Transcript: Sensory and Dietary Issues in Children

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Sensory and Dietary Issues in Children

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[Theme Music]

JOHNER RIEHL: Childhood nutrition plays a vital role in the future health and wellbeing of our kids but unfortunately it’s not always smooth sailing. How can you tell if toddlers and pre-schoolers have dietary sensitivities or other issues and how can you handle them? Today on Parent Savers we’re talking with Lindsey Hurd, a registered dietician and lactation consultant about sensory and dietary issues in children. This is Parent Savers.

[Theme Music/Intro]

JOHNER RIEHL: Welcome everybody to Parent Savers broadcasting from the birth education centre of San Diego. Parent Savers is your weekly online on-the-go-support group for parents from the newborn years through kindergarten.

I’m your host Johner Riehl. Thanks again to all of our loyal listeners who join us week in and week out and thanks also to those who are listening for the first time. As you may know you can join our Parent Savers club and receive access to special bonus content after each new show plus special giveaways and discounts from time to time. Got Erin fidgeting over there in case you guys can hear it.

ERIN ESTEVES: Sorry.

JOHNER RIEHL: It’s okay. It breaks out the monotony of the stuff we do at the beginning each time. If you haven’t already please make sure to download the free Parent Savers app. It’s available in the Android and iTunes market place and for Windows phone so you can automatically have access to all the great parenting advice and conversation we have on Parent Savers every week.

Let’s start today’s conversation about sensory and dietary issues by introducing all of us that are in the room. I would start with myself. My name is Johner. Many of you know who’ve listened before I have three boys, a 7 year old, a 5 year old and an almost 3 year old. And I would definitely say that they have dietary issues. I’m not sure about the sensitivity issues part and I’m not sure if the issues part is more legitimate issues or me not liking what they’re doing. So anyway Jane…

JANE GAMBLE: Hi I’m Jane. I am a stay-at-home mom and I have a little boy Kayden who is a little over 2 years old.

JOHNER RIEHL: Nice.

GINA MARSH: I’m Gina. I’m a stay-at-home mom. I have a little boy who’s 26 months or 2 years old.

ERIN ESTEVES: Perfect. And I am Erin Esteves, otherwise known as OG Mamasita and I have one boy who is 2½.

JOHNER RIEHL: And Lindsey is joining us via Skype. Lindsey tell us about yourself.

LINDSEY HURD: Hi, my name is Lindsey Hurd and I am a dietician and lactation consultant and I work for myself from business name is Angel Food Lactation & Nutrition that provide Nutrition and Lactation consult for clients in Wellington North Carolina and also provide Skype counselling for really anyone throughout the country and so do that mainly for nutrition services and also some related for lactation

JOHNER RIEHL: Great. Thanks for joining us.

[Theme Music]

JOHNER RIEHL: Before we jump in to today’s topic, from time to time on Parent Savers we look at news headlines and it’s a topic that’s in the news that we think as not worthy to parents. And this one is not worthy especially to parents I think with older kids but really parent that has any sympathy or compassion.

It’s a story that we got actually today on the day that we are recording it so it’s pretty current here on May on 2014 about a mom who paid off every student’s balance following the denial of the school lunch to her son. And so a named Amanda Keown got a call in Dowagiac Michigan and I definitely pronounced that wrong. Anyway it’s in Michigan. And he told his mom that he had not gotten his lunch that day because he has an outstanding balance and I think it was something like his account owed $5 bucks and he only had $2 bucks that day. And so the school wouldn’t give him, in fact they threw his lunch down the trash and then they put his name on the board along with those of his other peers that were delinquent in the lunch. And so then Jane, you read this article too, what the mom do after that?

JANE GAMBLE: So the mom ended up paying for her son as well as the other 19 delinquent kid’s accounts to make sure that…

JOHNER RIEHL: It is about $200 bucks.

JANE GAMBLE: Yeah. It’s about $200 dollars that she paid out of her pocket to make sure that all the kids could get a lunch.

ERIN ESTEVES: And this was a single mom.

JANE GAMBLE: Single mom working two jobs.

ERIN ESTEVES: So it definitely was - you know was a hardship.

JOHNER RIEHL: But the outrage of course is that what’s the school is thinking?

ERIN ESTEVES: I know. That’s yeah…

JOHNER RIEHL: Like causing this…

JANE GAMBLE: Well a lot of the comments that are made on the article are they blaming the parents, saying they need to be the ones responsible to make sure that their accounts are up to date.

ERIN ESTEVES: But you know we have a 5 billion things to keep track off, we have can only have so many calendar reminders and you know frankly it’s not that we aren’t considering the nutrition or health of our children issues that when we drop the kid off at school I mean I personally remember getting drop off at school so many times without lunch money and it having just been an oversight.

JOHNER RIEHL: I think this and maybe even to apply it just to overall parenting, it kind of goes down to when there is a problem, how are we going to deal, what’s the appropriate way to deal with the problem. And if the problem that kids is not having their lunch it’s not really appropriate way A: just waste the food and throw it away or B: publicly try to shame these kids. And I think that is also an example that adults need to set for kids on how they can appropriately deal with issues. Not to say it’s not an issue and the kid shouldn’t be [inaudible] but how can we best deal with that so that were not teaching kids the wrong thing.

JANE GAMBLE: I agree.

[Theme Music]

JOHNER RIELH: Today’s topic on Parent Savers is sensory and dietary issues on children. Today we’re talking with Lindsey Hurd, she’s going to tell us all about the topic. Thanks for joining us Lindsey.

LINDSEY HURD: Thank you for having me.

JOHNER RIEHL: So I think I know but we’ll probably get to them later some of the dietary issues but I’m also intrigue by sensory issues. So what are sensory issues to food?

LINDSEY HURD: Yeah so we’ve learned that some children you know just have heighten sensitivity to certain taste and smell even the touch of food so the actual feel of the way food filled on their mouth and so we finding that you know some children have a difficult time in processing all these signals that are sent to their brain from these different senses that you know it makes them kind of more susceptible to food preference and food pickiness if you will and so we’re kind of finding that you know this is becoming you know an abundant process you know within our smaller children.

JOHNER RIEHL: And so where do this come from?

LINSEY HURD: We are not completely sure, we are finding that you know really once baby were born, we’re seeing some of the signs very early on whether they have a difficult time feeding at the breast, whether they just get very disorganized or get very upset quickly on you know they may respond you know like in a worse way to a lot of stimulus so you know if there are room full of adults talking and there are a lot of noise going on they can shut down a lot more quickly than other children so we are really seeing this happen earlier than are children that are you know about their voice, their opinion and their feelings.

ERIN ESTEVES: Jane is shaking her head. She’s just nodding constantly like ticking off boxes.

JANE GAMBLE: Yup.

ERIN ESTEVES: So you experience that early on with Kayden?

JANE GAMBLE: I did. From birth he never latch, he has been diagnose with sensory processing disorder and mostly his sensory issues are definitely food touch is an issue and now auditory is an issue for him. Loud sounds, different sounds bother him and it started at birth.

ERIN ESTEVES: How did you identify that early on as a problem?

