A Journey into NAET
December 10th, 2008 by ariana
As I posted here, I wasn’t convinced Jasper’s rash was food related. I wanted to blame it on the prevacid. Or the mother’s milk tea. I really wanted to be able to eat food and not stress that it was going to mean a horrible night for Jasper.
But then I made a timeline of events:
11-3 Went off Dairy and Soy
11-11 Started elimination diet
11-22 started prevacid in combination with zantac
11-28 went off elimination diet
11-29 drank mother’s milk tea
11-30 rash on cheeks appears. horrible night –cramping and screaming all night.
11-31 another horrible night.
12-1 stopped zantac and Jasper had a great night!
12-2 pretty good/ok night.
12-3 night HORRIBLE.
12-4 rash is back on cheeks and terrible red burn like rash after BM
Looking at this timeline, it’s pretty clear from the sequence of events that the most likely cause of Jasper’s rash and behavior is me going off TED.
But how could going OFF it cause such a negative reaction when going ON it didn’t cause much positive effect? I had a long email exchange with an experience reflux and allergy mommy Stephanie and she wrote:
If you keep giving up dairy and reintroducing it, the symptoms will keep
coming back. Also, it takes about a week for all traces of dairy to be gone
from your breast milk, so it will often take two or three weeks to see a big
difference because the baby is still getting traces of dairy for about a
week after you give it up, and then it will take a week or two for his
skin/gut to heal from the irritation of the allergen. So a lot of moms give
up too soon – they say “It’s been a week and I don’t see any difference.”
In fact, with babies with serious milk and soy allergies (about a third of
babies allergic to dairy are also allergic to soy) who end up having to go
on elemental formulas (allergen-free by prescription only) they advise
waiting an entire month to see results.
That really made sense to me. So even though Jasper didn’t show huge improvement while OFF the offending foods, when I went back to eating a whole bunch of foods he was allergic to it flooded his system with allergens and caused the rash and gas pains.
Not wanting to start TED again blindly, I decided to try NAET.
The best description I found of NAET is on this blog:
NAET stands for Nambudripad’s Allergy Elimination Techniques. Here’s what the website says:
“a non-invasive, drug free, natural solution to eliminate allergies of all types and intensities using a blend of selective energy balancing, testing and treatment procedures from acupuncture/acupressure, allopathy, chiropractic, nutritional, and kinesiological disciplines of medicine.”
That’s about as clear as mud, right?
The technique claims that through muscle testing and acupressure, you can identify allergies and then desensitize the body to the identified allergens so that they no longer cause problems. Ever.
I know, it sounds too good to be true.
Other than the obvious upside of not just having to avoid allergens for the duration of breatsfeeding but to actually CURE the allergy, I also knew that NAET cured my mom of her horrible dust allergies.
So on December 5th after poor Jasper’s rash reappeared with a vengance I brought him for our first NAET appointment.
At the first appointment they test you for allergies to many major food groups, environmental allergies (mold, dust) and also organ weaknesses. They use MRT (muscle response testing) which is where you hold your arm up and the practitioner tries to push it down when asking if you are weak to a substance. If your arm goes down easily you have a weekness. If it stays strong and is not easily pushed down you are “strong” to that substance.
(Before you pronounce me mad and click the x on your browser window, check out this study in which MRT identified 19 allergies that were then later confirmed by blood tests.)
Obviously you can’t muscle test a baby, so everything is done with a surrogate, which would normally be me except she had to use the office manager instead of me because we were “incompatible” for treatment. Dr. W said this happens often when mom’s have been through the wringer with their babes and there is a lot of emotional intaglement. So we had to be “treated” to each other almost as if it were an allergy so that I could be Jasper’s surrogate in the future treatments.
The results were pretty eye opening..
Unfortunately, Jasper tested weak for pretty much EVERYTHING including Gluten, Soy, Dairy, Corn, Beef, Eggs, Shellfish and most interestingly TURKEY! Yes, turkey, the very thing that I had been gorging on during TED.
For the organ testing he tested weak for intestines (surprise surprise) and spleen.
Here’s where it got intersting.. each organ has a corresponding meridian (like in accupuncture) and time of day. The intestines time of day is 4am-6am, the exact time that Jasper suffers the absolute MOST from gas!
