Guest Post - Treating the Triad: Asthma, Eczema and Peanut Allergies

I love this story – it was volunteered by a powerful mom who is leading her family on a wonderful journey. It is stories like this that give me a great big boost – thank you for that gift, Erin!

My daughter Mirren was exclusively breastfed from birth, loved her egg yolks and liver, joyfully took her fermented cod liver oil, drank fresh milk at one year, and always asked for seconds on sauerkraut and kim chi.  Of course our diet wasn't perfect, but it was really good and I had tried so hard for two years to provide our family with a Nourishing diet.  That's why I was shocked when Mirren accidentally ate a tiny bit of peanuts at 17 months of age and immediately began to react with her eyes swelling and sneezing.  No one else in our family is allergic to peanuts, but it was apparent that Mirren had a strong sensitivity.  On top of that, MIrren began having respiratory issues that even sent us to the emergency room one night around the time that she turned 18 months old.  She also had eczema around her mouth that I just couldn't get rid of, no matter what foods I eliminated from her diet.

Grrrrrrrrrr, Mirren was diagnosed by our family doctor as having the classic "triad" that is prevalent in so many children these days: asthma, eczema and a peanut allergy.  Our family doctor couldn't give me any explanation as to why so many children have these conditions these days, but she did prescribe Mirren with an Epi-Pen and Albuterol and gave me hope that "maybe someday she will outgrow the asthma and nut allergy."

After praying and dealing with my emotions, I began reading about how I could proactively work to heal Mirren's health conditions.  I was not about to wait around for Mirren to "outgrow" these conditions that could even be life threatening!  

Gleaning from my readings, I realized that at the time of Mirren's birth, my digestive system was likely not completely healed.  I had eaten the Standard American Diet for about 27 years and I had only had a short period eating Real Foods, so I likely passed on my not-so-great gut flora to Mirren at birth.  This contributed to the development of her autoimmune conditions.  Additionally, we were living in an old apartment with a mold problem and laminate flooring.  This environment was surely a huge factor in Mirren's health.

These are the steps we took to treat Mirren's autoimmune issues:

1. Trust God more.  I had to face the reality that no one can have perfect health on this earth.  Sometimes we all get sick.  I had read so many Dr. Mercola and wellness blog articles that I was starting to think if I just did all the right things and gave my family the right foods, they would be perfectly healthy.  Don't get me wrong, I think a ton of things can and should be done to improve a person's health, but still we all get sick sometimes and we will all eventually die!  I am learning to do my best in providing good nutrition for my family and trust God with the rest.
2. Move out of our apartment.  We moved in with my in-laws in order to get out of that yucky mold environment.  (Wow, I feel for those with health conditions who don't have any option of going to another living environment.  We are so blessed that we could move out).
3. Implement a healing diet.  I took Mirren to Oriental Health Solutions in Durham, NC where she was treated by Fang Cai.  Fang recommended we start on the GAPS diet right away.  Since I had previously read on Laura Combs' blog about the Whole 30 diet, which Laura seemed to think was more healing than the full GAPS diet, I decided to do a combination of the two diets.  Like Laura, I felt the GAPS diet has a powerful kick-off with the introduction diet, especially with the bone broths, but then I felt GAPS introduces cultured dairy, honey, and a couple legumes too soon before healing can take place. So we went from the GAPS intro diet and then transitioned onto the Whole 30. In short, we ate only the foods allowed on both diets with an emphasis on the healing foods recommended in the GAPS diet.
4. Take supplements.  We gave Mirren a strong probiotic as recommended in GAPS.  We also gave her cod liver oil, butter oil, and a couple supplements recommended by Fang (including glutathione, a vitamin D complex, omega 3s and DHA.)  Fang also was able to recommend an herbal tincture made by Kan Herbs for treating childhood asthma.
5. Playing out in the sunshine.  We try to spend at least an hour outside each day playing enjoying picnics and trips to the park even now in the mild North Carolina winter.

The Results

Eczema GONE!  It's been three months since we started Mirren on the healing diet.  Her eczema went away after one month of starting the diet and she has had no flare ups at all, not even from acidic foods.  

No daily asthma medicine needed!  Mirren just made it through a cold without needing any steroid treatment!  She did have to take albuterol three times during the course of that cold, but the herbal tincture and other supplements (not to mention prayer) got her through the bug.  I am so thankful for Fang and Oriental Health Solutions.  Fang has been there to support us through each step of the way.  We also started with a new pediatrician who took Mirren off of the daily asthma medicine her previous family doctor had just started her on.  I'm very hopeful that within the next year Mirren will not need the albuterol at all.

As far as the peanut allergy, sometime next year I'd like to try giving her a little bit of peanuts again and see if her body is healed of that sensitivity.  I don't ever plan for us to eat peanuts on a regular basis, but I'd like to know if Mirren can tolerate them if she accidentally comes in contact with them again.

We are continuing with a cross between a primal diet and the GAPS diet.  We all feel good on this diet and my husband and I have seen good results in our own health as well.  We are still living with my in-laws.  Last I heard my mother-in-law lost 20 pounds since we moved in, just roughly following our diet and my father-in-law had lost 10 pounds, reluctantly following our diet (he still snacks on whatever he likes in between the meals I prepare for us all).

Thank you Laura for all the great health information you've given us through your blog and emails. You've been such a blessing in our lives.

And here is the beautiful Mirren herself. Love, love, love those babies!

Comments

[erin]

Thanks Laura for posting this! I forgot to mention one important thing for this post. My daughter was a terrible sleeper since birth and now she is a great sleeper taking long naps and sleeping straight through the night. She's a much happier child since she is finally getting the sleep she needs.

Also, we JUST made it through another cold and this time she didn't even need albuterol! The cold came and went without any respiratory problems. Truly miraculous!

[Lisa]

Wow-thank you for sharing Merrin's story. What an inspiration!

[Jennifer]

Thanks for including the pic of your little cutie! What probiotic are you using?

[Erin]

Mirren started with "baby biotic" which we bought through the GAPS website. I also liked Metagenics Ultra Bifidus DF with 15 billion organisms. It was cheaper than baby biotic. Now we've just been having a lot of lactofermented foods in place of the probiotic. Mirren really likes beet kvass--the recipe is in Nourishing Traditions. :-)