His cheeks told me.
We’d already known my son had a dairy sensitivity as a baby, but we thought he had outgrown it. His original infant symptoms had disappeared.
But by age 3 we were having a very tough time with him behaviorally. (That is putting it quite mildly — I was losing my marbles and my husband was happiest not-at-home.) There were tantrums, constant meltdowns, severe hypoglycemia, and severe anxiety.
Our pediatrician recommended we try eliminating foods to see if that helped. We were surprised. At that point we simply had no idea that food could be affecting his brain and causing these behavioral symptoms. We were clueless about the food-brain connection, but desperate to try anything. …
I am writing this letter to those of you who had kids when peanut-free schools didn’t exist.
When inhalers weren’t carried in backpacks.
When you didn’t have to make multiple types of birthday cakes to accommodate all the allergies.
When the job of a school nurse was to dispense band-aids not ADHD meds.
When kids were healthy. I mean really, actually, healthy.
Because here’s the thing. Most of us raising kids now, if you asked us, we’d say our kids are healthy.
As in, other than the anxiety, my son is super healthy. Other than the itchy skin and constant rashes, my child is just fine. My child has a severe learning disability, but she’s healthy. …
My kids are 4, 6, and 8.
Like most moms, I spend a lot of time making sure my kids are healthy. But over the past two and half years I have realized something important.
My kids are healthy — but not really.
Actually, they are part of a new group of kids I’m calling “healthy/unhealthy.” And I think this may be the new normal. Which is deeply concerning to me.
Let me explain…
My kids are HEALTHY. Look at these super cute pictures of them here — they look healthy and happy and active and awesome because honestly, they are all of that. …
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