Nearly 40% of parents of toddlers have delayed or refused a child’s vaccination — a practice that endangers not only their children but others around them, a study reported Monday.

Refusing vaccines is becoming more common, according to a study presented at the Pediatric Academic Societies meeting in Vancouver, Canada. The percentage of parents who delay or refuse a shot rose from 22% in 2003 to 39% in 2008, according to the study, based on records and interviews of parents of 8,904 children ages 1½ to 3 and conducted through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention‘s National Immunization Survey.

The change in public opinion may not be quite as dramatic as it seems, says the CDC’s Lance Rodewald. Parents in 2008 had more opportunities to delay shots than they had five years earlier, because experts recommended three new vaccines for children those ages between 2003 and 2008 — including vaccines against hepatitis A, rotavirus and influenza.

Interviews with parents suggest that many are influenced by medical myths, such as the notions that kids can’t be vaccinated when they have a cold or that shots cause autism, Rodewald says.

Although vaccines were once almost universally accepted, some parents who are too young to remember diseases such as measles now question their importance, says pediatrician Paul Offit of Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.

Yet some of these intentionally undervaccinated children have helped to spark recent measles outbreaks.

In 2008, for example, an intentionally unvaccinated 7-year-old boy brought measles into the country after returning from Switzerland, according to an April report in Pediatrics. The child exposed 839 people in the San Diego area to the disease, which killed 500 Americans a year before a vaccine was introduced in 1963.

Few of those exposed in 2008 became ill, a sign that their childhood vaccines protected them, Rodewald says.

But 11 unvaccinated children got sick. One of those was a newborn who was too young to get a measles shot — which is typically given at age 1 — who had to be hospitalized, according to the Pediatrics report. A total of about 140 people across the USA got measles that year, all related to infections brought in from other countries, Offit says.

“A parent’s decision not to vaccinate their child puts their own child at risk, but it also puts other children at risk,” Rodewald says, noting that unvaccinated newborns, children getting chemotherapy and those with immune deficiences are especially vulnerable.

When you have asthma, two main things are happening in your lungs: the muscles around the airways are constricted and inflamed. Constriction and inflammation narrow your airways, which cause symptoms such as wheezing, coughing, chest tightness, and shortness of breath. There is increasing evidence that, if left untreated, asthma may cause a long-term decline in lung function. The underlying parts of the disease, especially the inflammation, can be there, even in the absence of symptoms. It is important, therefore, to prevent symptoms from occurring in the first place, rather than waiting until symptoms become serious. For many patients, optimal therapy requires treating both main components of asthma.

For advice on how a chiropractor can treat this condition, please call us today at 1-772-219-3313.

Asthma is something that is always with you, even if you are not having symptoms. So, as soon as the symptoms go away, you may stop taking their preventative medications, not realizing that the underlying problems that are causing the symptoms in the first place require daily asthma treatment. And although there are plenty of effective medications, if you don’t think they are helping, and thus don’t take them, then they do absolutely no good. This is a big challenge with the preventative medications we have for asthma.

What causes asthma?

There is really no known cause of asthma. A lot of effort has been put forth to try and understand if there is a genetic basis to this disease. It definitely does run in some families, but currently, there is no consistent genetic profile in people who have it versus those who don’t. We are all exposed to lots of the same things and yet, not all of us have problems. A leading theory is that it is a combination of inherited risks for the disease, as well as interaction with allergens in our environment, that develop into the disease.

There are triggers that most people are aware of, especially if they have any history of allergies. These triggers include hay fever, ragweed, cut grass, and many other things that contain pollen. Triggers that people may not be as aware of are weather conditions such as high humidity, high temperatures, or very cold temperatures. All of these can be triggers for people with asthma. Infections such as the common cold and the flu can also trigger asthma symptoms. And then, finally, there is exercise, which can trigger asthma.

