Pizza is on the Menu!

My youngest son's birthday is coming up in another week and he wants to have a Halo party with his friends. Also he would like pizza and ice cream to be served at the party. A few months ago, this would have been impossible as those two items would have sent him to the bathroom in a hurry with stomach cramps and the big D.


Last week, I bought a large Hawaiian pizza from Costco and had that for dinner. Andy ate about 1/2 the pizza himself and nothing. No D, no gas, no cramps. It was amazing. Not to say that he never has moments where his stomach is not feeling well. He's still not 100% normal but he is pretty darn close to it.

I feel like it's a miracle. I went ahead and served up chicken enchiladas with low fat sour cream sauce and again Andy had no problems with it. I decided to take him off the digestive enzymes but he is still on calcium caltrate and Digestive Advantage IBS for maintenance. These two products have helped him out tremendously and I ,myself, have decided to go on probiotics because I have seen how much they have helped my son.

I am just elated that he is doing so well. It's going to be a great birthday party!

Are Vaccinations Safe?

There is a huge debate on whether or not vaccinations are safe for our children. In the past, I would have naively said yes, they are. My kids have had numerous vaccines without any visible effects. However, this past year my 13 year old child was told that he needed the DPT, Hepatitis B, and Meningococcal vaccines. Within two days of receiving these shots, he had such severe abdominal pain that we had to take him to the ER. It continued off and on for the last 4 months . He cannot eat many foods, he is dairy intolerant, he had lost 12 lbs and he has had continuous problems with diarrhea. I had to put him on high calorie dairy free smoothies for the last 2 months. He has now gained back about 6 of those pounds but it's a struggle to keep the weight on. I have changed his entire diet to a low fat one, put him on calcium caltrate to control his diarrhea, digestive advantage for ibs probiotics for the gas and cramping, b complex vitamins for the cramping and digestive enzymes. He is doing much better now but his problem has been a life altering one and I still feel in my gut that the vaccinations played a part in all of this somehow.

I am trying to find information on vaccine reactions in teen-agers. I have found a lot on autism and younger children. Lately there has been information on Gardasil and Meningococcal vaccines. It seems when girls get those two vaccines together there is a much great risk of getting Guillain-Barre Syndrome (inflammation of the brain and spinal chord which can damage nerves and result in possibly paralysis).

My son was given 3 vaccines together and who the heck knows what kind of havoc that has wreaked on his system.

It angers me that the medical establishment will not acknowledge that there is a problem here.

In 1900, children received 1 vaccination for small pox. Today, they receive 20 vaccinations and more. ADHD, autism, asthma have dramatically increased. Is it because of vaccines? I don't know but vaccines are suspect.

All I can say is that if you are planning on having your child vaccinated, do the research and then make up your own mind on what is the best course of action to take with your child.

On the Mend?!

Andy came to me and was all excited. He gained 6.8 lbs. I was overjoyed. The many weeks of high calorie shakes are finally starting to pay off. He was at 2 to 4 lbs for so long, I didn't think he was capable of gaining any more weight. I am wondering if his "IBS" or whatever it is, is on the mend.

I have been driving him to and from school every single day. Now he thinks he can ride the school bus in the morning. Also he was only eating just a piece of toast for breakfast. He did not want to take any chances with his sensitive GI system at school but today he says he wants to eat omelets and a low fat version of the egg mcmuffin.

Still, I am a little hesitant about jumping in and giving him anything he wants. His condition has stabilized and I don't want to rock the boat. I will have to proceed with caution.

Our grocery bill has gone up $400.00 every month just because of the special foods and supplements I have had to give him. It would be nice to be able to pare it down.

I have him on so many things that I am not sure what has helped him the most but I am keeping him on the Digestive Advantage for IBS no matter what. The lacto bacillus will always be beneficial to him even when he is healthy. I was given information from Ganeden, the company that makes Digestive Advantage, and they said that their powerful probiotic can" bring the digestive system back into balance." Their cultures have a "protected hardened layer of organic material that enables their (lacto bacillus) survival through the acidic stomach environment and arrive in the intestines alive." I do think this product in combination with some of the other things I have done has made a difference.

I also put him on B complex vitamins which is supposed to help with the GI tract. A friend of mine had years of terrible stomach cramping and pain. Got no help from the doctors and so she read about vitamin B12 and decided to start taking the B vitamins. She said she has had very little cramping in the last year.

I am very grateful that my son is doing well although still not normal. However, this is his second bout with a GI problem. I am not sure what the future will hold. My friend who has Crohn's Disease warned me that hers started out with a few problems here and there before it became full blown Crohn's. I hope that with careful management, we will prevent it from becoming a
full blown whatever it is!