Hi Everyone, sorry I didn't write yesterday! Somehow life got away from me and all of a sudden it was 330pm and the ribs weren't in the oven and my husband was home from work to go to the chiropractor and my 'keeper' was still here 'keeping' the house!
So, needless to say, I think the first day back to school for me ran a bit rough :-)
Today, is a better day so far....although ask me around 4pm if I have dinner in the oven or not yet! Although, I did figure out what we are having tonight. We are having chicken and rice with a salad and whatever fruit I have in a can. A little side note here...my children won't eat winter fruit! Even as toddlers they wouldn't eat it! Isn't that funny, they know the difference between the seasonal stuff and the stuff grown from other countries and such. So, in the winter we do a lot of canned fruit and bananas.....hang on a sec....need to blow my nose for the 100th time today!
Ugh, love being the mom and getting sick. So, again today I am torn on blog subjects. Do I do the food issues/colic baby one or all about me being sick..lol.
They are sort of related. I believe we are all as healthy as our food we put into us and the vitamins/supplements too. After my husband threw himself under the bus over the weekend. So my big guy got hit hard over the weekend by a really bad back.
Now, I can safely say....I didn't really date the best of people in my youth and very few of them I can really say I learned anything of use from. However, I am very grateful I dated someone while they were in Chiropractic College. I learned a lot I would have never known when it came to my own son and his food issues, my own food issues, how important it is to keep your body in 'check' and how even if one little part of your spine is out of alignment, it can put a bunch of things in your body out of 'whack'.
Now...I also am very grateful I broke up with that person so very long ago but, the lessons learned from him going to school to be a chiropractor...life long lessons.
My husband often tells me I should go back to school to learn more about nutrition, supplements, and such as I have a voracious appetite for knowledge when it comes to this as I have seen what doing things naturally and using chemicals/drugs can do to too.
So, my poor hubby finally was able to get to the Chiropractor yesterday. They did a test on him to see how bad his back was...it really is a cool test if any of you get a chance to do it. I have no clue what it is called but, they take sort of a picture of your spine using this little wand and it shows all the places your spine is messed up by showing it in colors.
Green is good, yellow is borderline, and red is bad! Well, apparently there is another color that I had never seen before and didn't know it existed until my husband came home....black. Apparently, his lower spine is SO messed up, it showed up as black. I would assume at least that black is a bad color.
So, my poor guy got worked yesterday by the chiropractor. He said she worked him over so much he thought for sure when she adjusted his middle back his spine touched his bellybutton...lol. Oh, I feel so bad for the guy but, that was kinda funny to hear.
For some reason my husband still fights the Chiropractor deal which is so weird because he knows they work, he used to see one regularly in Colorado when he had ski injuries or rehab stuff but, for some reason, he doesn't do it anymore and really will only go if he is crippled like he was this past week.
Now, I have to say, I don't go nearly as much as I should or would like to either. Our lame insurance only covers 12 visits a year and so, I try to save them up for when I really need help. Which is bad but, wow...it is expensive out of pocket sometimes.
Especially when you add in supplements, vitamins, etc. Things add up. Which by the way, I will never understand about insurance companies. Don't they realize that if people take care of themselves it will save them MILLIONS of dollars a year?! I think our premiums and health care costs would be so much cheaper if we were allowed to help keep ourselves healthy instead of waiting until we are sick to do something about it.
Our children wouldn't be medicated nearly the amount they are...did you know that when you put a child on something like Ritalin or Adderall it actually changes the physiological(ok...if that is misspelled..deal with it!) make up of the brain!? So, think of this...for all of these children that are diagnosed with ADD/ADHD...which by the way...I don't believe nearly the amount of children diagnosed with it have it....and the parents put their children on these drugs without trying to change their diet first or their environments.
My husband has sort of a theory on all of this stuff we are doing to our children. All these children are being raised on drugs, so when they grow up, not only are their brains physiologically different than they were before but, now, they have never learned to live without drugs. They have never had to deal with life issues without their 'meds'. What will happen to these children when they are adults?! Also, as a friends stated...what will the rates of Depression be like in these children/adults?
I think many times childhood Depression and meds go hand and hand. I watched my Grandmother a few years ago slowly losing her mind and die. It was horrible to watch and at her Autopsy they discovered her brain was just being eaten alive pretty much. She had some sort of rare disease however, I strongly believe she got that disease or that disease was able to take stronghold of her because of all of the medication she took over the years for her migraines.
You can actually see her starting to change in photos!! It is so sad. Shortly after she started taking more and more medication for her migraines, you can see her face change in photos it was almost like the life was draining from her and she was changing. Now, it has been shown that the migraine drugs from the 50's and 60's were horrible drugs and many have been pulled from the market now. I believe she would have been a much different person without all of those drugs not to mention, probably still alive.
I have even seen what drugs/meds can do to my own children. It is amazing....when we give my son over the counter allergy medicine...he changes almost instantly! In fact, we finally put two and two together last year when our son got suspended from school for throwing rocks at other children and at the windows of the school....he was in 1st Grade! I quickly realized that morning he had really bad allergies when he woke up and I had given him some Claritin. The next day when it was out of his system, he was our nice little guy again and so confused as to why he couldn't go to school.