JANE GAMBLE: I actually, I think was in denial until about 10 months. I wasn’t able to latch so I pumped but once we started doing the solid food was when we started noticing the issue. He was taking purees find but he wouldn’t take any solid food and when we got him into PT for some other related issue she referred us to an OT and she said yes he has sensory processing disorder because he didn’t want to touch anything. He didn’t like grass. He didn’t like sand. He didn’t want to be anywhere on the floor and so that’s where we started the whole process and it’s been a long…

ERIN ESTEVES: Journey.

JANE GAMBLE: 2 years.

ERIN ESTEVES: Wow. So is it common then like your saying if you’re going to see it, it’s going to happen like from the gecko or is this something that children can kind of acquire as they age?

LINDSEY HURD: You know there are some that experience things more drastically versus others so I think that you may be very likely to be able to see it early on. However it could take until the child was able to voice you know what’s going on in his body or in his mind to be able to really put the pieces together because so often we hear you know maybe it has different behaviours and you know may we find that you know baby is not latching that maybe that’s associated with something else.

So we all kind of try and find something that we can fix so that we can clear our hand on kind of living the moment to you know resolve the issues for the family and for the mom and baby so all things that maybe a signal for this you know we’re not really picking up on that.

And just it’s all very new to us practitioners so we’re really learning about how we can help these families. And our family is really our best teacher so you know we’re very grateful for all the pieces and notes, symptoms and signs that our family is safe.

JANE GAMBLE: I know that a lot of the families that I’ve talked to who have had issues have also talked about tongue tie and lip tie having problems with latching and for some reason that seems to be associated with sensory issues, sensory kids too. It’s a mid-lying defect that kids have.

ERIN ESTEVES: Because in my own experience, my son was tongue tied and I have noticed that he does have sensory issues with some food and that also happen when we started introducing solid foods you know avocado will set off his gag reflex. But banana will set off my gag reflex too so I just thought oh okay no big deal but yeah he tends to start chewing food and then spit it out almost like it’s too much for his mouth.

LINSEY HURD: So we’re saying that you know it kind of look on the neurological aspect that is playing role with this so there’s signal from our senses to our brain kind of get mixed up with sensory processing disorder so they intend we can precede them as one way but yeah to a child with this disorder things to be completely out of whack or thrown off.

Something like you know trying to walk down a road you know to get to your destination and then you see a road close sign and then you have a hard time thinking okay do I turn right or do I turn left what do I do and you know to someone without this disorder they can easily be able to kind of reroute themselves.

JOHNER RIEHL: I think that’s – I mean as we’re talking about just the very high level perception is like the ultimate personal thing and we’re talking about young kids and how do you get tuned in to their perception being different and then figuring out what to do especially now as you said Lindsey because so much parenting advice that we do get is oh every kid is different like oh well it’s not always going to happen the same time and so but you’re radar goes off right that there’s something that’s off.

JANE GAMBLE: Yup.

ERIN ESTEVES: I mean I ask for example I ask my husband’s family and my family if anybody had a history of spitting food out you know because it’s just odd. It just struck me as odd and nobody had. And Jane and I were talking about it and she’s the one that mentioned to me about the possible sensory being link to the tongue tied and it’s like oh wow yes now it’s kind of like somebody gave you a pair of glasses and suddenly you can see things and all of this little quirks that I had pass of as something or nothing now just kind of add to the idea that I have to take this things always into consideration. And Gina you’re sitting there shaking your head yes this time.

GINA MARSH: Yeah. I am, I was always be like kind of jealous like because my friend’s kids were like 10 months old eating a banana and we’re vegan and I’m like dude you should be eating bananas, watermelon like all this things like we’re vegan come on and I would be like here try this and he would gag, spit it out, throw it and I’ll be like in tears you know so I tried the solids, he did the solids.

I tried you know every single fruit and vegetable possible and he still hates like big pieces of fruits and vegetables and so for me it’s really just learning what how to get in him in the right way so we do a lot of Puree and the Vitamix and a lot of green smoothies and you know I just try to get to what he likes and what he likes and then that’s pretty much in everything but it’s really difficult because your trying to figure out what works for you and you hear this other people say like oh my kid eats you know this Kale salad and you’re like okay well that’s great because my kid is eating pasta every day. Keia pasta so that you know so...

ERIN ESTEVES: My kid has beans and rice again.

GINA MARSH: Yeah. So I mean I guess it never like now that I’m hearing people talk more about the sensory, I guess it never really cross my mind that that was a big issue for him. I just taught oh he’s really picky and he is a very picky eater and he nurse well, he’s always nurse well, we’re so nursing and that’s you know to me that’s great.

I feel like he’s still getting nutrition that way and I work really hard to feed him well but he will gag and spit stuff out if it’s like you said if it’s too big of a bite he’ll spit it out and so my biggest thing is I will shredder vegetables in the shredder thing that I have, the salad master shredder, and I will cook those up really soft and he will eat turnips, parsnips…

ERIN ESTEVES: Wow.

GINA MARSH: All these things that I’m like watching him like a hawk seeing ok he’s not going to eat this and he’ll be like devour it. Yeah he like it’s so good mommy and I’m like crossing my fingers like yes I did it. But it’s just figuring out I think the thing is just figuring out what works for your family and not comparing your kids to others kids especially if you notice they have these little quirks and issues because you’re just going to find yourself always feeling down that your child is not good enough or you know…

ERIN ESTEVES: Being fed well enough.

GINA MARSH: Yeah like you’re not a good mother or something like that and it’s just as the mommy worst thing internally…

ERIN ESTEVES: Yes.

GINA MARSH: You just don’t need that.

ERIN ESTEVES: Well I’m wondering talking nutritionally, I’m sorry Johner I’m just like taken over.

JOHENR RIEHL: That’s fine don’t worry about it. I’m fine with that.

ERIN ESTEVES: I guess for moms like us the nutrition aspect is huge and you know I joked about it but it’s true. If my kid could eat beans and rice for every meal, he would be super please and you know he has this very finite list of foods that he will willingly eat.

JANE GAMBLE: That’s my son too.

ERIN ESTEVES: And it’s in, when he sees new food he freaks the F out. It doesn’t even have to be on his plate.

GINA MARSH: Right.

ERIN ESTEVES: He just sees new food. So I’m wondering to everyone on the panel and Lindsey, how, do you experience that, have you experience it, and if so how do you deal with it?

LINSEY HURD: Yeah so I think [inaudible] speaking from a professional angle we really find that consistency is so important and even really were children without a sensory processing disorder. This is a very common scenario. In my work doing paediatric counselling it’s literally in every conversation I had with families regardless if why they are there.

So I really think that just across the board this is a very common discussion that I have with families and I think that the big thing in the story I just heard and learnt how you really played on his interest and his likes then and you found success. You know yes he may not be eating a raw kale salad with a garlic cheese bread but you know if he’s still getting those nutrients and those components of some food but in a way that’s tolerable to him.

I think that’s the key to try and find the way that it can be pleasurable and enjoyable for them that yet they’re able to continue to expand their palate less flavours. Because as they get older and they are able to think a little bit more about the things that they are eating and they have the ability to kind of choose and make reasonable choices.

