We had been pure Whole 30 for 24 days. Colson’s mood shifts when he is too low carb, so I threw in some organic Himalayan white basmati rice as an option for chicken soup. Colson and Ryan ate the rice, and Ryan had dessert rice. Next morning the first thing Ryan said was that he had that pressure behind the eyes that he gets when he eats wheat. I looked at his eyes and darn, darn and more darn. Then I zeroed in on Colson’s and they were less darn-able but swollen too. Rice is now out of the diet.
These guys are so Whole 30’d that they didn’t even fight it. Colson asked if he could have rice occasionally and I told him I didn’t know yet. My Dr. of Oriental medicine says that lots of people are allergic to rice. Now my guys react to wheat, corn and rice. I asked if pretty much all grasses were out of their diet and he said probably. He said that we could try amaranth, quinoa and buckwheat but that there would likely be a reaction there too. Still, some people are able to slide by with it so we could try.
I am going to need to find a carb for Colson, as he isn’t big on either sweet potatoes or white potatoes. But perhaps I underestimate him. He is maturing and he gets the food and health thing. One of his friends is hypothyroid at 8 years old (so is mom) and I think he can look down the road at what it means for his friend if he doesn’t get that under control.
Back to Colson. Knowing what I know now, that he is allergic to rice and that rice is constipating, I wonder if that is why he had the most amazing constipation when I stupidly made rice cereal his first “solid” food at four months. I didn’t know jack about nutrition, other than to eat organic, and I STUPIDLY listened to the pediatrician without a second thought. When the exceptional constipation struck I went to the ped and he said to use glycerin enemas. They were explosive and Colson hated them. My poor boy. Even under the ped’s advice Colson would go up to 10 days with no bowel movement! Seriously. Knowing what I know now about gut health – that time scares the daylights out of me. The ped wanted to do a barium colon study, for which they would sedate Colson, but a business associate talked us out of it. She said that the bowels would start working again at around age 11 months and that the docs didn’t know what they were doing. Sure enough she was right and he has been regular since he was 11 months old.
When I make a list of Colson’s challenges, the pediatricians have been wrong EVERY TIME.
- Constipation – doc said keep feeding him constipating rice cereal and some prune juice, which didn’t do a thing, give him a weekly glycerin enema, and then let’s knock him out and do a radioactive study on his colon. Solution – change the diet, which became much more rounded at 11 months when the constipation ended. Oh…and the wheat he ate until he was five. Ugh! Oh…and that same ped wanted Colson weaned by a year. He was very adamant. At least I had the sense to listen to my wailing son when he protested!
- Wonky legs – docs repeatedly said he would grow out of it. He didn’t grow out of it so specialist said let’s do surgery to stop parts of his legs from growing and then do a second surgery to start them again. Solution – chiropractor and physical therapy.
- Stuffy nose – doc said that is just the way it is sometimes. Solution – change the food.
I do believe there are some great MDs and other healers. They are too few, though, and they can’t always think of everything – they are human for gosh sakes. I have learned to vigilantly guard my family’s health and try to question everything, but I won’t always get it right either. If I wasn’t so vigilant, my son would be the victim of at least two needless, dumbass surgeries and who knows what medications.
All that ranting from a rice allergy discovery.
Comments