{"id":3287,"date":"2017-02-06T18:08:57","date_gmt":"2017-02-06T18:08:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.roadtolivingwhole.com\/?p=3287"},"modified":"2017-02-06T20:42:17","modified_gmt":"2017-02-06T20:42:17","slug":"finding-healing-food","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.roadtolivingwhole.com\/finding-healing-food\/","title":{"rendered":"Finding Healing with Food"},"content":{"rendered":"

Thank you to\u00a0Ashley Markel from Simmer & Sprout for guest posting and sharing her family’s story of finding healing with food.<\/em><\/p>\n

Our path to Paleo as a family was not a straight line; it was more of a dotted, twisty line. \u00a0Our family struggled to connect all of those dots and follow all of those twists along the way. \u00a0That\u2019s what makes sharing our journey both tough and hopeful for other families. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The path wasn\u2019t all pretty. \u00a0In fact, a lot of it was scary and full of \u201cwhys\u201d. \u00a0Today, our family has come so far on our journey to healing with food that it\u2019s hard to imagine going back to the standard American diet. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

We struggle with restaurants, birthday parties, and even school. \u00a0I struggle with explaining our choices to our three children aged six, three, and two. \u00a0I struggle when I\u2019d love to buy them that sweet cartoon character cupcake as we stroll through the grocery store. \u00a0I also struggle, because our path to Paleo wasn\u2019t completely voluntary and, at first, it added a lot of stress and work on my part to feed our family \u201creal\u201d food.<\/span><\/p>\n

We are reaping the rewards, and that\u2019s what makes this journey worth it.<\/b><\/h3>\n

I have always had a mild sensitivity to milk, and my oldest did as well after birth. \u00a0She tolerated soy formula well, \u2018so life went on\u2019 as they say.<\/span><\/p>\n

Our journey truly began when my second child was born. \u00a0She entered the world in true dramatic fashion, and to this day, still lives for drama. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

She refluxed shortly after her delivery and ended up in the NICU for monitoring. \u00a0Little did we know at the time, that moment was one of the many we\u2019d later say \u201chindsight\u2019s 20\/20\u201d. \u00a0She continued to fuss, experienced abdominal pain, developed extreme diaper rash, along with typical, textbook reflux symptoms. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In lieu of time (and word) constraints I\u2019ll get right to the point. \u00a0By around 10 months of age, she was on two reflux medications, diagnosed with asthma and prescribed asthma medications, experienced chronic ear infections<\/a>, blocked tear ducts, developed a severe oral aversion (other than a bottle) which led to intensive feeding therapy and well, let\u2019s just say, the child never slept. \u00a0She. Did. Not. Sleep. Ever.<\/span><\/p>\n

After trying soy, which only created more problems, switching to hypo-allergenic formula, adding medication after medication, avoided dairy in food, tubes placed in her ears at one year, tear duct surgery, and barium swallows, it took a feeding specialist who pushed for us to force the change in formula. \u00a0It took her having a different perspective that opened the door for us to do more homework ourselves and push the envelope with the doctors.<\/span><\/p>\n

For our little drama queen, negative allergy test meant multiple doctors wouldn\u2019t agree that she had an allergy or sensitivity of any sort. \u00a0End of story.<\/span><\/p>\n

She was just a hard baby.<\/span><\/p>\n

She was<\/span> just<\/span><\/i> a hard baby who comfort fed from a bottle (eating for some reflux-ers actually makes them feel better while the milk is going down), but wouldn\u2019t open her mouth for a spoon or a cookie. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

She was<\/span> just <\/span><\/i>a hard baby with a list of medications, adverse reactions, and surgeries under her belt longer than this post.<\/span><\/p>\n

Now I will never say that there isn\u2019t a place for medicine, or surgery, or a doctor\u2019s expertise, ever.<\/span><\/p>\n

But we needed another doctor, a different kind of doctor, to weigh in.<\/b><\/h3>\n

Given her issues, we were led to a pediatrician that specialized in allergies and asthma. \u00a0Within five minutes in his office, he told us \u201cIt\u2019s clear she has a reaction to dairy\u201d, and with one little piece of paper (a prescription for truly, completely broken down, hypoallergenic formula) he changed the trajectory of her life and ours.<\/span><\/p>\n

Healing began almost immediately and she was off <\/span>all<\/span><\/i> of her medications within weeks. \u00a0That\u2019s a true story.<\/span><\/p>\n