Some will argue, this takes until your 20s but that’s another topic all together but they really would have the palates to appreciate a variety of food. Were as if they get to the point where mentally they are able to kind of move pass some of their sensory issues then at that point they have [inaudible] because they have eaten foods that you know maybe within their [inaudible] like different varieties for chicken fingers or mash potatoes. You know that very bland food and when they do began to expand you know on what their eating the food are so strong and so different that their taste buds kind of have a you know a moment of panic when they experience of all of these different flavours.

So I think you know it really accommodating you know like I said their consistency preferences or their placement of food on their plate you know the timers or the presentation of the food all that can put in.

ERIN ESTEVES: So what I’m getting from this is that we shouldn’t over think things and we should be okay with feeding them the way their happy, the way their willing to eat and as they age and as we grow with this experience we’ll be able to figure things out better? Is that what…

LINDSEY HURD: Yeah.

ERIN ESTEVES: Okay. I just want to make sure that we’re not too hard on ourselves.

LINDSEY HURD: Right. Absolutely and I think you to continue to offer food even if they spit it out or turn it down, all of that was part of the process of tolerating something and really learning about the taste and all the senses of that food. So I think to continue to offer and get them involved in the kitchen and have them help so that when they see it on their plate they don’t have that freak out moment.

They’re you know there when you buy that at the grocery store they are part of the choosing process. Do you want broccoli or cauliflowers tonight? Both of those foods maybe something that they don’t like but to have the opportunity to select their food is very helpful and then you know and being a part of the preparation process is all a very good thing.

JOHNER RIEHL: Yeah that’s one of the things that frustrate us because our 5 year old is like the best helper in the world. He loves to go to the store. He loves to pick things out. He loves to cook everything. But the moment it comes to even thinking about eating that stuff. No no no no no like oh no no no that I’m not making that for me like I’m happy to help but he doesn’t want anything to do with the food. But a lot of the feedback we’ve been given to is just we find just kind of let it go and we don’t want to force food on him so...

ERIN ESTEVES: I just keep telling myself the likelihood of this child starving to death…

JOHNER RIEHL: Right.

ERIN ESTEVES: Is minimal.

JOHNER RIEHL: Right.

LINDSEY HURD: Absolutely.

JOHNER RIEHL: Exactly. We actually needed to take a quick break and we’ll comeback. There’s still tons of stuff to cover and we’ll cover as much of it as we can including food allergies maybe some acid reflux and even natural remedies that we can do besides just let it be. Alright we’ll be right back.

[Theme Music]

JOHNER RIEHL: Welcome back everybody to Parent Savers. Today we’re talking about sensory and dietary issues in children with Lindsey Hurd. So let me ask the big question that a lot of people when you talk about food issues and I feel like this always comes up topic and I am interested in hearing your perspective but why do you think there are more food allergies now or are there even? Is it something that’s more common now or we just more tuned into it?

LINDSEY HURD: So I think this is the big million dollar question that many practitioners are you know lots of research and work towards finding out the exact cause and we have definitely a handful of theories that you know we perceive as being potential contributor of the increase rates of allergies.

I think a lot of it is awareness just with all the other situations, the more we know about it the more we say “hey you know what I think, that I am going to be doing this too and so now we know oh maybe I’m allergic to cow milk and so I’ll remove that component from my diet and then you know move forward to having the perception that I’m allergic to that food.

So I think the awareness is definitely up as well as the rise. You know I think we can talk about it in a few moments as some of the theory but definitely more people are aware of the sensitivity that they have. I think that an important point to make is the difference between food sensitivity and a true food allergy. I think that a lot of folks are really kind of mixing those two terms up that we’re finding that you know the allergy rate are increasing however some people may be sensitive to a certain food. And you know sensitivity kind of come and go.

JOHNER RIEHL: And that’s not an allergy? And so sensitivity is not allergy…

LINDSEY HURD: It’s not a true allergy…

JOHNER RIEHL: Okay.

LINSEY HURD: So an allergy would be an immune response from the body so we would perceive these what’s called antigen from proteins on that food as harmful and our bodies would in return produce anti-bodies.

It kind of help fight all of those antigens. So it’s kind of like a an allergic response almost in our body were some foods that we might be sensitive to could just calls mainly the distressed so whether it was diarrhoea, constipation, bloating, gas, all sort of things. Sometimes they can just be due to sensitivity not necessarily an allergic response.

ERIN ESTEVES: It’s more of a run to the bathroom versus a run to the emergency room.

GINA MARSH: Right.

JOHNER RIEHL: Got it.

ERIN ESTEVES: So yeah.

LINDSEY HURD: Yeah definitely.

JOHNER RIEHL: I mean what I think that the terms are misuse…

ERIN ESTEVES: Yes I agree.

JOHNER RIEHL: Or not really understood because if I would be ask to describe allergy oh something that irritated or they don’t have a good reaction to it. That’s a good breakdown.

ERIN ESTEVES: Yeah.

JOHNER RIEHL: That’s interesting.

ERIN ESTEVES: Yes.

GINA MARSH: Yeah.

JOHNER RIEHL: Let me ask you about this one, and our doctor said that this one is weird. Our 2 year old is we say we’ve been told allergic to egg or maybe just sensitive. But he really cannot touch an egg shell…

ERIN ESTEVES: Oh wow…

JOHNER RIEHL: Or raw egg or he breaks out on a rash externally.

ERIN ESTEVES: That’s an allergy.

GINA MARSH: No, that’s an allergy.

JOHNER RIEHL: That’s an allergy.

ERINE ESTEVES: That’s an allergy.

JOHNER RIEHL: But what they’ve encouraged us to do is you know keep putting in stuff that you cooked…

ERIN ESTEVES: Yeah.

JOHNER RIEHL: And let him eat it. But just don’t let him touch it.

GINA MARSH: Well it depends though because it depends on how sensitive he is.

JOHNER RIEHL: Yeah.

GINA MARSH: Because my son is severely allergic to eggs.

JOHNER RIEHL: Okay.

GINA MARSH: We just got allergy testing done for him and our allergist gave him a half strength test of egg protein and he tested 15 out of 25 on half strength and my allergist said I don’t even want to know what his reaction would be. So the allergy means that the wealth from the skin prick was 15 millimetres wide.

ERIN ESTEVES: Wow.

GINA MARSH: Which is big for a food allergy reaction and that was only half strength. So he can’t touch it. He can’t be near it. He can’t eat any baked goods.

JOHNER RIEHL: Got it. Yeah that’s yeah.

GINA MARSH: Nothing. He can’t eat anything with eggs in it at all.

ERIN ESTEVES: Because there are forms of treatment that introduce the allergen in like micro you know micro doses to build up an immunity for it. But then there are other instances were because the sensitivity is so extreme that even a micro dose can cause anaphylasis, anaphylaptic shock. Yeah.

JANE GAMBLE: I had an experience right after I had my son I develop allergies to nuts which was horrible because I’m beginning, I was eating nuts like…

ERIN ESTEVES: Crazy.