That was the last time he was ever given any allergy medication! He now is on herbal supplements and they may take longer to work as you have to build up an immunity to allergens however, it is well worth it to not lose my sweet little boy in his drug induced haze.
In fact, it was last year that we pulled a lot of things out of our sons diet and really saw big changes in his behavior. We fully pulled not just wheat but, gluten too, we had always had him off of dairy however, occasionally we would let him have an ice cream cone or something...no longer....it would change him almost immediately!
We also took note of his vitamins and supplements and made sure they were all wheat/gluten free and dairy/casein free which by the way.....many were not! Including those from our Chiropractor which even he wasn't aware of so, read labels!!!!!
We also did the same with our daughters and ourselves. It has been hard and it takes a lot more time grocery shopping not to mention money...it also costs a lot more to treat our children naturally for things than it would cost us to just get them a prescription for something but, I feel in the long term, it will be worth it.
Although, I will say....there are moments when we do use/want drugs! Last night when I had a rager of a headache and I finally gave in and was going to take a Tylenol or something for it...we had nothing in the cabinet except for 1/2 of a caplet left...I almost cried!
Although...I did take it and it worked! I think it is because I very rarely take any meds so, a teeny amount works wonders when you really want it to.
Which brings me full circle back to what I started writing about. I have a cold, it is trying to become a bad cold and/or sinus infection. I am fighting it every step of the way as best as I can with the stuff I have and the stuff I can take as a nursing mom. Which....by the way, not only do you need to watch what over the counter or prescription things you take but, also what supplements you take...always know if what you are taking is ok to take when nursing.
So, I can't do my miracle cure Echinacea nursing however, I have discovered Garlic tabs...however, I need to take those in moderation as Garlic tends to upset my lovely little ones belly. I am taking Chiropractor recommended doses of Vitamin C, D, and Calcium...as when you are sick...your body doesn't hold on to your vitamins as well.
I am also making sure I keep up with my pre-natals and eating as much 'whole foods' as possible and trying to stay away from processed stuff....although, it is hard because my body CRAVES that stuff when I am sick. It is all about your body does a couple things. One, it tends to crave things when you are in need of things AND it tends to crave things your body is allergic or doesn't need. You need to learn the difference.
For example...never knew this one until I was much older however, as a high school student and in college I was often Anemic. So much so that a couple times in high school I had to sit out soccer games because my iron count was so low. Well, crazy thing is, when I quit eating meat...my red blood cell count went UP instead of down and my body started to regulate itself better...apparently, my Anemia was probably brought on by me working at Burger King for 4 years and eating all their food. Also....my ice eating days disappeared after my Anemia went away. Apparently, one of the signs of Anemia is 'eating ice' for some reason your body craves chewing ice when your red blood cell/iron count is low.
It is something I watch for now and sure enough, over the years, I have noticed myself once in a while go for ice again and after a few days, sometimes a few weeks, I realize what I am doing and head off to have my blood checked and wouldn't you know it....low iron. Funny how your body works isn't it?
Another crazy thing I have learned over the years....have you ever seen anyone with really dark circles under their eyes? Usually it is children that show this sign....in adults it often times is lack of sleep or age. However, in children if you see a child with dark circles under their eyes...it usually means they have a milk allergy of some kind. Often times, if you take the milk/dairy out of their diet, the circles go away almost immediately. However, very few doctors believe that or tell patients about that.
We still fight our doctors sometimes on things we have proven to them over and over again about our children and their food issues. Because, the dairy and or wheat haven't shown up on allergy tests as them being allergic too however, it is very apparent that their bodies can't handle one or both of them by what happens to our children when they eat them.
For about 3 years I knew something was wrong with our 3rd child. She was so small, granted she started out 2 pounds smaller than the other ones so, she was playing catch up but, she was so skinny...in parts. Her legs, and arms were super skinny but, her belly was huge! She looked like a baby from Ethiopia.
So, I kept having her tested for Celiac Disease....the doctor kept saying over and over again she was coming up negative. I knew something was wrong in her diet, I just knew it. Finally, we did her allergy test and tested wheat/gluten. She was allergic to wheat and wheat gluten! So, she didn't have Celiac...thank goodness however, she was allergic to wheat. Once we removed wheat from her diet...her belly went flat within 2 days and her arms and legs started to fill in a bit more over time.
In my research, I found that her body couldn't digest the wheat properly so, she was actually malnurished. Her eating wheat wouldn't allow her body to absorb vitamins from her food.
Same thing with our son who has Asperger'shis body can't absorb the wheat and break it down so, it actually goes through his intestinal walls not completely broken down and hits his brain like a hallucinating drug and causes to him and many other children on the Spectrum, opiate like responses. It is crazy! He is crazy when he eats wheat.
Oh, I could go on and on and on about food, health, natural supplements, and just keeping yourselves away from chemicals and drugs! But, alas...just like I said in the beginning of my blog....I can't have my hubby walking in the door again from work and the kitchen still a mess and dinner not in the oven!
I think this blog was a little lengthy and all over the place...sorry, a few phone calls, and a passionate subject for me can do that :-)
Blessings to you all and I will try to find something funny to write about tomorrow!
-Liza
