This is a very easy recipe and it tastes great!
Buy a head of cauliflower and chop it up into little florets. Spread them out on tinfoil and place on a cookie sheet. Drizzle olive oil over all the florets and roast in the oven at 450 for about 15 minutes or until they start to brown (don't burn them). Take them out and put into a food processor. Chop them for 5 -10 seconds or until they are the consistency of rice. Top with sea salt or spices your kids will love. My son loves sea salt. I tell him its a new type of rice and he eats it up! He asks for it every night now!
I am actually able to give him 2 veggies on his plate with dinner now.
Credit for this recipe: my friend Shannon from SC
Tuesday, October 22, 2013
Thursday, October 10, 2013
Corn Comes in Many Forms!!
The following excerpt was taken from A Corn Allergy Website. I had been asked by a friend to post a list of all the ingredients that contain corn or are actually corn but are just hidden under other names. So here you go!
The
lists of corn products, ingredients and additives that I provide are not
intended to be exhaustive, for that would be impossible to compile. There
are many additives that are derived from corn that we do not know about,
and often the employees of food companies do not know either. Plus, corn
derivatives can be found in everything from body powder to shampoo (I've
reacted to both)! The FDA, at this time, does not regulate corn to the
extent that it does, say, peanuts, so we corn allergy sufferers are truly
on our own. (Click
here for a printable List in a separate browser window.)
PLEASE NOTE: In addition to the items on this list not including everything that contains corn, not everything on this list will contain corn. It is that they can contain corn, and therefore may need to be outright avoided or used cautiously. Read more about this on the Corn Allergens as Ingredients page. The items identified with an asterisk * are the most common items that might not always contain or be derived from corn. Proceed with caution!
Corn Allergen List
The
lists of corn products, ingredients and additives that I provide are not
intended to be exhaustive, for that would be impossible to compile. There
are many additives that are derived from corn that we do not know about,
and often the employees of food companies do not know either. Plus, corn
derivatives can be found in everything from body powder to shampoo (I've
reacted to both)! The FDA, at this time, does not regulate corn to the
extent that it does, say, peanuts, so we corn allergy sufferers are truly
on our own. (Click
here for a printable List in a separate browser window.) PLEASE NOTE: In addition to the items on this list not including everything that contains corn, not everything on this list will contain corn. It is that they can contain corn, and therefore may need to be outright avoided or used cautiously. Read more about this on the Corn Allergens as Ingredients page. The items identified with an asterisk * are the most common items that might not always contain or be derived from corn. Proceed with caution!
Note: My son does not react to ALL of these. For example, he can have Xanthan Gum with no effect. Its really a trial and error process but its best to try to eliminate as many of these as possible because almost 100% of corn ingredients are made from GMO corn unless labelled otherwise! |
|
GF/CF Corn Free Recipes (Baked Goods)
The following recipes are for homemade snacks that I put in my kid's lunch boxes or give them as snacks at home. Everything is gluten/dairy and corn free. They are all pretty easy to make and 3 out of the 4 of the recipes are grain free! I use mini tins to make my muffins so they are pretty much bite size. My kids love them and I hope yours will too.
Apple Cinnamon Muffins
2 eggs (I use organic cage free)
1/2 C Almond Flour (I use Bob's Red Mill)
1/2 tsp baking soda (Hain corn free)
Pinch of salt (sea salt)
Pinch of Cinnamon
Pinch or more of ground flax or flax seeds (whichever you prefer)
1/4 C Apple Sauce (organic or you can puree apples)
a tiny bit less than 1/4 C olive oil
1/8 Raw honey
Mix the wet ingredients and then add in the dry ingredients and mix till there are no lumps.
Put in oven at 350 for 15 minutes.
Banana Coconut Muffins with Chocolate Chips
1/2 C Coconut flour (Bob's Red Mill)
1 tsp Baking Soda
1/4 tsp Sea Salt
1 Soft Ripe Banana (mashed up)
4 eggs
1/2 C Raw Honey
1/3 C Coconut Yogurt (So Delicious Brand)
1/4 C Mini Chocolate Chips (Enjoy Life Brand)
Mix the dry ingredients first. Then mix in the wet until there are no lumps. Bake at 350 for 20 minutes. You can substitute berries for the banana and change up the recipe!
Garbanzo Bean Chocolate Chip Cookies
1 1/4 C Chickpeas, rinsed and patted dry
2 tsp Vanilla (Frontier alcohol free)
1/2 C + 2 TBSP Almond Butter
1/4 C Raw Honey
2 tsp Baking Powder (Hain)
Pinch of Sea Salt
1/2 Mini Chocolate Chips (Enjoy Life Brand)
Combine all ingredients except the chips in a food processor and blend until smooth. Transfer mixture into a separate bowl and mix in the chips. Form small spoon size dollops on parchment paper. Place on a cookie sheet and bake at 350 for 10 minutes.
Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
1/4 C Coconut Oil
1/4 C Raw Sugar
1/4 C Organic Light Brown Sugar
1 egg
1 tsp Vanilla (Frontier non alcoholic)
1/2C + 1/8 C Gluten Free Flour (I use Sugar and Spice market all purpose)
1/4 tsp Baking Powder (Hain)
Pinch of Sea Salt
1/2 TBSP Cinnamon
3/4 C Gluten Free Oats (not steel cut)
1/4 C Mini Chocolate Chips (Enjoy Life Brand)
Pre heat oven to 350. Beat coconut oil and sugar in a mixer. Add the egg and beat more, add the vanilla and beat more. Mix dry ingredients separately and then combine. Beat until no lumps and then mix in by hand the chocolate chips.
Make spoon size dollops on parchment paper. Place on a cookie sheet and bake for 8-10 minutes.
Please let me know how these recipes come out of you try them. I would love to hear from you!