JANE GAMBLE: A mad woman. I was nursing feels like yeah good fats eating nuts by the handfuls and my throat actually was like closing. I was like gasping for air. I was like what’s going on? So my friend’s mom is a nurse and she’s like oh just take some benadryl or some antihistamine so I started keeping them in my diaper bag, my nursing bag, wherever I was and I would take them, it was just randomly only certain nuts. I couldn’t remember which one but after I had gone to the chiropractor a couple of times and got adjusted they started dying down.

ERIN ESTEVES: Interesting.

JANE GAMBLE: So I don’t have them anymore thankfully I can eat whatever nuts. My son hasn’t have any allergies but I just thought it was really strange that I have developed these allergies after like what my birth wasn’t traumatic but you know most people…

ERIN ESTEVES: Yeah.

JANE GAMBLE: Birth isn’t you know.

ERIN ESTEVES: It’s not a day at the spa.

JANE GAMBLE: No it’s not. But you know I think because of what my body went through and your system changes after you have a baby. But I just found that really strange. I was like I’d never heard of anything like that. I’ve never thought that could happen.

ERIN ESTEVES: Adult on on-set allergies.

JANE GAMBLE: Yeah.

ERIN ESTEVES: Yeah.

JANE GAMBLE: And so I was dying because like I love peanut butter. I ate peanut butter through my whole pregnancy. I wasn’t one of the people who didn’t want to do it but yeah it was difficult and strange and I thought that was weird so maybe…

ERIN ESTEVES: So have you notice any of these allergic tendencies or sensitivities in your child?

JANE GAMBLE: He has eczema and keratosis pilaris and not through nuts but I notice if he eats a lot of processed foods then his skin will get really bad like his eczema will pop up more. His keratosis pillars will pop up more so I notice if we like mainly breads and stuff like that so if we cut out gluten and do more gluten free stuff his skin will look really nice and he won’t have any itching. But if he starts up and eats more process foods, more frozen foods like if we’re out…

ERIN ESTEVES: Right.

JANE GAMBLE: And decided to do that, his skin will get bad and then I kind of tell my husband yeah we you know we need to cut that. Yeah he’s eating too much junk food we need to get more veggies and fruits, more good fats in there for him. But yeah and it’s he never has anything too crazy happen other than just the skin issues which tells me that if he had more abundance of that food what else could happen?

JOHNER RIEHL: So here’s what I hear on that story that you went to the chiropractor and sort of work something out.

JANE GAMBLE: Yeah.

JOHNER RIEHL: Well and so like from a natural perspective of like you know what are some other thing or things like that…

ERIN ESTEVES: Alternatives.

JOHNER RIEHL: Alternatives that you that maybe folks can try out Lindsey?

LINSEY HURD: Yes. So I think that it brings up a great point and for me a lot of these begins with the moms particularly and really have multiple generations. You know we’re finding the intimate by a larger medicine and as also the water system we have now even of course it’s done such wonders on our you know death rate and the infectious diseases that we have and all that we’re grateful for the water system we have but in purifying so many things in our environment is really slowing off the what we called microbiome within our body so all the really good bacteria that lives within our body.

JOHNER RIEHL: Yeah. Eat the food off the floor, build up the immunity. That’s what we’re saying right?

ERIN ESTEVES: Yeah.

JOHNER RIEHL: Not exactly but…

ERIN ESTEVES: But close.

JOHNER RIEHL: Yeah.

LINDSEY HURD: Yes. It is close and also in protecting moms got it and helping her to try and foster a good environment for that bacteria to grow.

JOHNER RIEHL: We do need to wrap up the conversation but I think that there might be enough information to maybe to maybe help Lindsey back on…

ERIN ESTEVES: I agree.

JOHNER RIEHL: There’s so much stuff but Gina, Jane, Lindsey anything you want to make sure we talk about with the dietary issues or sensitivity?

GINA MARSH: I just want to know if they can outgrow them like if they can outgrow them if they’re going to if my kids ever going to eat a fruit? That’s I want to know. Will my kid eat an apple?

ERIN ESTEVES: I can tell you from personal experience.

JANE GAMBLE: Yes.

ERIN ESTEVES: Yes.

GINA MARSH: Yes. He did start eating broccoli so that’s a win and I’m like ripping broccoli and everything but yeah so will they ever eat a variety of items not just you know the five…

JANE GAMBLE: Five things.

GINA MARSH: Pasta with puree and kale because that’s where I’m at.

LINDSEY HURD: Yeah so I think the continuous exposure so and forth even if they don’t touch it always have that visible, always have available, never make a big deal out of it, just let it be kind of what it is. It is food it’s something we choose to eat or not choose to eat.

The way that adult can contribute is to always have that available so that the children have the opportunity to be and to also you know like with the smoothies and warming the food together, you’re offering them the opportunity to build a palette towards that food.

So I think that’s always very helpful and then in terms of the allergies I would say really work on it because good bacteria whether that’s probiotics or from you know some fermented food like cheese are good example and you know really fostering that healthy bacteria with good probiotics and then also fiber rich food which means there is good bacteria can really help the sensitivities and allergies to pack on.

JOHNER RIEHL: Great. Alright thank you so much Lindsey and like I said I think we might have to do a little more digging into this topic for sure, tons of stuff. So thank for listening everybody. For more information about sensory and dietary issues in children or more information about any of our panellists, visit the episode page on our website. The conversation will continue for members of our Parent Savers club after the show. Lindsey is going to tell us about nutrition therapy for more information about Parent Savers club visit www.parentsavers.com .

[Theme Music]

SUNNY GAULT: Hey Parent Savers this is Sunny, I’m one of the producers on the show. Today we had a funny Parenting Oops story to share with you. This is a great segment we have here on Parent Savers were you guys get to tell us your craziest parenting stories, the crazy things that happen to you and we get to laugh. But we’re laughing with you no at you.

So this story comes from Christine and Christine says our daughter was playing in the living room when she saw her daddy come out of the bathroom. She got really excited and squealed with delight. She kept saying Ooh ooh. Moments later I heard daddy grunt in pain when I found out what happen I couldn’t stop laughing.

Apparently he forgot his towel in the bed room so he was pretty much naked coming out of the shower and as with all children, they get pretty curious when they see naked bodies and she grab her daddy in the nuts. So you can imagine what pain he was going through. After that he learned he’ll never forget his towel again.

Christine thank you so much for sending this in. if you guys have a funny Parenting Oops you want to share with us and all of our listeners, please either send us an email, you can comment on our Facebook page or you can call our voice mail at 619-866-4775.

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JOHNER RIEHL: That wraps up today’s show. Thank you so much for listening to Parent Savers.

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Episode Transcript

Parent Savers
Sensory and Dietary Issues in Children

Please be advised, this transcription was performed from a company independent of New Mommy Media, LLC. As such, translation was required which may alter the accuracy of the transcription.

[Theme Music]

JOHNER RIEHL: Childhood nutrition plays a vital role in the future health and wellbeing of our kids but unfortunately it’s not always smooth sailing. How can you tell if toddlers and pre-schoolers have dietary sensitivities or other issues and how can you handle them? Today on Parent Savers we’re talking with Lindsey Hurd, a registered dietician and lactation consultant about sensory and dietary issues in children. This is Parent Savers.

