Shaylie:
Tycen:
Scott:
Me:
As you can see, Shaylie and Tycen both have a lot of foods that are in the moderate category and several in the red/avoid section (meaning these foods are causing inflammation in their body). In other words, they have slow reacting food allergies to these foods. Since inflammation in the gut is directly related to brain function, illness and even disease, it is very important to try to eliminate possible sources of inflammation from our diets, when possible. We aren't sure why Tycen and Shaylie have these results, however, it may be related to their premature birth and lack of proper intestinal development.
For a couple of months before these tests, we tried to eliminate gluten from Tycen's diet (and by default, Shaylie's, too). We noticed that he was able to function and control his anger better when he wasn't eating gluten (again, the gut/brain connection). Overall, he is such an amazing, sweet boy, however, he did start to have these enraged fits that we hadn't seen before and difficulty controlling his behavior at times starting around the beginning of this year. We don't think this is solely caused by his diet, but think there are probably many contributing factors...age and difficulty with self-control, several big changes in his life (new baby sister, starting school, flu shots for the first time :'(...which we will NEVER do again...that's a whole other topic I won't expand on now), lack of sleep, etc. But, we do know that eliminating gluten does seem to help.
After getting these results, we took the kids to a ND in Portland and with her help, decided to also eliminated eggs, dairy, almonds and peanuts (in addition to gluten). Yes, this is very difficult to do for anyone, especially kids. But, overall, Tycen and Shaylie are so understanding of their limitations and we try to provide them with lots and lots of alternatives that they enjoy.
In addition to avoiding the above listed foods, we also continue to give them lots of daily probiotics, vitamins and UNDA numbers, which are different homeopathic medicines aimed at enhancing specific organ function.
We aren't sure how long we'll need to keep them on this diet. So far it's been just over 2 months. We've had some steps backward when they were given a food they weren't supposed to have while under another's supervision, which we know is bound to happen because it can be very difficult/confusing to avoid as many foods/ingredients as they have to avoid. The idea is that once their gut is healed, we can re-introduce these allergenic foods in moderation and their body will be able to digest them normally without causing inflammation.
Anyway, we appreciate support, thoughts and prayers as we continue on this healthy and challenging journey to heal our kiddos digestive system and improve their overall health!
