Anyone who follows my Facebook feed or Blog post might come to the conclusion that we've been sick a lot since living overseas. It's true, as a family we've been sick quite a bit. In India we had a combined total of 6 bouts of Giardia, 2 shigellas, 4 cases of a horrific, unnamed gastroenteritis, several undiagnosed weeks of diarrhea, dozens of colds, croup, pneumonia, and Rotavirus A. Since moving to Indonesia we've had a bad chest cold for Zack and scarlet fever for Gabriel.
On the surface it seems like we've had a really bad three years of health. Despite these setbacks, our overall health has actually improved drastically.
In January 2011 the whole family went gluten free. I had been gluten free for 5 years and John had been experimenting. For nearly two years now it's been strict gluten free for everyone. Over the last year or so we've also been going low carb/low sugar with high fat and protein, following the spirit of the Paleo diet. Our results have been incredible.
I think since I've always been the most obviously sick I've seen the most improvement. I've been GF for 7 years but I still see improvements in my health as my body continues to mend. The low sugar, high protein intake has made my muscles far more toned and my back problems are all but eliminated. Fibromyalgia is gone and my chronic joint pain is greatly diminished. Migraines are down to once or twice a month instead of once or twice a day. What's really exciting and impressive is my food list! It used to be that the list of what I could not eat was longer than what I could eat. Here was my old list of allergies/food intolerances"
All nuts, peanuts, grapes, all melon, all nightshades (including tomato), citrus, dairy, eggs, cinnamon, wheat, rye, barley, peppermint, bananas, chocolate, beef, pork, and shellfish.
Whew!
This is my new "Can't Eat" list:
Peanuts, grapes, eggs, cinnamon, wheat, rye, barley, peppermint.
Pretty amazing, right? The body can come back from some real disasters and I am so thankful that mine has made such a comeback.
Our other great comeback story is Gabriel. Gabriel was induced for failure to thrive in the womb; he hadn't grown at all in 3 weeks. He was 5 lbs. when we brought him home from the hospital. Since then he's always been very far behind in growth. From age 18 months to age 2 he did not grow at all. He stayed at 19 pounds for nearly a year. He had a slight growth spurt up to 21 lbs. sometime during age two, but he dropped back down to 20 quickly after. He never had normal stools; he was either constipated or suffering diarrhea. He vomited every time he ate. At age 3 he wore 12 month clothes. He was our sweet, sick little Peanut. About 6 months after being gluten free we started to see changes. He was getting sick less often, he was starting to put on weight. He moved up to 24 month clothes. In the nearly 2 years he's been gluten free he's gained 10 lbs. and 6 inches. He's gone from size 18 month clothes to 3T and he's now growing so fast I think he might actually catch up to his clothing age!
I am so, so happy to see my baby healthy.
We're pretty big advocates of the gluten free diet. I've known very few people who have tried it and failed to see improvements. John's health is much better off gluten and Zack is eczema free without it. Give it a try! Maybe you'll see something good, too.
On the surface it seems like we've had a really bad three years of health. Despite these setbacks, our overall health has actually improved drastically.
In January 2011 the whole family went gluten free. I had been gluten free for 5 years and John had been experimenting. For nearly two years now it's been strict gluten free for everyone. Over the last year or so we've also been going low carb/low sugar with high fat and protein, following the spirit of the Paleo diet. Our results have been incredible.
I think since I've always been the most obviously sick I've seen the most improvement. I've been GF for 7 years but I still see improvements in my health as my body continues to mend. The low sugar, high protein intake has made my muscles far more toned and my back problems are all but eliminated. Fibromyalgia is gone and my chronic joint pain is greatly diminished. Migraines are down to once or twice a month instead of once or twice a day. What's really exciting and impressive is my food list! It used to be that the list of what I could not eat was longer than what I could eat. Here was my old list of allergies/food intolerances"
All nuts, peanuts, grapes, all melon, all nightshades (including tomato), citrus, dairy, eggs, cinnamon, wheat, rye, barley, peppermint, bananas, chocolate, beef, pork, and shellfish.
Whew!
This is my new "Can't Eat" list:
Peanuts, grapes, eggs, cinnamon, wheat, rye, barley, peppermint.
Pretty amazing, right? The body can come back from some real disasters and I am so thankful that mine has made such a comeback.
Our other great comeback story is Gabriel. Gabriel was induced for failure to thrive in the womb; he hadn't grown at all in 3 weeks. He was 5 lbs. when we brought him home from the hospital. Since then he's always been very far behind in growth. From age 18 months to age 2 he did not grow at all. He stayed at 19 pounds for nearly a year. He had a slight growth spurt up to 21 lbs. sometime during age two, but he dropped back down to 20 quickly after. He never had normal stools; he was either constipated or suffering diarrhea. He vomited every time he ate. At age 3 he wore 12 month clothes. He was our sweet, sick little Peanut. About 6 months after being gluten free we started to see changes. He was getting sick less often, he was starting to put on weight. He moved up to 24 month clothes. In the nearly 2 years he's been gluten free he's gained 10 lbs. and 6 inches. He's gone from size 18 month clothes to 3T and he's now growing so fast I think he might actually catch up to his clothing age!
I am so, so happy to see my baby healthy.
We're pretty big advocates of the gluten free diet. I've known very few people who have tried it and failed to see improvements. John's health is much better off gluten and Zack is eczema free without it. Give it a try! Maybe you'll see something good, too.
1 comment:
I am ready to do a happy dance the second Gabey gets in "average" age/size clothing let me know asap! and an outfit will be on its way!
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