[Theme Music/Intro]

JOHNER RIEHL: Welcome everybody to Parent Savers broadcasting from the birth education centre of San Diego. Parent Savers is your weekly online on-the-go-support group for parents from the newborn years through kindergarten.

I’m your host Johner Riehl. Thanks again to all of our loyal listeners who join us week in and week out and thanks also to those who are listening for the first time. As you may know you can join our Parent Savers club and receive access to special bonus content after each new show plus special giveaways and discounts from time to time. Got Erin fidgeting over there in case you guys can hear it.

ERIN ESTEVES: Sorry.

JOHNER RIEHL: It’s okay. It breaks out the monotony of the stuff we do at the beginning each time. If you haven’t already please make sure to download the free Parent Savers app. It’s available in the Android and iTunes market place and for Windows phone so you can automatically have access to all the great parenting advice and conversation we have on Parent Savers every week.

Let’s start today’s conversation about sensory and dietary issues by introducing all of us that are in the room. I would start with myself. My name is Johner. Many of you know who’ve listened before I have three boys, a 7 year old, a 5 year old and an almost 3 year old. And I would definitely say that they have dietary issues. I’m not sure about the sensitivity issues part and I’m not sure if the issues part is more legitimate issues or me not liking what they’re doing. So anyway Jane…

JANE GAMBLE: Hi I’m Jane. I am a stay-at-home mom and I have a little boy Kayden who is a little over 2 years old.

JOHNER RIEHL: Nice.

GINA MARSH: I’m Gina. I’m a stay-at-home mom. I have a little boy who’s 26 months or 2 years old.

ERIN ESTEVES: Perfect. And I am Erin Esteves, otherwise known as OG Mamasita and I have one boy who is 2½.

JOHNER RIEHL: And Lindsey is joining us via Skype. Lindsey tell us about yourself.

LINDSEY HURD: Hi, my name is Lindsey Hurd and I am a dietician and lactation consultant and I work for myself from business name is Angel Food Lactation & Nutrition that provide Nutrition and Lactation consult for clients in Wellington North Carolina and also provide Skype counselling for really anyone throughout the country and so do that mainly for nutrition services and also some related for lactation

JOHNER RIEHL: Great. Thanks for joining us.

[Theme Music]

JOHNER RIEHL: Before we jump in to today’s topic, from time to time on Parent Savers we look at news headlines and it’s a topic that’s in the news that we think as not worthy to parents. And this one is not worthy especially to parents I think with older kids but really parent that has any sympathy or compassion.

It’s a story that we got actually today on the day that we are recording it so it’s pretty current here on May on 2014 about a mom who paid off every student’s balance following the denial of the school lunch to her son. And so a named Amanda Keown got a call in Dowagiac Michigan and I definitely pronounced that wrong. Anyway it’s in Michigan. And he told his mom that he had not gotten his lunch that day because he has an outstanding balance and I think it was something like his account owed $5 bucks and he only had $2 bucks that day. And so the school wouldn’t give him, in fact they threw his lunch down the trash and then they put his name on the board along with those of his other peers that were delinquent in the lunch. And so then Jane, you read this article too, what the mom do after that?

JANE GAMBLE: So the mom ended up paying for her son as well as the other 19 delinquent kid’s accounts to make sure that…

JOHNER RIEHL: It is about $200 bucks.

JANE GAMBLE: Yeah. It’s about $200 dollars that she paid out of her pocket to make sure that all the kids could get a lunch.

ERIN ESTEVES: And this was a single mom.

JANE GAMBLE: Single mom working two jobs.

ERIN ESTEVES: So it definitely was - you know was a hardship.

JOHNER RIEHL: But the outrage of course is that what’s the school is thinking?

ERIN ESTEVES: I know. That’s yeah…

JOHNER RIEHL: Like causing this…

JANE GAMBLE: Well a lot of the comments that are made on the article are they blaming the parents, saying they need to be the ones responsible to make sure that their accounts are up to date.

ERIN ESTEVES: But you know we have a 5 billion things to keep track off, we have can only have so many calendar reminders and you know frankly it’s not that we aren’t considering the nutrition or health of our children issues that when we drop the kid off at school I mean I personally remember getting drop off at school so many times without lunch money and it having just been an oversight.

JOHNER RIEHL: I think this and maybe even to apply it just to overall parenting, it kind of goes down to when there is a problem, how are we going to deal, what’s the appropriate way to deal with the problem. And if the problem that kids is not having their lunch it’s not really appropriate way A: just waste the food and throw it away or B: publicly try to shame these kids. And I think that is also an example that adults need to set for kids on how they can appropriately deal with issues. Not to say it’s not an issue and the kid shouldn’t be [inaudible] but how can we best deal with that so that were not teaching kids the wrong thing.

JANE GAMBLE: I agree.

[Theme Music]

JOHNER RIELH: Today’s topic on Parent Savers is sensory and dietary issues on children. Today we’re talking with Lindsey Hurd, she’s going to tell us all about the topic. Thanks for joining us Lindsey.

LINDSEY HURD: Thank you for having me.

JOHNER RIEHL: So I think I know but we’ll probably get to them later some of the dietary issues but I’m also intrigue by sensory issues. So what are sensory issues to food?

LINDSEY HURD: Yeah so we’ve learned that some children you know just have heighten sensitivity to certain taste and smell even the touch of food so the actual feel of the way food filled on their mouth and so we finding that you know some children have a difficult time in processing all these signals that are sent to their brain from these different senses that you know it makes them kind of more susceptible to food preference and food pickiness if you will and so we’re kind of finding that you know this is becoming you know an abundant process you know within our smaller children.

JOHNER RIEHL: And so where do this come from?

LINSEY HURD: We are not completely sure, we are finding that you know really once baby were born, we’re seeing some of the signs very early on whether they have a difficult time feeding at the breast, whether they just get very disorganized or get very upset quickly on you know they may respond you know like in a worse way to a lot of stimulus so you know if there are room full of adults talking and there are a lot of noise going on they can shut down a lot more quickly than other children so we are really seeing this happen earlier than are children that are you know about their voice, their opinion and their feelings.

ERIN ESTEVES: Jane is shaking her head. She’s just nodding constantly like ticking off boxes.

JANE GAMBLE: Yup.

ERIN ESTEVES: So you experience that early on with Kayden?

JANE GAMBLE: I did. From birth he never latch, he has been diagnose with sensory processing disorder and mostly his sensory issues are definitely food touch is an issue and now auditory is an issue for him. Loud sounds, different sounds bother him and it started at birth.

ERIN ESTEVES: How did you identify that early on as a problem?

JANE GAMBLE: I actually, I think was in denial until about 10 months. I wasn’t able to latch so I pumped but once we started doing the solid food was when we started noticing the issue. He was taking purees find but he wouldn’t take any solid food and when we got him into PT for some other related issue she referred us to an OT and she said yes he has sensory processing disorder because he didn’t want to touch anything. He didn’t like grass. He didn’t like sand. He didn’t want to be anywhere on the floor and so that’s where we started the whole process and it’s been a long…

ERIN ESTEVES: Journey.

