Re: homeopathic or aromatherapy - kuzu, pickled plums, hydrolized formulas, macrobiotic,

[Guest guest]

hello,

I'll try and write something more concise on oriental food options that have

helped over the next few weeks but for now......

I am mum to in Japan, now 3.5 years and we had similar problems that you

are experiencing when was born through his fundoplication done at 11

months and then beyond. The fundo is not too tight but tight enough that he

physically can no longer be sick.He is near 100% g-tube fed. When on

donperidone, gaviscon and ranitidine (the UK trio for reflux) it actually made

him more sick since it can loosen the top of the stomach if still immature. We

stopped using the medicine and it improved. had violent sickness periods

from birth but only after 2 months after starting a specific food. We now know

he is allergic although not precisely to what (most likely milk and soy

proteins). He is great on breast milk which I now express and give him since I

have a younger daughter. I would first stress that stopping vomiting is not the

quest - finding out why Eleanor vomits is key. Vomiting is often an issue for

RSS children with gastro issues but our current GI doctor (if only we had known

him then) says that the most common cause of vomiting in children is allergy

related so have you thought of checking this out? Research appears to show that

over 60% of children that are allergic to milk protein are also likely to be

sensitive to soy

Here are some of our experiences first with medical and non-medical options. I

hope you get some hints that might suit your situation.

1) try a more hydrolized formula?

We tried a variety of things to stop the vomiting before the operation and to

stop ' pain after the operation. In the end, an endoscopy revealed shrunken

villi in the intestine which is a sign of allergies. Some of the formulas on

offer are hypoallergenic and one of the most common used by Dr H in the US for

RSS children (peptimen Junior) is reccommended for children with malabsorption,

gastric empyting problems and/or soy/milk protein intolerances or allergies.

There are various types of hydrolised formulas (bombard the proteins with water

to change the chemical content) through elemental (supposedly the most

hypoallergenic since all of the components from protein to carbohydrate are

synthetically produced for ease of digestion. Some children, though rarely

however, are allergic to this in itself). If food intolerances are suspected,

you have to opt for a food that is 33 or less on the " predigestion scale " of

formulas. Full protein foods are 1 and fully elemental formuals being 100 I

think. Most of the high calorie feeds reccommended for RSS ( tried many)

are lower than 33 and so are not appropriate for really sensitive children. We

have found it better to pick a hypo allergenic formula of regular 67 kcal per

100 cc and then make it denser on the advice of both one of the top UK and

Japanese GI doctors. .

2) try a home made blended formula? - Macrobiotic option.

On non-medical options, From 1 year through 3.5 years, we followed a macrobiotic

diet for . The basic food is rice (complex carbohydrates) and vegetables,

beans and sea vegetables to allow the proteins to be more fully and usefully

digested. The diet is originally from Japan but the main movement was set up by

Ozawa in the US post war in Boston. The Kushi Institute (one of Ozawa's pupils)

is the main vehicle for it now and they have websites and online shopping for

some of the foods, digestive aids etc. ' vomiting and pain incidences

disappeared all together and we still use many of the prinicples on a daily

basis. Yes you can blend up organic brown rice and root vegetables smooth enough

to fit in a G-tube. We did it for a few years diluting with Rice Dream organic

rice milk.

3) New Visions feeding site have several options which we have tried: They are

based in Virginia I think, MAGIC reccommends them and they can make alot of

sense.

We tried:

-formula rotation - to avoid creating sensititives since tube-fed children are

by essence kept to a more restricted diet.

-Water treatment - There are many ways to do this but we put up to 30cc in the

tube around 30 minutes prior to feedings when on bolus feeds. In the summer,

this helped alot since high calorie formula digestion can rob a fair bit of

water content from the body.

-Papaya digestive aid - this has all to do with enzymes in the body and papaya

is a good digestive aid. It helped somewhat.

4) Kuzu-powder

Again this is macrobiotic related but the " almighty " (as they call it in

Japanese-English) is " kuzu root " . It has been an absolute saviour and I would

reccommend it to anyone. This comes up as Kuzu in English but it is basically in

the starch family and it has been absolutely great at curing of

diahrrea/constipation, stomach upsets and aiding digestion. Here it is a basic

traditional cooking ingredient and you know how long Japanese live! You can get

it I am sure in any health store and definitely at the Kushi Institute. You can

use it in many ways - instead of gelatine in jelly deserts with fruit, as a

sauce thickener or simply as a treatment. To use for tube-fed children, you take

around 1 heaped teaspoon of kuzu powder (make sure it is the purest kind and has

no potato starch in it since not effective), dissolve that in a little cold

water, then heat in pan with up to 100 cc of water (much less if volumes are an

issue), you have to make sure that it turns translucent since ingesting raw kuzu

can cause stomach upset. I then let it cool a little, take up in a syringe and

put it directly into ' tube.I give him this once or twice a day.

5) Peppermint is often suggested as a stomach easier - it did come up at the

convention a few years ago.

6) pickled plums - again a Japanese thing - umeboshi - but excellent for dealing

with stomach acid and I would reccomend this to anyone who has a child with

reflux - proven or suspected, vomiting. It certainly worked for me with

heartburn when pregnant. You can get the full small plum - little pink things

often in rice balls or you can buy " ume-sho " which is umeboshi and soy sauce

already made into a paste. Again you should be able to get this online at Kushi.

I found that much easier to include in a liquid feed to inject into ' tube.

7) We did try acupuncture - again a big thing here without much success. We also

tried homeopathy (much more of a big thing in the UK than in Japan). Basically,

was given things to cause the same symptoms (the homeopathic philosophy)

and we saw no worsening or improving in his vomiting pattern so couldn't really

tell if it was worth it or not. At some point, I think we parents get so

stressed at seeing their children in pain that inflicting more can be too tough

a challenge.

' quality of life improved enormously on the macrobiotic diet and now

including hypoallergic formulas. He didn't used to be able to pick his head up

when severe vomiting occurred and we have stacks of files of his early life when

we were told to document his vomiting episodes. He eats some by mouth and has

gained a kilo this past month or so. It does get better as the child matures.

Age 4 is key, so many GI specialists tell us, for children with sensitive GI

tracts. That will sound a long way off and is in no way a suggestion that you

just wait and see.

I wish you the best of luck and can imagine you have a huge store of easy to

wash clothes and bibs near as long as her toes (as called in British English -

the US word escapes me at present).

Debi,

mum to in Japan.

homeopathic or aromatherapy answers to vomiting on

G-tube

Hello all,

My name is Noonan and I am posting on behalf of my daughter

Eleanor, 16 months, 13 lbs., 24 " , RSS, G-tube, periactin, zantac,

domperidone.

Eleanor is still throwing up an average of 4-5X per day; we will try

anything to help aleviate the vomiting for her. Anyone have

any " alternative " treatment suggestions that are not " medical " but

more homeopathic?

Will be at the conference as first timers; any suggestions for us?

Thanks,

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