Dyspraxic Journey

Tag Archive: iron

Short Nutrition Update

We have our latest update in our quest to get CB’s blood work to look unimpressive and plain jane. CB’s iron and zinc were solidly normal. IgA is just a little low, as well as, WBC and lymphocytes. Overall, it is a good report! His body seems to be in a good place. We are sticking with the GFCFSF diet and also started incorporating homemade coconut milk kefir into his diet. For the last couple of months, CB has not taken any supplements. We may add fish oil back in, as well as, a daily supplement, but not at this point.

March 9, 2017 Allergy, Diet, & Supplements, , 0 Read more >

Parasites Strike Again

For me and for most of the moms I know, after we take in the fact that our child has special needs, we set off on a journey to find the root cause of our child’s challenges and sometimes illnesses. Even when we think we have an answer, it is not the final answer. Things are always in flux and we are always learning something new. Information posted a few years ago may already be disproven or at the least improved upon. Even though we know CB has a genetic difference, genetic variance, genetic mutation, whatever you want to call it, we know that he exhibits a myriad of symptoms that may or may not be 100% related to this genetic variance. He could exhibit some behaviors because the genetic variance makes his body more susceptible to other infections, illnesses, or other difficulties.

Our latest work up results included blood, urine, and stool.  We did this as we were considering seeing a pediatric gastrointologist. This pediatric gastrointologist wanted an extensive work up including blood, urine, and stool before he will see your child. His visits are also 100% out of pocket and if he has to do a scope, a good portion is not covered by insurance. Since it was time to do CB’s usual blood work, we added in the extra tests. The good news is that we do not feel we need to move forward with a visit to the pediatric gastrointologist based off the results of the work up. (sigh of relief). The concerning news is that CB’s iron is still low and his IgA levels have fallen even lower. His wbc count is low but nothing else on the CBC. His zinc and vitamin D look fine but we supplement those. The other interesting finding is that his stool still contains d. fragilis. This is the same parasite identified in his stool from another lab almost a year ago. We treated the parasite with humaworm. Actually, the entire family took humaworm. We felt his symptoms had improved afterwards. Since we did not test again, I don’t know if it actually cured it and he was reinfected or it never fully cured it.  (more…)

November 18, 2016 Allergy, Diet, & Supplements, Tests & Evaluations, , , , , , 0 Read more >

Nutrition Update – Low Iron

Feeling a bit bummed today…CB’s nutrition report came back with low iron, high UBC, low cacl % iron saturation, low IgA, slightly low zinc, high vitamin E, low WBC, and improved vitamin D3. I believe the persistently high vitamin E levels are due to CB’s high almond intake so this is understandable. His IgA level is 6 points lower than it was 2 months ago but the second test was taken in the morning while fasting so that might account for some of the difference. The zinc is the exact same value as 2 months ago and the vitamin D increased some. The vitamin D increase is easily explained by the additional time in the sun plus vitamin D supplements for the first month or so after the last test. However, the vitamin D3 level is not as high as we would like it to be. CB stopped having dairy in his diet one month before the last test. There is definitely the potential that adding dairy back in caused the decline in iron. Even though the dairy was in his diet before the last test, maybe it took more time to really impact his intestines and then his iron levels. From this we know only adding vitamin D3 supplement does not bring up the iron and zinc levels. We also know that although the probiotics are helping, they are not enough.

We feel at this point, we are going to take a step back and look through his previous nutrition reports to find when his levels where the best. It seems like October of last year, his vitamin levels were quite solid with the exception of low IgA (although it was improving) and high vitamin E (still high almond intake). For now, our plan is to get back on the following supplementation routine. CB will also remain GFCFSF plus we limit dyes, no HFCS, any preservatives with initials for names, no carageenan, and no MSG. (more…)

July 7, 2016 Allergy, Diet, & Supplements, Education, Tests & Evaluations, , , , , 0 Read more >

Update on Latest Blood Work

CB’s last round of blood work was 6 months ago. Since the last blood work, we have made several changes to CB’s supplements and diet. We stopped well just about everything at one point, except for the probiotics. For the last 3 weeks, we added digestive enzymes and fish oil back into his schedule. For the last two weeks, we added D3 back into his morning routine. Dairy was incorporated about 3-6x a week, mainly through cheese, yogurt, butter, and some ice cream, for about 1.5 months. We wanted to see if the dairy was impacting his vitamin levels.

