AAT

Alright I am finally writing about AAT!

AAT stands for Advanced Allergy Therapeutics . It is a new treatment for allergies based on acupressure.

When you describe it to someone it probably sounds super new-agey and hoaky but it totally works.

I guess there was this scientist who worked at NASA who somehow had reason to figure out that when people ate certain foods, certain areas of the brain lit up. So he isolated all the different foods and components (somehow). Then he figured out which electrical impulse would stimulate the same brain activity (as if the allergen had been introduced). Now, it is well known that muscle weakness can be observed if someone is exposed to an allergen.

So you go in there, and you get this cuff hooked on your arm and they send the electrical signal through and try to push your arm down. This part is really remarkable and you have to feel it for yourself but your arm literally becomes like a noodle and loses all strength, compared to just a second before, if they send an allergen through to you. So in this way they find out all your allergens and sensitivities. The initial testing session is long, like an hour, I think.

Then after that you go in for 15 min treatment sessions. They send one allergen at a time and it's related components through the cuff, and then they use this tool to stimulate the acupressure points up and down the spine. This is supposed to "reset" the brain's reaction to the allergen, so that it no longer interprets the stimulus as bad, preventing the immune reaction that an allergy is.

And as much as it might sound crazy it works. James (the hubby) went, in a handful of treatments, from spending 10-15 mins every single morning sneezing and blowing his nose to never doing it. Just like that.

So Ya-ling (our chiropractor friend) has found that certain things are more important to treat than others. She always treats histamines first. See, people that have a lot of allergies and sensitivities are almost always ALSO allergic to histamines. Your body releases histamines in response to an allergen. But when people are also allergic to histamines, then this response triggers a cascade of continually releasing histamines which makes the response to ALL allergens worse. So she does this first.

Next she does digestive mucus and fermentation toxins. If these are not functioning correctly, they will cause your body to over-react to everything, similar to histamines, since these things are involved in the digestion of ALL food. Luckily james was not sensitive to either of these things so we didn't need to do that on him.

So next we tested him for food preservatives, colors, and dyes. I think he was just allergic to one (dyes? I forget), so we did that next.

At this point (maybe 2 weeks ago now) I decided to start coming in twice a week. My back has been really messed up (just from stress), and I figured I could use the extra adjustments and that way we would get more food groups treated sooner.

So then I decided to do soy, because it is a really huge part of my diet and not avoiding it would make everything a lot easier.

And then last week I did chocolate--perhaps it doesn't seem like an important food group, but for me it is. And some things make life worth living, LOL. And tomatoes--we picked tomatoes because out of a few different things he was most sensitive to that, and it's a pain in the neck avoiding ketchup and tomatoes because they are veggies and I am used to eating them on sandwiches and stuff.

And then on Monday we did yeast. He was very allergic to it and it's one of the things I haven't even been trying to avoid because it's just too much, so it was good to get treated. He was allergic to more than six components of it so we have to take two sessions to do it, so we finished yeast on Wednesday.

Anyway, it definitely seems to be helping a lot. He is breaking out some still but I haven't been avoiding things in general as strictly. He is DEFINITELY not reacting to soy, chocolate, or tomatoes as much as he WAS, but he might still be reacting a little bit (which I can totally live with). So we're going to keep going with it and hopefully soon I won't have to be very careful at all about what I am eating.

I am still going to careful about what actual foods I give him, and might try to avoid feeding him most of the foods he was originally allergic to until he's closer to a year or two. But yeah things are progressing!

And I would definitely encourage anyone dealing with food allergies (or any kind of illness, sickness or problem, really, food sensitivities are the basis of more issues than you might think!) to look up where there are AAT treatment centers near you, and give it a try--totally worth the money, in my opinion!

What I am Eating: Nut Granola

One thing that's interesting is a lot of times when a baby is allergic to a bunch of nuts, there are some they aren't allergic to as well. For James this is walnuts, pecans, and macadamia nuts (all the fattiest ones, what do you know? He likes Mommy squishy).

So I bought a pound each of walnuts and pecans.

First I preheated the oven at 400 degrees.

Then I put the nuts in a bowl and poured homemade maple syrup (maybe 1/4 cup?) over them, 2-3 tbs of melted Soy-Free Earth Balance and added cinnamon, nutmeg, maybe 1/4 cup oats, and maybe 1/8 cup of chia seeds, and salt to taste.