Apple Cinnamon Muffins
2 eggs (I use organic cage free)
1/2 C Almond Flour (I use Bob's Red Mill)
1/2 tsp baking soda (Hain corn free)
Pinch of salt (sea salt)
Pinch of Cinnamon
Pinch or more of ground flax or flax seeds (whichever you prefer)
1/4 C Apple Sauce (organic or you can puree apples)
a tiny bit less than 1/4 C olive oil
1/8 Raw honey
Mix the wet ingredients and then add in the dry ingredients and mix till there are no lumps.
Put in oven at 350 for 15 minutes.
Banana Coconut Muffins with Chocolate Chips
1/2 C Coconut flour (Bob's Red Mill)
1 tsp Baking Soda
1/4 tsp Sea Salt
1 Soft Ripe Banana (mashed up)
4 eggs
1/2 C Raw Honey
1/3 C Coconut Yogurt (So Delicious Brand)
1/4 C Mini Chocolate Chips (Enjoy Life Brand)
Mix the dry ingredients first. Then mix in the wet until there are no lumps. Bake at 350 for 20 minutes. You can substitute berries for the banana and change up the recipe!
Garbanzo Bean Chocolate Chip Cookies
1 1/4 C Chickpeas, rinsed and patted dry
2 tsp Vanilla (Frontier alcohol free)
1/2 C + 2 TBSP Almond Butter
1/4 C Raw Honey
2 tsp Baking Powder (Hain)
Pinch of Sea Salt
1/2 Mini Chocolate Chips (Enjoy Life Brand)
Combine all ingredients except the chips in a food processor and blend until smooth. Transfer mixture into a separate bowl and mix in the chips. Form small spoon size dollops on parchment paper. Place on a cookie sheet and bake at 350 for 10 minutes.
Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
1/4 C Coconut Oil
1/4 C Raw Sugar
1/4 C Organic Light Brown Sugar
1 egg
1 tsp Vanilla (Frontier non alcoholic)
1/2C + 1/8 C Gluten Free Flour (I use Sugar and Spice market all purpose)
1/4 tsp Baking Powder (Hain)
Pinch of Sea Salt
1/2 TBSP Cinnamon
3/4 C Gluten Free Oats (not steel cut)
1/4 C Mini Chocolate Chips (Enjoy Life Brand)
Pre heat oven to 350. Beat coconut oil and sugar in a mixer. Add the egg and beat more, add the vanilla and beat more. Mix dry ingredients separately and then combine. Beat until no lumps and then mix in by hand the chocolate chips.
Make spoon size dollops on parchment paper. Place on a cookie sheet and bake for 8-10 minutes.
Please let me know how these recipes come out of you try them. I would love to hear from you!
Wednesday, October 9, 2013
The GF/CF Brands We Love
Making the change to clean eating sounds daunting. I really sympathize because it's not just about replacing what you used to eat, its about making different choices completely and it takes time. Its a process and you must be patient especially with a child who can be combative about eating new foods.
Some of the brands that I find to be pretty "clean" are the Enjoy Life Brand, Van's, Amy's, Sugar and Spice Market, Jason's, Mara Natha, Plum Kids, Hain, Bob's Red Mill, Frontier, Dr. Praeger, Rudi's, Ian's and Follow Your Heart Vegan Gourmet Cheese.
Enjoy Life has some great cookies that are GF/CF and corn free. My son loves their sugar cookies which only have 3.5 grams of sugar per cookie! Enjoy Life also makes chocolate chips for baking that are made with non alcoholic (meaning no corn) chocolate liquor.
Vans is awesome because they label their foods with all the allergens that have been removed including CORN!! Right now corn is not considered one of the top 8 food allergens so many brands do not call it out and you must then decipher the ingredients to see if corn is hidden in there somewhere. With Vans there is no guessing! They make a tasty cinnamon cereal, granola bars and multi-grain crackers (although I use these sparingly as I have tried to remove most processed foods from our diets).
Amy's makes a delicious GF/CF and corn free cheese pizza and the cheese tastes like mozzarella! Can't go wrong for a quick meal.
Sugar and Spice Market all purpose flour is amazing and I use it to bake with a lot. I make GF/CF pancakes and they are loved by everyone in my family. I have also spoken with them on a couple of occasions and their customer service is top notch. They answered every question I had about their flour.
Bob's Red Mill is another great brand for all kinds of flour. They have a wide variety and I buy their almond and coconut flours for making muffins. Going grain free is liberating and when I eat these muffins I have no idea that they are grain free. They are just YUM.
Jason's and Mara Natha make almond butter and chocolate almond butter. They are both pretty low in sugar. Need I say more?
Plum kids makes fruit crushers that are purely fruit with no citric or ascorbic acid, meaning no corn! I throw them in my kids lunchboxes when I'm in a rush and can't cut up fresh fruit. I like the berry ones and so do my kids.
Hain makes a baking powder that is corn free!!
Rudi's is the bread of choice if we are making sandwiches. Its GF/CF and corn free. Its soft when you toast it and has a really great flavor. Its by far the best gluten free bread I have tried and I have tried almost all of them!!
Frontier makes a non-alcoholic vanilla flavoring. Wonderful for for baking.
Dr. Praegers makes GF/CF fish sticks, broccoli and spinach bites that are made with potato. Nice way to get those extra veggies in.
Ians makes letter potatoes that my kids love because they spell words out with them and they contain no gluten, dairy or corn.
Follow Your Heart Vegan Gourmet cheese was the ONLY cheese I could find that was truly casein (dairy free) and that also did not have pea fiber in it. Cole happens to have an intolerance to green peas. So we got the block of mozzarella and I put it on his grilled cheeses, quesadillas, and burgers.
Everything else I cook for my kids is from scratch or is a whole food. We eat turkey, grass fed red meat, grilled chicken, salmon, cod and pastured pork. Our sides are usually potatoes or brown rice (from California) and vegetables. I cook with olive oil (extra virgin unrefined and cold pressed), coconut oil and sometimes grape seed oil.