JANE GAMBLE: 2 years.

ERIN ESTEVES: Wow. So is it common then like your saying if you’re going to see it, it’s going to happen like from the gecko or is this something that children can kind of acquire as they age?

LINDSEY HURD: You know there are some that experience things more drastically versus others so I think that you may be very likely to be able to see it early on. However it could take until the child was able to voice you know what’s going on in his body or in his mind to be able to really put the pieces together because so often we hear you know maybe it has different behaviours and you know may we find that you know baby is not latching that maybe that’s associated with something else.

So we all kind of try and find something that we can fix so that we can clear our hand on kind of living the moment to you know resolve the issues for the family and for the mom and baby so all things that maybe a signal for this you know we’re not really picking up on that.

And just it’s all very new to us practitioners so we’re really learning about how we can help these families. And our family is really our best teacher so you know we’re very grateful for all the pieces and notes, symptoms and signs that our family is safe.

JANE GAMBLE: I know that a lot of the families that I’ve talked to who have had issues have also talked about tongue tie and lip tie having problems with latching and for some reason that seems to be associated with sensory issues, sensory kids too. It’s a mid-lying defect that kids have.

ERIN ESTEVES: Because in my own experience, my son was tongue tied and I have noticed that he does have sensory issues with some food and that also happen when we started introducing solid foods you know avocado will set off his gag reflex. But banana will set off my gag reflex too so I just thought oh okay no big deal but yeah he tends to start chewing food and then spit it out almost like it’s too much for his mouth.

LINSEY HURD: So we’re saying that you know it kind of look on the neurological aspect that is playing role with this so there’s signal from our senses to our brain kind of get mixed up with sensory processing disorder so they intend we can precede them as one way but yeah to a child with this disorder things to be completely out of whack or thrown off.

Something like you know trying to walk down a road you know to get to your destination and then you see a road close sign and then you have a hard time thinking okay do I turn right or do I turn left what do I do and you know to someone without this disorder they can easily be able to kind of reroute themselves.

JOHNER RIEHL: I think that’s – I mean as we’re talking about just the very high level perception is like the ultimate personal thing and we’re talking about young kids and how do you get tuned in to their perception being different and then figuring out what to do especially now as you said Lindsey because so much parenting advice that we do get is oh every kid is different like oh well it’s not always going to happen the same time and so but you’re radar goes off right that there’s something that’s off.

JANE GAMBLE: Yup.

ERIN ESTEVES: I mean I ask for example I ask my husband’s family and my family if anybody had a history of spitting food out you know because it’s just odd. It just struck me as odd and nobody had. And Jane and I were talking about it and she’s the one that mentioned to me about the possible sensory being link to the tongue tied and it’s like oh wow yes now it’s kind of like somebody gave you a pair of glasses and suddenly you can see things and all of this little quirks that I had pass of as something or nothing now just kind of add to the idea that I have to take this things always into consideration. And Gina you’re sitting there shaking your head yes this time.

GINA MARSH: Yeah. I am, I was always be like kind of jealous like because my friend’s kids were like 10 months old eating a banana and we’re vegan and I’m like dude you should be eating bananas, watermelon like all this things like we’re vegan come on and I would be like here try this and he would gag, spit it out, throw it and I’ll be like in tears you know so I tried the solids, he did the solids.

I tried you know every single fruit and vegetable possible and he still hates like big pieces of fruits and vegetables and so for me it’s really just learning what how to get in him in the right way so we do a lot of Puree and the Vitamix and a lot of green smoothies and you know I just try to get to what he likes and what he likes and then that’s pretty much in everything but it’s really difficult because your trying to figure out what works for you and you hear this other people say like oh my kid eats you know this Kale salad and you’re like okay well that’s great because my kid is eating pasta every day. Keia pasta so that you know so...

ERIN ESTEVES: My kid has beans and rice again.

GINA MARSH: Yeah. So I mean I guess it never like now that I’m hearing people talk more about the sensory, I guess it never really cross my mind that that was a big issue for him. I just taught oh he’s really picky and he is a very picky eater and he nurse well, he’s always nurse well, we’re so nursing and that’s you know to me that’s great.

I feel like he’s still getting nutrition that way and I work really hard to feed him well but he will gag and spit stuff out if it’s like you said if it’s too big of a bite he’ll spit it out and so my biggest thing is I will shredder vegetables in the shredder thing that I have, the salad master shredder, and I will cook those up really soft and he will eat turnips, parsnips…

ERIN ESTEVES: Wow.

GINA MARSH: All these things that I’m like watching him like a hawk seeing ok he’s not going to eat this and he’ll be like devour it. Yeah he like it’s so good mommy and I’m like crossing my fingers like yes I did it. But it’s just figuring out I think the thing is just figuring out what works for your family and not comparing your kids to others kids especially if you notice they have these little quirks and issues because you’re just going to find yourself always feeling down that your child is not good enough or you know…

ERIN ESTEVES: Being fed well enough.

GINA MARSH: Yeah like you’re not a good mother or something like that and it’s just as the mommy worst thing internally…

ERIN ESTEVES: Yes.

GINA MARSH: You just don’t need that.

ERIN ESTEVES: Well I’m wondering talking nutritionally, I’m sorry Johner I’m just like taken over.

JOHENR RIEHL: That’s fine don’t worry about it. I’m fine with that.

ERIN ESTEVES: I guess for moms like us the nutrition aspect is huge and you know I joked about it but it’s true. If my kid could eat beans and rice for every meal, he would be super please and you know he has this very finite list of foods that he will willingly eat.

JANE GAMBLE: That’s my son too.

ERIN ESTEVES: And it’s in, when he sees new food he freaks the F out. It doesn’t even have to be on his plate.

GINA MARSH: Right.

ERIN ESTEVES: He just sees new food. So I’m wondering to everyone on the panel and Lindsey, how, do you experience that, have you experience it, and if so how do you deal with it?

LINSEY HURD: Yeah so I think [inaudible] speaking from a professional angle we really find that consistency is so important and even really were children without a sensory processing disorder. This is a very common scenario. In my work doing paediatric counselling it’s literally in every conversation I had with families regardless if why they are there.

So I really think that just across the board this is a very common discussion that I have with families and I think that the big thing in the story I just heard and learnt how you really played on his interest and his likes then and you found success. You know yes he may not be eating a raw kale salad with a garlic cheese bread but you know if he’s still getting those nutrients and those components of some food but in a way that’s tolerable to him.

I think that’s the key to try and find the way that it can be pleasurable and enjoyable for them that yet they’re able to continue to expand their palate less flavours. Because as they get older and they are able to think a little bit more about the things that they are eating and they have the ability to kind of choose and make reasonable choices.

Some will argue, this takes until your 20s but that’s another topic all together but they really would have the palates to appreciate a variety of food. Were as if they get to the point where mentally they are able to kind of move pass some of their sensory issues then at that point they have [inaudible] because they have eaten foods that you know maybe within their [inaudible] like different varieties for chicken fingers or mash potatoes. You know that very bland food and when they do began to expand you know on what their eating the food are so strong and so different that their taste buds kind of have a you know a moment of panic when they experience of all of these different flavours.

