The old adage goes "What you don't know won't hurt you". I've had to tweak that phrase slightly to fit my experiences. In the case of me and my three young children, what we didn't know was hurting us... BADLY.
This short article will share some of the horrific health challenges my children have endured in their early years and how, if I had known better, they could've avoided much, if not all, of the pain and suffering they endured.
From an early age, all three of my children were plagued with health challenges - eczema, asthma, allergies, congenital heart defects and a multi-systic dysplastic kidney. For anyone who knows personally, eczema can be a nightmare, and so it was for my daughter. Her eczema outbreaks started when she was just five weeks old. The doctor was hesitant to give her anything "too strong" because she was so young. While I appreciated the doctor's forethought on this, what she prescribes did nothing to relieve the itching or clear up the rash. My daughter's skin was so dry and scaly that it resembled alligator skin... literally. By the time she was seven months old, she had seen three different dermatologists! My son's also suffered with eczema from an early age but neither of their cases was nearly as severe as my daughter's.
The asthma and allergy (food and seasonal) diagnoses came shortly after they were toddlers. As a result, they were subjected to twice daily nebulizer treatments, a daily dose of allergy medication to prevent sneezing, runny nose and other common allergy symptoms; as well as avoid a laundry list of foods and other allergy triggers.
The "big whammy" came with my third pregnancy (my youngest son). At my 20th week sonogram, I learned that my unborn baby had a multi-systic dysplastic right kidney. In short, this meant that his right kidney had not developed properly and would never function. In fact, it would eventually dissolve and become non-existent. Thankfully, the left kidney is completely healthy. As if that's not enough, two days after he was born, we learned that he had a serious congenital heart defect; much more severe than his older brother and sister had experienced. In fact, their heart defects corrected themselves by the time each of them reached age two. My youngest son was not so fortunate; he had to have emergency heart surgery at nine days old and required another open heart surgical procedure just before he turned two years old.
All of this made me wonder, "How much "health havoc" could befall one household"? Little did I know that I was on the right track....My pediatric dermatologist and allergist began to open my eyes to the fact that "my household" had a lot to do with it. Both doctors advised me to be mindful of the common household products I exposed my children to because many of them contained harmful chemical and toxic ingredients that triggered eczema outbreaks and asthma attacks. This prompted me to do a lot of research and educate myself on product ingredients. What I learned nearly blew me away! These chemicals were linked to ALL of my children's health problems -the eczema, asthma, allergies, congenital heart defects and damaged kidney. Not only that; these chemicals and toxins are capable of so much more.
Today, that stuff is out of my home. As a result, my children no longer suffer eczema outbreaks or asthma attacks and I am protecting us all from exposure to many other sicknesses and diseases. Now, it is my mission to teach others what I had to learn the hard way.
No comments:
Post a Comment