I hope this information can help you break into cleaner eating. I'm not going to lie, its more expensive. I shop at Whole Foods, Trader Joes, Natural Foods Warehouse and Kroger. I have to say that Kroger is amazing at carrying almost all of these brands so I usually can get what I need when I am there.
When I tell you that I had nightmares about pulling all these foods from my kid's diets, it would be an understatement but looking back, it really wasn't that hard to do. Now Jake is eating much cleaner as he wants to try all of Cole's foods and he seems to really enjoy them. So I didn't have to force him, I just let psychology do its work and he is now eating almost as good as his brother. I also give him a pro biotic and a whole food multi-vitamin everyday.
I'm glad Cole presented with TS at 5 years old because he was still young enough where I could change his diet and teach him better and healthier eating habits. I'm hoping these habits will remain with him throughout his life.
Recipes in my next blog!!
Some of the brands that I find to be pretty "clean" are the Enjoy Life Brand, Van's, Amy's, Sugar and Spice Market, Jason's, Mara Natha, Plum Kids, Hain, Bob's Red Mill, Frontier, Dr. Praeger, Rudi's, Ian's and Follow Your Heart Vegan Gourmet Cheese.
Enjoy Life has some great cookies that are GF/CF and corn free. My son loves their sugar cookies which only have 3.5 grams of sugar per cookie! Enjoy Life also makes chocolate chips for baking that are made with non alcoholic (meaning no corn) chocolate liquor.
Vans is awesome because they label their foods with all the allergens that have been removed including CORN!! Right now corn is not considered one of the top 8 food allergens so many brands do not call it out and you must then decipher the ingredients to see if corn is hidden in there somewhere. With Vans there is no guessing! They make a tasty cinnamon cereal, granola bars and multi-grain crackers (although I use these sparingly as I have tried to remove most processed foods from our diets).
Amy's makes a delicious GF/CF and corn free cheese pizza and the cheese tastes like mozzarella! Can't go wrong for a quick meal.
Sugar and Spice Market all purpose flour is amazing and I use it to bake with a lot. I make GF/CF pancakes and they are loved by everyone in my family. I have also spoken with them on a couple of occasions and their customer service is top notch. They answered every question I had about their flour.
Bob's Red Mill is another great brand for all kinds of flour. They have a wide variety and I buy their almond and coconut flours for making muffins. Going grain free is liberating and when I eat these muffins I have no idea that they are grain free. They are just YUM.
Jason's and Mara Natha make almond butter and chocolate almond butter. They are both pretty low in sugar. Need I say more?
Plum kids makes fruit crushers that are purely fruit with no citric or ascorbic acid, meaning no corn! I throw them in my kids lunchboxes when I'm in a rush and can't cut up fresh fruit. I like the berry ones and so do my kids.
Hain makes a baking powder that is corn free!!
Rudi's is the bread of choice if we are making sandwiches. Its GF/CF and corn free. Its soft when you toast it and has a really great flavor. Its by far the best gluten free bread I have tried and I have tried almost all of them!!
Frontier makes a non-alcoholic vanilla flavoring. Wonderful for for baking.
Dr. Praegers makes GF/CF fish sticks, broccoli and spinach bites that are made with potato. Nice way to get those extra veggies in.
Ians makes letter potatoes that my kids love because they spell words out with them and they contain no gluten, dairy or corn.
Follow Your Heart Vegan Gourmet cheese was the ONLY cheese I could find that was truly casein (dairy free) and that also did not have pea fiber in it. Cole happens to have an intolerance to green peas. So we got the block of mozzarella and I put it on his grilled cheeses, quesadillas, and burgers.
Everything else I cook for my kids is from scratch or is a whole food. We eat turkey, grass fed red meat, grilled chicken, salmon, cod and pastured pork. Our sides are usually potatoes or brown rice (from California) and vegetables. I cook with olive oil (extra virgin unrefined and cold pressed), coconut oil and sometimes grape seed oil.
I hope this information can help you break into cleaner eating. I'm not going to lie, its more expensive. I shop at Whole Foods, Trader Joes, Natural Foods Warehouse and Kroger. I have to say that Kroger is amazing at carrying almost all of these brands so I usually can get what I need when I am there.
When I tell you that I had nightmares about pulling all these foods from my kid's diets, it would be an understatement but looking back, it really wasn't that hard to do. Now Jake is eating much cleaner as he wants to try all of Cole's foods and he seems to really enjoy them. So I didn't have to force him, I just let psychology do its work and he is now eating almost as good as his brother. I also give him a pro biotic and a whole food multi-vitamin everyday.
I'm glad Cole presented with TS at 5 years old because he was still young enough where I could change his diet and teach him better and healthier eating habits. I'm hoping these habits will remain with him throughout his life.
Recipes in my next blog!!
Tuesday, October 8, 2013
How I healed My Son's Tourette's Syndrome (Part VII) Kindergarten
The night before Kindergarten I didn't sleep a wink. I just worried, got up at 6 AM and made healthy breakfasts: bacon, eggs and coconut yogurt with berries. I packed nutritious lunches adding in the grain free muffins I started baking and lots of protein. I got the boys up, fed them and got in the car headed for school. We are less than half a mile from the school so of course we were super early that 1st day! My good friend from NY was visiting and she really helped to reduce a lot of my stress. She came with us to walk the boys into class and briefly say hello to the teacher. I had met their teacher already (I kept them in the same class for Kindergarten to reduce the anxiety of a new school for the both of them) and made her aware of what Cole's situation was. I also told her that I was "healing" him through diet changes and to keep an eye out for tics and to please not ask him to stop. I definitely wanted a "tic" report on Cole at the end of the week to see if he his progress was continuing while at school. It was going to be the longest week ever for me to hold out for that information. I definitely did not want to stalk his teacher every night with questions so I promised myself I would wait one week. I would just have to deal with it.