So I think you know it really accommodating you know like I said their consistency preferences or their placement of food on their plate you know the timers or the presentation of the food all that can put in.

ERIN ESTEVES: So what I’m getting from this is that we shouldn’t over think things and we should be okay with feeding them the way their happy, the way their willing to eat and as they age and as we grow with this experience we’ll be able to figure things out better? Is that what…

LINDSEY HURD: Yeah.

ERIN ESTEVES: Okay. I just want to make sure that we’re not too hard on ourselves.

LINDSEY HURD: Right. Absolutely and I think you to continue to offer food even if they spit it out or turn it down, all of that was part of the process of tolerating something and really learning about the taste and all the senses of that food. So I think to continue to offer and get them involved in the kitchen and have them help so that when they see it on their plate they don’t have that freak out moment.

They’re you know there when you buy that at the grocery store they are part of the choosing process. Do you want broccoli or cauliflowers tonight? Both of those foods maybe something that they don’t like but to have the opportunity to select their food is very helpful and then you know and being a part of the preparation process is all a very good thing.

JOHNER RIEHL: Yeah that’s one of the things that frustrate us because our 5 year old is like the best helper in the world. He loves to go to the store. He loves to pick things out. He loves to cook everything. But the moment it comes to even thinking about eating that stuff. No no no no no like oh no no no that I’m not making that for me like I’m happy to help but he doesn’t want anything to do with the food. But a lot of the feedback we’ve been given to is just we find just kind of let it go and we don’t want to force food on him so...

ERIN ESTEVES: I just keep telling myself the likelihood of this child starving to death…

JOHNER RIEHL: Right.

ERIN ESTEVES: Is minimal.

JOHNER RIEHL: Right.

LINDSEY HURD: Absolutely.

JOHNER RIEHL: Exactly. We actually needed to take a quick break and we’ll comeback. There’s still tons of stuff to cover and we’ll cover as much of it as we can including food allergies maybe some acid reflux and even natural remedies that we can do besides just let it be. Alright we’ll be right back.

[Theme Music]

JOHNER RIEHL: Welcome back everybody to Parent Savers. Today we’re talking about sensory and dietary issues in children with Lindsey Hurd. So let me ask the big question that a lot of people when you talk about food issues and I feel like this always comes up topic and I am interested in hearing your perspective but why do you think there are more food allergies now or are there even? Is it something that’s more common now or we just more tuned into it?

LINDSEY HURD: So I think this is the big million dollar question that many practitioners are you know lots of research and work towards finding out the exact cause and we have definitely a handful of theories that you know we perceive as being potential contributor of the increase rates of allergies.

I think a lot of it is awareness just with all the other situations, the more we know about it the more we say “hey you know what I think, that I am going to be doing this too and so now we know oh maybe I’m allergic to cow milk and so I’ll remove that component from my diet and then you know move forward to having the perception that I’m allergic to that food.

So I think the awareness is definitely up as well as the rise. You know I think we can talk about it in a few moments as some of the theory but definitely more people are aware of the sensitivity that they have. I think that an important point to make is the difference between food sensitivity and a true food allergy. I think that a lot of folks are really kind of mixing those two terms up that we’re finding that you know the allergy rate are increasing however some people may be sensitive to a certain food. And you know sensitivity kind of come and go.

JOHNER RIEHL: And that’s not an allergy? And so sensitivity is not allergy…

LINDSEY HURD: It’s not a true allergy…

JOHNER RIEHL: Okay.

LINSEY HURD: So an allergy would be an immune response from the body so we would perceive these what’s called antigen from proteins on that food as harmful and our bodies would in return produce anti-bodies.

It kind of help fight all of those antigens. So it’s kind of like a an allergic response almost in our body were some foods that we might be sensitive to could just calls mainly the distressed so whether it was diarrhoea, constipation, bloating, gas, all sort of things. Sometimes they can just be due to sensitivity not necessarily an allergic response.

ERIN ESTEVES: It’s more of a run to the bathroom versus a run to the emergency room.

GINA MARSH: Right.

JOHNER RIEHL: Got it.

ERIN ESTEVES: So yeah.

LINDSEY HURD: Yeah definitely.

JOHNER RIEHL: I mean what I think that the terms are misuse…

ERIN ESTEVES: Yes I agree.

JOHNER RIEHL: Or not really understood because if I would be ask to describe allergy oh something that irritated or they don’t have a good reaction to it. That’s a good breakdown.

ERIN ESTEVES: Yeah.

JOHNER RIEHL: That’s interesting.

ERIN ESTEVES: Yes.

GINA MARSH: Yeah.

JOHNER RIEHL: Let me ask you about this one, and our doctor said that this one is weird. Our 2 year old is we say we’ve been told allergic to egg or maybe just sensitive. But he really cannot touch an egg shell…

ERIN ESTEVES: Oh wow…

JOHNER RIEHL: Or raw egg or he breaks out on a rash externally.

ERIN ESTEVES: That’s an allergy.

GINA MARSH: No, that’s an allergy.

JOHNER RIEHL: That’s an allergy.

ERINE ESTEVES: That’s an allergy.

JOHNER RIEHL: But what they’ve encouraged us to do is you know keep putting in stuff that you cooked…

ERIN ESTEVES: Yeah.

JOHNER RIEHL: And let him eat it. But just don’t let him touch it.

GINA MARSH: Well it depends though because it depends on how sensitive he is.

JOHNER RIEHL: Yeah.

GINA MARSH: Because my son is severely allergic to eggs.

JOHNER RIEHL: Okay.

GINA MARSH: We just got allergy testing done for him and our allergist gave him a half strength test of egg protein and he tested 15 out of 25 on half strength and my allergist said I don’t even want to know what his reaction would be. So the allergy means that the wealth from the skin prick was 15 millimetres wide.

ERIN ESTEVES: Wow.

GINA MARSH: Which is big for a food allergy reaction and that was only half strength. So he can’t touch it. He can’t be near it. He can’t eat any baked goods.

JOHNER RIEHL: Got it. Yeah that’s yeah.

GINA MARSH: Nothing. He can’t eat anything with eggs in it at all.

ERIN ESTEVES: Because there are forms of treatment that introduce the allergen in like micro you know micro doses to build up an immunity for it. But then there are other instances were because the sensitivity is so extreme that even a micro dose can cause anaphylasis, anaphylaptic shock. Yeah.

JANE GAMBLE: I had an experience right after I had my son I develop allergies to nuts which was horrible because I’m beginning, I was eating nuts like…

ERIN ESTEVES: Crazy.

JANE GAMBLE: A mad woman. I was nursing feels like yeah good fats eating nuts by the handfuls and my throat actually was like closing. I was like gasping for air. I was like what’s going on? So my friend’s mom is a nurse and she’s like oh just take some benadryl or some antihistamine so I started keeping them in my diaper bag, my nursing bag, wherever I was and I would take them, it was just randomly only certain nuts. I couldn’t remember which one but after I had gone to the chiropractor a couple of times and got adjusted they started dying down.

