Dyspraxic Journey

Tag Archive: iron anemia

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 >

Why all this talk about gut?

I realize that it may seem strange to dedicate a decent amount of this blog to my son’s gut issues. So I thought it might be helpful to provide some more resources and context regarding why I have taken this route and spent so much time mentioning my son’s gut over the past year. All the therapies are crucial and I would never suggest just focusing on your child’s gut if they have neurological problems; however, I think it is crucial to consider and explore if your child also has digestive issues, as well. For CB, he had chronic loose stools since he was a baby and through blood work,it was identified that he had numerous vitamin deficiencies, selective IgA deficiency, and borderline iron anemia despite eating balanced, healthy meals. I knew I wanted to help CB’s issues in the most natural way possible. Through diet changes and supplements, the selective IgA deficiency down-graded to low IgA so it no longer classified as an autoimmune condition, all vitamin and iron levels were within the normal range, and his stools were normal most of the time. I’ve noted throughout my blog the specifics but some only took a couple of months to change while others took about a year. In this same time frame, CB has made tremendous jumps with his speech, social interactions, core strength, attention, coordination, appropriate play, and become potty-trained. I believe that my son’s blood work came back with so many issues b/c he had a leaky gut.

What is a Leaky Gut?

The practitioners at SCD Lifestyle provide a good explanation:

“The term Leaky Gut Syndrome is used to describe the condition of “Hyperpermeable Intestines,” a fancy medical term that means the intestinal lining has became more porous, with more holes developing that are larger in size and the screening out process is no longer functioning properly. The fallout results in larger, undigested food molecules and other “bad stuff” (yeast, toxins, and all other forms of waste) that your body normally doesn’t allow through, to flow freely into your bloodstream.

So now that we have the general essentially meaningless definition out of the way let’s find out what is really going on…

The intestinal lining is the first mechanism of defense for our immune system. The outer layers of intestinal cells (epithelial) are connected by structures called tight junctions. At the tips of these cells are the microvilli, which absorb properly digested nutrients and transport them through the epithelial cell and into the bloodstream. During the normal digestion process the tight junctions stay closed forcing all molecules to effectively be screened and only pass into the blood stream through the mucosa cells (think of them like bouncers at the front of a classy bar). For reasons we will discuss later, these tight junctions can become “open” or permeable allowing un-screened molecules to flow directly into the bloodstream (think of it like a fish net with very small holes).”

By making the dietary changes, this has allowed my son’s intestinal wall to heal or mostly heal. What I don’t know at this point is 1) Can CB eat gluten again? 2) If so, do we need to limit it? 3) Or will he need to remain gluten-free his whole life? 4) Will the soy allergy go away? 5) By healing the gut, can it remain healed? 6) Even though we are not seeing any issues with slowly introducing dairy, are there internal problems forming that we can’t see? (more…)

December 31, 2015 Allergy, Diet, & Supplements, , , , 0 Read more >

Current diet and supplements

CB is 4 years old …

The biggest thing on my mind lately is CB’s diet & nutrition. We are currently in the beginning stages of limiting free glutamic acid from CB’s diet. So at this point, CB’s diet & supplements are as follows:

  • Gluten-free
  • Casein-free
  • Soy-free except for edamame & soybeans in his multi-vitamin
  • Artificial color free
  • Preservatives listed as acronyms free
  • High fructose syrup free
  • Animalz Multi-vitamin (2 chewables a day)
  • Nordic Naturals Omega Complete (2 capsules a day)
  • Animal Parade Tooth Fairy (2 chewables a day)
  • D3 drops (1 drop a day)
  • Bluebonnet Probiotics (1/2-1 serving a day)
  • Periodic liquid zinc supplement (10 mg) – was in his diet Jan-early March. Trying to determine if we should keep it in
  • Animal Parade Vitamin C (2 chewables a day)
  • Mulberry Juice (high in iron & Vitamin C – a few glasses a week)
  • Epsom salt baths (a couple a week)
  • Food & Vitamins free of free glutamic acid – implementation underway

When I type all of this out, it feels pretty overwhelming. At times, it feels like there is a small window where we can potentially make a huge difference in CB’s life. It feels like if we do not try enough things before he turns 6 or 7, then we will have lost our chance to make the biggest impact. We know that changes and progress will definitely continue after that age, but we feel certain brain pathways will be more solidified. Sometimes implementing all this is overwhelming and other times, it is comforting. Comforting, b/c we feel we are actually making changes to help CB.

