I've been busy in my mind rearranging our list of acceptable foods - we're shifting our diets again, focusing on gut healing. Using a combination of SCD (the Specific Carbohydrate Diet), raw foods, fermented veggies, Body Ecology...
Essentially my beautiful son has had some teeth issues since he's had teeth - the issues being that his enamel is soft and crumbles easily. He has had the top four front teeth pulled - when he was about 18 months old - and I am not at all confident that it was the best decision I could have made for him*, although at the time I thought it was my only option.
* - Not at all coincidentally, Louise Hay says that teeth issues are about feeling like one is making the wrong decisions.
I've lately been doing lots and lots of reading about nutrition and teeth, including Weston A. Price's "Nutrition and Physical Degeneration" and Rami Nagel's "Cure Tooth Decay: Heal And Prevent Cavities With Nutrition".
Also recently a new friend moved into our cohousing, and her story was amazing: she had healed her son's autism with nutrition, a program called GAPS, which is essentially a more organic and more raw version of SCD. My friend, incidentally, has even written a book about this program, called "GAPS Guide", which she generously gave me as a gift upon learning of my interest in the program. Her son also had similar teeth issues, and many of the kids on this program have other similarities to Kiernen, as well.
Honestly I'm as excited as I am anxious about beginning this program - I've seen it work for other people, I've even done SCD for awhile for gut healing, and it did make a difference. I'm wondering how on earth I'll get this picky kid to take cod liver oil or eat fermented veggies, but I've read lots of stories of parents who had kids just like mine who now beg for these things and no longer ask for the french fries or the breads.
For example, I was listening to an interview on the Raw Mom Summit with a woman named Gina LaVerde who had an experience with her own son that was very similar to my friend's. The Body Ecology Diet is very similar to SCD, the differences being so minute they are almost interchangable (body ecology is less to no fruit, for example, and it DOES allow Stevia, where SCD doesn't (although many on the SCD do use Stevia)). It was a great interview, very informative, and it felt to me like the Universe just giving me a nod with the path I've chosen for us.
I tend to go through a significant amount of preparation before "officially" undertaking any change in our lifestyle like this, and this time is no exception. In addition to reading as much as I can, including books and online forums, I am also little by little changing what we have in our pantry - using up certain things and not replacing them, buying more of other things we'll be using more, etc.
I've also been talking with Kiernen about his teeth and his belly and what changes we'll be making - I keep reminding him about not eating wheat or sugar, and what kind of things contain both of those. We talked about how I can make him these foods at home now, ones that don't have this stuff in them, and so far he has seemed satisfied with that. This is going to be as much a learning experience for me as anyone else - it is taking me a bit out of my comfort zone and into new territory.
We shall see where it all leads.
