Detox diet - Blogging our journey

[KevinInMA]

Okay, somebody please reassure me that the reason I'm seeing his eyes roll now and then right now is because he's fighting off a cold.

 

It's really really bothering me. I'm just hoping it's this cold and I need to hear that this is a possibility.

 

Thanks!

[Chemar]

tics can increase with illness or infection, Kevin so yes, an eye rolling tic may well be associated with him having a cold virus.

 

food or environmental allergies (pollen season/spring) , eye strain from needing glasses etc have also been noted as eye tic triggers

[KevinInMA]

Thanks Cheri.

If thats the case, does it stand to reason that these aren't actually tics as much as they are symptoms of illness that can be treated in other ways such as allergy drops?

[KevinInMA]

Ok. I'm trying to wrap my brain around what is going on here. Its becoming increasingly clear that he has a seasonal allergy that is causing stuffiness and runny nose and itchy eyes and stuff. This results in some throat clearing and coughing and eye movements that are similar to his tics.

So I'm wondering if we are working with two separate issues. One being the seasonal allergies causing symptoms and the other being a food allergy causing the symptoms to turn into tics.

 

This seems simple on the surface but just sounds kind of pie-in-the-sky to me for some reason.

 

The cough and throat clearing are nowhere near tic levels yet so I wonder what will become of this as the season progresses...

 

What do you guys think?

[ameecram]

Hope things begin to improve for you! I am awaiting the big increase as well, spring brings out the stuffy nose, sniffing and throat clearing for my son too. He is 6 and like your family, we follow a very restricted diet and have for the past 2 years now. We have been on Quecertin for quite awhile for his seasonal allergies. It's hard when things ramp up again after they've been so good for awhile. Take care!

[KevinInMA]

Does it helP with the allergy symptoms?

[ameecram]

Does it helP with the allergy symptoms?

 

 

His allergies are much more under control with Quecertin, much more mild. He still has allergy symptoms, but nothing like it used to be. I do feel it is helping. We also run an air purifier in his room all the time.

[Chemar]

Ok. I'm trying to wrap my brain around what is going on here. Its becoming increasingly clear that he has a seasonal allergy that is causing stuffiness and runny nose and itchy eyes and stuff. This results in some throat clearing and coughing and eye movements that are similar to his tics.

So I'm wondering if we are working with two separate issues. One being the seasonal allergies causing symptoms and the other being a food allergy causing the symptoms to turn into tics.

 

This seems simple on the surface but just sounds kind of pie-in-the-sky to me for some reason.

 

The cough and throat clearing are nowhere near tic levels yet so I wonder what will become of this as the season progresses...

 

What do you guys think?

 

 

Hi Kevin

it is actually fairly common for people with one form of allergy (eg food) to also have another form (eg environmental) so it would not surprise me at all if you are seeing varied intolerances triggering things

 

I second the effectiveness of quecertin on seasonal allergies

[KevinInMA]

Thanks Cheri. It helps to have others verify my suspicions. We'll be going back to see Thea within the next couple weeks to get him going on some seasonal supplements. She says she frequently uses that same thing you guys do.

[samra]

Two steps forward. One step back.

 

Today started out great. After school. More of the same. Homework went very well. Very quiet. Good progress. Dinner was chicken soup. Then gymnastics practice for 3 hours.

 

At pickup he was coughing. Pretty much his usual level. I'm really hoping it was just because he was tired (it gets worse when he's tired) or thirsty. We've always thought that even minimal dehydration caused him to tic more. The more he drinks water the better it seems to get. He's eating second dinner (he eats before and after gym) of rice cereal and banana nut toast right now and is relatively quiet but I expect him to pick it up again when it's time for bed. He's eye-rolling like crazy....

 

Also, for the past couple months he's occasionally had a tough time getting to sleep. A couple weeks ago he woke us up at 5:30am almost in tears saying "I DIDN"T SLEEP ALL NIGHT! ALL NIGHT!" which we know isn't entirely true because we checked in on him before we went to bed and he was asleep. I want this to stop happening. I don't like the stress it causes him to take a long time to get to sleep. It's very saddening.

 

Hoping tomorrow brings more normalcy.

[samra]

Two steps forward. One step back.

 

Today started out great. After school. More of the same. Homework went very well. Very quiet. Good progress. Dinner was chicken soup. Then gymnastics practice for 3 hours.

 

At pickup he was coughing. Pretty much his usual level. I'm really hoping it was just because he was tired (it gets worse when he's tired) or thirsty. We've always thought that even minimal dehydration caused him to tic more. The more he drinks water the better it seems to get. He's eating second dinner (he eats before and after gym) of rice cereal and banana nut toast right now and is relatively quiet but I expect him to pick it up again when it's time for bed. He's eye-rolling like crazy....