You can minimize some triggers by reducing the dust in your home. You should change sheets and bed linens weekly. Some air filters can be a big help in cutting down on dust in the home. In general, it’s important to avoid exposure to strong fumes, cigarette smoke, and so forth. These can be irritants for people with asthma. The one that’s often most difficult for patients with asthma is having in their home a beloved pet that may be triggering their asthma symptoms. The most effective way to eliminate this trigger is to not have the pet at all. Short of that, keeping your pet out of your bedroom or keeping it outside of the house can help cut down on some of the problems associated with pets.

There is no specific diet that will help improve asthma. It’s important to eat a well-balanced diet and make sure you are getting all the vitamins and minerals that anyone would need, as well as plenty of rest. That makes sense for everybody, including someone who has asthma.

How can chiropractic help my asthma?

Spinal misalignments cause many health problems because vertebrae pinch important nerves and restrict their effectiveness. Dr. Ray Hayek conducted a trial at 16 treatment centers in Australia, involving 420 patients with an average age of 46, in an effort to find out what effects spinal manipulation has on symptoms such as depression and anxiety, general health status, and the levels of immunity. He tested the concentrations of both an immunoglobulin (IgA) and an immunosuppressant (cortisol) to gauge his results. Dr. Hayek was trying to prove that different forms of manual therapy (including massage) improve symptoms and lower cortisol levels in asthma patients.

Dr. Hayek reported that only the patient group that underwent spinal manipulation displayed significant improvement in asthma symptoms. Conducting only interviews at the treatment centers or being monitored at home did not yield these improvements. In addition, patients actually undergoing spinal manipulation displayed dramatic increases of IgA and decreases of cortisol even after asthma treatment had ceased, suggesting that the treatments affected the patients’ health long term. These patients were expected to ward off subsequent asthmatic attacks.

These changes not only suggest that the effects of spinal manipulation are more far-reaching than commonly believed, but that they may be more long-term as well. The gain in health achieved after spinal manipulations were performed is expected to reduce the incidence and severity of pathogenic invasion of the airways. There would be less of a risk under these circumstances of experiencing the symptoms of asthma.

http://chirocommunity.com/asthma.htm

Children, ADD/ADHD, and Chiropractic
by Dr. Christopher Kent
(Reprinted with permission from The Chiropractic Journal   

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – One of the most important steps in childproofing a home is keeping dangerous household chemicals, such as cleaning agents, out of the reach of children. A report published recently in the journal Chest points out that these chemicals are also dangerous to elderly people with dementia, who may drink them by mistake.The report, from Drs. James A. Walker and Gary P. Zaloga of Washington Hospital Center in Washington, DC, includes details of a case of an 88-year-old woman with Alzheimer’s disease who drank 10 ounces of a pine oil-based cleaning solution.Over 10,000 such cases, in which people drank pine oil-based cleaning products, are reported each year in the US, making these products second only to gasoline as the most common type of substance involved in accidental toxic poisoning, the authors note. The researchers also point out that since many incidents go unreported, the actual number of such cases is probably much higher.“We’ve done a great job on preventing unintentional childhood poisoning… we think it’s one of the great success stories of public health. But the issue of older people unintentionally swallowing substances is much more complicated,” said US Product Safety Commission spokesman Ken Giles, when asked to comment about the problem.The Alzheimer’s patient in the report was being cared for at home by her grandson. Mentally disoriented but physically functional, she had been left alone in her bathroom for approximately 5 minutes — during which time she swallowed the cleaning solution. She was quickly brought to an emergency department, put on a mechanical ventilator and treated for poisoning, but subsequently died of pneumonia and multiple organ failure.In an interview with Reuters Health, Giles said that such accidents in the general population –and particularly in children under the age of 5 — have greatly diminished in the US since the passage of the Poison Prevention Packaging Act in 1970. However, he emphasized that in the 28 years since the first child-resistant packaging was designed for aspirin in 1972, the focus has been on the protection of children, not the elderly, which involves a different set of concerns and strategies.“Children under 5 put things in their mouth because that’s their approach to learning about their world,” he said. “But with older people you begin to have a lot of other factors… not reading the label, not turning the light on at night, mixing substances together, so that you get a bad synergistic effect — lots of issues that are not there with children.”However, the investigators point out that both the demented elderly and children have in common the ability to move about their environment while doing so with limited cognitive faculties, leaving both groups vulnerable to the dangers of toxic ingestion.Walker and Zaloga also note that less than 0.1% of reported cases of toxin ingestion have fatal outcomes. Elderly patients account for about 17% of these fatal cases, and the risk of dying from ingesting a toxin rises with age. Because of physical changes associated with aging, the elderly are likely to be exposed to toxins for longer periods after ingestion than children.The researchers advise medical practitioners to become familiar with the treatment of pine oil intoxication. Quick response to signs of ingestion — which include the aroma of pine on the breath of the patient, blurred vision, headache, sore throat, vomiting, and abdominal pain and respiratory failure — is important to prevent serious and potentially fatal complications. SOURCE: Chest 1999;116:1822-1826.

