On squash & seaweed

After reading more about oral allergy syndrome and pollen cross-reactivity, we decided to stop eating squash for now. Within only a few days, her rash has cleared. The skin itself is still dry and healing, but she is not itchy. Hallelujah.

After reading about Zane's mama date with Amabel, I realized Lily needed a very similar outing. Lily and I went shopping. We both greatly dislike shopping, but it was a necessary errand. We needed a few things, plus Lily needed to pick out a birthday present for Aevryn. She ended up picking out a portable mini-horse stable and giving it to A today, despite her birthday not coming until Thursday.

I realize that this wasn't a stellar date activity, but it was just she and I, and she had my undivided attention the whole 2+ hours we were gone. She was a lot more snuggly with me after. I think we're going to try to get a one-on-one session for each kid with each parent, every week. That sounds complicated, but it doesn't have to be solo trips into town. Even just a walk in the woods alone together would accomplish the same thing.

Part of the "date" included lunch out. For a number of reasons due to what time we left, which store we went to, and Lily's lack of desire to go to a different store for lunch, our selection of "safe" foods was limited. We settled on Hormel's natural roasted turkey slices, rolled in fresh basil leaves, with blackberries for desert. I noticed that one of the ingredients was carrageenan, which is a seaweed. Seaweeds are usually fairly high in glutamates, which we are avoiding, as they seem to muck with her brain chemistry. I thought we'd eaten that brand without incident before, but we've never had an official "trial" where everything else was clear first, like today. Within a few hours, she escalated to a fit in her bedroom where she told Dave that she felt like hurting herself and he needed to leave the room so she could do so. Obviously, he did not. He stayed with her and helped her settle. Then we all just had a chill afternoon & early bedtime after a family bike ride/walk around the block.

I start to feel crazy about the food thing, and then this happens. Predictable, repeatedly observed results. I'm hopeful that the K + Mag + B vits are moving some calcium around and she will be less sensitive to things like glutamates when we aren't rebalancing mineral stores.

The next thing I'm looking into - for myself and my sad teeth, primarily - is phosphorus. I've been reading Weston A. Price's work for awhile now and I think it might be the missing key for me, and possibly her.