 

Also, for the past couple months he's occasionally had a tough time getting to sleep. A couple weeks ago he woke us up at 5:30am almost in tears saying "I DIDN"T SLEEP ALL NIGHT! ALL NIGHT!" which we know isn't entirely true because we checked in on him before we went to bed and he was asleep. I want this to stop happening. I don't like the stress it causes him to take a long time to get to sleep. It's very saddening.

 

Hoping tomorrow brings more normalcy.

[KevinInMA]

Wow. I haven't updated in a month!! This is a no-news-is-good-gnu's type of deal.

We continue to stay the course. Those symptoms came and went last month.

The nose-itching still happens a lot but I'm not sure if we should be chalking that up to some kind of environmental allergy.

We find that Gold Bond cream helps so we've put the responsibility on him to keep up with the application of it. If he can get that under control we'll start adding in stuff.... We keep putting it off, though, mostly because we're afraid of the return of the tics.

 

I don't know.... Maybe we're just torturing him needlessly and we can just do it now.

 

At this point we're really not sure what to do. Thea says to keep going with the diet. I don't know what to do. We were considering being very strict at home where he eats 90% of what goes in his body and when he's in a social situation we could let him eat whatever makes him more comfortable in the situation (within reason, of course).

 

Haven't really committed to that,either....

[houston]

Haven't seen an update in a while. I'm hoping that means all is well with your son. It is always inspiring to see something that is working.

[KevinInMA]

It's spring and life has been going on.

Things aren't bad. There's absolutely no evidence of a cough at all anymore. The eye rolling is very very infrequent. He does a LOT of nose itching but I'm not convinced that thats not just some kind of seasonal allergy.

RIght now we're in wait & see mode with a little "trying new things" mixed in.

It's summer... I need to let the kid live a little. He's had a bit of gelato, nothing crazy. We ordered him a big gluten free cake for his birthday party next week ($75- yeesh). Umm... We're trying to stick with it but also trying to let him be a kid again.

 

It's still challenging but we muddle through. The fact the symptoms that have historically been a problem are gone is a big deal. The frequent face touching may just be the fact that he's a nervous kid... I found a kids yoga class at the Y that I'm going to put him into this summer. I hope he can learn to relax.

 

Thats the update! Nothing special going on around here just yet!

[KevinInMA]

Hey! I just realized that I've left you guys hanging here for months. Well, lets see... What happened this summer...?

 

We decided that since everything was looking so much better, that we'd let him be MORE OF a "normal" kid this summer. If we were going someplace for ice cream we'd let him have the ice cream but try to avoid whole categories of his diet like he can have ice cream now and then but no crazy colors or stuff in it and no cones. We didn't go too much farther than that. We allowed him chocolate and even marshmallows now and then to make smores (which he loves) but I came up with a way of combining the chocolate and his rice cereal into a cracker to take the place of a graham cracker. We made do, ya know?

 

 

So how'd it go?

Well, he had a great sumer. No real tic's to speak of. Seasonal allergy season came and went in the spring and had no affect on him. Then August allergy season came along and we started noticing some eye itching and even some throat clearing. Kept an eye on the allergen levels as reported by the news and they seemed to correlate with his symptoms. None of the symptoms became a regular habit, though, which was nice. He still does it a little now and then but we've got to realize that just because they once were tics doesn't mean they still are. It's hard not to get worried when you see them come along, though. I'm sure in time we'll learn to ignore these things....

 

So 5th grade started last week. We decided to TRY to go back to a strict diet for the first several weeks of school. 4th grade was relatively easy for Brandon. 5th grade is the transition to middle school. It's a change. We wanted to make sure that if 5th grade became stressful, that the STRESS wasn't what caused the tics so we decided to go strict until the 1 year anniversary of starting this diet (holy crap, a year???). Thats October 15th. Then, if everything looks good, we go for it. Just start adding stuff back in.

 

He hasn't seen Thea in a couple months. I plan to get him in there sometime in the next couple weeks. I should call tomorrow just to make some supplement adjustments and generally check-in.

 

Still, through all of this, not a single cold or illness. CRAAAAZY.

 

SO thats it. No news is again good news. I'm not sure how often I'll be updating this but I really hope it was helpful for some of you. I know it's VERY VERY challenging to try to pull off such a massive dietary change for a kid but I'd like to think we have proof that it works.... for a condition that is largely considered by medical types to be un-cureable.

 

Good luck, everyone. If I can be of any assistance, feel free to email me here.