Damon was quoted in the October 6, 2004 Boston Globe as saying, “Physically I’m all right, I just have that headache thing working again. I can tell when it’s coming on because it comes up through my neck. I had migraines every day the first months of last off season. I felt them coming so I went and got adjusted, and I was good for a good month, but then they started coming back. Over the course of the season I have to get my neck adjusted every now and then. ” Later that Friday evening, during the third game of the playoffs, it was announced on international television that Johnny Damon had seen his chiropractor and his migraines were gone.

Over 11 million Americans suffer headaches. Research shows that spinal manipulation – the primary form of care provided by doctors of chiropractic – may be an effective treatment option for tension headaches and headaches that originate in the neck.

A report released in 2001 by researchers at the Duke University Evidence-Based Practice Center in Durham, NC, found that spinal manipulation resulted in almost immediate improvement for those headaches that originate in the neck, and had significantly fewer side effects and longer-lasting relief of tension-type headache than a commonly prescribed medication.

Also, a 1995 study in the Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics found that spinal manipulative therapy is an effective treatment for tension headaches and that those who ceased chiropractic treatment after four weeks experienced a sustained therapeutic benefit in contrast with those patients who received a commonly prescribed medication.

Typically, children are reaching for high-calorie sodas, sports drinks, potato chips and microwave snacks when they need something light between meals. What they might be missing is something as simple as the health benefits of nuts and seeds.

Parents need to be educated that research continues to reveal that nuts and seeds do not deserve their bad reputation. Absolutely, they are high in fat; but it’s the good fat, not the bad, and when eaten in moderation, their health benefits far outweigh the dangers of their fat content. The fact is, the more we learn about nuts and seeds, the more we realize that they’re one of the best snack-food options for children.

Isn’t Fat Bad?

We know that nuts and seeds are high in fat. An ounce of almonds and sunflower seeds each have a total fat count of 14 grams; cashews have 13 grams and pecans have 20 grams apiece per ounce. It’s when we consider what kind of fat they contain that we see the difference between these and other foods with a high total fat count.

Saturated fats raise our “bad” cholesterol levels (LDL) and increase our risk of heart disease and stroke. These are the fats that are high in most snack items and put our health at risk. By comparison, an ounce of almonds contains 1 gram of saturated fat, while cashews and pecans have 3 and 2 grams per ounce, respectively.

Where nuts and seeds are high in fat is in the mono- and polyunsaturated fats; however, these are good for us because they raise our “good” cholesterol levels (HDL) and typically contain essential vitamins like A, D, E and K. An ounce of almonds contains a combined 12 grams of mono- and polyunsaturated fats, cashews contain 10 combined grams and pecans have 18 combined grams.

Nuts and Health: The Facts

In 1996, the Iowa Women’s Health Study found that women who ate nuts four or more times a week were 40 percent less likely to die of heart disease. Since then, similar studies performed by the Harvard School of Public Health and Loma Linda University in California have found the same. And the Physicians’ Health Study (2002) determined that men who consumed nuts two or more times per week had a noticeably reduced risk of sudden cardiac death.