We got his blood work back this week and his body was showing the beginning stages of declining iron, vitamin D, and zinc levels. I believe all of these are related. On a positive note, his IgA was 1 number below the normal range…wow! I can’t believe that he might actually have normal IgA levels soon. His Vitamin E level was still high but lower than the levels reported over the last year or so. I think the high Vitamin E levels are still related to fat absorption or fat breakdown issues. We will see if the enzymes help the matter. I thought the L-Carnitine should have helped that, but the last test didn’t reflect that. We stopped the L-Carnitine awhile back so I don’t know for sure. His vitamin K, homocysteine and magnesium levels also looked good. So now, we have to figure out why he has declining iron, Vitamin D and zinc levels. Unfortunately, since we stopped the Vitamin D3 for awhile and we added in the dairy, we can’t say for sure whether the removal of D3 or the addition of dairy caused this. We are obviously assuming it is related to one of these things, but it is always hard to know for sure since we always make several changes between the blood work dates. We have decided to test again in 2 months with daily Vitamin D3 supplements and zinc incorporated for a week or so and to keep dairy in his diet. If any of the levels remain low, then we can assume that dairy is the culprit and to cut it out and test again in another 2 months or so. If all levels return to normal, then we are going to assume that CB needs D3 supplements and that dairy plays an insignificant role. For the past tests, we saw the vitamin D, zinc, and iron levels continue to grow while D3 was a regular supplement and dairy was not a part of CB’s diet. (more…)

May 5, 2016 Allergy, Diet, & Supplements, Tests & Evaluations, , , , , 0 Read more >

Positive Progress based off Latest Blood Workup

Yay, CB’s progress is continually being reflected in the blood workup CB partakes in every 4-6 months or so. The highlights are that all his iron levels are within normal range, his IgA levels are still rising, his CMP was completely normal, and his homocysteine levels are getting close to the low-end of normal. What does all this mean? His diet and supplements are working!! We implemented the modified diet and many of the supplements based off CB’s original blood workup test results from April last year. You can read more about where CB started from blood workup-wise in my blog at Current diet and supplements.

The number of tests performed with CB’s blood workup has grown since his first one a year and a half ago. On the latest workup, the following tests were performed:

  • CBC w/autodiff w/platelets
  • CMP
  • Ferritin
  • Iron and IBC
  • Immunoglob IgA
  • Immunoglob IgG
  • Immunoglob IgM
  • Immunoglob IgE
  • Folic Acid?
  • Magnesium
  • Lipid Panel
  • TSH Free to Reflex T4
  • Vitamin B12
  • Vitamin D, 25
  • Vitamin A
  • Vitamin E
  • Vitamin K1
  • Methylmalonic Acid
  • Zinc, serum
  • Homocysteine

(more…)

November 3, 2015 Tests & Evaluations, , 0 Read more >

Allergy Report & First Food Reintroduction

CB is 4 years old …

Life is going well here in our little household. Olem and I are both thinking positively and just enjoying life. It is easy to see how CB’s behavior can be quite linked to our moods and reactions. CB is having a great week at school. I guess the aggression last week was either tied to the return to school after our trip and/or the reintroduction of fish oil after a 5 day break due to our little vacation. CB is still a bit off. His therapists mentioned that he did a good job and performed what was asked but that he struggled more and seemed more foggy-headed than he has been lately. When things like this happen, we immediately start looking into what is going on with him outside of therapy to see if there is a logical or easily-identifiable reason. CB is experiencing some seasonal allergies which may be contributing to these struggles. We now think the rash on his bottom is potentially linked to his seasonal allergies. We also found out he has to wear non-elastic underwear. The elastic irritates his skin.

We got 90% of his allergy report back and were pleasantly surprised. He only showed an allergy to mold (indoor and outdoor) and a borderline potential for a peanut allergy. Olem had allergy shots as a kid and was allergic to a long list of things so we really expected to see similar results for CB. CB’s nutritionist had recommended back in January that we hold off performing an allergy test b/c she felt the report would show a lot of false positives since his nutrition report showed several vitamin deficiencies and the selective IGA deficiency. I posted more about that at my Current Diet and Supplements post. Since his latest nutrition report showed that his body is in a much improved state, we decided to move forward with the allergy report.

We reintroduced plain whole milk yogurt (first casein protein introduction) yesterday into CB’s diet. He had a small amount yesterday afternoon and a small amount this afternoon. So far, he hasn’t shown any noticeable reaction. We really hope he can have yogurt again. We think CB for sure had, and potentially still has, leaky gut issues. Since his body is no longer reporting malabsorption issues, we thought it would be a good time to start reintroducing foods. We know the modified diet has helped, but we don’t know 100% why or what specific components have helped his body. Our plan is to reintroduce foods slowly, monitor CB’s body, emotional, and physical response, and have another nutrition report performed in 6 months. Hopefully, we will see some changes in one form or another that tell us when his body is having problems with a specific type of food. By performing the nutrition report in 6 months, we will be able to see if any vitamin deficiencies or malabsorption issues have returned.

Positive progress: CB stayed dry all night and urinated in the toilet on his own first thing in the morning. His sleep was very interrupted last night b/c of his younger brother. There is the chance he didn’t get to sleep as deeply and was able to control it better. Still, it is a great step for CB! Also, CB’s vestibular system is integrating more fully. He requested more types of swings during OT and at the pediatric therapy play gym and seems way more comfortable.

 

May 14, 2015 Allergy, Diet, & Supplements, , , , , 0 Read more >