Re: insight from our visit to the chiropractor

January 2, 2008

That's great news, Bonnie! - and so reassuring for you to hear that

you've been on the right path!

I hope this new chiropractor can continue to help you and your

daughter get through the healing - I'll keep my fingers crossed that

the insurance doesn't alter that for you again! Did you mention the

mercury testing you did? Does he suggest chelation? (I think you

mentioned maybe trying some natural chelators - have you started?)

I have also been thinking more and more about a raw diet for the whole

family, including sprouting! I think it is an excellent idea and I

wish I could get motivated to at least incorporate more raw foods into

our diet. I just have a hard time keeping enough fresh fruits/veggies

in the house with the amount we already eat. I like to use organic as

much as possible without going broke and it's sometimes so hard to

find affordable, good quality fresh organic produce that I often get

frozen organic vegetables. I've been considering joining a CSA farm

(community supported agriculture) but have been hesitant because most

ask for a year's financial commitment up front and I don't know if I

would utilize all the produce as productively as I should so I don't

want to waste the food or the money. I don't know though, maybe it

would help me 'commit' to using it all & having more of a raw diet....????

Thanks for sharing the insights from this visit - keep us updated on

any new developments!

best,

>

> We went to see a new chiropractor...haven't been to our old one for

a while

> because of insurance changes...and he was very thrilled with everything

> we've been doing. He said, " You're doing all the right things. Who's

helping

> you figure all this out? " I said, " Um...it's mostly the moms on the

Yahoo

> Miralax list! "

>

> Anyway...he thinks that our daughter's sensory integration problems

have to

> be solved before the constipation will clear. He thinks that the

stress from

> living with sensory problems is overloading her sympathetic and

> parasympathetic nervous systems. He also thinks that some stuff

we've tried

> that didn't help, like the gf/cf diet, may not have helped because other

> factors weren't in place yet, and that a lot of the things we've

tried that

> looked like they weren't helping actually are helping, but that when

you're

> working on healing the nervous system, the body will prioritize brain

> healing before GI healing, so that if we give it some time, and keep

doing

> what we're doing, we should eventually see GI improvement too. We

definitely

> are seeing sensory improvement, I just had not been viewing that as the

> primary issue. I always felt the constipation affected her quality

of life

> more than the sensory problems, which we viewed as mild. So I'm really

> pleased to have all this explained to me...I sort of feel like what

we're

> doing is like peeling away the layers of an onion. We have to peel

away all

> these toxicities one by one (while also trying to add back in

nutrients one

> by one), and we don't seem to see improvement, but eventually I feel

that

> we'll finally get to the last layer. And, I think that even though she's

> still constipated, maybe the fact that she's been so darn healthy

all fall

> is a sign that her GI tract is healing in ways that we just can't

see, yet.

>

> It is such a slow journey, though. This chiropractor also cautioned

me that

> it can take years to clear mercury from kids' systems. Sigh.

>

> In the meantime, I'm thinking of going back to the GF/CF diet

because I'm

> thinking it may, like some of these other things, have been helping

her in

> unseen ways, even if we couldn't actually SEE how it was helping her

before.

> On the other hand, I'm also thinking about trying to gradually shift her

> onto a more raw foods diet (which would be mostly GF/CF anyway, but

might

> include some sprouted grains that still would have gluten in

them--since she

> doesn't have celiac disease, I'm not sure that she'd need to be as

strictly

> GF as celiacs are.) I'm shifting to more and more raw foods myself.

> Unfortunately it's easier to switch me than her...I'm a lot more open to

> trying new things than she is. It would have to be a VERY gradual

shift! And

> the frustrating truth is, if a dietary change is helping her in

unseen ways,

> and it's a rough diet to implement, like both GF and raw foods diets

are,

> than we're likely to backslide, because it will seem like we're

doing all

> this for nothing (it will especially look that way to my skeptical

husband).

>

> Sigh. Oh well. At least we're making progress, however incrementally...

>

> Bonnie

>

January 2, 2008

Thanks, . We'll be able to stick with our new chiropractor for a while, as the insurance isn't paying for him...he does $25 wellness visits for kids as a way to encourage parents to provide chiropractic care for the whole family...that's roughly what I would pay for a deductible for an office visit with our pediatrician anyway, and actually the chiropractor's office is much closer to home. We had to switch HMOs to get my DD's occupational therapy for her sensory problems covered, and lost our chiropractic benefit in the process. I did tell him about the mercury testing, but he didn't suggest chelation...we are for now just pursing the natural detox route, using omega-3s and trace minerals and soon (if I can get it into my DD) chlorella. It is hard to feed everyone organic food without going broke, especially if you have kids who throw away a lot of food (as we do!). I've been using a list of the 12 most/12 least pesticide contaminated fruits/vegs (and not worrying about organic for less contaminated produce like bananas and avocados) and also using a lot of frozen fruits at this time of the year (though those are expensive too). We had a CSA farm share this summer and it worked out well, but we did have a hard time using everything. I froze a lot of it. Our CSA farm also had a box where you could put anything you weren't planning to use, or take anything anyone else had discarded, so that helped reduce waste a little. The raw food conversion is really hard to manage...but at least it can be done slowly. I think it's easier if you start with eating tons of fruit, especially oranges...though I originally started because I was trying to diet and was eating a spinach salad as my entree for lunch and dinner, and then there was the spinach scare, so I switched to kale and became totally addicted. You'd have thought kale was a drug or something...I had to have it, twice a day, and went through withdrawal when we were on vacation and couldn't get kale. (It must have a bunch of stuff in it that was I was deficient in at the time...I still love it but I don't have to have a kale fix every day anymore. Although writing about it is making me hungry!) I told my husband, " I think I'm addicted to kale, " and he said, looking horrified, " You are the first human ever to speak those words. " Anyway, good luck. I'm thinking of juicing kale (another expense: a juicer--sigh) and mixing it with grape juice for the kids. But my constipated DD often refuses juice so it may be an uphill battle...

Bonnie