Paleo. Or, what??

My daughter, Lena, and I went almost PALEO about a month ago (Sept. 6th, to be exact). She (and I) are doing a grain and dairy free diet. And, I have seen tremendous changes in her (and myself) in the last three weeks.  Let me back up a little...

February of 2013, Lena began having asthma attacks. She had three of them in six weeks. Not good. She was put on albuterol daily, along with prednisolone daily to combat these attacks. In April, we saw an allergist/asthma specialist, who did a slew of allergy testing and put her on singulair and pulmicort daily. She went off of the prednisolone, and we only used the albuterol when she was having major troubles. The allergy tests came back negative for everything, including any food allergies (I thought). So, we weren't able to do anything allergy-wise. Behavior-wise, we began seeing some very negative changes. She was throwing tantrums almost daily, screaming at bedtime, etc. This was awful. I really felt like I was losing my child!

May and June were OK, with her on the singulair and pulmicort daily. She wasn't having any attacks, but her behavior continued to nosedive. She was having major tantrums at daycare and at home, trouble sleeping (up two to three times per night), and wasn't eating as much as before. In July, she had another pretty severe asthma attack, and had to go back on the prednisolone. She was also still taking the pulmicort and singulair as normal. This upped the tantrums and overall horrible behavior.

I just kept thinking that there had to be something else that was triggering this, and that we needed to figure something else out.

I made an appointment for Lena to see a homeopathic physician in our area who could hopefully help us figure out what the heck was going on. This was not my child. I just felt like we had to try something else.

The new physician requested Lena's records from her pediatrician as well as the allergy/asthma specialist, and found out that Lena had not been tested for any food allergies... AT ALL! Needless to say, I was PISSED! She suggested that we go ahead and do a full-panel allergy test that would for sure test for any food allergies, to which I immediately agreed. At this point, we began stepping back on the asthma medications, taking her off of the singular completely, and only doing the pulmicort as needed. She still needed the pulmicort about every other day or so, to ward off any wheezing or coughing. We also utilized the albuterol a few times during this period, to ward off a full-on attack.

It took about 3 weeks to get the results of the allergy testing, which were a little vague to me... Lena was showing a few food sensitivities, which the doc said are probably due to the beginnings of "leaky gut syndrome." This happens when the small intestine doesn't break food down into tiny-enough particles for the body to absorb and use. Food stays in longer strands, and leaks into the body anyway. This can be caused by the use of antibiotics.

Ok, backtrack a little more... Lena has been on antibiotics many times in the last two years, for repeated ear and respiratory infections.

The treatment for leaky gut is extreme diet restrictions. Sometimes, in really bad cases, people have had to cut out ALL solid foods, subsisting on broth and water, until the body heals itself. In Lena's case, she suggested that we cut out grain and dairy for six weeks. Which is a chore in and of itself.

Dairy includes anything made from milk (duh), but did you know that lots of things have milk, or whey, or milk solids in them? Things that you wouldn't think about having dairy in them. Check this website out for more information on that: http://www.godairyfree.org/food-and-grocery/food-label-info/hidden-dairy

Do you have any idea how many things have grains and grain by-products in them? Did you know that corn is considered a grain, and anything made from corn is off-limits? Here's a website for that: http://www.glutenfreesociety.org/gluten-free-society-blog/hidden-corn-based-ingredients/

So, it's been really, really hard to find "fun" things that my 3-year-old will eat! We pretty much eat lots of meat, fruit, and veggies (no corn, though!).

I've had some adventures in grocery shopping the last few weeks, with some success. Amazon is a wonderful tool for all things PALEO, and I've ordered a few cookbooks from there, which have been very helpful.

Have I been a *little* grouchy? Maybe. Was Lena a *little* grouchy when we first started? Sure. But, it's been totally worth it!

But... in the last three weeks, Lena has not needed to use her asthma medicine AT ALL! Not once. And... I'm down about 10lbs.

I think we'll continue this trend... it seems to be working!

If you have more PALEO recipes, tips, or tricks to share, please share them!
If you have any tips on asthma control, please share them!