Now we didn’t start off feeling we would be at this place, implementing all these nutrition changes and filling him full of supplements. It would be a good question to ask “how did we get here?”, especially since CB has been a good eater most of his life.

At this point, he eats many vegetables, almost all fruits, nuts, dried fruit, most breads, cheeses, various milks, some beans, and most meats. He wouldn’t eat eggs for the longest time, but he will now eat them on a regular basis. We told him that they would make his strong. (He now holds up his arms, makes fists with his hands, and makes an errrr sound after he takes a bite. We comment on how strong he is. It is so cute.) We have limited his sugar intake all his life and we have had a non-high fructose corn syrup home since before CB was born. He had fast food about 2-3 times by the time he was 2.5 years old. After that, it was primarily isolated to road trips. Most days he drank water as his main drink with a small cup of organic cow’s milk. It has always been a treat to get juice. Fruit was basically his dessert for many dinner meals. If he has ever tried soda, then it would have been just a sip (not sure this has happened though).  From about 1.5-3.5 years old, we had a hard time getting him to eat meat. I think it was too much work for him to be able to chew it. He also was not big into noodle dishes. Fortunately, that has all changed. He just doesn’t like soups or really mushy food like mashed potatoes.

We started off implementing fish oil b/c of his limited speech. We later added a multi-vitamin and probiotics to help his digestive issues. The probiotics helped him to no longer have undigested bits of food in his poop (possibly TMI). He still continued to have really mushy, smelly poop though. We tried eliminating dairy a few times, but his poop remained the same. A few months after his 3rd birthday, we had a nutrition report done that showed he had

  • selective IgA deficiency
  • iron anemia
  • low vitamin k
  • odd blood levels
  • very low zinc
  • and a few other issues.

CB’s pediatrician said she didn’t feel too alarmed and didn’t really tell us much. She only mentioned that CB may be more likely to get sick b/c of the selective IGA deficiency or stay sick longer. It wasn’t until 2 months before CB turned 4 that I came across something on the internet indicating that he had a higher chance of being celiac based off the nutrition results. The next day, we started a GFCF diet. We heard that many celiacs or people with gluten intolerance do not show much improvement in the beginning if casein (milk protein) is not also eliminated.

So we started the diet and then a month later started seeing a nutritionist. She confirmed that she thought he was celiac and gave us some supplement suggestions and helpful info about food. She felt we would see big improvements with CB’s neurological issues. We have made some supplement changes, had another nutrition report done, and met with the nutritionist again since then. We removed more preservatives from his diet and became more aware of other unhealthy ingredients like carageenan. There were definite improvements on the nutrition report. Since we had the original nutrition report done back in April, started the modified diet in December, added supplements in January, and performed a 2nd nutrition report in February, we are not 100% sure whether the diet helped the report or CB’s diet expansion which included eating more meat. In December, we also noticed that CB started showing a food allergy. His cheeks started turning pink after eating. We determined he now has a food allergy to soy. It seems like it is just related to processed soy. He also still will get mushy, smelly poop at times and red cheeks. Plus, he has been having other allergy issues. So, we are still on the journey to really isolate what is going on with our son’s body. Well, it is now mid-March, and we saw something from the biochemist Katie Reid about free glutamic acid. Her thoughts and the science she shared really resonated with me and then with my husband. Her TedTalk and speaking sessions really got us thinking about whether free glutamic acid is causing additional issues. So that is how we got to the point we are at. We will see how this diet change goes.

Positive Progress: 1) CB, HB and I have really enjoyed spring break so far. I feel we have all bonded more and are all feeling positive. 2) CB jumped with 2 feet off the couch on to the floor semi-landing on 2 feet! He landed but then dropped to his bottom. He doesn’t know how to adjust to landing after jumping from that distance.

March 18, 2015 Allergy, Diet, & Supplements, , , , , , , , 0 Read more >