progesterone goes down. But right after I got pregnant with Addie, I started having horrible stomachaches and then the gas kicked in. I went back to the same doctor and we did a stool sample and he found very few good bacteria and a little bit of extra yeast. He diagnosed me with low stomach acid and told me to take some enzymes with hydrochloric acid in them and a good probiotic. This worked for me for awhile. Right before I went to see the doctor, I forgot to take my vitamins one day and I felt great that day. It's because all of my stomach acid was being used up by my vitamins. But after a few months, the gas returned.

Now that I'm no longer pregnant and not nursing, my acne has come back in full force (no more estrogen to slow down the acne). I have tried to reintroduce dairy a few times, but have mixed results. My digestion is fine, but some of the times, I break out after eating it and sometimes I don't. I also have an occastional rash/hives in the creases of my elbows.

I have recently read that Candida can cause low stomach acid and Blood Type A (me!) is prone to low stomach acid. So that could be where my hypochlorhydrea is coming from.

So, my plan is to stop eating "yeasty" things and eat no refined sugar and really limit the sweets anyway. And to try the Threelac product. So, we'll see where I go from here. I actually have some Diflucan, but I want to see if the Threelac will work without it.

Still waiting on it to arrive in the mail.

Addie's 6 Month Check Up

Wow, it's been a long time since I posted. I apologize for that.

It's hard to believe that Addie will be 7 months old tomorrow! Time has flown by for sure. We finally got her in to see the doctor 2 weeks ago for her first well-baby check up. :) They asked for her records. I said she had none. :)

She weighted 15 lbs 6 oz and was 25" long. Our biggest kid. :) He really wanted me to give her the Dpt shot for the Pertussis, since Whooping Cough is going around our community. But there is mounting evidence that it is the Pertussis toxin that is triggering Autism in many children. See the NEDlife Blog. So we will do everything we can to strenghten her immune system so that if she is exposed to it, she won't get it. Or if she does get it, we'll just be able to fight it more successfully since she'll be so healthy. But I cannot take the risk of giving her that vaccine with Autism running in our family. It's just not worth it. The doctor was not thrilled with me and he really wanted me to think about it. Which I have done. I think the important thing with vaccines is to understand what you are getting vaccinated for and what happens if you actually get the virus. All of our parents survived measles and mumps. It might not have been fun, but they did fine. Tetanus is a scary one, obviously. But for both Emma and Tailyn, I have prescriptions for Tetanus only shots should they land in the emergency room with a cut.

So, it was a pain-free visit - no tears whatsoever, which was nice. Addie is still the happiest baby around who loves to bounce/swing in her jumper. She's really good at it! And yesterday I caught her rocking back and forth on hands and knees! Not ready for crawling yet!

We've introduced solids to her now. She's going to be gluten and dairy free for at least the first 2 years of her life. So, we've just stuck with rice cereal and fruits and veggies. I've got to go to Whole Foods to try to find the GF cheerios for her to try in the next month or so. She's gone through most of the veggies and most of the fruits now. Having to feed her definitely throws a wrench into everything. It just makes things more complicated. Thankfully, if she's not tired, she's a pretty happy baby and doesn't complain much.

I think that's about it for Addie!

Laryngitis!

I've never had laryngitis before, but I certainly have it now! I started losing my voice almost a week ago, but in the last couple of days it's gotten really bad. I hardly ever get sick, but the cough started last Saturday, probably. The sore throat started on Wednesday (and a fever soon followed).

So I took myself to the doctor on Thursday morning to make sure it wasn't strep. I waited for almost an hour which was incredibly frustrating. And the doctor came in, barely giving me 5 minutes. My rapid strep test came back negative. They sent my labs off for the regular test. So the doctor wanted to put me on penicilin just "in case" I do have strep. I had to stop her and point out the fact that I have had allergic reactions to penicilin when I was younger and to sulpha drugs as well. And a couple of years ago I had a bad reaction to Eurythromycin. And I had to tell her that I was still nursing. All while I can't really even talk. Of course if she had just read the chart, she would have seen all that.

So she decided to just wait to see if I did indeed have strep. What a concept! I know all doctors aren't like this,but good grief - just prescribing antibiotics just "in case" I have strep? What an abuse!

It just reminded me what NEDlife has really been encouraging this spring - to be your own healthy living advocate. Most doctors aren't going to do it for you. They're too busy and have too many patients. You must know enough to protect yourself. If I hadn't been paying attention, I could have received a medication that could have harmed me or Addie.

So, I'm just sitting here trying not to talk and trying to rest. I'm reminded of Carol Brady from the Brady Bunch episode that she lost her voice. She got to just lay in bed and eat ice cream. Laying in bed just isn't an option for me, as a mom of 3 little kids. But I have been enjoying my soy ice cream.

Driving me crazy!

My 2 yr old (3 months shy of 3) is driving me nutso! For the last several days, she has been so destructive and such a little trouble-maker! Every time I turn around, it seems, she has pulled something apart or gotten something out or dumped something on the floor. It's been mind-boggling to me! I talked with Ali yesterday and she said that Jackson has been especially difficult the last several days too.

Some of Tailyn's finer moments this wknd: she emptied out the hair band/barrette box into her bed (hundreds of bands and barrettes everywhere), she emptied Emma's water cup into her bed (had to strip her bed), she emptied their jewelry boxes into her bed, she took Addie's links apart at least 1o times (spreading the links all over the house), she ripped apart yet another book (happened to be a favorite of mine), she unsnapped Addie's cloth diapers (that I had spent a lot of time putting together), she dumped out my CDs, she took apart the scotch tape dispenser (taking the tape with her), she unrolled much of our painter's tape in her bed, she went into my desk drawer and took out a printer cartridge (turning all of her fingers black), she got into Emma's lipgloss and got it all over her face and hands and for the 100th time at least, she unrolled the toilet paper roll into a pile on the floor.

