Environmental Triggers

[Claire]

Hi Heather,

 

Doris Rapp's website is http://www.drrapp.com/ I have both books and ordered both from her site (the old one showed out of print at my bookstore), but l "Is this your Child's World?" seems to me a better start.

 

She covers food sensitivities and environmental triggers--carpets and paints and fumes and mold.

 

I have been meaning to start this thread for a few weeks now anyway (not just for newcomers, I have a hard time finding everyone's recommendations later unless they are in the subject categories!).

 

CARPETING

D. Rapp discusses carpet as a factor. My son and I both notice that he has a strong reaction to certain carpeting--both on a trip we took, and riding in my husban'd By the way, I was 'idiosyncratic' and brought a semi-portable HEPA air filter on this last trip and let it run in the room constantly. Guess what? I have used one for 14 years for my dust/respiratory allergies and normally the charcoal outer filter takes 3 months to fill and this one filled in one week!! What a difference in my breathing--my chest gets so tight after a couple of days with carpeting and I felt just great this trip. Of course, this was secondary to my concern for my son.

 

PAINT

D. Rapp recommends using low odor paints. Well, we will do this now--we are repainting our house, but we were in a hurry to just get my son's bathroom primed so he could take a shower, and used normal paint. For weeks he got a strong reaction if he was in there for more than a minute. He even got 'flinches' from it, and he never gets them except for TV/Movies/Computer--it was that bad.

 

His DAN/EM doctor said he believes it is because he doesn't detox (low antioxidants) all those chemicals as well as we do.

 

Our painter says most paint companies now have low odor paints. I will let you all know how it goes (we will stay in a hotel while they paint. I also just ordered this new filter I had never heard of.. Austin HealthMate - Sandstone 399.99 It says that in addition to the HEPA filter, it also removes chemicals in the air (HEPAs don't). I will let you know if this makes a difference in his reaction--it is a little scary. It took weeks and it didn't go away until we put a window in that bathroom (no ventilation).

 

MOLD

D. Rapp discusses mold also. We have discussed this before, so I won't repeat it, but my EM/DAN dr said that 50 years ago the medical community correlated highest mold growth to highest suicide rate. Somehow it just got dropped after that.

 

She also discusses elimination diets and food reactions, but we are covering that in the 'peanuts' thread.

 

Now she doesn't seem to discuss this in terms of tics, but ADHD, depression, mood swings etc... But the idea is the same: something to keep in mind for your own child.

 

Claire