A study at the University of Toronto found that nuts, almonds in particular, reduced risk factors that are typically associated with heart disease, specifically LDL count. Richard Mattes, PhD, professor of foods and nutrition at Purdue University in Indiana, found that when people added 1-2 ounces of nuts a day to their diets, they did not gain weight, contrary to popular belief.

Studies performed at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and the Harvard School of Public Health revealed that three times as many people who were trying to lose weight were able to stick to a diet that included moderate fat content in the form of nuts and seeds. Researchers suggested that the fat, protein and fiber in nuts helped the dieter feel full longer, so many felt less deprived and ate less during the day.

Another study of women by the Harvard School of Public Health reported that there was a 30 percent reduced risk of type 2 diabetes in those women who ate five or more 1-ounce servings of nuts per week as compared with women who rarely or never ate nuts.

Finally, studies published in the Journal of Nutrition and elsewhere have found that seeds, flax seeds in particular, are high in omega-3 fatty acids, which have proven benefits in the fight against heart disease, stroke and other circulatory diseases.

The Good and the Bad

When it comes to food in general, too much of a good thing can still end up being a bad thing; that’s why moderation is key. But the options for eating good nuts and seeds are limitless, and the vitamins and minerals provided are equally various. A typical serving of nuts (1 ounce) generally will contain between 160 to 200 calories and 13 to 20 grams of fat, but it’s monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats that make up the majority. When compared to potato chips, pastries and other typical “snack food” items with equal fat content, the difference lies in the nutritional value of the item as a whole. Most nuts and seeds are rich in fiber, phytonutrients and antioxidants such as vitamin E and selenium, as well as sterols and omega-3.

Despite the fact that it is not one, the peanut is still referred to as the world’s most widely consumed nut. It is actually a legume and a relative to lentils and garbanzo beans, meaning it is a starch and not as nutritious as actual nuts. An additional concern is that it is a very common food allergen. Generally this is the one “nut” to avoid.

Comparing Nutritional Value

Sunflower seeds provide the most potent combination of vitamins and minerals of any common nut or seed. A 1-ounce serving, which is about 2 tablespoons of seeds, contains more than 30 percent of the daily value of six vitamins and minerals, including vitamin E, phosphorous, selenium and manganese.

Pumpkin seeds are an equally healthful choice, with ¼-cup of kernels boasting more than twice the omega-3s of a 4-ounce serving of salmon. While the flax seed has long been recognized as a very popular health food, the chia seed is now being recognized for its merits. Both of these seeds are rich in essential fatty acids like omega-3 and omega-6.

Nuts are an excellent source of vitamins and minerals, with 1 ounce of Brazil nuts containing 780 percent of the recommended daily intake of selenium, and walnuts providing the most omega-3 fatty acids of any common nut. Almonds are a wonderful source of copper, magnesium and phosphorous, and provide 6 grams of protein per 1-ounce serving. The June 2004 issue of the Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemistry reported that pecans contain the highest antioxidant capacity of all nuts.

How to Snack Healthy

Nuts and seeds are definitely one of nature’s best snack foods and they can be enjoyed in a variety of ways. Of course, the best way is always going to be a small handful a day. Remember, the typical serving of a nut or seed is 1 ounce or just enough to fill the palm of your hand. It’s important to remind parents to not let their children snack right out of the bag, as they will typically not realize how many they’ve eaten until they’ve eaten too many.

A simple way of introducing nuts and seeds is having parents add it to their family’s green salad. Sunflower seeds are commonly used, but slivered almonds are equally good. They can also be added to steamed vegetables or an entree.

Roasted nuts from a can are typically going to have additives that may counteract some of the good parents are doing by choosing a healthy snack. So, if they prefer their nuts and seeds roasted, encourage them to do it themselves. This can be done by spreading a single layer of nuts or seeds in a baking dish or sheet and then lightly coating them with olive oil. This will help the nuts or seeds brown while roasting. Then they should be put in the oven for about 5 to 10 minutes only. Since they do have a high fat content, they will continue to cook for a bit after being removed from the oven.

