Random! Tabby health update, homeschool, stopping bedwetting with essential oils

This picture of Tabby says it all.  Still waiting to find out what exactly is wrong with her.  Even our mail carrier told me today that she is praying for Tabby and for answers!

Tabby had to repeat the stool test earlier this week.  (What "fun.")  The company changed up their testing.  But the good part is, they are now doing a far more extensive test and we still pay the original price.  Have to wait about 2 weeks for the results.

Last week Tabby took a saliva test that checks a bunch of things.  Still waiting for those results.

Yesterday I had our well water tested.  Just in case.  Will find out next week if there is any bacteria present in the water.  Then in 2 weeks, we'll get results about any "non-organic" matter.

I've got Tabby on a strict diet.  Lots of meat, veggies, and fruits.  Also some nuts and goat milk and a little goat cheese.  And I found a farm that has duck eggs and I'm getting some today from them.  I thought we should try them in cooking and baking and be sure Tabby's body agrees with them before I invest in ducks.

I reviewed several paleo cookbooks and have been cooking some from them.  But I've found that a lot of the recipes use some variation of coconut which she can't have.  And many use ginger or garlic.  She can't have those.  I've decided baking gluten free things doesn't necessarily make them healthy.  Several of the gluten free flours heavily relied on raise the blood sugar levels.  So we're using Trim Healthy Mama recipes (just tweaked when necessary) as that is low glycemic cooking/baking.

Sunday evening, Tabby suddenly got a "lull" in the pain.  (That is what we've dubbed those brief times when her pain level suddenly drops.  It's still there, but is much lower.)  When the lull comes on the first thing she does is take a shower, as on a normal pain day she just can't stand up long enough to take one.  Then after her shower she does homework.  The lull lasted all through Monday so she was able to go to school!  (Only the 3rd time in all of October.)  Tuesday morning she was getting ready for school and wham.  Pain came back so hard she hobbled to the recliner.  And has been there or her bed ever since.

This really blows my mind.  She's had the constant pain since September 7th!!  SO beyond sad.  :(

And ... Solomon's health update - I've had him on a dairy free, gluten free diet for about a week and a half now.  He has not thrown up any at all.  He is still getting some stomach aches but they are much briefer.  I plan to continue his diet for another week or so and then slowly reintroduce diary.  (He think's he's dying without getting cheese every day!)  If that goes well we'll try gluten a couple weeks later.

On happier news, Solomon has been loving homeschool/preschool.  He really wants to learn to read so we've been working on phonics.  He knows all the letters of the alphabet and so we're learning the sounds.  Each week I've been introducing 5 letter sounds.

I bought wooden letter "plates" at a yard sale and Solomon lines them up.  He matches the blue magnetic letters to the proper letters on the wooden plates.   I have a 77 cent metal baking tray for putting different foam magnet objects on.  We talk about the sounds each letter makes and then he lines up picture magnets with the right letters.  ("Lion" starts with "lllll" etc.)

He usually takes this very seriously for 2 days.  Then the third day he get silly and puts the pictures by the wrong letters on purpose.  Which really is fine, because we sound out that picture using the wrong sound.  (Ex.  "Drum" becomes "Trum.")  Then on the 4th day I get out a timer and set it for 3 minutes and he hurries to beat the timer.  We usually do the same thing on Friday and it's a breeze then.  Then we start the next week with new letters/picture magnets.

Then we reinforce letters with some free alphabet "Do-A-Dot" printables.  Solomon loves Do-A-Dot paint markers and is always asking for printables to use them with, or making up his own pictures.  (You can find free printables for all sorts of activities including fun pictures and math and reading, etc. just by doing a search.)

Solomon is my first kid that seems to naturally love math.  He walks around doing addition and subtraction and asking me to verify his problems he comes up with.  Ex.  "So does 2 + 3 = 5?"  Last spring I bought "Farmyard Math" from Timberdoodle during a sale.  My only regret is that I waited until last month to introduce it as a lot of the lessons are too easy.  I thought it was for "preschoolers" but it seems more at a "toddler" level.  But that is OK!  Solomon loves this math and I make up harder problems for him with it.

