In April, Juliet paid a visit to a new naturopath in Milwaukie, Dr. Jesse Butler. In all honesty, I would rather forego traditional Western medicine all together and have my family just treated by naturopaths, but there are some roadblocks in the way, so for now we will just deal with Juliet's allergies and immune system.After telling Dr. Butler that Juliet catches every virus and hangs onto it forever, we decided together to get her tested for food allergies and he also immediately put her on a strong probiotic powder and Cod liver oil (for her inflamed skin). I would return after her food allergy results were in and we would discuss from there her treatment plan. Can I just say how much probiotics made a difference in her right away? The boys caught a cold and she didn't ever catch one single symptom of it. She's been to church and remained healthy. Dr. Butler informed me that babies born before 39 weeks never get the bacteria in their gut solidified, and that hinders their little immune systems - which proved absolutely correct in Juliet's case.
After getting her results back this past week, I met with him once more and was informed that she is allergic to eggs (I laughed out loud at that one - I feed her fried eggs and toast almost every morning) and soy. He advised me of many things - not just for Juliet, for nutritional advice for our entire family. First - I have to remove eggs completely from her diet (even trace amounts) for one month and then if I want I can try them again later to see if she gets really sick. He let me know that everything we eat has an immune response - be it good or bad. If her (or our family's for that matter) immune system is working on processing bad food, then we can't fight colds/flu as well.
He also let me know that I should back off gluten. What?! He said that his family is gluten free by choice (they are not celiacs) because it is hard on our systems. He said that anything that can cause a major disease in other people should be avoided by everyone all together. Interesting thought.
Other interesting notes:
-Eat food that's as close to nature as possible and eat what is grown near you - not shipped from somewhere else. We adapt to our environment, so eating fruits grown in the tropics don't jive with our system well.
-Shade grown veggies (potatoes, tomatoes, eggplant and peppers) should be avoided as they are inflammatory.
-Soak legumes before you cook them - it will improve digestion.
-Avoid all soy products, peanuts, dairy.
-Limit citrus - it's hyper-allergenic. (This is insanely true for Juliet - she breaks out in a rash the moment she consumes strawberries and oranges).
-Drink half your body weight in ounces of water per day.
-Cook only in stainless steel, Pyrex or cast iron.
I found all this information a bit overwhelming, but since this appointment, I have cooked mostly gluten free and given Juliet no eggs in anything. What a challenge!!