That first week was a blur. All I can really tell you is that Cole's tics did NOT get any worse. I was prepared for an increase due to stress and a new environment but it never happened. In fact, as the week progressed his tics actually seemed to lessen. At this point I knew we were on to something. The healing of his gut was really happening. Between the diet changes, supplements and HANDLE exercises we were on a holistic path to neurological repair.
As those first few weeks wore on, Jake and Cole adjusted to school beautifully. I received only good reports. Their teacher told me that she barely hears or sees any tics. They are very few and far between and no one notices a thing. One area that Cole struggled in (which is common with TS) was his fine motor skills. He hated writing or drawing pictures, his grip was poor and he had trouble controlling the pencil. This all started changing as he would come home from school, get out his crayons and start drawing for hours. He was writing his letters and they were legible!! This sudden interest in drawing and writing was due to a new found confidence in his ability and I was astonished.
Its October now (7 months from the onset of his severe TS) and I barely hear or see any tics from Cole at all. There are days where I think he may be having a tic here or there but then the next day I won't hear anything at all. So I wouldn't say he is 100% tic free just yet but we are headed on that path. The more time that passes, the better it gets. No outside person would ever even guess that Cole was diagnosed with Tourette's, ADHD and OCD. Its just not present. My husband calls the progression the "reverse Dow Jones" because there are tiny little spikes along the way but the overall trend is downward. I have gotten pretty keen on those "spikes" that Cole has and the triggers are usually diet related. I made GF oatmeal cookies with Earth Balance butter and I noticed he would have some tics for about 20 minutes after eating one. I looked into every ingredient and realized that the Earth's Balance butter has an ingredient that was derived from corn. So that was the culprit and now I use coconut oil instead of the butter and no more tics after eating the cookie. Crazy right? But its real and the connection could not be any clearer.
I will never say I "cured" Cole because I really don't believe he had anything that needed to be cured. His immune system was massively compromised and he needed it healed. That is what was going on and by sharing my story I hope I can save other families the pain and suffering of the side effects from pharmaceuticals.
I will also admit that healing is no easy task. Its hard work! I had to take time away from my job in order to focus on this but I felt I had no choice. His symptoms were so severe I just could not address it head on. However, I do understand and sympathize with families that can not take time off from work to help heal a child. I do see how blessed I am and I do not take this for granted. As time moves forward, we will continue to tweak Cole's regimen based on Dr. Bhatia's recommendations and my intuition. There is nothing more powerful than a mother's intuition and we as mother's need to listen to this voice a little more than we do. The connection between us and our children is so strong and we ALL have the power to heal in side of us. This is truth.
That first week was a blur. All I can really tell you is that Cole's tics did NOT get any worse. I was prepared for an increase due to stress and a new environment but it never happened. In fact, as the week progressed his tics actually seemed to lessen. At this point I knew we were on to something. The healing of his gut was really happening. Between the diet changes, supplements and HANDLE exercises we were on a holistic path to neurological repair.
As those first few weeks wore on, Jake and Cole adjusted to school beautifully. I received only good reports. Their teacher told me that she barely hears or sees any tics. They are very few and far between and no one notices a thing. One area that Cole struggled in (which is common with TS) was his fine motor skills. He hated writing or drawing pictures, his grip was poor and he had trouble controlling the pencil. This all started changing as he would come home from school, get out his crayons and start drawing for hours. He was writing his letters and they were legible!! This sudden interest in drawing and writing was due to a new found confidence in his ability and I was astonished.
Its October now (7 months from the onset of his severe TS) and I barely hear or see any tics from Cole at all. There are days where I think he may be having a tic here or there but then the next day I won't hear anything at all. So I wouldn't say he is 100% tic free just yet but we are headed on that path. The more time that passes, the better it gets. No outside person would ever even guess that Cole was diagnosed with Tourette's, ADHD and OCD. Its just not present. My husband calls the progression the "reverse Dow Jones" because there are tiny little spikes along the way but the overall trend is downward. I have gotten pretty keen on those "spikes" that Cole has and the triggers are usually diet related. I made GF oatmeal cookies with Earth Balance butter and I noticed he would have some tics for about 20 minutes after eating one. I looked into every ingredient and realized that the Earth's Balance butter has an ingredient that was derived from corn. So that was the culprit and now I use coconut oil instead of the butter and no more tics after eating the cookie. Crazy right? But its real and the connection could not be any clearer.
I will never say I "cured" Cole because I really don't believe he had anything that needed to be cured. His immune system was massively compromised and he needed it healed. That is what was going on and by sharing my story I hope I can save other families the pain and suffering of the side effects from pharmaceuticals.
I will also admit that healing is no easy task. Its hard work! I had to take time away from my job in order to focus on this but I felt I had no choice. His symptoms were so severe I just could not address it head on. However, I do understand and sympathize with families that can not take time off from work to help heal a child. I do see how blessed I am and I do not take this for granted. As time moves forward, we will continue to tweak Cole's regimen based on Dr. Bhatia's recommendations and my intuition. There is nothing more powerful than a mother's intuition and we as mother's need to listen to this voice a little more than we do. The connection between us and our children is so strong and we ALL have the power to heal in side of us. This is truth.
How I Healed My Son's Tourette's Syndrome (Part VI) State of Mind is Everything
By now I hope you have read these posts in chronological order because that is how I am telling the story. With that said, let me take a step back for a minute. Up until this point, I had a sense of dread in the pit of my stomach every waking minute of every day since I clued into the fact that Cole had Tourette's Syndrome. I was constantly on edge, expending so much energy listening for tics and watching my son and worrying about the future that I was exhausted every night by 8pm and then awake in panic attack mode by 2am. It was a horrible existence and I was unhealthy physically but most importantly, mentally. My mind was filled with negative thoughts and a lot of people surrounding me (with the exception of my always supportive husband) did not believe that the holistic approach would yield any results for my son. They thought I was wasting my time and in some instances, putting Cole's life at risk with all the supplements and diet changes I was forcing on him. It was a lonely place to be. I didn't want to leave the house or socialize with friends. I just wanted to sit inside and watch Cole to see how often he ticced. I know this sounds insane and I agree, it was.