I put 2 and 2 together and realized that after several days of warm temperatures and sunshine, we got hit with a major cold blast on Thursday afternoon (including a March snowfall!). It's been cold for the last 4 days and we've been cooped up inside again. So, my theory is that because Tailyn and Jackson had been outside and not exposed to the usual inside chemicals, their bodies rebelled when they got cooped up again this wknd. I don't know why Tailyn turns destructive and into a horrible listener or why Jackson breaks the car windsheild with his foot (for no apparent reason). But I do know that their behaviors seemed to get worse when they were cooped up inside again.

So, even though it's not going to be super warm today, I'm going to get Tailyn outside for the fresh air and make sure that she gets a chance to blow off some steam! Even though she doesn't really hold the Autistic diagnosis anymore, it doesn't mean that she can't regress in her progress. It's a battle every day for her and we're definitely winning it, but it's only with a lot of effort. We can't slack off on her diet or anything. It's too dangerous for her!

I also learned a valuable parenting lesson this wknd. It's important that in the midst of some really bad behavior to find something to praise the child about. If you keep yelling at them or tearing their behavior down, you strip them of their confidence and then they have no motivation to be good. So, I need to be careful with my kids to make sure to praise them every chance I get. And I'm on the look out for some good things that I can give Tailyn for her to take apart and not get into trouble for!

Do your eyes light up when your child comes into the room? They notice if they don't and it kills their self-esteem. I need to remind myself of this every day!

New Obsession

This actually does relate to healthy living and I'll tell you why later. :) My new obsession is selling things on eBay and Amazon.com. I can't stop! It's so fun! I'm constantly looking around the house trying to find things that I can sell!

I started last week when we were finally emptying all of our boxes in the storage area. Boxes that had been packed up for a year now! I found a ton of books that I no longer read - most of them being books about pregnancy and birth. So, I decided to list them on Amazon.com as used books. I figured that they probably wouldn't sell, but what the heck, it didn't cost anything to list them. Not an hour after I listed them, did the first one sell! And all of the sudden I had money to spend on Amazon.com! I could have had them deposit them in the checking account, but since I spend so much money on Amazon.com, I figured that my Amazon dollars would be spent! And within 2 days, I had all of my books sold - 6 of them! Then I found another book last night and listed it and within an hour, it had sold! I have over $56 in my Amazon.com account!

Then I went after my maternity clothes! That was much more of a pain because I had to take pictures of everything and then create listings on eBay. Then I waited 5 days watching the listings. 11 of my 28 didn't sell, but I still made $114! And that doesn't include shipping, which I was able to make a little money off of.

It's a little easier for me because I have all of the stuff that is needed for shipping and I've been shippping orders for 5 years now.

So, how does it relate to Healthy Living? Simple, now I have more money to spend on the foods that I want for my family! Healthy Living costs a little bit more money than junk food. So, if I have to spend the time to sell books and clothes that I don't need anymore, then it is well worth the effort, knowing that my family is healthier for it.

Extreme Makeover: Home Edition

This is one of our favorite shows, still. No matter how long it's on, I still am amazed at their hearts and what they are able to do for families in need. I will shop at Sears as much as I can to support this amazing show and what they do.

Brian and I watched Sunday's show together and he was kind of afraid to watch it with me for fear of my yelling at the television. It was a show about a family with 6 children. 5 of them have some form of Autism, from severe Autism to PDD to Aspberger's. It was heartbreaking to watch this mom struggle to keep an eye on all of her children, ranging from 5 yrs old to 14, I believe. Despite the husband working 2 jobs to help pay their mortgage, the bank was about to foreclose on their home. Brian was heartbroken for them and their situation.

But I couldn't even get sad about their financial situation, because I was too heartbroken over their 5 children with Autism. It broke my heart to think that those children could have had a chance at a normal life, if only the doctors and parents had been informed about diet and nutritional supplements that can combat the progression of Autism. And it reminded me where Tailyn could be, had we not intervened when we did.

I don't know their situation and the treatments they have tried with their children, but I would venture to guess that they hadn't tried the Gluten-free/Casein-free diet. I started crying when I saw the mom serve up a huge plate of grilled cheese sandwiches. If only people knew what food can do to these kids - the danger that it is to them. Eating a grilled cheese sandwich is just about as bad as taking some kind of drugs for them.

And that's why we, at NEDlife, do what we do. We will tirelessly work to inform parents of the impact of food and how nutritional supplements can help children on the Autistic spectrum. If you know anyone that has been diagnosed with Autism or looks like they should be, please send them our way (www.nedlife.com). I don't want to see any more children sink deeper into this disorder when they don't have to. We are in the process of writing a handbook about Autism, which will outline symptoms to look out for and how to combat the progression (with much more). Please stay tuned for that.

We're Done!

I can't believe it, but we're actually done with the remodeling of our house. After 5 months, the process is actually done. Our contractor left tonight for the last time. My 5 yr old almost started crying! It was so cute. He's been such a big part of our life, it'll be weird to not have him here. Even my dog who is scared of men, grew to love Fred (who is a towering 6'5 guy).

So, the only thing remaining is to finish painting all of the trim around the windows and then we are completely done. Seems hard to believe!

Now we can finally finish unpacking and organizing everything. No more excuses. :)