I mixed it all together, and then laid it out on 2 baking sheets covered with parchment paper.

Bake at 400 degrees for 7/10 mins, take out, let cool, and then store in freezer between snacks!

It's REALLY good and it packs a punch--protein--both from the nuts and chia seeds, sweet, rich, salty, it has everything. So this has been a great comforting snack recently.

Rash is Back, Dang it

After disappearing completely last week, I began to eat something that made him break out. It was actually several things. First, I thought he wasn't really allergic to citrus and started eating it again, but AAT confirmed this week that he is. So that is probably part of it.

Also, AAT confirmed last week that he is allergic to sorghum (grain), well I neglected to realize that it's in this gluten free flour mix that I use all the time, duh, so it was that too.

I also became suspicious of coconut but AAT showed no allergy to it, but I'm going to avoid it for now until the rash is gone again.

Lots of people have been asking me what I'm eating. I have to admit it is tough.

Here's his current allergen situation summed up:

Allergic--Confirmed by Diet and AAT (Advanced Allergy Therapeutics treatment):
Wheat, Soy, Tomatoes, Chocolate, Peanuts, Cashews, Almonds, Pistachos, Citrus, Sorghum

Suspected by Diet but not showing up as sensitive when tested by AAT: Corn, Coconut

AAT Confirms sensitivity but he's not so allergic that it makes him break out: Yeast, Caffeine

I am trying to completely avoid the first two categories with various levels of success. Corn is extremely difficult to completely avoid in all forms all of the time.

I definitely plan to start reintroduced corn and coconut soon, since supposedly he's not allergic . . . but I want him to be completely rash-free first.

But yeah it's getting harder as my diet continues to be trimmed--especially of grains. I think I'll go shopping and get some rye bread and crackers soon--he's supposedly not allergic to that--I just cut it out because it had gluten, but at this point that doesn't matter, I just need more variety in my food.

When I'm at home, I am okay--I just eat lots of rice and beans and lentils and oatmeal and fruit and veggies, which honestly is a healthy diet. But NEVER being able to have sweet things, bready things, etc is very hard. It's like I'm nutritionally okay but I miss the pleasure of eating a variety of foods. :(

Going out or eating anywhere besides my own house is pretty much guaranteed to make him break out the next day, which is difficult.

But I've been getting creative with making it work--I have a whole bunch of things I've been making and meaning to post about lately. All the cooking is fun and delicious but it's a lot of work. So recipe posts to come!

4 Month Appointment (And more about the rash)

So James (the hubby) and I took LJ (little James, hehe) to the pediatrician's today for his 4 month check-up!

James is growing and healthy! He now weighs 14 lbs 9 ozs (45%) and is 27 inches long (97%)!

He got his combo shot vaccine today (Diptheria, Pertussis, Tetanus, Hib, Polio) which we had skipped from his 2 month appointment. This time, I breastfed him WHILE she gave him the shot--that worked out well, he only popped off to let out one little shriek and then he was back to nursing, though somewhat upset, obviously.

The doctor said we can start giving him food if we want to but that we could also wait. I told him we'd probably wait until 6 months before we start really letting him try anything.

About the rash--THANK YOU everyone for all your concerns, questions, suggestions, etc!

To give you an update, the rash is almost completely gone now! I think I have everything that he is allergic to figured out finally! And just when I was ready to throw in the towel . . .

This is what I've been avoiding: Wheat, barley, rye, corn, soy, peanuts, almonds, cashews, pistachios, tomatoes, chocolate, citrus . . .

Some of those things (barley, rye, citrus, especially) I'm actually not sure if he is allergic or not. If the rash continues to heal/improve and is therefore pretty much gone by Monday, I will start re-introducing foods then, starting first with the ones that we are least suspicious of.

To answer some of the questions:

YES it is definitely food allergies. I have seen myself that it breaks out after certain meals heavy in allergic foods, and has been improving steadily over the last month that I've been on a restricted diet. The only reason it has taken me this long to figure it out is because certain allergic ingredients have been "hiding" in foods I eat all the time--like corn in EVERYTHING, soy oil in everything (especially the hummus I was eating all the time), etc.

NO it is not an allergy to laundry soap because it is ONLY on his forehead which is in contact with less laundry than any other part of his body. He did react to Dreft soap and the rash at that time was around his neck and chest--which makes sense. We switched to All Free and Clear and have had no more issues.