Farmyard Math comes with a tub of farm animals, farmyard mat, and a 36-week curriculum guide.  (We've blazed through the whole guide in just a few weeks and I'm making up stuff now.)   For each lesson, there is a little story, and the child follows instructions in the story.  They learn basic counting, patterns, and some easy addition and subtraction.  It really does teach the child to listen carefully to the details in the story so they can do what it is asking.  (You can see a video about this math program on the Timberdoodle webpage here.)

Hunter really enjoyed a science experiment we did last month.  But I warn you - it is not for germ phobics!  Like me.  :(  We tested for bacteria on a range of different things around the house.  We swabbed objects then rubbed the swabs in petri dishes of agar. (Kit I bought is here.)  Then we waited a few days.  YUCK!  Seeing bacteria growing is gross.  But interesting.  (The only thing I didn't like about this kit was it didn't tell you how to identify if it is good or bad bacteria.)

I found the most bacteria covered thing that we tested for was one of the kitchen sink knobs.  (Really!  Why would someone put knobs at a kitchen sink?  You have to get it all gross when your hands are filthy with say raw chicken, just to turn it on to clean your hands.  I told Hunter we must replace those knobs with something else as soon as we can afford to!  In the meantime I clean the knobs several times a day now!)

On a different note, if you've never read Up From Slavery by Booker T. Washington, I HIGHLY recommend it.  Tabby and I both read it yesterday and thought it was incredibly inspiring.  And as it is an autobiography - there is no re-writing of history!  ;)  This is one of those books that challenges the reader to better develop their character.  My boys will be reading this as soon as they are old enough.  (Fun aside - we lived in Tuskeegee when I was a toddler.  My dad taught at Tuskeegee University.  He said he used this book in his humanities class and it was always received well.)

Finally, I just wanted to share an essential oil blend to help combat bedwetting, that Donna, one of my reader's makes and has had good results with.  (Her 9 year old son stopped wetting after several days of consistent use.)  To make the "Clean & Dry" blend, Donna adds 10 drops each Cypress and Copaiba and 5 drops Frankincense to a 10ml roller bottle, and tops with a carrier oil.  Her son applied it his lower belly, lower back, and the bladder vitaflex points in his feet. 

I hope that helps someone reading this!  I actually got a lot of feedback from my posts last winter on Hunter's bedwetting.  (He has been dry since January.)  This is a problem that more kids face than I realized in the past.

Well I know this was a long post.  So if you've made it to the end - thanks for reading!  :)

Prayer request AND bedwetting update

Please pray for my aunt Pam (aka Shisshy).  She is in the hospital with double pneumonia.  She has it much worse than poor Tabby did, which was bad enough.  She also has been diagnosed with Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome.  Her breathing was so bad she had to be intubated, and will have to remain sedated and on the ventilator for awhile.

Shisshy is my favorite aunt and is the one that found the hospital that was willing to operate on Lilly's heart.  (Wolfson Children's Hospital in Jacksonville, Florida.)  She won't like me posting her picture, but I will anyway.  I took this picture July 4, 2010 - the day Lilly was born.

Lilly meets her great-aunt Shisshy

I posted last summer about Hunter's nighttime bedwetting.  Several people were very interested in the post, all who had kids with the same issue, and some of the kids were also 7 years old like Hunter..  They were hoping I'd give an update if I noticed any changes, so here it is!

As I mentioned in this post, Hunter endured a treatment plan of pediatric enemas to try and overcome nighttime bedwetting.  I had read about this in the book It's No Accident: Breakthrough Solutions to Your Child's Wetting, Constipation, UTIs and Other Potty Problems by Steve J. Hodges.  Much to his sorrow, it did not work for him, though it did clear up a few other issues he was having, which was great.

However, Hunter is thrilled that he has now been dry at night for over a month now.  (These posts may embarrass him one day, but he is currently happy I am writing them to try and help other kids.)