That all changed once I connected with Shannon. Shannon is a mother of two boys in SC and her oldest son (a couple of years older than Cole) also has Tourette's! She was posting her story on Latitudes (the forum where people treat neurological disorders holistically) and it seemed like she was a couple of months ahead of me and was having success! She reached out to me and we chatted on the phone for a while. She had been through everything I was currently experiencing, including all the nasty emotional stuff but was seeing the light at the end of the tunnel and had a very positive out look. She was a life preserver in the perfect storm. I latched on to her positivity and it helped me navigate through the treacherous and pitch black waters.
It was the end of July and we were back from our two weeks in NY and Cole's tics were ramping up again. He was in a week of summer camp and I would ask the counselor each day how he was doing and each day she said the tics were getting worse. He was clearing his throat loudly now and flapping his arms forcefully. One day I broke down and just cried on the playground for what seemed like an hour. A couple of the moms of Jake and Cole's camp mates gave me hugs as they could sympathize with me but they really did not get it 100%. I was just a mess and Kindergarten was 2 weeks away.
Shannon and I started texting on a regular basis that week and I told her what was going on. She convinced me that I needed to pull dairy from Cole's diet. On his food sensitivity panel, dairy came up as a mild intolerance and even Dr. Bhatia said I didn't have to pull it. I was holding on to it because Cole loved his grilled cheeses and we just got adjusted to the gluten/corn free bread and I was afraid to change up the cheese on him. Dairy free cheese is terrible. Other than that, Cole didn't drink milk and he wasn't too keen on yogurt so it was really just the cheese that was holding me back. I decided that I had to take this chance so that Friday I stopped giving him dairy from the time he came home from camp.
By the next afternoon the miraculous happened! Cole's tics all but went away. Not only that but his behavior was incredible. He was calm, focused and content. He became considerate and started doing thoughtful things for me and his brother like coming inside the house to get ice cold water for the both of us and bringing it outside!! This kid couldn't think past his right hand less than 24 hours ago and now he was a completely different child. I was in shock. Even his OCD tendencies dissipated. No more counting things, no more having to start from the beginning, less frustration and no more whining!!!
I was afraid to believe that what was happening was real. We had seen improvement in the past (although not as significant as this) and the tics eventually had come back. So I told Shannon what i was experiencing and she just filled me with positivity so much so that I was able to BELIEVE that healing was occurring. She told me it could take up to 2 years to see complete healing and that there will be bumps in the road but we should be at a new baseline for tics and the general trend should be towards healing. Knowing that I was following in her footsteps helped tremendously. She talked me off the ledge dozens of times. She also shared some great recipes for grain free muffins and cookies that I put in their lunch boxes everyday and they are a hit!
With one week to go before Kindergarten, Cole's tics had reduced dramatically to the point where an uninformed person would not really know he had any tics at all. The true test as to whether he was healing or just "waning" would be when school started. Tourette's Syndrome is characterized by periods of "waxing" and "waning". This means that sometimes the tics become more intense and more frequent and other times they tend to lessen and almost disappear (but never really going away completely) until they start to wax again. A neurologist would have told me that what I was currently experiencing with Cole was just a typical waning period and that his tics would come back just as intense as they had been in the past. But what most parents of kids with TS know is that school tends to be a huge trigger for tics. School is associated with stress and anxiety, both which stimulate tics and Shannon confirmed this with me as well. Thinking back to the previous year, I do remember Cole's grunts becoming more apparent right around when school started and then dissipating sometime in late October. It completely made sense and I would know for sure once Kindergarten started if this new diet change was just a fluke. Jake and Cole were not only going into a new class but Kindergarten was a new school as well. Big changes were just a week away and I tried to stay positive.
That all changed once I connected with Shannon. Shannon is a mother of two boys in SC and her oldest son (a couple of years older than Cole) also has Tourette's! She was posting her story on Latitudes (the forum where people treat neurological disorders holistically) and it seemed like she was a couple of months ahead of me and was having success! She reached out to me and we chatted on the phone for a while. She had been through everything I was currently experiencing, including all the nasty emotional stuff but was seeing the light at the end of the tunnel and had a very positive out look. She was a life preserver in the perfect storm. I latched on to her positivity and it helped me navigate through the treacherous and pitch black waters.
It was the end of July and we were back from our two weeks in NY and Cole's tics were ramping up again. He was in a week of summer camp and I would ask the counselor each day how he was doing and each day she said the tics were getting worse. He was clearing his throat loudly now and flapping his arms forcefully. One day I broke down and just cried on the playground for what seemed like an hour. A couple of the moms of Jake and Cole's camp mates gave me hugs as they could sympathize with me but they really did not get it 100%. I was just a mess and Kindergarten was 2 weeks away.
Shannon and I started texting on a regular basis that week and I told her what was going on. She convinced me that I needed to pull dairy from Cole's diet. On his food sensitivity panel, dairy came up as a mild intolerance and even Dr. Bhatia said I didn't have to pull it. I was holding on to it because Cole loved his grilled cheeses and we just got adjusted to the gluten/corn free bread and I was afraid to change up the cheese on him. Dairy free cheese is terrible. Other than that, Cole didn't drink milk and he wasn't too keen on yogurt so it was really just the cheese that was holding me back. I decided that I had to take this chance so that Friday I stopped giving him dairy from the time he came home from camp.
By the next afternoon the miraculous happened! Cole's tics all but went away. Not only that but his behavior was incredible. He was calm, focused and content. He became considerate and started doing thoughtful things for me and his brother like coming inside the house to get ice cold water for the both of us and bringing it outside!! This kid couldn't think past his right hand less than 24 hours ago and now he was a completely different child. I was in shock. Even his OCD tendencies dissipated. No more counting things, no more having to start from the beginning, less frustration and no more whining!!!
