Dyspraxic Journey

Tag Archive: low zinc

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 >

Impulsivity and Reflected Emotions

I’m trying to figure out how to even start. This last week and a half have been quite hard. Poor CB has been sick with a fever that lasted for 4 days, plus a cough, runny nose, sneezing, and increased impulsivity. The impulsivity started before the fever and it has grown to such a degree that we opted to remove cow’s milk from CB’s diet again. The decision also took into account reviewing his latest blood work and past stool test to determine that his gut does not seem to be performing at optimal levels due to the high fecal fat content and the lower vitamin levels of zinc, D3, and iron saturation. Goat’s milk is still currently in his diet and he is eating goat’s milk kefir in the mornings to help combat the antibiotics he is taking. He still also gets his probiotic at night. Since he has been prone to yeast infections in the past when he takes antibiotics, I try to ensure to restore with good bacteria. Olem and I still feel that diet can make a big difference and are just trying to see if there is an optimal diet that suits CB best. There are always so many factors to consider that it is typically not one thing that we can pin such behavior changes on. Additionally, some of CB’s therapies and his preschool are coming to an end. He could be feeding off my and/or his teachers’ energies. He can be very sensitive to others feelings and we see his behaviors reflecting/modeling back others emotions. We talk with CB about some of his therapies and preschool ending but CB doesn’t say much or respond much to these comments. Who knows if this is affecting him more than he can show us.  (more…)

May 26, 2016 Allergy, Diet, & Supplements, Worries, Fears, & Ramblings, , , , , 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 >

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 >