What happened?  The thing I am linking it to is his pneumonia that he had in January!  Well not the pneumonia itself - but the treatment for it.  He was on two antibiotics.  When the doctor wrote me the prescription for amoxicillin she warned me that it would probably really mess his stomach up, so to step up with the probiotics. 

Well it did, by day two of the dosing.  For both boys.  They had terrible diarrhea the whole next 9 days they were on the amoxicillin.  I did my best to keep them extra hydrated and eating yogurt and taking probiotic supplements.  But there was an awful lot of sudden running to the bathroom.

At the end of the dosage, Hunter suddenly began staying dry at night!  I can not tell you how relieved and happy that made him.  He fully believes that the antibiotic cleaned him out way better than the enemas did.  (He didn't hold the enemas in long enough probably.  Sorry if that's too much information - but if you are a parent reading this and trying to help your child - you will appreciate knowing that.)

Possibly another benefit to the antibiotic was suggested by a dear friend of mine.  She had read about a link between candida (yeast overgrowth) and bedwetting.  Hunter has had issues with yeast overgrowth in the past - whenever I don't monitor his carb intake.  (He'd love to just live off bread and crackers.)  Since the antibiotics kill off all bacteria (good and bad) perhaps it wiped out any yeast overgrowth in his gut/system. 

Whatever it was, Hunter is so thankful and that makes me thankful too.

playing possum

Poison Ivy "fun" and update on bedwetting experiment

If you're not allergic to poison ivy and/or don't have a child with wetting issues, then this post will probably not interest you.  But if so ... read on!

sunflowers in our garden

I'm sitting here in a perfectly quiet house.  (OK, the quiet was just shattered by one of Tabby's roosters outside the window - but that's OK!)  My family is at church and I don't know the last time I have been home alone.  I stayed home because well - I feel like a leper.  I have nasty oozing poison ivy all over the backs of my swollen legs..  No need to go and freak people out and drip all over the place!  :(

This disgusting stuff flared up a few days ago and I can not wait until it goes away.  I'm guessing I got it when I went into the woods to cut our goats some branches with leaves for a treat.  (They've cleared out everything they can reach on the trees in their area.)  Goats actually eat poison ivy - I wish we could let them loose on our whole property!

"You there!  Bring us shrubbery!"

Sundrop - she's about 2.5 weeks old now and sooooo cute!

As uncomfortable as this feels, and awful it feels to walk, I have to say it's only reached near torturous itching level a few times for which I am extremely thankful.  I believe that is from the treatments I am using:

1) I am taking high doses of Vitamin C (1000 mg) and Pantothenic acid (500 mg), every two hours.  (I read about this in my go-to health care book Be Your Own "Doctor": An Informative guide to Herbal Home Health Care by Rachel Weaver M.H.)

2) Bathing my legs twice a day in original blue Dawn dishwashing liquid.  (Soak for 10-15 minutes.)  This stuff helps dry it up, clears off the oils, and helps keep spreading down. 

3) When I bathe my legs - I use the hottest water I can stand.  Studies show that hot water can help alleviate itching for up to 3 hours, because the nerve network in the skin get so overloaded by the heat of the water.

4) Putting on a clay paste 2-3 times a day.   I mixed this up by using a half cup of bentonite clay, 8 drops of peppermint essential oil, and enough water mixed in to make a paste.  (Bentonite clay is fantastic for drawing out toxic stuff.)  Spread on thickly.  It feels SO good when I first put it on - peppermint is wonderfully cooling.  Then it starts to tighten as it dries and that feels good at first because it's like it's itching my skin for me.  I don't really like it as much when it's totally dried.  But, it's way more effective than the typical calamine lotion that is used for drying the oozing ("weeping") areas.  (I found out about this paste in Alternative Cures: The Most Effective Natural Home Remedies for 160 Health Problems by Bill Gottlieb.)

One thing I wish I had was jewelweed.  This plant sounds like it heals poison ivy faster than any other treatment!  It is typically found in shady, moist areas near poison ivy.  (God gave us the antidote right by the culprit.)  I would like to try growing jewelweed to have on hand.

