It happened about seven years ago. My ah-ha moment. It hit like a lightning bolt. Our oldest son Sam had been fighting asthma and eczema since age one. Asthma may not seem like a battle but when you can’t breathe and you don’t know what’s causing the attacks, it is a battle. We had been to a number of doctors and all did the best they could. I wasn’t satisfied because Sam wasn’t getting better but in some ways he was getting worse. Our son was not growing and was still sick ALL THE TIME. When Sam was 10 years old, he was diagnosed with osteopenia, the precursor to osteoporosis. This is one of the drawbacks of chronic steroid use. We were told that Sam should not play any contact sports because he was at risk for breaking bones more so than most kids. By the time Sam was 12 years old, he was on 8 different steroid medications, including oral and topical uses. In addition to the 8 daily medications, he was on acute bursts of oral steroids when he had pneumonia or bronchitis. We were in the revolving door of symptoms and medications with some relief but more overall damage.
Jim and I were at our wit’s end. I reached out to a naturopath doctor in California as a last resort. He suggested I put our son on a gluten-free and dairy free diet, for three weeks. Not knowing then what I know now, I was intrigued and definitely going to try it. I had nothing to lose. In order to get Sam to eat exactly what I wanted and needed him to, I dangled a monetary carrot of $100/week to eat gluten-free and dairy free. Sam was on board. After one week, he was sleeping through the night without scratching himself raw or blowing his nose. After two weeks, the skin lesions had significantly decreased. After three weeks, he was using his inhaler only one time a day. Genius! I couldn’t believe what I had seen. For the first time, Sam was improving without medication and he started looking different to me: he seemed more alert, the black circles under his eyes had decreased and he was eating more! At the end of 3 weeks, Sam re-introduced milk. He drank one glass of milk and within 12 hours, his nose was full of mucous. Clearly, dairy was a huge culprit in Sam’s health. It didn’t stop here though. We still had the osteopenia diagnosis hanging over our heads. How was this going to improve without dairy? It did! The body knows better. By removing gluten and dairy, the foods causing the severe problems, Sam was beginning to retain more nutrients from whole food sources. Within six months of Sam’s dietary changes, his osteopenia had reversed. Jackpot! He continued to eat well and over the next year Sam grew four inches. That’s when I thought, it was time to share my story and experience. I went back to school and received my masters in holistic nutrition.
Sam is now in college, a 2nd degree black belt, teaches kids karate and remains gluten free and dairy free. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.