I was afraid to believe that what was happening was real. We had seen improvement in the past (although not as significant as this) and the tics eventually had come back. So I told Shannon what i was experiencing and she just filled me with positivity so much so that I was able to BELIEVE that healing was occurring. She told me it could take up to 2 years to see complete healing and that there will be bumps in the road but we should be at a new baseline for tics and the general trend should be towards healing. Knowing that I was following in her footsteps helped tremendously. She talked me off the ledge dozens of times. She also shared some great recipes for grain free muffins and cookies that I put in their lunch boxes everyday and they are a hit!
With one week to go before Kindergarten, Cole's tics had reduced dramatically to the point where an uninformed person would not really know he had any tics at all. The true test as to whether he was healing or just "waning" would be when school started. Tourette's Syndrome is characterized by periods of "waxing" and "waning". This means that sometimes the tics become more intense and more frequent and other times they tend to lessen and almost disappear (but never really going away completely) until they start to wax again. A neurologist would have told me that what I was currently experiencing with Cole was just a typical waning period and that his tics would come back just as intense as they had been in the past. But what most parents of kids with TS know is that school tends to be a huge trigger for tics. School is associated with stress and anxiety, both which stimulate tics and Shannon confirmed this with me as well. Thinking back to the previous year, I do remember Cole's grunts becoming more apparent right around when school started and then dissipating sometime in late October. It completely made sense and I would know for sure once Kindergarten started if this new diet change was just a fluke. Jake and Cole were not only going into a new class but Kindergarten was a new school as well. Big changes were just a week away and I tried to stay positive.
Monday, October 7, 2013
How I Healed My Son's Tourette's Syndrome (Part V) Yeast
At the end of Part III I mention the mother of all blood tests - the NutraEval. This test measures levels of vitamins, amino acids, neurotransmitters (indirectly), toxins, heavy metals, yeast albicans (indirectly), and various other things that I am sure I'm not mentioning. The big "take-away" for us with Cole what that 1) he was not detoxing 2) He was not methylating 3) he was deficient in all his B vitamins and 4) he most likely had candida (yeast overgrowth). This was a lot to digest but also very important pieces to the puzzle.
If you aren't sure what methylation is, join the club because I had no idea either. Methylation (and this is just my interpretation of it - for a real definition, google it please) is the process of the body absorbing the vitamins and nutrients from food and transferring that energy to the brain. I could be off in my interpretation but I do know that if a person is not methylating, they are not getting enough energy to the brain and the brain is not producing important amino acids like glutathione which is a detoxer. Hence the reason why Cole was a poor detoxer. One was probably related to the other. I have read that up to 20% of the population has genetic mutations on the MTHFR gene (the gene that controls methylation). These mutations can cause issues in the methylation process which is illustrated like cogs or gears in a system. So when one gear stops turning, the entire system doesn't work. Many children on the autistic spectrum have issues methylating and most likely have mutations on their MTHFR gene. I did not order any genetic testing for Cole YET but its something I may look into down the road.
We went home that day from Dr. Taz's office with a new list of things to add to our current regimen. it was becoming a full time job to take care of my son and at this point I had to take a leave of absence from my actual paying job. It was a very hard decision to make but in the end it was the right one and I have no regrets. In addition, I happen to have the best boss in the world and he completely understood what I was dealing with and was incredibly supportive of my decision to focus 100% on my son.
So the next step in the process was to deal with the candida. From what I have read and hear first hand, killing yeast in the body is one of the most difficult things to do because it keeps growing back if you keep feeding it. The reason why its so bad is because it kills all the good bacteria in the gut and weakens the immune system. It also releases toxins that cross over an already permeable gut and cause neurological damage. Yeast feeds off of carbs, sugar, acidic foods, vinegar (not apple cider) and many other things, the list is long. If you plan on killing yeast you MUST go on an anti-yeast promoting diet such as the Specific Carbohydrate Diet or SCD. This was too much for Cole to handle so I modified it. I was terrified but I knew I had to battle through this. I knew the rewards at the end would be well worth it.
But let's answer one question first. You may be asking yourself, how the heck did Cole get yeast to begin with? I mean, he is only 5! I believe that it started at birth. He was a C-section baby so he did not get the good bacteria from the birth canal. He started life at a disadvantage but like I said there was nothing I could do about that. He took many doses of antibiotics from age 2 - 5 for recurrent ear infections and a diet high in sugar and processed food (even though the processed food was considered "organic"). All these factors probably created a nice environment for the yeast to grow and take hold, weakening his immune system and slowly causing neurological damage. It just took 5 and a half years to get to the point where it was glaring and "screaming" for my attention.
Dr. Taz wanted me to put Cole on Nystatin. Its a presciption anti fungal that does a pretty good job at killing off the yeast, especially in kids that have a hard time accepting an SCD diet. I was afraid to put him on this so I chose Grapefruit Seed Extract instead. Its an all natural anti fungal and some say it kills the yeast while leaving the good bacteria alone. I put 3 drops in his NAC (the amino acid) tincture in the AM and 3 drops in the PM, titrating up to 8 drops a day.
