Pages

Wednesday, December 5, 2012

allergies & asthma

   Oh my dear sweet girl... My little one has all sorts of allergies. Peanuts & sesame seeds are anaphylactic, then there's dust, cats, pollen, all grasses. She's sensitive to any artificial scents and soooo many foods. After a major asthma attack that had her in the hospital, I started her on what they said would work (singulaie & flovent), and it did... and then, the side effects started... I didn't even realize the problems could be related to her meds until today. I thought she's just been acting out these last ten months (and she started these meds right at the time her papa moved out so I attributed her behavior to the breakup...).
  I look forward to getting her back on a more natural path and finding relief without nasty mind altering drugs that change her into a mini monster. What have you tried that has helped with asthma & allergies? I'd love to hear about it. xo m

6 comments:

  1. hi mindy sue!

    oh, i feel for you and your little girl. as a therapist, i work with mamas whose babies have allergies, and also grown ups who have trauma from childhood asthma. so i hear from all angles how complicated and frustrating it can be. it sounds like you are already on the natural path, and i know diet especially can be so helpful. i will inquire around and report back with any helpful bits. she's lucky to have you watching out for her.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I feel terrible that it took me 10 months to figure this out and I just thought it was a bad stage... thanks for your words and I'd love any info! I'll get u my email. perhaps milla could connect us via email. xo m

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hi, I'm Teeny and came here from Nicole's Flaminghag blog....I took the link because I'm a life-long severe asthmatic, and, well so is my whole family and my two babes have had occurences of it. Firstly, allergies and asthma seem to go hand in hand, but you probably already know that. I was brought up to believe that asthma was an everyday thing and needn't change my life so much...just to keep my reliever (ventolin) handy. I absolutely applaud my parents for not making a big deal out of it, it meant i could be active, participate in normal life without worrying about potential attacks, and has never hindered me. My first attack was at 3...my parents never freaked out (my dad is also severely asthmatic), i recall hushed tones, cuddles and my dad saying it would be fine just to sleep on my side (after the hospital visit). He was brought up asthmatic in a time of little medication and natural methods first. Steamy bathrooms, vicks-vapour steam inhalations. and swimming. Swimming strengthens your lungs, and is very very important for asthmatics. Many of us become strong, expert swimmers. I highly recommend swimming if you can use it to help her. If you can find a skin friendly pool even better - unfortunately some kids with lots of allergies find chlorine in the pool exacerbates asthma (and excema). I'm not familiar with the meds that your daughter has used. I use an inhaler steroid every night. I don't like to. But I have seen the difference when I don't use it. The alternative for me is asthma attacks all throughout the day and night. For my little girl, her asthma is seasonal...and only appears then and with colds. We start Flixotide (preventer) at night when she starts to get asthma regularly (I never give her as much as she is prescribed) and a couple of puffs of Ventolin (the reliever) if needed. i've never seen ill side affects of either...but i know that overuse of Flixotide can stunt growth in children - thus why I am careful of how often and how much we give her. I have heard of diet helping in the cases where asthma is a result of food allergies - Many people blame dairy. We don't have a lot of dairy in our diet so it isn't a problem. (mild cows milk protein intolerance) ASthma is unfortunately really really prevalent in the antipodes. It is as if every second person has it, personally, I'd say when it happens try to remain calm, and regulate your own breathing. Panic, or anxiety will exacerbate asthma in your girl; always try to be calm with it, and treat it as just something that happens and we deal with. Fear and asthma are not good friends. Any kind of smokey fumes or chemical cleaning products can also trigger attacks. (um, i should admit though, that i'm an ex-smoker - probably the worst period of my asthma history ever! And that goes to show how nonchalant I am about it!) it might be worth finding out if your babe is a chronic all the time asthmatic like me....or if it is seasonal or worse with sickness like my babe. That would lessen the requirement of any treatment. I hope I don't sound bossy....just thought I might be able to offer some enlightenment as someone that has lots of experience with it. Good luck! I'd be interested to hear what you find out.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hey mama,

    don't feel bad! first and foremost, forgive yourself. what a blessing that you are the sort of mother who can connect these things in only ten months and choose a natural course of healing.

    i am also going to see if i can gather information and will email you. XOXO

    ReplyDelete
  5. wow, thanks for all the info! my gal is on flovent (daily steroid inhaler-i am not seeing side effects from it) and was on singulair, which is a mind altering drug. Her asthma is chronic (dust & cats-we have two :( being the major ones) and triggered pretty easily. The singulair is an allergy medicine and it seemed to work on the allergy symptoms so well.... until she started going bananas... Her papa bought a brand new fancy air purifier and I am keeeping the cats out of the bedroom at all times. and yes, the first thing we did today was stop at the gluten free vegan bakery. I know gluten and dairy is a problem. I was happily deluded into thinking a magic pill would allow her to eat whatever she wanted and have a cat sleep on her bed... I feel good about these changes though. We're headed to the nd tomorrow. xo m

    ReplyDelete
  6. ha!oh dear, sorry i hadn't realised how long my comment was. a friggin letter! anyhow, one last note there is some research that suggests ingesting Probiotics assists with helping allergy and asthma symptoms. Mary (terrallectualism) might be able to help with some fermentation recipes on that track.... sauerkraut?

    ReplyDelete

please leave a comment, I usually respond within the comments section. thank you for reading.