NO it is not an allergy to lotion. We use no lotion on him except in the last couple days we started using Aveeno and he hasn't had a reaction to that--if anything, it's helping. Normally we put coconut or olive oil on him and on the rash. It does not appear t be a reaction to those things either since, again, we use it all over him and only his forehead breaks out.

NO it is not an allergy to soap. We bathe him infrequently--maybe twice a week, and 75% of the time use no soap on him at all. When we do, we use Dr. Bronner's and an all-natural baby shampoo.

YES we talked to the doctor today and he said the Aveeno lotion would be good for it. I have heard several rec's for Aquaphor so as long as it doesn't contain soy or corn or other allergic ingredients I will probably pick some up. He also said that it definitely looked better, so that the elimination diet seemed to be working.

YES we have tried cortisone and it didn't really help the rash (which is common for a food allergy rash, that cortisone wouldn't help very much). I'm not sure if it would help the itching, but luckily the worst of that seems to be over. I did ask James (the hubby) about cortisone and he wasn't a very big fan, so we'll probably skip it for now.

YES he is basically too young for an allergist or formal allergy tests.

However, about two weeks ago we did start treating his allergies with AAT (Advanced Allergy Therapeutics). It is (sort of) a slow process though because you can only treat one thing at each visit, and first they treat general things like histamines (to prevent over-reaction), and digestive enzymes (for general gut health), etc.

AAT sort of deserves it's own post though.

But we definitely have some tools up our sleeves to deal with this and I am FINALLY seeing a really good result from the elimination diet. So as frustrated and ready to lose it as I was yesterday, today is a new day and it really pays to see my dieting effort pay off!

I actually think part of why he was itching SO badly yesterday (or the day before) was because it was really starting to heal deeply. So as aggravating as it was, it was actually a good sign!

So that was our appointment and more about our rash woes/SUCCESSES, hehe.

Itchy Head

Now that James is getting better and better control of his hands, it is more and more obvious that some days his rash itches him horribly. If gets out of the swaddle at night, sometimes we wake up to his forehead scratched to bits and blood smeared all over it and under his fingernails. I think he's the most likely to scratch when he's half asleep, so naptime is another time where he's apt to scratch himself silly.

I feel awful but I don't know what to do. It seems to be the most itchy about two days after it gets inflamed--I think during the healing phase. Over the last week James and I have experimented with biting, cutting, and filing his nails, but nothing seems to help when he is determined to itch. This morning was one in which I woke up to him having scratched himself all up.

It was so bad that I put a (clean and dry) cloth wipe on his forehead, and then wrapped it with this ace bandage sort of thing, and then put a hat over it. So he's been trying to scratch it all day but he can't . . . I can tell he is uncomfortable and aggravated, and he's not the only one!

I feel awful that I'm not certain of all the things he is allergic to--believe it or not, the rash itself is still a million times better than it was when I was eating wheat and more things he reacts to, but the itching seems to be worse now, possibly because he's healing and definitely because he can use his hands better.

I'm getting very frustrated, especially after I'm making such a big effort with my diet. I'm considering going on a strict elimination diet like this. I don't know what else I can do! Obviously he is still growing and healthy on breast milk, so if I don't find a total solution, I'll just have to be okay with that, but I feel bad that he's so itchy . . . :(

Big Allergy/Rash Update

So I was completely exhausted when I wrote my last entry, which is why I didn't explain well to my doctor what I had noticed, and I didn't explain well on here what I was feeling about my doctor--which, in retrospect, is unwarrented considering what I actually said to him.

I went to my parents house on Wednesday, until Saturday morning, to visit them and my sister Lauren, who was home for a few days. I took the baby but left the husband. For some reason, I had the hardest time sleeping at my parent's house--as the days passed I began to fall into a serious stupor. Like when you are so tired that you start stumbling around and can't think of words and stare into space when people are trying to talk to you.

So deep was my exhaustion that I even took a pregnancy test this morning--though I think God himself would have been the father if it had been positive--but it wasn't.

