corn medicine update - 2nd day

today 'lou's new rash has crept almost to his belly button in the front and his old rash is beginning to redden and crop up with new bumps today. he's beginning to scratch and dig at his ankles again, too. which tells me he's getting enough corn from these meds to start flaring up his primary allergic pattern. which means they're starting to do more harm than good now, so it's time to stop. at least they helped most of the open sores to close and much of the rawness to dry up.

i spoke with the actual owner of the compounding pharmacy today (he also owns the pharmacy we use, which has been fabulous about reading me every single ingredient of every single option we could try and helping me pick the ones w/ the least corn), and once he understood how much corn is really in these meds, he vowed to find me some truly corn-free options, "no matter where he has to go to get it".

which got me thinking after we hung up, other parts of the world don't add corn to everything like we do. if there were a real desperate need for it, if he had to be on steroids long -term, for example, couldn't we get them from somewhere that doesn't use corn? like canada or mexico or norway, or who knows where? i wonder how that works, if a compounding pharmacy can do that. i'm going to ask him when he calls back to tell me if their manufacturer overseas sends the prednisolone with corn already in it.

the allergist also called with the 1st of the test results. he said 'lou's IgE count is at 319. normally it should be around the 25-100 area. but we still don't know *what's* causing him to have such a huge reaction. hopefully we get that answer on monday or tuesday.

in the meantime, i'm assuming it's a new food like beans, meats (i'm betting on chicken) or lentils, possibly grains (please, not rice) and since i have to quit the medicine, i'm going to eat rice only along with him until monday/tuesday, when we hopefully find out what he's actually allergic to now. i'm praying it's not the dog.

his ped also called me back to day and i got the chance to ask her as well as the allergist many of my questions. like why there aren't options for children so allergic to the substance that's in everything. the reply i got was that it's still very rare for anyone to be this sensitive and that neither dr. realized there was so much corn in everything - and that's there's virtually nothing available without it.

i really think when we're being this overexposed to something this mutated and genetically modified, more and more people *are* going to start becoming allergic. how could they not? both dr.s said the exact same thing to me today, "i'm learning from you." they have no idea what options there are, they have no idea what alternatives could be used, they have no idea how or why he's so sensitive he's reacting to corn in such tiny & processed amounts, they have no idea how long 'lou might be like this, they have no idea if an allergy like this can become anaphylactic or always remain isolated to a skin response, no idea if it's lifelong.

it's very scary to realize the people i look to as authorities on the subject have no real experience with it! they both agree that i need to stop the oral steroid now and that going on a rice- only diet to help minimize the reactions seems like the only option until we get some answers. if nothing else, i'm lucky they are very open to listening to me and respecting my observations and instincts.

the more and more i think about this, the more upset i get at how little i knew about the way i ate. it used to be food allergies were only seen in families with a history. a genetic tendency to be allergic to a food that other family members had also had. now it's cropping up everywhere with no family history and nobody knows why.

i think it's from gut damage caused by the way we eat and how our foods are made now. i suspect my son is so particularly sensitive for the simple reason that we got our 1st del taco restaurant a few blocks from my house while i was pregnant with him. i probably ate there 3 or 4 times a week, every chance i could. i had no idea every single thing had several sources of corn in it. corn that is now genetically modified. corn that has been shown to actually alter the dna of rat's gi cells.

what could overexposure to something like that do to a developing fetus? i've been doing everything possible for 2 yrs now to heal his gut damage. completely restricted diet, medical grade corn and allergen free probiotics, breastfeeding, coconut rich recipes, essential fatty acids and good oils... why is he getting more and more allergic? why is he collecting new things to be allergic to and not outgrowing any of the old ones?

nobody can answer these questions because nobody's seen kids like this before. my darkest fear is that, while his gut was being formed, i ruined and warped it by bombarding him with all the gmo's i was eating. that he'll never get over it, that he'll always have problems with food allergies. nobody can even tell me if this is a rational fear, it's such a new issue!

another odd fact i've just realized as i write this blog & reflect (and am wondering if it may be a clue for the dr.s) is this: it seems to me that each time he's become allergic to new things, it was preceded by an illness. a prolonged viral exposure. i would really love to find a group of other parents with multiple food allergy kids - esp corn - and ask them if they noticed their children cropping up with new food allergies after illnesses. is this typical of multiple allergy people? is it indicative of how they became multiply allergic? could it offer a clue as to how to 'cure' them? i'd love any thoughts or feedback.

what could this mean? that his immune system starts fighting off a virus (he is actually sick much less than my other children - twice now most or all of the others have gotten stomach flu and it hasn't touched him and he rarely gets the sore throats and runny noses when they do) and then gets confused or overstimulated and turns to fighting off foods? if this is so, would it mean his immune system is damaged... or maybe hyperactive...?

i never had a problem with corn. i always said it was like eating tiny bits of sunshine. loved corn! didn't know a gmo from a hole in the ground. if i was gonna pick something we eat to crusade against, it would most likely have been meat since i used to be vegetarian all my life until the 1st pregnancy. or the way we give children cow's milk in our country - that's always ben a HUGE pet peeve of mine. but corn? who would have ever guessed that corn would have to become my pet conspiracy theory? but once you start looking into it, there's very valid reason for concern.

i can't urge people enough to learn more about it - the corn your kids are getting is not the corn you

got !