Summary

The worst thing parents can do for themselves and their children is reach for junk foods when they need a snack. Nuts and seeds are a convenient, healthy snack food that takes the edge off hunger without the added carbohydrates and sugar of most other snack food options.

It should be noted that nuts are not a safe snack food for most children under the age of 5, as they may present a choking hazard. However, many grocery stores are beginning to stock almond, macadamia, pistachio, cashew and even sunflower seed butters, a healthy alternative to peanut butter.

Additionally, almond milk is now available as an excellent substitute for cow’s milk. While cow’s milk is high in saturated fat and a proven food allergen, almond milk is neither of these things. Typically sweetened using dates instead of sugar or sugar cane, almond milk is a healthier substitute than even soy milk.

Selected Resources

• Eller D. “Nuts to You: Go Ahead and Enjoy – Nuts Are Packed With Nutrition.” Muscle & Fitness, May 2004.
• “Almonds Fight Cholesterol.” U of T Magazine, Winter 2003. University of Toronto.
• Albert CM, et al. Nut consumption and decreased risk of sudden cardiac death in the Physicians’ Health Study. Arch Intern Med, June 2002;162(12):1382-7.
• Ferris L. “Go, Nuts!” Albany Times Union, September 2008.
• Tsang G. “Health Benefits of Nuts.” HealthCastle.com.
• “Nuts and Your Health.” Food Reflections (online newsletter). University of Nebraska Cooperative Extension In Lancaster County. lancaster.unl.edu/food/ftmar04.htm
• Myers S. “The Health Benefits of Seeds, Nuts, Fish and Oils.” www.content4reprint.com/health/the-health-benefits-of-seeds-nuts-fish-and-oils.htm

They talk about the number of deaths each year that are attributable to the flu and the number of missed work days that cost employers hundreds of thousands of dollars. This year, that campaign will likely be even more urgent due to outbreaks of the “swine flu” virus, which have spread from one country to the next in the past six months or so. This article is not intended to decide for parents (and their children) whether to vaccinate or not to vaccinate for the flu, but rather to provide information so they can decide for themselves.

What Is the Flu?

Influenza is a contagious respiratory illness caused by influenza viruses. The most common symptoms are fever, headache, fatigue, cough, sore throat, runny or stuffy nose, and body aches, as well as diarrhea and vomiting. The flu can cause complications such as pneumonia or dehydration and may aggravate existing conditions like asthma and heart disease. It is spread from person to person in respiratory droplets when people who are infected cough or sneeze.

What Is the Flu Shot?

The flu shot is an inactivated vaccine (containing killed virus) that is given with a needle, usually in the arm. The flu shot has been approved for use in people older than 6 months of age, including healthy people and people with chronic medical conditions (such as asthma, diabetes, or heart disease). What the CDC doesn’t tell you is that the other ingredients in the flu shot include, but are not limited to the following:

• Ethylene glycol – antifreeze
• Phenol (also known as carbolic acid) – a disinfectant and a dye
• Formaldehyde – a known carcinogen (cancer-causing agent)
• Aluminum – associated with Alzheimer’s disease and seizures, and has produced cancer in laboratory mice, but is still being used as an additive to promote antibody response
• Thimerosal – a mercury disinfectant and preservative that can result in brain injury and autoimmune disease
• Neomycin and Streptomycin – used as antibiotics and have been known to cause allergic reactions in some people

What Are the Potential Side Effects?

Just like all vaccines and medications, there are potential side effects associated with the flu shot. The CDC and other health care organizations would have you overlook them for the supposed benefit of being inoculated against the flu. However, it’s important to at least be familiar with these potential side effects and weigh the potential risk vs. benefit when deciding whether to receive the shot.

