Of all Things, Diet is the Priority – And Your Doctor Probably Isn’t Qualified to Help

Nourish: Provide with food or other substances necessary for growth and health. From Latin nutrire, meaning to feed or cherish.

If You Had To Choose…

The choices as to how to love the first seven years are endless. I am blessed to have had so much teaching and so many opportunities to help my child and to grow as a parent.

But imagine this scenario:

God comes down and says, “Lyn, from now on you are only allowed to research one subject in order to help your child. You must choose between all the different things you could learn about and become educated in only one field.”

What would I say?

“But I need to help her to do so many things. She needs to walk, to go to the bathroom, to chew food, to talk, read, write, communicate.

We need to overcome allergies as they come up, illnesses too. We need to make sure her feet don’t bother her, that her teeth grow properly, that her ears don’t give her any trouble any more.

We need to keep working on her skin, because without help, it gets very dry.

We need to find ways to boost her circulation, those hands and feet often go purple, even when it’s warm outside.

Her blood tests have shown anaemia before, and I think she has a tendency to be anaemic. I’ve only just started researching that…

In the winter she gets colds, has had pneumonia, chest infections. There’s so much more to learn and do! I can’t possibly choose just one thing!”

But God is adamant, “One thing. And you’d better make it a good one!”

So I ponder. I rack my brains. I think to myself, “What would have the greatest effect? What one thing, if done consistently and excellently, would produce the best results over time?”

And then it comes to me… “Food! Preparing and researching food. If I did that and nothing else, it would have a greater positive effect on Chloe throughout her life than any other subject.

What she eats and drinks has the most profound effect on all of the functions and systems and body parts that I listed above. Nothing else does.”

And God smiles and says, “Good choice.”

The Facts About Food

For example, various heart foundations have managed to get the message across that if you eat large quantities of excessively fatty foods you are more likely to suffer from a heart attack.

The treatment of diabetes has just about everything to do with diet.

So it’s not a huge leap of understanding to realise that the primary source of good health is good food, and the primary source of illness is malnutrition.

Why is it then that hospitals serve such overcooked, sugar-loaded meals?

Why don’t doctors prescribe pro-biotics as well as anti-biotics?

Except in cases of poisoning, extreme allergic reactions and choking, has your doctor ever asked you what you’re feeding your child?

Even if you don’t have the time or the inclination to launch a full-scale developmental program with your child, there is something you can do on a daily basis that will make a long-term, significant difference...

You can become an expert on food.

• their bones,

• their brains,

• their not yet developed adult teeth,

• the way they look

• their physical comfort level

• their immune system

Chloe’s Story:

I had read Let’s Have Healthy Children by Adelle Davis before Chloe was born and was always conscious of feeding her well.

Some factors, however, were beyond my control.

In April 2008, a note came home from school with Chloe saying that she showed signs of extreme abdominal pain that afternoon, but was feeling better now.

We observed her closely but found nothing.

A couple of days later, the note home this time declared that she had passed (in the digestive sense of the word) a 6cm stick!

None of us were aware of Chloe eating the stick, but certainly weren’t surprised, since Chloe still likes to taste the world, rather than simply see, feel, hear or smell it.

The good thing was that she seemed none the worse for it.

However, over the next few weeks, Chloe went into a decline. Her skin went blotchy and pimply, she became lethargic, irritable, unhappy and then, (and this is when I know something’s seriously wrong) she lost her appetite.

High fever quickly followed and it wasn’t long before her blood tests indicated that her body was fighting a massive infection.

Off to the children’s ward she went, and we all prayed that it wasn’t a return of the virus that attacked her brain this time last year.

More testing revealed what looked like appendicitis/peritonitis. The surgeon guessed that her appendix had burst and infected the surrounding stomach cavity.

She was rushed into theatre.

It was around about then that I remembered the stick and I told the surgeon. Sure enough, appendicitis was not found, but massive infection of the small bowel, most likely caused by perforations made by the stick.

They whipped out her appendix anyway and cleaned out the stomach.

Many weeks later after intravenous antibiotics and painkillers, she was released from hospital.