Anyway, due to this state, when the doctor called me back, the conversation went something like this:

Me: Yeah, hi, I think James is allergic to gluten.
Doc: Why do you say this?
Me: Well, he has this rash on his forehead since he was like a week old, but I had reduced eating gluten for my own reasons for a few days and it started to get better. Then I ate a lot one day and the next day it was horrible!
Doc: What does the rash look like?
Me: It is red, flaky, inflamed, pussy, and appears to be itchy at least sometimes.
Doc: Well, gluten doesn't pass into milk, which is why cows can eat wheat but milk is gluten free.
Me: ::Flabbergasted at this inarguable logic:: Wow. Yeah, you're right. ::Doesn't know what to think now::
Doc: It's possible he's allergic to wheat or something else you are eating ...
Me: I wondered that and tried eating barley and rye and the next day it was really bad again. Do you test babies this young for food allergies?
Doc: No, not as much food gets into milk as people think. It's probably (fancy medical names for normal baby skin rash), eczema, etc. Try putting X Y Z on it, but it will go away with time . . .

Now, due to my extreme exhaustion and flabbergasted state, I totally failed to mention his other symptoms of an allergy--excessive gas, spitting up, and green, watery, mucousy poops . . . and the fact that this has also improved since I stopped eating gluten.

So I got off the phone feeling still certain that he was dealing with a food allergy but thinking that my doc wasn't taking me seriously. In retrospect, I didn't really explain myself well . . .

Regardless, I have continued to avoid gluten and James' rash is almost totally gone. Considering he has had it since one week after he was born I HIGHLY DOUBT that this is a coincidence. So as people pointed out in my last entry, he is probably allergic to WHEAT (the second most common allergin for newborn babies after milk, NOT GLUTEN as I'd written/thought before).

However, I also realized that I also didn't eat any soy while I was at my parents' house. Maybe he is allergic to soy as well, and so when I thought he was reacting to barley and rye he was actually reacting to soy (I'm not certain I ate it that day but it's pretty darn likely)!

So my plan at this point is to avoid ALL gluten (wheat, barley, and rye), AND soy until the rash is totally healed (probably only a few days from now). Then I will try first eating barley, then rye (and these foods, besides the gluten, aren't very highly allergic), and THEN soy, and watch his reactions very carefully.

I REALLY REALLY hope that he isn't allergic to soy, because that would reduce my list of okay foods to eat to almost nothing--okay, this is an exaggeration, but tofu and other soy replacement products feature pretty significantly in my diet. Things I eat often that I wouldn't be able to eat anymore: Fried Tofu, Tofu scramble, Vegan mac and cheese, pizza with cheese, soy yogurt, tofu pups (vegan hot dogs), edamame, tempeh . . . these foods make up a really good portion of our diet. And they are some of the most protein rich meals that we eat . . .

So I'm REALLY REALLY REALLY hoping that it is ONLY wheat, and NOT soy that we are dealing with. But it's definitely one or both since I'm happy to report that his rash is almost totally healed AND he is hardly spitting up (or burping) at all . . .

So I'm glad to be finally getting to the bottom of this, and I would be thrilled if I could still eat rye bread . . . but I would much rather be able to eat soy . . . keep your fingers crossed, people!

Gluten Free Genetics

Someone asked if I thought James was allergic to gluten because I was on a low gluten diet while I was pregnant with him.

I tried for three years to get pregnant, and I was not able to do so until I stopped eating gluten, in combination with other things. This is probably because of a gluten sensitivity, or possibly low-level Celiac's disease. Because of the intestinal inflammation that the gluten causes (evidenced by my swollen stomach), I was unable to absorb nutritional properly and therefore my eggs could not grow properly.

(Additionally I had ovarian inflammation (Poly cystic Ovarian Syndrome) which could have been caused by the gluten allergy or was a symptom of a related problem--I took Glumetza for that (but maybe the gluten-free diet would have been enough?) . . .

Anyway, being gluten-free was a necessity so that the fetus (Little James) could get the right nutrition while he was in there and could grow.

I think him being allergic to gluten is probably related less to him being exposed to it sparingly in the womb and more to do with him being my son, and since I am sensitive to gluten he is more likely to be sensitive as well.

Anyway, gluten and dairy allergies are among the most common for small babies, and typically they will grow out of them with time.

I think him being allergic to gluten is also a symptom of the problem with the FOOD. In the US, all the wheat grown is a high-gluten, genetically modified strain. Our bodies are not made to process it, and so we have more and more people identifying that it is a problem for them.

Oh well. I am DEFINITELY healthier and I DEFINITELY feel better when I'm not eating it, and now since I've seen how miserable it makes him, I won't be eating it any more. I'm happy about it in a way because I know it is better for me. It's just hard to give up something you like so much . . . :-P