Minor side effects can include but are not limited to soreness, redness or swelling at the injection site, low-grade fever and other aches and pains. More severe, life-threatening complications have proven to be rare, but the danger still exists that someone can suffer severe effects from this alleged beneficial vaccine. The most common dangerous side effect is an allergic reaction. Since the vaccine is grown in eggs, it is more dangerous for those who have had an allergic reaction to other vaccines in the past. These reactions can include breathing problems, hoarseness or wheezing, hives, paleness, weakness, and a fast heartbeat or dizziness. The CDC has recognized the danger and recommends that those who have had an allergic reaction to a vaccine in the past not get the flu shot before speaking with their health care professional.

An even more serious side effect is Guillain-Barre syndrome (GBS). This is a disease in which the body damages its own nerve cells, resulting in muscle weakness and sometimes paralysis. While most people eventually recover, some have permanent nerve damage and 5 percent to 6 percent of those who develop GBS will die. The CDC would remind you that only six of every 1 million people injected with the flu shot will develop GBS.

The American Academy of Pediatrics Warns…

The AAP provides guidelines for circumstances under which patients should not be vaccinated with the flu shot or nasal spray. According to the AAP, a patient should not get vaccinated if any of the following applies (whether restriction applies to flu shot, nasal spray or both is noted in parentheses):

• Less than 6 months of age (flu shot); less than 5 or older than 49 (nasal spray)
• Moderate to severe febrile (fever) illness (both)
• History of Guillain-Barre syndrome (both)
• Hypersensitivity, including anaphylaxis, to eggs, to any influenza vaccine dose, or to any of its components (both)
• Asthma, reactive airway disease, or other chronic disorders of the lungs or cardiovascular systems (nasal spray)
• Have underlying medical conditions including metabolic diseases, such as diabetes, renal dysfunction, and hemoglobinopathies
• Received other live vaccines within the past four weeks (nasal spray)
• Known or suspected immunodeficiency disease, or receiving immunosuppressive therapies (nasal spray)
• Take aspirin (nasal spray)

Are the Side Effects Worth It?

After careful consideration of the risks associated with the vaccine, it’s wise to weigh those risks against those of the flu. The CDC talks about the benefits of being vaccinated, but are those benefits backed up with the facts? The flu vaccine is always changing because the flu strains change from one year to the next. (The swine flu is once such variation.) The manufacturers of the vaccine take a shot in the dark and hope they’ll hit the right strain each year, but the fact is the flu shot is only 70 percent to 90 percent effective.

Dean Eurich, a clinical epidemiologist and professor at the school of public health at the University of Alberta, recently considered the data and reported that over the past 20 years in the United States, vaccination rates among the elderly have increased from 15 percent to 65 percent, but hospital admissions and death rates from all causes have not declined proportionately. “Only about 10 percent of winter-time deaths in the United States are attributable to influenza, thus to suggest that the vaccine can reduce 50 percent of deaths from all causes is implausible in our opinion,” Eurich said.

A further study by Sumit Majumdar, MD, reached the same conclusion. According to his research, after considering all the facts and taking into account immunizations, socioeconomic status, sex, history of smoking and the severity of the flu, the actual benefit of the flu shot is “reduced to a statistically non-significant level of 19%.”

What About Flu Complications?

The CDC is very effective in communicating to the lay individual that if they are pro-active and vaccinate against the flu, it will help avoid the dangerous complications from the flu, such as pneumonia, but recent studies are debunking that theory. A recent article published in the Lancet medical journal suggests the flu vaccine is having little or no effect on the number of elderly people developing pneumonia each year, and a recent study led by Michael Jackson, MD, of the Seattle-based Group Health Center for Health Studies, that compared 1,173 pneumonia patients between the ages of 65 and 94 who had been vaccinated with 2,346 people who hadn’t, determined that the risk of contracting the lung disease wasn’t reduced by the shot.

As Simple as Practicing Good Health Habits?