She had lost a great deal of weight and needed building up quickly. That’s where a book called Breaking the Vicious Cycle came in.

Through reading this book I was able to quickly and easily find out how to repair a damaged gut and learned a lot about sugar and starch which was beneficial for the whole family.

We didn’t follow too much of the regime in the book, called the Specific Carbohydrate Diet, and at one point totally dropped it around the time of moving house. I was simply too busy.

Unfortunately, after picking up quite well, Chloe’s health began to decline at the end of August 2008. Similar symptoms to the last.

This time she ended up at the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne and had part of her small bowel removed. It was very infected, most probably from the perforation earlier in the year.

On her release from hospital, I decided to get very serious about her digestive system. That’s where the third book, Gut and Psychology Syndrome was put to great use.

Chloe has been on a very strict diet ever since. I feel that I cannot take any chances with her food at this point because of all the problems she has had with her gut.

When she left hospital in October 2008 she weighed 16kg. This was less than her three year old sister.

She vomited and had diarrhoea several times a day and though she was able to eat, she was still a very sick and weak child.

I gave her six to eight small meals per day, supplementing with pro-biotic powder.

I slow-cooked chicken, duck, beef and lamb almost constantly and fed her on stock, vegetables and fruit, building up the size of her meals and eventually cutting back the frequency.

She returned to school with strict instructions that nothing was to be consumed by her unless I had sent it myself.

The school was enormously supportive and respectful of this, although Chloe had her angry moments when her classmates made nice things to eat in cookery and she couldn’t partake. Poor thing!

On the rare occasions that Chloe’s diet was breached her decline was swift and unmistakeable.

Even a piece of chocoleate, pasta, potatoes etc, would make her vomit, stop her sleeping properly, turn her nappies to mush.

There is no question of the efficacy of the GAPS diet for her at this time.

She is now over 20kg (Jan 2009) and thriving.

In another 6-12 months I can start reintroducing foods not on the diet, but do you know what? I love eating this way. I love the fact that my family has nutritious, great tasting, fresh food. It has been remarkably easy to make this part of our lifestyle.

I believe that the only foods we’ll be reintroducing to her are the treats. The bread, potatoes, starch, sugar that were so much part of our daily lives beforehand are likely to stay out of our household forever.

The Three-Book Starting Point

The first, Let’s Have Healthy Children by Adelle Davis, taught me how a body works and what food has to do with that.

The second, Breaking the Vicious Cycle by Elaine Gottschall taught me what to do when a body isn’t working so well.

The third, Gut and Psychology Syndrome by Dr Natasha Campbell-McBride, taught me what to do when a body has been thoroughly ravaged by disease and medical drugs.

These books are well researched and easy to read. They should be essential reading for anyone involved with human beings and health, let alone children with disabilities. Oh what heartache could be avoided!

On the other hand, it must be borne in mind that these books serve best as educators and guides, not something to be slavishly followed and adhered to with evangelical passion unless extreme measures are called for.

Your job, remember, is to enjoy the first seven years, not to beat yourself up with every expert’s dogmatic whip.

Read these books for knowledge. Let them help shape and develop your guiding principles. Don’t let them be your master. Your child is unique, the world you live in is fluid, unpredictable and real.

In all things you do for your disabled child, don’t let your attempts to help her become sources of stress. You have the rest of your life together, however long that may be, and you have the present moment. Love it.

Here are some details about the books: first, Let’s Have Healthy Children

And why not?

This book was written many decades ago by a nutritionist called Adelle Davis.

It taught me how the body works, what the various vitamins do and don’t do in the body and how food is connected to wellness.

The research is not up to date, obviously, and there is room for controversy around her more extreme recommendations; but it gives great insight into the importance of good nutrition.

The author makes some very good points and I’ve found myself referring to it throughout Chloe’s first seven years.

Some of the supplements and ingredients aren’t available any more, and frankly, I don’t use dietary supplements quite as much as I used to since I read the third book.

The take-home message from Davis’ book is this:

Children’s stomachs are small. Every bite counts. Make them good bites wherever you possibly can.