Then we looked at a body meridian chart she had hanging on the wall and both the spleen and intestines have meridians around the esophagus perhaps explaining J’s reflux issues. It made me hopeful that once his allergies are under control he may be able to be weaned off of the prevacid.
She also tested him for zantac vs. prevacid and he was strong for prevacid and weak for zantac. That is the exact opposite of what I would have thought. I was actually about to take him off the prevacid and put him back on zantac!
One other weird thing was that she said her tests showed his nighttime crying was related to mold and asked if we had a mold problem where Jasper sleeps. I couln’t think of how there could be mold in our bedroom until that night when we got home I went to turn on the humidifier (!!) that we’d been running every night and hadn’t cleaned since we borrowed it from my parents months ago. That night I didn’t run it and even though Jasper had a really bad cold he slept a hundred times better than he had been previously.
I mentioned in my previous post that I am an agnostic when it comes to things like alternative medicine, psychics etc. I believe that some people are truly psychic, but you have to tell me something that will convince me. Nothing that the medical intuitive we consulted led me to believe she was the real thing.. there was no “aha!” moment like there was during our first NAET session.
So for now, I’m a believer, but that may change if we don’t start seeing postive results from the treatments.
I’ll explain the treatments in my next post as that is a whole topic in and of itself!
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Just a thought,
All babies are PKU tested with a heel-poke 24-72 hours after birth, and follow-up test is usually done at 7-10 days of age. Was Jasper?
Just wondering, since most of those ‘weak’ foods are proteins.
(a PKU test tests for phenylalanine levels (an amino acid). rarely, babies do not have an enzyme which allows them to convert phenylalanine into other amino acids, causing problems. phenylalanine is found in most foods which contain protein… including breast milk)
You’ve probably already been there and done repeat PKU testing. Just thought I would mention it, in case you haven’t. I’m not sure if PKU fits with his symptoms, but the list of sensitive foods sparked my memory.
I wish I could take Mikey back for a few more sessions. But, right now we are doing thetahealing for the Mister and we are beyond thrilled with the results.
Okay, I’ll bite. Why do you have two anniversaries?
xoxo,
Sagittarius with Aquarius ascendant ;)
Michelle, that’s so wonderful to hear!!! I was going to contact you and ask if you had an update because I couldn’t find one on your blog. I hope your daughter finds continued relief and that Jasper has similar results!
Hey, Ariana!
Thanks for the link. :)
I have just completed the Basic 15 for my daughter. (I need to write another update for my blog.) Since we started NAET, her skin has literally transformed before my very eyes. I went in super-skeptical, but willing to do anything that would provide relief. We had exhausted “medical” options. The changes that I’ve seen occur in her skin over the last six months are amazing. I haven’t had to put lotion on her body once. (I would normally lotion her multiple times a day.) I haven’t had to use any steroids to control flare up. And, she’s been off Zyrtec for almost five months now (something she was on daily from 15 mos old on).
Some might argue that she “grew out” of the eczema. I don’t buy it. It’s too coincidental. My youngest has similar skin problems. I have just begun treatment for her, my son and myself.
NAET seems to be working for us. We’ll see how it continues.
Steph, thank you for the excellent info as usual! I will refer back if I do need to go that route..
BTW, since we started NAET Jasper is seeming to sleep better, though I have started eating white rice instead of brown so it could be that its just easier for him to digest?
Wanted to chime in on the formula thing:
If he’s only allergic to milk, soy formula might be an option, but some people get weirded out about soy, and many babies who are allergic to dairy are also allergic to soy.
(A lot of people will try telling you to try goats milk formula instead of cows milk formula because it’s “different” and “more easily tolerated” but most babies who have a true dairy allergy – and not just a sensitivity or a lactose intolerance problem – are going to struggle just as much with goats milk as with cows milk – they are very similar.)
The next step down would be a hydrolyzed formula like Nutramigen or Alimentum. These formulas contain both dairy and soy, but the proteins are broken down to the point that many babies with milk/soy allergies can tolerate the formula without issue. The hydrolyzed formulas are available over the counter. They are more expensive than regular formulas but work well for a lot of babies.
For highly allergic babies who cannot tolerate Nutramigen or Alimentum, a nutritionally complete, hypoallergenic non-dairy formula like Neocate or Elecare is usually your only option besides nursing on a total elimination diet. Neocate (and other formulas like it) are available by prescription only – typically prescribed by a GI doctor or an allergist. They are obscenely expensive and not covered by all insurance plans. (In certain states, insurance companies are required by law to cover these formulas for food allergy and metabolic disorders. In other states, they leave it up to the insurance companies, and you can imagine how that works out! Several groups are working to pass nationwide legislation to change this.)