ERIN ESTEVES: Interesting.

JANE GAMBLE: So I don’t have them anymore thankfully I can eat whatever nuts. My son hasn’t have any allergies but I just thought it was really strange that I have developed these allergies after like what my birth wasn’t traumatic but you know most people…

ERIN ESTEVES: Yeah.

JANE GAMBLE: Birth isn’t you know.

ERIN ESTEVES: It’s not a day at the spa.

JANE GAMBLE: No it’s not. But you know I think because of what my body went through and your system changes after you have a baby. But I just found that really strange. I was like I’d never heard of anything like that. I’ve never thought that could happen.

ERIN ESTEVES: Adult on on-set allergies.

JANE GAMBLE: Yeah.

ERIN ESTEVES: Yeah.

JANE GAMBLE: And so I was dying because like I love peanut butter. I ate peanut butter through my whole pregnancy. I wasn’t one of the people who didn’t want to do it but yeah it was difficult and strange and I thought that was weird so maybe…

ERIN ESTEVES: So have you notice any of these allergic tendencies or sensitivities in your child?

JANE GAMBLE: He has eczema and keratosis pilaris and not through nuts but I notice if he eats a lot of processed foods then his skin will get really bad like his eczema will pop up more. His keratosis pillars will pop up more so I notice if we like mainly breads and stuff like that so if we cut out gluten and do more gluten free stuff his skin will look really nice and he won’t have any itching. But if he starts up and eats more process foods, more frozen foods like if we’re out…

ERIN ESTEVES: Right.

JANE GAMBLE: And decided to do that, his skin will get bad and then I kind of tell my husband yeah we you know we need to cut that. Yeah he’s eating too much junk food we need to get more veggies and fruits, more good fats in there for him. But yeah and it’s he never has anything too crazy happen other than just the skin issues which tells me that if he had more abundance of that food what else could happen?

JOHNER RIEHL: So here’s what I hear on that story that you went to the chiropractor and sort of work something out.

JANE GAMBLE: Yeah.

JOHNER RIEHL: Well and so like from a natural perspective of like you know what are some other thing or things like that…

ERIN ESTEVES: Alternatives.

JOHNER RIEHL: Alternatives that you that maybe folks can try out Lindsey?

LINSEY HURD: Yes. So I think that it brings up a great point and for me a lot of these begins with the moms particularly and really have multiple generations. You know we’re finding the intimate by a larger medicine and as also the water system we have now even of course it’s done such wonders on our you know death rate and the infectious diseases that we have and all that we’re grateful for the water system we have but in purifying so many things in our environment is really slowing off the what we called microbiome within our body so all the really good bacteria that lives within our body.

JOHNER RIEHL: Yeah. Eat the food off the floor, build up the immunity. That’s what we’re saying right?

ERIN ESTEVES: Yeah.

JOHNER RIEHL: Not exactly but…

ERIN ESTEVES: But close.

JOHNER RIEHL: Yeah.

LINDSEY HURD: Yes. It is close and also in protecting moms got it and helping her to try and foster a good environment for that bacteria to grow.

JOHNER RIEHL: We do need to wrap up the conversation but I think that there might be enough information to maybe to maybe help Lindsey back on…

ERIN ESTEVES: I agree.

JOHNER RIEHL: There’s so much stuff but Gina, Jane, Lindsey anything you want to make sure we talk about with the dietary issues or sensitivity?

GINA MARSH: I just want to know if they can outgrow them like if they can outgrow them if they’re going to if my kids ever going to eat a fruit? That’s I want to know. Will my kid eat an apple?

ERIN ESTEVES: I can tell you from personal experience.

JANE GAMBLE: Yes.

ERIN ESTEVES: Yes.

GINA MARSH: Yes. He did start eating broccoli so that’s a win and I’m like ripping broccoli and everything but yeah so will they ever eat a variety of items not just you know the five…

JANE GAMBLE: Five things.

GINA MARSH: Pasta with puree and kale because that’s where I’m at.

LINDSEY HURD: Yeah so I think the continuous exposure so and forth even if they don’t touch it always have that visible, always have available, never make a big deal out of it, just let it be kind of what it is. It is food it’s something we choose to eat or not choose to eat.

The way that adult can contribute is to always have that available so that the children have the opportunity to be and to also you know like with the smoothies and warming the food together, you’re offering them the opportunity to build a palette towards that food.

So I think that’s always very helpful and then in terms of the allergies I would say really work on it because good bacteria whether that’s probiotics or from you know some fermented food like cheese are good example and you know really fostering that healthy bacteria with good probiotics and then also fiber rich food which means there is good bacteria can really help the sensitivities and allergies to pack on.

JOHNER RIEHL: Great. Alright thank you so much Lindsey and like I said I think we might have to do a little more digging into this topic for sure, tons of stuff. So thank for listening everybody. For more information about sensory and dietary issues in children or more information about any of our panellists, visit the episode page on our website. The conversation will continue for members of our Parent Savers club after the show. Lindsey is going to tell us about nutrition therapy for more information about Parent Savers club visit www.parentsavers.com .

[Theme Music]

SUNNY GAULT: Hey Parent Savers this is Sunny, I’m one of the producers on the show. Today we had a funny Parenting Oops story to share with you. This is a great segment we have here on Parent Savers were you guys get to tell us your craziest parenting stories, the crazy things that happen to you and we get to laugh. But we’re laughing with you no at you.

So this story comes from Christine and Christine says our daughter was playing in the living room when she saw her daddy come out of the bathroom. She got really excited and squealed with delight. She kept saying Ooh ooh. Moments later I heard daddy grunt in pain when I found out what happen I couldn’t stop laughing.

Apparently he forgot his towel in the bed room so he was pretty much naked coming out of the shower and as with all children, they get pretty curious when they see naked bodies and she grab her daddy in the nuts. So you can imagine what pain he was going through. After that he learned he’ll never forget his towel again.

Christine thank you so much for sending this in. if you guys have a funny Parenting Oops you want to share with us and all of our listeners, please either send us an email, you can comment on our Facebook page or you can call our voice mail at 619-866-4775.

[Theme Music]

JOHNER RIEHL: That wraps up today’s show. Thank you so much for listening to Parent Savers.

Don’t forget to check out our sister shows:
• Preggie Pals for expecting parents
• The Boob Group for moms who breastfeed and
• Twin Talks for parents of multiple kids.

This is Parent Savers empowering new parents.

[Disclaimer]
This has been a New Mommy Media production. Information and material contained in this episode are presented for educational purposes only. Statements and opinions expressed in this episode are not necessarily those of New Mommy Media and should not be considered facts. Though information in which areas are related to be accurate, it is not intended to replace or substitute for professional, Medical or advisor care and should not be used for diagnosing or treating health care problem or disease or prescribing any medications. If you have questions or concerns regarding your physical or mental health or the health of your baby, please seek assistance from a qualified health care provider.

SUNNY GAULT: New Mommy Media is expanding our line up of shows for new and expecting parents. If you have an idea for a new series or if you’re a business or organization interested in joining our network of shows through a co-branded podcast, visit www.NewMommyMedia.com .

[00:33:08]
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