They warned me about yeast die off and to be prepared for it. Yeast die off is when massive amounts of yeast die at the same time releasing a deluge of toxins into the body (more so than when the yeast is alive). The body becomes overwhelmed and can't detox fast enough so "die off" symptoms will occur. These symptoms can mimic the flu. After one week of Grapefruit Seed Extract, Cole woke up and said he felt hot but had no fever. After he drank some water he began to vomit uncontrollably. He could keep nothing down and I had to take him to urgent care. I felt terrible but they gave him a zofran to stop vomiting and they could not tell me what was wrong. There was no fever, no infection, no sore throat, no nothing. I told them about yeast die off and my hypothesis and they looked at me like I was a crazy lady. So I just took the zofran and went on my way. By 3pm that day, Cole was playing on our play structure doing flips off the slide. I can not explain what happened to him that day. Dr. Taz thinks it was a stomach virus, I believe it was die off. The reason being, that the next day Cole's tics went from a 7 out of ten (in intensity and frequency) to a 2 out of 10. My husband and I were in shock. We hadn't seen Cole like this in months. He could actually go 30 minutes with out ticcing. It was huge!!! I felt like I could breathe!!! We had bits and pieces of actual silence in our house and my anxiety level went way down. There was definitely a connection between Cole's die off symptoms and this new level of ticcing. Whatever it was, I was accepting it with open arms.
As I mentioned before, we had to modify Cole's diet as we were killing off the yeast. I removed almost all sugar. The only sugar he got was 4oz of organic OJ, berries and a low sugar, gluten/corn free cookie (which he loves by the way). All in all it was less than 20 grams of sugar a day. After about a week on this diet some amazing things happened. My picky eater suddenly was opening up to different foods and he actually ate a vegetable!!! For the first time in his life he picked up a piece of broccoli and ate it. Before this, his sensory issues prevented him from allowing any vegetable to even touch his plate or come with in a 2 ft radius of his body. Now he was picking it up, putting it in his mouth, chewing and swallowing! Hallelujah!!!!! He started eating grilled chicken, turkey, brown rice and wait for it.....salmon! I was making him bacon and eggs for breakfast, almond butter on gluten free bread for lunch with berries and grilled chicken with brown rice and broccoli for dinner. Water with every meal. It was astonishing to witness. My Cole was now eating better than his brother and I attribute this to cutting out all the sugar.
What was interesting to see was the yeast cravings that he had. As the yeast was being killed off, it was trying so hard to regrow in his body. It would cause him to have sugar cravings. Intense needs for sugar where if not met, he would go into a full blown temper tantrum. My son never had tantrums as a child and I certainly didn't believe he was starting them up now at 5 and a half. This was something biological. All he wanted was sugar and he begged for it like his life was ending. Trust me, it was hard not to give in. I felt terrible but I stayed focused. I withheld. I battled through. Cravings are now gone.
So this whole die off, new diet renaissance thing happened 4 days prior to our annual trip to NY. I was elated. All my worries about how my family was going to perceive Cole disappeared. He was still ticcing but at a much lower level and we could go to NY and enjoy our time there. For two weeks we went to the beach, met up with my best friends and their kids, hung with family and just enjoyed our summer! Cole ate so well in NY too! We were able to maintain his diet and supplements consistently even though we were on a relaxed summer schedule.
What I came to realize now that Cole was eating such a wider variety of foods was that I could finally eliminate the processed crap. So out went the cookies, crackers and chips and in with the berries, almond butters and homemade grain free muffins. That's right! I was baking from scratch all of his snacks now. I will share these recipes with you in another post but for now just know that its possible to remove the processed food from your pantry. Its a crutch, its convenient but its hurting our health!
We got back from NY and things were still good but I noticed Cole's tics slowly increasing again. Now those long periods of time without any tics were getting shorter and shorter until we were back with constant ticcing. My anxiety level increased again. Every time I heard a tic it was like a sharp knife was stabbing me in the stomach. Call it dramatic but its true. That is how I was feeling. It HURT me physically to hear these noises and see these forceful movements that my son was making. Plus, it was 3 weeks till Kindergarten and I was not sure what to do.
I called the principal and the special ed coordinator. I told them what was going on and how I wanted to get an IEP started right away. We had the diagnosis and I wanted the full support of the school. They were completely willing to work with me but encouraged me to wait and see how Cole did in Kindergarten before starting the IEP process. I was terrified. If things kept on like this, it would be very difficult for a teacher to teach around all his noises, some of which were very loud and explosive. Things were heading in the wrong direction for us and even though I still had Cole on the anti fungal regimen (5 weeks at this point) and plenty of other options awaited me, I was still discouraged.
That was when I connected with Shannon from SC. God sent her to me and she truly helped me change the course of this entire journey. She is my angel.......
If you aren't sure what methylation is, join the club because I had no idea either. Methylation (and this is just my interpretation of it - for a real definition, google it please) is the process of the body absorbing the vitamins and nutrients from food and transferring that energy to the brain. I could be off in my interpretation but I do know that if a person is not methylating, they are not getting enough energy to the brain and the brain is not producing important amino acids like glutathione which is a detoxer. Hence the reason why Cole was a poor detoxer. One was probably related to the other. I have read that up to 20% of the population has genetic mutations on the MTHFR gene (the gene that controls methylation). These mutations can cause issues in the methylation process which is illustrated like cogs or gears in a system. So when one gear stops turning, the entire system doesn't work. Many children on the autistic spectrum have issues methylating and most likely have mutations on their MTHFR gene. I did not order any genetic testing for Cole YET but its something I may look into down the road.
We went home that day from Dr. Taz's office with a new list of things to add to our current regimen. it was becoming a full time job to take care of my son and at this point I had to take a leave of absence from my actual paying job. It was a very hard decision to make but in the end it was the right one and I have no regrets. In addition, I happen to have the best boss in the world and he completely understood what I was dealing with and was incredibly supportive of my decision to focus 100% on my son.
So the next step in the process was to deal with the candida. From what I have read and hear first hand, killing yeast in the body is one of the most difficult things to do because it keeps growing back if you keep feeding it. The reason why its so bad is because it kills all the good bacteria in the gut and weakens the immune system. It also releases toxins that cross over an already permeable gut and cause neurological damage. Yeast feeds off of carbs, sugar, acidic foods, vinegar (not apple cider) and many other things, the list is long. If you plan on killing yeast you MUST go on an anti-yeast promoting diet such as the Specific Carbohydrate Diet or SCD. This was too much for Cole to handle so I modified it. I was terrified but I knew I had to battle through this. I knew the rewards at the end would be well worth it.