My older daughter was put on Neocate at 7 weeks following two separate allergy-related hospitalizations (5 days in the hospital each.) With my younger daughter, I nursed for 11 months on an elimination diet (not TOTAL – just dairy and soy free) and supplemented with Neocate. She’s 16 months old now, still allergic to dairy and soy, and drinks neocate and rice milk, with the occasional sippy cup full of watered down fruit or veggie juice. She’s thriving. :-)
One of the problems I encountered while my daughter nursing was that I couldn’t keep my supply up to where she needed it to be. I was pumping 40 ounces a day (I know – moooooooooooooo!) but my daughter’s reflux was so bad that she was throwing up half of what I pumped. Supplementing with formula allowed me to finally step away from the pump (I decided I’d much rather snuggle up with my baby than some machine.)
If you’re OK with the elimination diet and Jasper is doing well with nursing, then there’s no reason to change. But I thought I would post this just to say it doesn’t have to be either/or – sometimes a combination of BOTH can be a sanity saver. :-)
Hi Kari, no problem.. Jeff tells me that everyday!
Honestly, I’ve sometimes considered it. The thing is that most babies with sensitivities and allergies do worse on formula, and it’s proven that breastmilk actually reduces food allergies in the long run and reduces the symptoms of reflux (along with all the other obvious health benefits!)
So there’s no guarantee that he’d be “better” on formula and I’ve been reluctant to do a trial because it can take a month during which I would have to exclusively pump, which might kill my supply!
I will only go there as a last resort.
Hi Ariana. I’ve been reading your blogs, both of them for some time now, and I have a question. I’m sure you’ve answered it, but I don’t remember learning why you don’t switch to formula? I know that you would do anything to make sweet jasper more comfortable and I’m sure you’d like to eat more normally, but what is the purpose to breastfeeding if it is so troublesome for him? I’m nervous to ask this question because I don’t want to seem disrespectful of your choices… I’m sure you’re doing all the right things. I’m just wondering what I missed.
LOL Jules, I doubt it would shock me… (Ask me why we have two wedding anniversaries!! )
Maggie, no not sad at all, it’s a pretty fascinating thing. And a good one to know about as it has helped so many people for so many different kind of issues (apparantly they have great success helping autistic kids for example!)
Jane, I hope it works and can be a resource for you if your future children do have allergies (though I hope they don’t!)
Meggin, I agree 100% about zegrid. Unfortunately our Pedi GI was reluctant to give zegrid because it hasn’t been “tested” as much as prevacid in infants blah blah. But I know it’s so much better to use because you don’t have to time it before meals and wait 30 minutes like prevacid. Grrr!
My son has all of the same issues that Jasper has. He takes a probiotic, is on a hypoallergenic formula and is taking Zegrid. He now sleeps throught the night and is a happy baby with no more symptoms. We noticed an improvement in him within days but it has now been about 1 month and he is 100% a different baby. I asked my doctor about the hesitation of many Doctors to prescribe Zegrid and she said it depends on the practice. I live in Austin TX and the best Pedi GI specialists prescribe Zegrid for their infants. She prescribed it to me so I would not have to wait the 2-3 months for an appointment with them.
BTW…I only stopped giving him breastmilk because he never latched on and after 2 months I could not pump anymore:(
This is the most interesting thing I have ever heard too! I also have allergies and had similar muscle testing as well as a skin test. I have mostly environmental allergies, however I am so thankful to learn from your journey just in case I should have a child with food allergies. Your sharing this is going to help so many babies!
This is the most interesting thing I have ever heard. I’m so glad that you are open to anything to help Jasper! Is it sad that I want to go just to learn about it? I hope you have found what will help Jasper (and you)!
If you knew half the stuff I’ve dabbled in, you’d think I was nuts for sure.
So interesting Chatal! I’m always afraid y’all will think I’m nuts for some of the stuff I do and lo and behold we all have so much in common :)
i had that kind of muscle testing done when i was kid and wediscovered all kinds of allergies i had. once i stopped eating that stuff i was way happier and slept better. so i’m a big believer! i’m glad you had it done and hope you see a big change from here on in!