Breaking the Vicious Cycle

Elaine Gottschall wrote this book after her disillusionment at the medical establishment’s treatment of her daughter’s colitis.

There follows a quote from an article on her website which can be found on her Specific Carbohydrate Diet website.

“After examining Judy, he [the good physician, Dr. Haas] asked Elaine what she had been feeding her daughter. It was that simple — Judy needed to eat mostly meat, fruits and vegetables, and cut out carbohydrates such as grains, flour and sugar. She could have foods baked with nut flours, including ground almonds and pecans, bread made with boiled beans, specially-prepared yogurt, and some natural cheeses.

“The diet was not hard to follow, although it required extra food preparation and planning, and it changed her life. “ Within a week, the seizures stopped never to return, it was incredible,” says Elaine. In two years, Judy was symptom free and continued on the diet.

“While her daughter became healthy, Elaine became angry. This was the early 1960s and research on lactose intolerance dated back to the early 1900s. Her daughter had suffered so terribly and she wanted to know why? Why had the medical community ignored food science?

“Dr. Haas had died and Elaine feared that unless someone acted to carry on his legacy, his simple diet remedy would die with him, robbing other patients of the chance for recovery.

“ I said [to my husband], ‘Herb, I’m mad. I’m truly mad.’ So he told me to get back to school to find out what the blankety-blank is going on.”

At 47, the former secretary and stay-at-home mom decided to go back to school, earning degrees over the next 19 years in biology, nutritional biochemistry and cellular biology.

“I had to have the background and the credentials to debate this,” she says.

You will find many stories of parents who have refused to accept medical dogma and who have subsequently helped improve the lives of many.

Breaking The Vicious Cycle was one that I found inspiring as well as extremely useful.

It is full of ideas and recipes and you can go online and download more recipes and support at the Breaking the Vicious Cycle website.

However, after Chloe’s second bowel illness, I needed to get even tougher. That’s where the next book came in…

Gut and Psychology Syndrome

I was already aware of this book, but prior to Chloe’s last illness I found that the state of her digestive system was much better than the symptoms described therein.

I used elements of the book as a guide, but now decided to follow it to the letter.

Basically, this book is a common sense, easy to read, well researched and extremely interesting guide to wellness through digestive health.

It lays out the reasons why the gut becomes unhealthy and the steps to take to repopulate the intestine with good bacteria.

The food is extremely healthy, easy to make and very effective.

I was a little daunted at first, but found that it didn’t take long to make Chloe’s diet part of our lifestyle, and we’ve all benefited from the healthier food that comes into the house.

Basically all sugars and starches are eliminated from the diet and replaced by fabulous fruits, vegetables, honey (this is a simple sugar and easy to digest) and slow-cooked meats.

Chloe has a baseline vitamin C, E and fish-oil supplement every day, as well as pro-biotic powder. This is adequate for her. She is given more C if she has a cold.

She is also taking some homeopathic remedies to stimulate her gut and nervous system.

Chloe will be living this way for the next two years. So far, so good.

What I have learned about diet is this:

There is no quick fix for illness and disability, but good food, over time, is the best insurance against further damage.

To determine what good food is, you first have to find out how a body works in relation to eating. As a society, we are shockingly ignorant of many basic biological facts, even though we generally have the best intentions.

The point is: don’t take on fad diets that some remote “expert” thinks will be good for your child. Find out exactly what she thrives on and provide it in good quantities as part of your long-term lifestyle. Build up to it if you need to, don’t get overwhelmed and make radical changes that won’t stick.

I have also learned that sugar is the root of a significant amount of illness in the population. Use honey and cut out the rest (making some allowances for chocolate, which has an emotionally curative effect that makes it almost worth it, am I right?).

Beware multi-level marketing companies that offer miracle cures for what ails you. There simply isn’t a commercially available supplement or set of supplements that do better than an sensible, balanced, tailor-made diet for your child.

Loving the first seven years is about doing the best you can with what you’ve got.

You’ve got at least three meals a day and access to just about every type of food, healthy and unhealthy, under the sun. Use it with love and do the best you can. It will make a difference.