Backup That Truck

Growing up I liked to heal my ailments naturally, but after the birth of our first son, we were very mainstream with him. When he was three weeks old, DS1 was diagnosed with MSPI (milk and soy protein intolerant). After two and one-half weeks of constant screaming, stomach cramps, gas and diarrhea what did this mean? I had to change my diet if I wanted to continue to breastfeed him. I could no longer ingest cow dairy protein nor could I soy protein. I loved milk! I drank two gallons of milk per week during his pregnancy! How could I survive this? I was given a small list of ingredients to avoid. Easy, right? Wrong! Those few ingredients are in nearly everything one can buy in the store. There would be no quick meals and I could only eat from a few places in public. Even then, the menu is extremely limited. I found it difficult to cook and fell tired of eating the same things over and over. Eventually, my milk supply dropped a lot and we were forced to supplement with formula. Holy cow! It was expensive and he still had gas, stomach cramps, diarrhea and constipation (did you know your child can be constipated whilst your dealing with diarrhea with him?). It was miserable. Not long after that, we were barely nursing. Nursing had failed. I had failed my baby. He would be one year old before he'd show signs of relief.

At 15 months, DS1 was diagnosed with eczema and was prescribed a highly carcinogenic cream for it. Nothing else worked, but I worried for him in the long term. I prayed for some other solution; a natural solution.

When DS1 was 17 months, DS2 entered the world. I knew he was also MSPI within 24 hours of birth; I knew that cry. I went on the diet immediately.

At 18 months, DS1 was diagnosed with Molluscum contagiosum. They're like warts, but they're not warts and they're from dry skin. Eventually, he'd gotten enough Molluscum contagiosum spots on his body that we had to have them manually removed by a dermatologist at two years of age. That was awful.

By the time DS2 was 9 months, he'd gotten ill after a little girl at the local shopping mall stuck her finger in his mouth (joy). He fell so ill we had to begin breathing treatments for him. Just seven months later, DS1 was diagnosed with asthma. We became married, in essence, to the nebulizer.

When DS1 was 5 1/2 years old and DS2 was just two weeks away from turning 4 years old, DS3 was born. We decided things were going to be different with this one.