Anti-Establishment

I guess it started when I was living in Chicago. I met this woman who was (I'll assume she still is) a midwife. A lay-midwife, that is. Like an apprentice, not formally educated and approved of by the medical powers that be. It was illegal for her to practice in Illinois, so she lived in Indiana.She opened my mind to the possibility that 'the doctors don't know everything'.

Be still my heart.

Jairus' birth waylaid the progress of such ideas in my head, but I'm slowly coming back. Maybe it was when all the DNA testing came back normal. (How can all his insides be normal, but not his outsides?)
Or when I was the one to point out to the geneticist that Jairus and my mother shared characteristics. (She has arthrogryposis).
If I listed all the things that have pointed me towards natural health, we'd be here a while. Let me just tell you about the 'other things' we've been trying.

• We took Jairus to an herbalist who analyzed his blood. Lotsa crap in there. I wasn't surprised, the kid's been living on pudding cups and Heinz toddler meals for 2.5 years. The herbalist also want us to look into cranial sacral therapy.
• Chiropractor: He's had one visit. I'd like to go back, when we find the money...
• Mannatech: My inlaws joined up with this Texas based health supplement company. I wasn't convinced to start Jairus on them until...
• The Psychologist: specializing in learning delays and such, recommended glyconutrients. That's the Mannatec stuff. Even though everyone told us PRS wouldn't affect his...brain...he's quite behind. At least a year at last assessment. So this past spring at a home schooling convention in Hamilton, we met a psychologist who during her question and answer period, described some of the exact issues Jairus deals with. We've had two sessions with her and she's prescribed a sensory repatterning therapy...I think I'll do a whole post on that later.
• HBOT-Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy. We've not done it, just looked into it. Turns out there's a private clinic in east Hamilton that does it. I figured, if there's a chance some of his delays are caused by his poor oxygen supply at birth (and ensuing weeks), perhaps this therapy could repair the damage. It's still a possibility...
• Overall nutritional improvement: I now buy reverse-osmosis water at the local healthfood store. I'd like to get our own system, but of course, that's pricey. I started buying all our produce at the local farmers market. I'd love to go organic, but this is the best I can do. I'd also love to buy organic meat--there's a place in Ancaster that looks good, but again, cost is a factor. I now buy whole grain and grind it in my Vitamix (a recent ebay purchase) and make my bread with it in the breadmaker. (Yeah, no way I'm doing that by hand). A little more trouble, but a book from a nutritionist friend about healing naturally through vitamins and such really made an impact on how I view our food.

And this is just out of sheer frustration. All the developmental pediatricians, speech and occupational therapists, ENT's, endochrinologists, geneticists and scads of other specialists couldn't tell me why Jairus won't eat. Or why he won't speak. Why he moves like Jack from Return to OZ. So I took matters into my own hands. There was a certain level of freedom there--and greater responsibility. I kept wondering if there was some key bit of knowledge I was missing and somehow that would jeopardize his life. Or at least his quality of life.

And it was also a little overwhelming. How to make all these changes in our diet? One thing at a time. I know I should be checking with God a little more often, but at least, I try to keep my ear open for any still, small warning. Doors open, I go through. I know He's got the master plan.