But let's answer one question first. You may be asking yourself, how the heck did Cole get yeast to begin with? I mean, he is only 5! I believe that it started at birth. He was a C-section baby so he did not get the good bacteria from the birth canal. He started life at a disadvantage but like I said there was nothing I could do about that. He took many doses of antibiotics from age 2 - 5 for recurrent ear infections and a diet high in sugar and processed food (even though the processed food was considered "organic"). All these factors probably created a nice environment for the yeast to grow and take hold, weakening his immune system and slowly causing neurological damage. It just took 5 and a half years to get to the point where it was glaring and "screaming" for my attention.
Dr. Taz wanted me to put Cole on Nystatin. Its a presciption anti fungal that does a pretty good job at killing off the yeast, especially in kids that have a hard time accepting an SCD diet. I was afraid to put him on this so I chose Grapefruit Seed Extract instead. Its an all natural anti fungal and some say it kills the yeast while leaving the good bacteria alone. I put 3 drops in his NAC (the amino acid) tincture in the AM and 3 drops in the PM, titrating up to 8 drops a day.
They warned me about yeast die off and to be prepared for it. Yeast die off is when massive amounts of yeast die at the same time releasing a deluge of toxins into the body (more so than when the yeast is alive). The body becomes overwhelmed and can't detox fast enough so "die off" symptoms will occur. These symptoms can mimic the flu. After one week of Grapefruit Seed Extract, Cole woke up and said he felt hot but had no fever. After he drank some water he began to vomit uncontrollably. He could keep nothing down and I had to take him to urgent care. I felt terrible but they gave him a zofran to stop vomiting and they could not tell me what was wrong. There was no fever, no infection, no sore throat, no nothing. I told them about yeast die off and my hypothesis and they looked at me like I was a crazy lady. So I just took the zofran and went on my way. By 3pm that day, Cole was playing on our play structure doing flips off the slide. I can not explain what happened to him that day. Dr. Taz thinks it was a stomach virus, I believe it was die off. The reason being, that the next day Cole's tics went from a 7 out of ten (in intensity and frequency) to a 2 out of 10. My husband and I were in shock. We hadn't seen Cole like this in months. He could actually go 30 minutes with out ticcing. It was huge!!! I felt like I could breathe!!! We had bits and pieces of actual silence in our house and my anxiety level went way down. There was definitely a connection between Cole's die off symptoms and this new level of ticcing. Whatever it was, I was accepting it with open arms.
As I mentioned before, we had to modify Cole's diet as we were killing off the yeast. I removed almost all sugar. The only sugar he got was 4oz of organic OJ, berries and a low sugar, gluten/corn free cookie (which he loves by the way). All in all it was less than 20 grams of sugar a day. After about a week on this diet some amazing things happened. My picky eater suddenly was opening up to different foods and he actually ate a vegetable!!! For the first time in his life he picked up a piece of broccoli and ate it. Before this, his sensory issues prevented him from allowing any vegetable to even touch his plate or come with in a 2 ft radius of his body. Now he was picking it up, putting it in his mouth, chewing and swallowing! Hallelujah!!!!! He started eating grilled chicken, turkey, brown rice and wait for it.....salmon! I was making him bacon and eggs for breakfast, almond butter on gluten free bread for lunch with berries and grilled chicken with brown rice and broccoli for dinner. Water with every meal. It was astonishing to witness. My Cole was now eating better than his brother and I attribute this to cutting out all the sugar.
What was interesting to see was the yeast cravings that he had. As the yeast was being killed off, it was trying so hard to regrow in his body. It would cause him to have sugar cravings. Intense needs for sugar where if not met, he would go into a full blown temper tantrum. My son never had tantrums as a child and I certainly didn't believe he was starting them up now at 5 and a half. This was something biological. All he wanted was sugar and he begged for it like his life was ending. Trust me, it was hard not to give in. I felt terrible but I stayed focused. I withheld. I battled through. Cravings are now gone.
So this whole die off, new diet renaissance thing happened 4 days prior to our annual trip to NY. I was elated. All my worries about how my family was going to perceive Cole disappeared. He was still ticcing but at a much lower level and we could go to NY and enjoy our time there. For two weeks we went to the beach, met up with my best friends and their kids, hung with family and just enjoyed our summer! Cole ate so well in NY too! We were able to maintain his diet and supplements consistently even though we were on a relaxed summer schedule.
What I came to realize now that Cole was eating such a wider variety of foods was that I could finally eliminate the processed crap. So out went the cookies, crackers and chips and in with the berries, almond butters and homemade grain free muffins. That's right! I was baking from scratch all of his snacks now. I will share these recipes with you in another post but for now just know that its possible to remove the processed food from your pantry. Its a crutch, its convenient but its hurting our health!
We got back from NY and things were still good but I noticed Cole's tics slowly increasing again. Now those long periods of time without any tics were getting shorter and shorter until we were back with constant ticcing. My anxiety level increased again. Every time I heard a tic it was like a sharp knife was stabbing me in the stomach. Call it dramatic but its true. That is how I was feeling. It HURT me physically to hear these noises and see these forceful movements that my son was making. Plus, it was 3 weeks till Kindergarten and I was not sure what to do.
I called the principal and the special ed coordinator. I told them what was going on and how I wanted to get an IEP started right away. We had the diagnosis and I wanted the full support of the school. They were completely willing to work with me but encouraged me to wait and see how Cole did in Kindergarten before starting the IEP process. I was terrified. If things kept on like this, it would be very difficult for a teacher to teach around all his noises, some of which were very loud and explosive. Things were heading in the wrong direction for us and even though I still had Cole on the anti fungal regimen (5 weeks at this point) and plenty of other options awaited me, I was still discouraged.
That was when I connected with Shannon from SC. God sent her to me and she truly helped me change the course of this entire journey. She is my angel.......
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