Flash forward two years.<\/b><\/h3>\n

She gets her drama from her daddy. \u00a0My husband discovered two years ago he has what appears to be Non-Celiac Gluten Sensitivity. \u00a0I say \u201cappears\u201d because they\u2019re no way to positively test for this sensitivity. \u00a0You get a diagnosis but not having Celiac\u2019s Disease, but relief from symptoms when avoiding wheat. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The questions that were answered after removing wheat from his diet, spanned over his entire adult life. \u00a0In true dramatic fashion, his improvements in health were not only physical. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Anxiety that had plagued him for over a decade disappeared.<\/span><\/p>\n

So while we were already starting to make huge jumps into the Paleo world, we hadn\u2019t completely eliminated all wheat in every lunchbox leaving our house.<\/span><\/p>\n

Another big a-ha moment followed.<\/b><\/h3>\n

For all the improvement in our little drama queen\u2019s life, she had still been a pretty rough sleeper. \u00a0We chalked it up to over a year of bad habits.<\/span><\/p>\n

Until we removed wheat and gluten from her diet, pushed by seeing the changes in my husband\u2019s anxiety\u2026 and then she slept.<\/span><\/p>\n

Dramatic story, I know, I know.<\/b><\/h3>\n

I\u2019ve honestly just scraped the surface of our journey here. \u00a0So many times we felt so lost, and so many times I kept asking \u201cWhy can\u2019t I just order a pizza tonight?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

While our path was forced, our path showed me in blinking, bright lights, that food was the first line of defense, food was the best medicine, food was a great place to start. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

That\u2019s not to say my kids never get sick or never need medicine for an illness. \u00a0That\u2019s also not to say that there are not cases where medical intervention is absolutely the best choice. \u00a0But we often struggle as parents, and patients, to weigh the risks associated with ingesting medicine against the benefits the medication might bring. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019m advocating that we weigh those same risks and benefits <\/span>any<\/span><\/i> time we put something into our bodies, including the food we eat every day.<\/span><\/p>\n

So how did I make the change with three little PB&J eaters in the house?<\/b><\/h3>\n

Here are my top 5 tips for making a successful transition to Paleo with kids in the house.<\/span><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Don\u2019t overthink it by trying to \u201cduplicate\u201d your favorite recipes out of the gate. \u00a0Think veggies, meat, and fruit. \u00a0Think variety. \u00a0Then go for it. \u00a0Duplication will come later.<\/span><\/li>\n
  2. Lunchboxes won\u2019t look the same as they did before. \u00a0See number 1. \u00a0Search for bento box lunches to get ideas for making visually appealing and colorful combinations of\u2026 you guessed it, veggies, meat, and fruit.<\/span><\/li>\n
  3. Cut the snacks. \u00a0Packaged snacks will almost never be Paleo or clean. \u00a0A banana or apple dipped in sunbutter or grapes and good quality nitrate free lunch meat will do just fine, especially when it\u2019s cut in cute shapes or packed in colorful containers.<\/span><\/li>\n
  4. Find one amazing cookie recipe and one amazing pancake recipe that your kids like and mass produce. \u00a0You may laugh, but kids like cookies and pancakes. \u00a0I also like my kids to have kid moments. \u00a0This lifestyle is not about deprivation.<\/span><\/li>\n
  5. Lead by example. \u00a0\u00a0Make real food choices and lead your kids by example.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    \"finding<\/a><\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    \"Ashley<\/a>Ashley is a wife and mother of three managing a household of allergies and food sensitivities. \u00a0\u00a0As a southern transplant and lover of comfort food, she is driven by her desire to serve delicious food to her family and to simplify the task of offering up real, nutritious food, every day for busy mommas. \u00a0She teaches families that living a healthy lifestyle, fueling our bodies, and thriving do not have to be boring, tasteless, or complicated. Follow Ashley at www.SimmerandSprout.com<\/a>, on Facebook at www.facebook.com\/simmerandsprout<\/a>, and on Instagram @simmerandsprout.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Thank you to\u00a0Ashley Markel from Simmer & Sprout for guest posting and sharing her family’s story of finding healing with food. Our path to Paleo as a family was not a straight line; it was more of a dotted, twisty line. \u00a0Our family struggled to connect all of those dots and follow all of those […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":3296,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wprm-recipe-roundup-name":"","wprm-recipe-roundup-description":"","site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,3,850],"tags":[1157,1110,1143,296],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.roadtolivingwhole.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3287"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.roadtolivingwhole.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.roadtolivingwhole.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.roadtolivingwhole.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.roadtolivingwhole.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3287"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.roadtolivingwhole.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3287\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.roadtolivingwhole.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3296"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.roadtolivingwhole.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3287"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.roadtolivingwhole.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3287"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.roadtolivingwhole.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3287"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}