Allergies

All of us siblings have allergies. I have sinusitis, my brother have fungal infection and my youngest sister who died of peripartum cardiomyopathy (from my previous post) have asthma.

Our mom is asthmatic, however, she told us that only on her last pregnancy she had this asthma due to "chalk". She was a school teacher and used chalk everyday.

My concern is, my children also have sinusitis and skin allergy.

Does it have something to do with my mom being asthmatic?

Is there any remedy or preventive measures not to pass on this allergy?

Hi carolg,

Constitutional weaknesses are often passed down from generation to generation. It sounds like your mother had a weakness in her lungs which manifested itself in asthma. The chalk may have just been a contributing factor, but plenty of school teachers have been around chalk dust, day in and day out, and have not developed asthma.

My guess is that your mother and father's constitutional weaknesses were embedded in the genetic make-up of her egg and his sperm, and were passed down to their children. You have a constitutional weakness that manifested itself in the sinuses and you likely passed that weakness on to your children.

It's good to know what your weaknesses are so you can be sure to avoid things that aggravate them. But in general, one of the best things you can do to overcome sensitivities and allergies is to boost the immune system.

In specific, I've found that people who have skin rashes or dry skin respond really well to increasing the essential fatty acids in the diet. This can be done by making sure the family is eating plenty of fatty fish each week. Some recommend 8 ounces a week. Good choices are salmon, tuna, oysters, pollock, shrimp, herring and sardines. Be sure to avoid fish that is high in mercury.

Other foods that are high in Omega 3 Fatty Acids are egg yolk, flax seeds or flax seed oil, walnuts, pecans, wheat germ and olive oil.

If you make a green smoothie each day for your children, and put some flax oil in it, it should greatly help your children's skin allergies. Here's a video showing how to make a super healthy green smoothie. The more sweet fruit you use (i.e. bananas, etc.) the less "green" you will taste. My children LOVE green smoothies and make them every day. You can start with less greens and work up to more later, but do start making some green smoothies and adding flax oil and I think you'll see some good change in your allergies.

http://youtu.be/YilQYtjQtjM

It's also really important for anyone considering pregnancy to go on a preconception plan which includes a super healthy and clean diet, and a healthy lifestyle. It takes 3-4 months to create an egg which is mature and can be fertilized, and it takes 3-4 months to create healthy sperm which can penetrate an egg, so 3-4 months of preconception care (minimum) will be helpful.

Hope this information helps, and please post back with any questions you may have.

Warm Regards,

Kate

Kate,

very well said. I'll try this on with my kids. Would you recommend vitamins instead? Brand in particular? It's just that may kids are choosy with foods. Honestly speaking, they only eat whenever they like the food.:( specially my youngest who only eats pasta, and she can survive her meal with only rice and soup! But any kind of soup, only the soup that she likes.

Carol

Hi Carolg,

A multi-vitamin can be helpful in optimizing nutrition. Often you can find a high quality product by visiting your health store and talking to the manager (the manager is often more knowledgeable than the clerks). You could also find a Chiropractor who has knowledge in nutrition and ask him/her. My Chiropractor sells a high quality line of supplements.

If your children are very picky in what they will and will not eat, my guess is that they are not getting a balanced diet high in fresh or frozen vegetables (canned vegetables have very little nutrient value).

I suggest that you take some time to invest in changing your children's eating habits. One way to do this is to tell them that they will be expected to eat what they are served, and that you're going to try to serve them a more balanced diet that has more vegetables in it.

Then if they don't eat what's served (refuse to even try it) you can let them know that they will not have any more food until they eat it. If that means they don't want dinner, you can serve that same plate of dinner food to them for breakfast. If they refuse to eat at breakfast, you can serve it at lunch. You just cover it and put it back in the refrigerator.

They will eventually get hungry enough to eat, and you can also make it look really good by eating it yourself and looking like you are really enjoying it - wide eyes and saying, "mmmmmm".

If they eat most of the items, but you know they're not full and they are just not wanting to eat the vegetables (for example) you would let them know that there will be no dessert for them and they will have to eat their vegetables before they get anything else (other than water - they can drink as much water as they want). And then you serve them the vegetables again at the next meal.

We have used this method with all of our children, and there have definitely been times when each of them hasn't wanted to eat what was placed before them. But as long as the food was healthy for them and wasn't unpleasant (meaning my husband and/or I would eat it) then we would expect them to eat it too (or at least take 3 bites, depending upon the situation). But with each child, they quickly realized how this works, and they know that if we say they have to eat something before they get anything else, they will actually go to the refrigerator and get it out and eat it, so they can have the next "yummier tasting" food.

We don't have a single picky eater in our family because we've always believed in developing healthy eating habits with our children. The most important reason being that they will benefit from these habits for their entire life. You certainly don't want your children starting life off overweight and with allergies and possible depression because they're constantly eating simple carbohydrates like pancakes, pasta and rice.

I hope this gives you some new insights on how to train your children to eat healthy foods you prepare. You can most certainly start with offering them smoothies made of bananas and orange juice, or bananas, orange juice and pineapple (my personal favorite), and if they like that, then a couple of weeks later (when you've weaned them from their pickiness) add a little dark leafy greens to the smoothie. If you make these changes gradually (maybe adding one or two new healthy foods to their diet each week) you will all eventually be eating much better, and the allergies should decrease.

Warm Regards,

Kate