Tabby update: Food Sensitivities test results

These photos were all taken by Tabby, at our Botanical Garden field trip last Friday.  I love how she sees everything that I do but at different angles.

Tabby felt OK enough to go to school this past Monday and Tuesday.  Yay!  She stayed home today though, feeling horrible, and I highly doubt she will go tomorrow. Boo!  She is aching and feverish and has very swollen lymph nodes.  But we're staying positive about that - those are detox symptoms.  We want all that bad junk out of her system.

Yesterday we went to her functional medical doctor for the results from the food sensitivities test that she took.  It was so interesting and encouraging in this journey to figure out what in the world is making her feel horrible most of the time.

It turns out that she has a high sensitivity to many foods she eats almost every day.  Including chicken eggs.  Now how horrible is that considering we now have 64 chickens!  But thankfully she can eat guinea hen eggs, which we have.  And - she can eat duck eggs.  Yay!  Solomon and I have been wanting to get some ducks for awhile.  Is that not a perfect excuse?

Dairy is not good for her either - but that is only COW'S milk and cow's diary products.  Yay for our goats that I milk since she can drink that.  Tabby also likes goat milk cheese.  I need to start making that (in all my spare time, right?).  But even Walmart has one that she likes.  

This sculpture is called "Spring Chicken".  Get it?

 Grains/starches are another problem for her.  Which I found interesting since she didn't test for gluten issues at the scopes she had.  And ginger.  Ginger!  I've always wondered why when I gave her ginger to soothe her stomach it never helped her.

Bursting Heart plant - we have some in our woods too

Here is the list of foods she tested a high sensitivity for:

cow's milk & cows milk products  
chicken eggs
garlic
squash
green peas and lima beans
peanuts
soybeans
almonds, cashews, sesames, walnuts
coconut
watermelon
barley, bran, gluten, malt, rye, wheat
ginger

Isn't that interesting?  I'm going to have to learn how to cook some things differently.  Like no more using coconut oil to cook food she will eat.

The test results came in a very helpful packet which includes more details on foods to exclude, special considerations, shopping lists, and a suggested food rotation list.

Dr. H said it would be best to try and basically follow the paleo diet for Tabby.  Fruits, veggies, meat.  So we'll give it a good try.

This statue is based on a scene from Cold Mountain

 There are still a couple tests we are waiting for results on.  I'm just so grateful to have something to work with.  

I have another mystery child that I need to figure out too.  Solomon.  For a couple years now, he would occasionally wake up in the morning, say his stomach hurt, and then throw up.  This increased in frequency some this summer.  And now, for the past month or so, it has suddenly become very common.  Ugh.  

In the herb garden - Solomon rubbed a plant and then sniffed his fingers to smell it

 I was lactose intolerant as a child, so I've had Solomon off dairy here and there for a few days at a time.  I didn't notice any difference.  Maybe there wasn't a problem but maybe I didn't try long enough.  I'm thinking I ought to try having him go gluten free for a while.  Dr. H said children who are sensitive to gluten can have stomach pain, nausea, and vomiting. 

For the zillionth time - I wanted to be a criminal detective when I grew up.  Not a medical detective!  

Life is full of irony.  

Here are several more of Tabby's pictures: