My second son, who is nine, has had allergies and been anemic for *years*. At a year, he had gone from 100th percentile to 10th, and the doctor was concerned enough to have us go to the hospital for nutritional analysis by a dietician, who found that despite taking in more than 3000 calories a day (!), he was not absorbing iron.
So we supplemented with iron and got his levels up (actually, the iron didn't work, so we used Floradix on a hush hush basis from the dietician!)... and then we moved soon after, and kind of lost track of his health problems.
Over the years, i've talked to countless doctors, had tons of bloodwork done (all of which show anemia, plus allergies to grasses like timothy, and not much else), had xrays done of his sinuses (which didn't show any reason why he should be completely stuffed up all the time). I did take him to a naturopath, but she was kind of flaky, and i was turned off so i didn't take her advice to buy some really expensive water that would help him "achieve a more alkaline state" (although now i am thinking the acid/alkaline thing may be something to look into...
So, finally i am biting the bullet and eliminating gluten. We'll do this for a few weeks, (maybe six? maybe more) and then go back to gluten and i'm charting how he feels, so that i can spot trends.
Really, gluten free and paleo are not two separate things - but in doing the gluten free diet for a family of nine, i am going to give up on paleo for awhile. Some meals will be paleo, but i'm including things like rice, mashed potatos and other gluten free carbs so that the children won't feel deprived.
This morning i made the most delicious rice pancakes, studded with raisins (or chocolate chips, or nothing, depending on when you got to the giant pan - it made a TON of pancakes!)
I'm not sure if i should just start another blog and come back to this one once the experiment is over (as i'm pretty sure my husband wants to stay paleo) - but the title of the blog seems not so true now :) and if i start a GF blog, maybe i will get some traffic from people who can give me advice :)
Anyway, i've had pneumonia and we've had every flu in town since Dec. 25th, which is why i haven't posted much - but i'm getting better, and looking forward to posting more and hopefully learning more from everyone else out there in blogland...
I'll post a picture and recipe after i get some school done this morning!