By the way, bentonite clay has so many good uses.  Among other things, I use it in both the toothpaste and deodorant I make.

tractor from my sister-in-law Nikki - it's just screaming for something to be planted at it's base!

This past spring, I wrote about a book I read entitled It's No Accident: Breakthrough Solutions to Your Child's Wetting, Constipation, UTI's, and Other Potty Problems by Steve J. Hodges, MD.  I was talking to a friend yesterday that said my mention of the book had helped her help her kids with this issue.  That reminded me I had never reported what happened with our "experiment."

As I had mentioned, my 6 year old son still struggles with wetting most night.  He HATES this.  The doctor that wrote this book said that almost all nighttime wetting problems are caused by constipation.  (And your child can still be constipated even if they are going once a day.)  So I shared some of the information I had read about with Hunter, and what the doctor recommended as a solution.  The easy stuff was high fiber foods, more water, more physical exercise.  The harder - a 3 month treatment of pediatric enemas for quicker results, or a much longer treatment of daily Miralax.

Hunter bravely choose the enemas.

When we started, I also started Solomon on enemas as he is never dry at night anymore.  (He used to have some dry nights, even as a baby, so I figured he must be constipated some.)  Only a few days into it, Solomon began screaming and crying at enema time.  So I immediately stopped them with him, and gave him a dose of Miralax every day for awhile.  Within days he had stopped wetting at naptime.  Wow.  (Nighttime hasn't happened yet, but he's still 2 and that's OK.)

Hunter endured daily enemas for the 1st month, every other day for the 2nd month, and twice a week for the 3rd month.  The result?  He's dry at night - occasionally.  Poor guy - he just cried about it when we wrapped up the 3 months.  BUT it was not a total failure - he has been happy with a couple other results.  He no longer frequently complains that his "waist hurts."  And, he no longer has "surprise daytime accidents."  So those are very big benefits.

Still though - why is he still wetting?  (It seems it happens after 3:00 a.m. and he is a deep sleeper.)  At this point I am wondering if it's just plain old genes.  Apparently in my husband's family, at least some of the kids were pretty late in being able to stay dry all night.  I need to go back and skim parts of the book to see if I've missed anything else.

I have come across some parent's swearing by Dr. Christopher's Kid-e-Dry incontinence formula.  (It's an herbal tincture.)  So we are trying that now.  No results yet.  I also bought some liquid calcium-magnesium, that other parents say their kids have to have or they wet.  I haven't tried that yet with Hunter, but will soon.

If nothing else, it won't last forever. 

rooster frequently fighting - now that will last forever ...

The book list - March

March's book list has three completely unrelated books.  But I thoroughly enjoyed each one!  I love my busy days with my kids, but at night, there is nothing like sitting down with a book - in complete silence! - and just escaping and learning things on my own for awhile.  I really need that.

My red-white-and blue garden (though the blue is really more like a purple).  I love bulbs - plant them once and they keep coming back!

Sergeant York and the Great War by Sergeant York - This is a reprint of Alvin York's life story and war dairy, which were originally edited by Tom Skeyhill in 1930.  Tabby and I read this for her online history class.  The book is written in York's own words - bad grammar and all.  (He only had a few years of formal education.)  His poor spelling and grammar bothered Tabby, but for me, it added to the authenticity of his story.  York grew up in the mountains of Tennessee, along with his 10 siblings.  He and several of his brothers bummed around and drank way too much alcohol for a bit, much to their mother's sorrow.  (Their father had died by this point.)  But then York became a Christian and turned his life around.  He, as many people who lived where he did, had learned to shoot at an early age.  His skills of shooting and hunting came into play when he was drafted into the army in World War I.  He tried to get out of the military by being a (religious) conscientious objector.  But his understanding of this changed over time and after a number of discussions with his superiors in the army.  Soon he found himself in France, in the trenches.  His amazing shooting skills allowed him to take out a number of German machine gun nests and capture over 100 Germans.  I could go on and on about this fascinating book, but I better stop.  :)  Note that Gary Cooper starred in a 1941 movie version of York's life during the war called Sergeant York.  (Though there are inaccuracies in the movie, it is still a good movie over all.) 