The CDC and the AAP (and probably your Mom when you were growing up) all advocate simple health habits to prevent the spread of illnesses like the flu. Recommend your patients take the following four steps to minimize their risk: 1) Cover your nose and mouth with a tissue when you cough/sneeze; throw the used tissue away. 2) Wash your hands often with soap and water and as soon as possible after coughing or sneezing. 3) Keep yourself and any babies and children in your care away from people who are coughing or sneezing. 4) Try not to touch your eyes, nose, or mouth.

Resources

• Woloshin S, et al. “A Shot of Fear.” Washington Post, Oct. 25, 2005.
• Jackson ML, et al. Influenza vaccination and risk of community-acquired pneumonia in immunocompetent elderly people: a population-based, nested case-control study. The Lancet, Aug. 2, 2008;372(9636):352-254.
• Seasonal Flu Shot: Q&A. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. www.cdc.gov/FLU/about/qa/flushot.htm.
• American Academy of Pediatrics. Preventing the Flu in 2007-2008.

You might wonder why there has been such an overall increase; many in the nutritional arena believe it’s a reflection of our Western diet.

Many parents who are frustrated with giving their children over-the-counter or prescription drugs are looking for a less invasive approach to managing allergy symptoms. Why would the family chiropractor become involved? Many chiropractors acknowledge there are three stressors to the nervous system that may cause vertebral subluxation: physical, emotional and biochemical. The biochemical stressors may be attributed to several sources: air quality, toxic cleaning and building materials, and foods.

This article focuses on food sources of stress on a child’s immune system. This article does not attempt to present an in-depth nutritional explanation, but rather is meant to introduce some very simple concepts that may assist child patients.

Explaining food allergies to parents can be simple. When a child is exposed to a food source, the body responds by activating the immune system, creating immunoglobulin E (IgE) antibodies to the food. When these antibodies react with the food, histamine and other chemicals cause hives, asthma or other symptoms of an allergic reaction.

An allergic histamine response may cause the following symptoms: tingling sensation in the mouth, swelling of the tongue and throat, difficulty breathing, hives, vomiting, abdominal cramps, diarrhea, lowered blood pressure and even death. Less noticeable symptoms are irritability, fatigue, headache, nasal congestion and skin discoloration. Some health care professionals also link learning and behavioral issues (including ADD/ADHD) with poor food selection.

Although a child can develop an allergy to anything, six foods account for 90 percent of all food-induced allergic reactions. The six culprits are milk, egg, peanuts, seafood (particularly shellfish), soy and wheat.

Breast milk matters. The American Academy of Pediatrics has finally caught on and is now advocating that infants be breastfed exclusively for the first 12 months of life. Although the benefits of breast milk are endless, most young mothers do not exclusively feed their infant in this manner.

By the third month of life many pediatricians and/or family members are advocating supplementing the infant’s diet with cereal so “the baby can sleep through the night.” Starting so early with wheat products can set the stage for developing this immune response allergy.

The grain family, vegetables and fruits ideally should not be introduced to the infant until the sixth month, when the digestive system has matured. It should be noted that taste buds do not develop until the eighth month and parents need to begin the practice of choosing healthy foods early. We need to train our children when they are young that “we eat to live, not live to eat.”

Whole grains such as brown rice, millet, barley and oats can be introduced when children begin to secrete salivary amylase (coinciding with the arrival of teeth), which is helpful for digesting carbohydrates. A good rule of thumb regarding grains is waiting until the sixth month (or later) to play it safe, especially if there is a family history of allergies, eczema or other skin disorders.

Also around the sixth month, introduce vegetables such as steamed squash, sweet potatoes, peas, zucchini, carrots and green beans to the infant, followed by the fruit family (apples, pears, peaches, etc.). Always avoid citrus fruits until later to prevent an acidic response.

Moving from breast milk to water should be standard practice. Western culture is one of the few to endorse the practice of moving from breast milk or formula to milk or juices. Juices should be looked at as a “concentrated sugar,” even though it is in a more natural state of fructose. Even if a mother states, “I watered down the apple juice,” I recommend responding back, “Could your baby eat an entire apple?” Introducing juices begins to develop the lifestyle of insulin imbalance. We start our young by creating hypoglycemia – and then later in life, in combination with obesity, lack of exercise and, for some, inherited genetics, we risk the onset of type 2 diabetes.

