I was looking through the recent posts on EC and one that stuck with me is about the 11 year old who has constipation and is on continuous antibiotics. His mother mentioned the constipation, which yes, must be alleviated. One thing that works for constipation in our home is to put castor oil on the body, topically. Sometimes we put it on the feet or hands or abdomen. It seems that within a few hours elimination is produced even if we were not using the castor oil for that purpose. So if this mom would put castor oil on her child, hopefully it will result in proper elimination for him.

I expect this has been mentioned on EC, but maybe the mom did not see it.

Jane

Hi, Carrie. I just saw your post and wanted to add my two cents. sounds like your son may have candida over growth and possibly leaky gut syndrome. This can be caused by too much antibiotic. with leaky gut,whole pieces of food can leak from the gut into the blood causing all kinds of allergies,amoung other problems. Please do some research on leaky gut and candida over growth. You asked how to get an 11 year old to follow a diet? You gotta trick them,same way I get my 5 and 8 year old boys to do it. The best things for him are nutrient dense foods,you can look up nutrient info on the whole foods website. Cutting out wheat products and processed foods is a good idea. Almost anything pre-packaged is full of gluten,to which I am highly sensitive. When I cut out gluten my Graves disease symptoms improved dramatically. Next no artifical colors or flavors,no sugar. We use stevia, recipes can be found on the web. Does he like lemonade? Try giving him the juice of one lemon in a cup of warm water with natural honey before breakfast . Its a good energy booster and aids digestion. Also trying a rotation diet is a good idea in case he is allergic to dairy,and some people are highly allergic to things like corn and oranges. A reverse osmosis water system is good and not expensive to buy or complicated to install. He needs pure water equal to about half his body weight in ounces every day. If you want to detox him start slowly with castor oil packs. Good rule is on the abdomine one day ,liver one day, kidney area next day, repeat and the stop for 3 days before starting again. Preassure point foot massage after soaking his feet in water and epsome salt for 20 minutes or so is a good way to get things flowing. If you are in a situation to do so, take him to a natureopath,at least for his bowels and allergy treatments. Last, follow your instincts. You are his Mom and know him better than anyone.Please also let us know how he is doing. Sorry the post is so long. if you need any info you cant find on line, or moral support, feel free to e-mail. Pam

Carrie what I have notice from a low immune system, asthma, and allergies (my son has suffered also and once school starts is home because he catches everything..We have just gone through swine flu and another viral infection...the best thing I have seen for the sinus, nasal passage, is saline. the saline solution you buy in the store I don't think is that good. this is a bit extreme but I have seen it work wonders. I had a salt water pool (inground). I used Morton salt tablets when needed to keep pool clean, etc. I didn't have problems with him getting sick all the time till we moved. but I do strongly believe saline does wonders, of course proper diet, etc.. I hope this helps...

Hello Carrie with the 11 year old with multiple problems,

Sounds like your young fellow has already had more than his share of sickness. First off, if his immune system hasn't improved, let's work on that. You didn't mention what kind of eater he is, but I hope you have taken him off all carbonated beverages, and from what I have been reading on some parents' experiences and their children's allergies to milk, maybe you should see if anyone in your area is selling raw milk -you know that stuff that someone with a cow is willing to sell you (however the powers that be want to keep it illegal, but when I see multiple parents (and some who survived childhood and found the same problems returned after adulthood & a return to store bought (processed milk), I have to believe that there is something to it. I also do not advocate juice drinks or punches, but suggest water, fruit juices, and local, unprocessed milk if you can find it.

With all the antibiotics your little guy has had, you are lucky if he has any of the good guys left in his intestines, so you may want to think about Probiotics to replenish them. You are also lucky if he doesn't have some systemic candida albicans running rampant in his system. You can find many suggestions on alternative sites, but you can also pull up literature on SSKI (potassium iodide) or Lugol's solution which is pretty close to the SSKI formula. If you have trouble finding someone to write a prescription for it, when I was looking up Lugol's solution there was one aquarium supply house that offered the l5% Lugol's solution which is the original solution strength. For instructions on using it, if you can't find it anywhere else type potassium iodide in search window and look for reference mentioning Tahoma Clinic, this article is from Dr. Jonathan Wright and can be printed out for handy reference in the future. He not only tells you what it is used for but how much to use for what purpose. Of course if your little guy is allergic to shellfish, he might have a crossover allergy to iodine (this contraindicates use of iodine preparations). The only other thing likely to occur is it can suppress the thyroid gland (read one source that recommends checking temperature daily for drop in body temperature which would indicate suppression of the thyroid). If this occurs, you just stop the SSKI or Lugol's solution and the thyroid bounces back, especially if you give him some B complex vitamins to help it along. Sometimes you can develop a rash from the iodine, but this also disappears when you stop taking it.

I don't know where you live but if you aren't familiar with those lovely plants most people call weeds and work hard to get rid of, assuming that you live somewhere in the USA and that everybody knows what dandelion is, and if dandelion is growing in your area, most likely a few other good weeds like clover, sheep sorrel, dock, pepper grass,wild onions, or you can throw in a few thoroughy washed greens like spinach, turnip greens and such (even a few broccoli heads would be very nutritious) into a blender with some distilled water and puree them. When gathering from the weeds, stay away from the roadsides (exhaust fumes) and make sure the area hasn't been treated with pesticides or weed killers. Just a handfull or two of a mixture of these weeds in a pint of water should make all he'll need in 1 day & you want to make it fresh daily. You can also pitch in some mint leaves for flavor and add some local honey or stevia to sweeten for him if he rebels against drinking his green smoothies.

I hope most of his sweets are fruits (light syrup if canned) but hopefully fresh - especially apples and grapes, pear, etc. If constipation remains a problem, remember that plums when dehydrated are called prunes, and prune juice is much better than laxatives.

Fortunately another supplement he can probably use is magnesium. You can use transdermal methods of bringing this up (see Deirdre's recommendation on EC for this one - she even gives you a good source, but his price has gone up (from $l9/14 lbs. a few months ago to almost double that). ECers must have been ordering a lot of it so I guess supply and demand has gone into effect with him. If you have any Dollar Trees in your area (or their equivalents) a 2 lb. box of epsom salts costs $l there, but still reasonable at Walgreens and Walmart & such. When I am tired & achy after a day of yard work I put about 1 lb of epsom salts in my bath water & soak luxurously. You sure do come out of that bath feeling revitalized, probably because you have absorbed some of the magnesium transdermally. IMVA (Dr. Sircus) has some excellent articles on magnesium and sodium, and a few other things our bodies need to function properly.

If you haven't picked up on apple cider vinegar/honey for coughs and respiratory infections, it works better than just about everything else I've used except for the H202 inhalation. You will also find that Dr. Sircus at IMVA also has an excellent article on giving sodium, magnesium, H202 by nebulizer, which probably means it would be safe to put it in a bedside nebulizer at night if you use one with him.

The above should get your little guy looking and feeling better soon, probably sooner than you expect him too. If you have any specific questions its ok for EC to share my e mail with you, and if I don't have the answer, we'll try to find them for you.

You might look into olive leaf. It is antifungal, antibacterial(and I believe, ) antiviral. Research as much as you can, I hope this helps.