Hello, everyone...It has been awhile. Not awhile that I haven't blogged, I have been doing that everyday for the last 15 days actually. I started a mommy blog (http://magazinemom.wordpress.com/)
a month or so ago, to discuss parenting challenges, thrifty-ness, and crafting projects, etc.. I recently joined a group of women in a 31-day blog challenge. My topic, "Confessions of a magazine mom...The things you wish someone would have told you about pregnancy and motherhood." If you are interested in checking it out, just know some of the topics on my 31-Day blog challenge, are a little graphic (in the female organ sense) and incredibly politically incorrect (just the way I like it). My ultimate life goal is to turn this this into a book, so I really laid it all out there. I realize it is not intended for a family audience, but you might get a kick out of it. You can always carouse and see if it tickles your fancy. I recommend you skip the "conception" blog, especially if you are one of my parents or in-laws. If you like what you see, click on the "follow" link on the bottom right of the blog, and you will receive all new post directly to your email. Make sure you look at all posts, including how I got the title on this "about" section.
Any who, shameful plug, I know. My real intent was to update you all on Harlan and Elle. As you know, Elle began her second year of Preschool at Davis Parent Nursery School in September, and is still LOVING it. She is, like me, a social butterfly who wakes up every morning wondering which friend she will be playing with that day. On a preschool day (M,W,F) she is ecstatic. She loves her teachers, and she gets to be with her best friend, Kennedy! She has made many more friends too
 being kitty cats  Kennedy, Elle and Raya |
| here are some of her preschool friends at the park |
She has adjusted to having a brother, finally, but she still is not ooogling and ogling over him. She does talk to him and let him play with her toys, although with Harlan now mobile, no toy is safe. So it may become an issue soon. Here is a video of him on the move. It is not his best work, because every time I attempt to video him, he just stops and smiles at the camera, but it's a glimmer into his new active life.
He really is a happy BIG boy, as you can see at the end of the video when he looks up and gives a big smile. I actually love all the nicknames he has accumulated in his 8 1/2 months of life. My mom calls him "porker" or "chubba bubba". I call him biboy (like big boy minus the g), Elle calls him "mustard baby" or "baby tookie" (pronounced "two-key") not sure why, and my favorite, Brad calls him "beef". All very fitting, of course. Last weigh-in a couple weeks ago he was 22.5 pounds. Needless to say, I do not have to lift weights.
He is eating some solids now, but reacts to many things. He does have lots of intolerance's, and possible IGe allergies to foods (I have another appointment with the allergist booked) and has been diagnosed with Food Protein-Induced Enterocolitus Syndrome (FPIES), a type of food allergy affecting the GI tract. I am learning more everyday, but have so much more to learn. It will be a part of his life for at least 3 years, but will most likely always suffer from allergies of some kind. So far, the only foods (that we have given him that are not on the top list to avoid) he CAN eat are: apples, prunes, blueberries, pears, peaches, strawberries (questionable), nectarines, honeydew, and spinach.
He has shown signs of allergies/intolerance's to the following: Eggs, all dairy products, wheat, gluten, and all grains, all starches, peas, beans (questionable), carrots (questionable), bananas, watermelon. I think that is it, for now. He doesn't leave a lot of room for me to offer nutritious meals, that's for sure. He is pretty behind on eating. He eats less table food then a "normal" baby would have at this age. I think Elle was already eating pizza by now. He still can only do puree foods, or fruit in, what Brandon so lovingly termed, the "suck sack". No finger foods or chunks of anything yet. He just pushes them out with his tongue.
My sister turned me on to her acupuncturist Dr. Jens Maaseen, "the guru" as I call him. He specializes in many things, muscle testing for allergies being one of them. It is a procedure known as Nambudripad's allergy elimination (N.A.E.T), where you identify an allergy, intolerance or sensitivity through muscle testing and then treat it through acupressure/acupuncture (well that his how he did mine). Skeptics are welcome. He will even admit to the crazy notion that you can hold a vile of a potential allergen in one hand, and hold your arm up while he pushes down on it to check your strength in the other. If you can't hold your arm up (loss of strength) it means you are allergic or intolerant to that source. I know it sounds like voodoo witch stuff, especially since you quite literally get needles placed in your body at some point, but it is quite remarkable. Foods that I was intolerant too, my arm would buckle. I had zero strength..it was almost as if it were someones elses arm attached to my body. He tested me on a variety of things (he has over 200 vials of potential allergens, so we only did about 20), mainly the ones I would most commonly encounter in my diet.
Of course, the real reason I wanted to go to him, was for the testing of Harlan to find out if my assumptions were correct, and to see which FPIES triggers, I should have him avoid. How do you test a babies strength, you ask? Oh, through me. Are you completely thinking I am off my rocker yet? I simply held Harlan's skin (I held his belly) with the vial hand, and Dr. Jens tested my other arm for strength. Don't worry, of course we checked the same vial without me touching him to see if the same results applied. They didn't. Harlan is severely allergic to egg (which I knew, but this confirmed), but I am not. While holding him, I had ZERO strength. Then I would stop holding him, retest and I HAD all the strength in the world (well for me). I know you western medicine-er's, this is a tough sell...but really, what do you have to lose? The only drawback to this N.A.E.T technique, you can only cure (alleviate) one identified allergy at a time. For myself, I chose soy (my most severe were soy, calcium, and gluten), amongst a whole slew of sensitivities/intolerance's/allergies I had. It was very enlightening and unnerving all at the same time. Harlan's revealed exactly what FPIES says. His biggest were, egg, dairy, nuts, gluten, all grains, and all starches. He did not show reactions to beans, which is great news. I haven't really given him any yet, but I plan to since he isn't getting protein anywhere else. According to the FPIES organization, turkey, chicken and fish are also triggers. Clearly, we could not, nor did not, test him for everything. We had a limited time table for him since it was his nap time. My sister actually rescued him and brought her back to her house at nap time, while I stayed for the remainder of my 3 hour appointment. I am pretty sure, he is not making any money on the deal. He is just a guy, who cares deeply about people and their well-being and nutrition. I have not had a chance to stream the movie he high recommends, "Genetic Roulette", but he says it is a must read for people, especially those with children. He has no part in this movie, nor does he receive any kick-backs from it for telling us about it, he is just a genuinely caring person who likes to educate people on nutrition. It is sad that us skeptics, assume everyone is in it for the money. I will say to you skeptics, because I am sure you are wondering, I did not know what vials I was holding while being tested. He told me AFTER each one. So, how does he treat you? Well, for Harlan he had me hold him on his lap touching my stomach. He stood behind me and had me breath various ways, while applying pressure down my spine. After about 1 or 2 minutes, we were done. He then had me retest strength, and lo-and-behold, I had full arm strength. Harlan did have to literally wear the vial of egg on his chest (taped) for 25 minutes too, and he was not to touch, or eat egg, and a list of other foods for 25 hours. Not hard since he really only eats formula. For me, it was the same, but after the breathing he places about 10 acupuncture needles in my hands, arms, legs and feet. After 25 minutes of laying there under a heat lamp, I was done. My strength, restored. He did say for me, that it might take 2 visits since my allergy was so severe, but for Harlan, well all kids, cure so fast that one should do the trick. I haven't fed Harlan any egg yet, I guess I too am still a little skeptic. I will say my soy reaction is almost null. I guess the proof is in the pudding, or the egg. I will keep you all posted.