When it comes to milk (particularly cow’s milk), there is a growing acknowledgement within the medical field that milk doesn’t “do a body good.” Dr. Robert Kradjian, chief of breast surgery at California’s Seton Medical Center, reviewed archives of medical and scientific journals and found that milk is not the “perfect food” it has been reported to be. Rather, he found that many childhood disorders were aggravated, if not induced, by an increased intake of dairy products, including, but not limited to allergies, ear and tonsil infections, bedwetting, asthma, intestinal bleeding from lesions, colic and childhood diabetes.

Dr. Frank Oski, former chief of pediatrics at Johns Hopkins University Hospital and the author of Don’t Drink Your Milk, believes milk should never be given to children to drink. Since milk has been associated with iron deficiency anemia and the aforementioned responses, he recommends milk not be consumed at all.

The above information, combined with the growing concerns surrounding residual antibiotic and growth hormones in processed milk, should have parents thinking twice about giving children cow’s milk once the breastfeeding stage ends. Of course, that leads to these two questions, commonly asked by parents: “How will my child get calcium?” and “What will they eat with their cereal?” Simply stated, natural calcium may come from vegetables or by using sesame butter. If you want your child to eat a healthy grain cereal, you can use rice, almond or soy milk as a substitute.

If you have a child who is allergic to milk, consider avoiding other products such as cheese and yogurt. It also should be noted that one of the reasons soy is now on the list as a food allergen is that many parents are using soy-based formulas for their infants.

Now let’s review “big-box” shopping verses the benefits of organic. With families always struggling to stay on a budget, going to the big-box store to shop for groceries is the norm. It’s one thing to purchase paper products at the larger, low-priced stores, but we also need to consider promoting organic to our parents. So, ask parents to consider visiting their local farmers’ market or health food store to purchase organic vegetables, fruits and meats. Going organic may cost a little more, but tell parents that when they stop buying the junk – cookies, sodas, candy, crackers, juices, etc. – buying organics actually can be affordable.

If there is no access to organic (in this day and age, that is less of an issue), doctors should attempt to move families in another healthy direction. The least desirable foods are canned; thus, moving parents from canned to frozen, from frozen to fresh, and from fresh to organic is positive advice.

How can you determine that a child is sensitive (or allergic) to foods? A great place to get started is to use the advice I received years ago from allergy specialist, Dorthea Rapp, MD, who stated, “Have the parents write down the five things your child can’t live without and probably your list will reveal at least one if not several food triggers for the child.” Another way to gather information is to look at the quality of lifestyle of the child; ask the parent to record what their child is eating and drinking for an entire week. Tracking the amount of consumption is not as important as tracking the “quality of living foods” the child is or is not consuming.

Once you have a list of the child’s “five things” and their food record for the week, it is pretty simple to review and see the glaring dietary errors. In suggesting changes, start off by eliminating the allergen(s) you suspect is the biggest culprit. Slowly reduce the item(s) over a few-week period until they are absent from the child’s diet.

For a more successful outcome, the entire family should participate, and those food items should be completely eliminated from the home. Although there are extensive laboratory tests that can be conducted, children often respond well with elimination of the main six (milk, egg, peanuts, seafood [particularly shellfish], soy and wheat).

At first, the child may be very reactionary to the change, particularly with negative behavior, but you need to encourage the parents to stay the course. Usually parents will report improvement within a few weeks of implementing these dietary changes.

One simple rule I teach parents in my practice is, “When in doubt, if it’s white, wrapped in plastic or in a box, don’t consume it.” Always choose living foods instead. As we see trends in North America for food allergens continue to grow, as well as obesity and diabetes, teaching healthier lifestyle habits to families is a responsibility the family chiropractor should take seriously.

Resources

• NoMilk.com.
• KidsHealth.org.
• Click to read it online.