Comments on: Our Healthy Eating Journey, Part 6

By: Kathleen

Kathleen — Thu, 06 May 2010 18:06:54 +0000

Katherine-I have found a completely chemical free laundry soap, it’s actually the nuts of a tree! They are called soap nuts and are for sale from several vendors. You can google it. I get mine online from http://www.laundrytree.com. You literally get a bag of these seed pods! You put a few in a muslin bag and toss them in with your clothes. They release the soap when wet. If you prefer a liquid soap, you can follow the directions on laundry tree’s website for soaking the nuts overnight and you’ll have several cups of liquid soap (store in the refrigerator in a lidded glass jar) and use ¼ cup per load. I love that I’m no longer using any chemicals in my laundry, which will help with skin sensitivities. My favorite cream to treat my baby’s eczema is California Baby Calendula Cream. You can read about it at the California Baby website, but I buy mine cheapest at diapers.com. It has worked wonders for my baby.

By: Jennifer

Jennifer — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 14:21:51 +0000

Ok great. Thanks!

By: Laura

Laura — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 13:52:30 +0000

I had been completely opposed to sucanat after reading the information in NT too. Then, I did a little more research and it seems that since NT was written, sucanat has gone BACK to the original way it was processed, which is JUST LIKE Rapadura. So sucanat is dehydrated cane sugar juice just like Rapadura…only Rapadura is a name brand, making it more expensive. Hope that helps a little

By: Jennifer

Jennifer — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 15:49:50 +0000

I have a question about the book Nourishing Traditions. I recently bought it and have been flipping through it and found the section that mentions the natural sweeteners and it says that Sucanat is refined. But I know you use Sucanat and rave about it and how healthy it is. I was just wondering what your thoughts on that were or why you choose to use it.

By: Sandy

Sandy — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 16:06:39 +0000

The roads that God has us walk while parenting! You and your husband have done great, rising up to the challenge placed on your path. My daughter has had Psoriasis since birth, even though we didn’t know it then. Cradle cap, skin infections, eczema, etc. I’ve had many health issues also. Most of our triggers have been found in our foods. We’ve been eating differently for 10 yrs now, knowing what to avoid, and why. Nourishing Traditions has been a great help, as well as many friends that also believe in raw foods, fermented ingredients and avoiding processed foods. My asthma and sinus problems are almost gone and I do have more energy now than when in my 20′s! God bless!

By: Tami

Tami — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 20:56:22 +0000

Laura – I am also anxiously waiting for “the rest of the story”. My oldest is almost 19 now. When he was born, I planned on doing everything right- his birth was attended by a midwife, I nursed him, we ate only healthy, whole foods, etc. But when he was born his lymph nodes were very swollen – it was one of the first things the midwife commented on. A neonatologist was called in (due to the very long delivery) and he also commented on the swollen lymph nodes. Within a couple of days, his entire body began to peel (fairly normal) but it didn’t stop there. It was oozy and wet and it would crust up and then peel again. His dr called it “cradle cap” and told us to use dandruff shampoo – remember, this was his whole body, not just his head, except, like you said, his diaper area, which was always perfect – the only good skin he had. Needless to say, he was a perfectly miserable baby. He was calm only when nursing, so that’s what we did. We began a trek to every dermatologist and allergist in town, and quite a few quacks too. The dermatologists all believed it to be caused by contact sensitivities, the allergists all blamed foods. When he was about 20 months old, he (and I – still nursing) was placed on an elimination diet, where we ate essentially nothing and then gradually added foods back. He did improve slightly on it, but as soon as we added anything back he would flare up worse than ever. It was determined that he was allergic to milk (cow and goat), soy, wheat, eggs, and peanuts. (We already knew about the peanut allergy because of a strong reaction he had at 10 months, the first time he tasted peanut butter.) But even eliminating all those foods didn’t clear up his skin. He still had constant infections, at one point seven of his fingernails were abscessed, from scratching all his infected skin. He was on one antibiotic after another for probably six months straight. At this point he was being treated by an infectious disease dr at our state med school. He was also covered daily in every imaginable rx steroid ointment. During this time period he never slept without us holding him. If we put him down, he scratched himself bloody in his sleep, and woke himself up.Finally, when he was 2 and a half, one of the drs prescribled a flouridated steroid ointment for him, and amazingly, it began to help. It was not a cure-all by any means, and after about two years it quit working for him, but it at least allowed the infections to finally clear up. He was about 8 before he could drink milk, and before patches of normal smooth skin began to appear. Now he is in college, and still has dry skin, but looks normal. He is still allergic to peanuts and tree nuts,but no other foods.

Our other three had very similar stories, but much more experienced parents. We knew what foods, drugs, and doctors to avoid. None of them had any dairy foods at all until after they were two. They all nursed past two also, and I avoided dairy. Still, they all had severe eczema as small kids, and two have asthma. We still had many skin infections. All have nut allergies.

These kids made us crazy. Eczema was all I thought about and all I talked about. Everytime I went out in public, someone was sure to ask me if they had chicken pox, or poison ivy. But eventually, it became just a thing we dealt with. The amazing thing is that my son doesn’t really remember much of this, except that kids made fun of him on the bus! It’s only me who is crazy!

One of our first dermatologists did tell me that eczema was associated with very high IQs! I don’t know if that’s really true (nothing much else he told me was) but my son did grow up to be a National Merit Scholar and is, in my opinion, a brilliant young man.

All that to say, I will keep your son, and you too, in my prayers. I really do feel for you, and I hope to read soon that you have found a way to relieve his itching.

By: Laura

Laura — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 17:20:49 +0000

I make my own buttermilk, which is very easy. You can read about it here:
http://heavenlyhomemakers.com/making-cultured-buttermilk-kefir-and-sour-cream

But, you can also use buttermilk from the store as long as it is “cultured”.

By: Ali

Ali — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 16:13:00 +0000

Of my four children my youngest, now 2, has eczema. Our doctor prescribed topical steriod cream but we never used it. I have noticed since we changed to raw milk it appears to be clearing up. Not sure if this is coincidental with the recent warm weather or the raw milk???? Looking forward to future installments on this series! Thanks so much for sharing all of your knowledge! It has truly changed the way our family lives!

By: Michele M.

Michele M. — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 11:57:23 +0000

Laura,

Thanks for sharing your story. I’ve been trying to change our eating habits for a few years now, but soaking grains is new to me. When you soak with buttermilk, do you use regular buttermilk from a store, or is there a healthier variety? I’m having trouble finding an answer to this.

By: Briana

Briana — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 03:34:16 +0000

I’ve been on pins and needles waiting and wanting so much to hear the whole story.
My three kids all have the triad of excema/allergies/asthma. I’ve long been reading/researching about the link between overall health/well being and what we eat. It can be difficult to feel supported in this journey especially as my family is well entrenched within the convential medical community given my oldest son has a rare, chronic syndrome that has us in and out of dr’s offices often.
I am grateful to have come upon your blog a couple months ago and am eager to hear the rest of the story. The way you purchase & prepare food for your family is the place I want to get to; it just feels really overwhelming to think about all of it coming together overnight. I’m taking serious baby steps, the first of them being eliminating hydrogenated oils, switching to whole wheat/grain from any white flour products and more recently buying free range eggs and switching to agave nectar/honey in place of white sugar. I’m currently on the hunt for grass fed beef. I feel like it’s going to take years until I get to the place I want to be, but I’m trusting GOd in the journey, knowing that it is HIM ultimately who provides for our health and well being. He is our Creator and Sustainer and I know He’ll look out for the health of my family as I go about making the changes I feel He is directing me to make.Thanks for your posts on this topic.