We hope to be buying baby chicks this week!  We have two hens that seem to be broody.

The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up:  The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing by Marie Kondo - I reserved this book at my library, but after waiting for a couple months for it I decided to just buy a copy.  I'm so glad I did as it is now one of my favorite books!  This book is translated from Japanese and has a unique approach to "tidying up."  The author's personal story is woven throughout the book and I found her so interesting.  She became fascinated by cleaning up and organizing when only 5 years old!  This is something she worked at and researched as she grew up, and is now a personal cleaning consultant.  This book presents her methods to declutter and organize for good. In the KonMari Method, you organize by categories rather than a room-by-room or little-by-little approach.  (The book also offers an interesting peek into Japanese culture.)

This book came along at a perfect time for me.  For many months now I have been particularly feeling strangled and weighed down by all our stuff.  I am so tired of shifting stuff from here to there and things never staying tidy for long.  It seems that stuff just piles up faster than I can sort through it and deal with it properly.  (Possessions really can be a curse.)  All this saving things in case we might need it one day - well that isn't practical when your house is about to explode from the amount of stuff!  I feel like the rat in the wheel that just keeps spinning and I just want to crawl under something and sob and admit defeat.  Do I sound overly dramatic?  Well it's how I feel right now.  In my dream world, everyone would leave and I would have one month to completely go through everything in our house uninterrupted.  I'd rent a dumpster and purge away.  Of course that isn't realistic and I'd miss my family terribly!  Sp I am slowly trying to chip away at things.  Hopefully I can pick up the pace later this summer, when we take a break from homeschool.

Solomon loves playing in the sandbox

 It's No Accident:  Breakthrough Solutions to Your Child's Wetting, Constipation, UTIs, and other Potty Problems by Steven J. Hodges, MD - Earlier this year, I read this blogpost on the Kitchen Stewardship blog.  My interest was perked because my 6-year old son still has to wear a pull-up and wets almost every night.  He finds this VERY upsetting and discouraging, to put it lightly.  My 2-year old is never dry at night anymore, which has been a bit surprising because as a baby, it was not unusual for him to stay dry overnight.  Well, the doctor and author of this book claims that almost all problems with overnight wetting are due to ... constipation!  (And yes, your child can be constipated even if they are "going" once a day.)  Not only does constipation cause overnight wetting in older kids, but it is also usually the culprit in childhood urinary tract infections in others.  (This was fascinating to me because so many children with Trisomy 18 struggle with UTIs.  And almost all have constipation problems!) So what is the solution?  Major cleansing with laxatives or enemas.  (Enemas are recommended as the quickest way, but here in America, they are NOT popular anymore.)  Diets with a lot more fiber.  And lots more exercise! 

I will probably post about this more in the coming month or so, as I have been following the treatment with my sons for a week now, and am already seeing good results!  I know this isn't something talked about much, but if it works, this knowledge really does need to be spread.  If these are things your child struggles with, I highly recommend you buy the book right now.  I was surprised just how fascinating it was. (!)  The author has a great sense of humor.

Hunter is showing his "pet" LED lights the 3 mason jar lights he assembled to sell

Here is the latest collection of lamps for sale from Hunter's Bright Lights!  They are put together using VINTAGE mason jars as the lamp base!

Note that the lamp on the right, with the reddish shade, has already been sold.  If you are interested in one of the others, please contact me.  Prices are as follows (does not include shipping):

1) Brown lampshade, clear mason jar that says "mason" and has an "H" and ship's anchor on it, jar is filled with blue and green "gems".  Cost is $33.00 (or $28.00 WITHOUT the gems)

2) White lampshade, blue mason jar that says "Ball Perfect Mason" on it.  Cost is $28.00.  (I think this lampshade would look really cute dressed up with a red gingham ribbon glued around it.)