Always Learning

I haven't posted anything since October!  I've thought about it several times but it's never a very good time for me to just sit down and write anymore.  I can't even keep in touch with friends by phone anymore because of the time it takes to sit down and talk.  There is always something just a tad bit more urgent!  

 Like this little guy!  Levi is 6 months old now and just as

 cute as a bug in a rug.  I don't personally think bugs on rugs are very cute but that expression just seems to communicate something special!

I titled this entry "Always Learning" because I feel like I am doing just that.  Mostly in regards to health.

With Levi, I've recently learned how to make my own formula.  It became obvious a few months ago that I was not producing enough breast milk for him especially in the late afternoon.  After trying two different organic formulas, it became apparent that they were constipating him.  I tried adding a few natural things to his formula to help him go but wasn't real comfortable with that.  How much should I give him and I knew it worked for adults but what about babies? Anyway, checking out all the ingredients in the conventional formula I realized that my little guy was getting corn syrup in his formula and soy in some way shape or form.  These were top notch Organic formulas that cost a lot of money!

So, I researched making my own.  I had a recipe but had always been intimidated by the list of 12 ingredients!  Once I got over that and really checked it out, I realized I had already in my cupboard 7 of the items necessary!  And what made it easier was that the other 5 could be found at the same website and ordered and shipped to my door!  

So now,  I've done it for 3 weeks and it's easy.  I've even got the recipe memorized.  No more constipation and I know exactly what is going into his mouth.  

This is amazing to me!  Why don't we trust ourselves? Why feel inferior to the big guys who produce food for us and our children?  I mean the companies who make formula aren't certified doctors or nutritionists are they?  Even if they are. . . do they know more about health than we do? Have you looked at the items they call food at the grocery stores?  I don't think they have our best interests in mind.

Everything is at the tip of our fingers these days with the web being so accessible.  If you don't know, look it up and if it conflicts with other sources, then compare and use common sense to make wise choices of who to believe.

As many of you know, Micah was diagnosed with epilepsy right before Levi was born about 7 months ago.  We had all the tests run that we had with Olivia when she was little.  Turns out he has the same exact type of epilepsy as Olivia did.  Does epilepsy run in our family?  Nope.  Not one relative on either side had epilepsy or seizures of any kind. As I research this, I'm finding that food allergies can cause seizures.  Olivia is sensitive to about 60 things.  Is it coincidence that she had epilepsy as a child?  It's really complicated and too much to explain here.  I'm not saying that allergies are causing his seizures directly but in a round about way.  If you want specifics, e-mail me and I'll direct you to the website I found.

Of course, the neurologist wants to medicate him.  And it may be that in the end we decide to, but not before researching our options.  The medication that she recommends is Keppra but when we began checking out this medicine we found that the side effect is aggressiveness.  In my opinion, there is enough of this in Micah already that needs addressing because he is a normal 3 year old.  Why confuse this issue with some outside medication if we don't have to?

With Olivia we felt we didn't have options.  We trusted the professionals and didn't choose to learn or be informed ourselves.  We didn't actively take our children's healthcare into our own hands.  We didn't really know any better. 16 years later, we are different people.  We have learned enough about our health to know that sometimes the doctors don't know best.

So what are we going to do?  Right now we are going to try a diet and have a screening done on him to check for food sensitivities, gut issues, and brain pathogens.  I've been on the computer all week checking out alternative cures for Epilepsy and have found quite a bit, actually.  I had no idea there were other options to choose from!  No one told us.

And maybe, they won't help him in the end but we'll be able to say we tried everything and did our best as his parents to make a wise choice for his health care.  In the meantime, I'm learning a whole lot!

Blessings!

Kristin