Who Knew Yeast Was Such A Big Deal?
Charlie was nearly 5 years old when I took him to see Elaine Hardy, NP.
“Dr. Elaine” (as Charlie would come to affectionately call her) had done a thorough intake on Charlie a couple weeks earlier and I was here to get the results of his extensive lab work (blood, urine and stool). Seeking out medical advice from pediatricians and neurologists wasn’t new to me, but I was told Elaine was different. “She looks at the ‘whole’ person. She’s different from typical doctors.” It wasn’t much to go on, but we were desperate.
She turned out to be a GODSEND.
“Mrs. Carrara, Charlie doesn’t have a brain issue, he has an inflammation issue. He’s suffering from Leaky Gut as a result of the yeast overgrowth that’s been rampant since he was a newborn. His entire body including his brain is inflamed. The goal is to remove the inflammation.” (To get a detailed look at Charlie’s symptoms before and after healing his gut, see here.)
“Okay.” I said hopefully. “What do I do?” This was the first time I had a practitioner seem so confident at providing a cause to all of Charlie’s… well, ‘Charlieness’. Typically, his new doctors just confirmed the acronyms he’d already been given.
She continued.
“Your biggest enemy is the yeast. Foods that feed the yeast need to be severely decreased. His tests also show a full casein allergy and a gluten sensitivity. Basically, his body is being assaulted with substances which are toxic to him. Toxicity causes the inflammation. The inflammation causes the behaviors.”
Flipping through the lab report she pointed out some of Charlie’s neurotransmitter levels. “The tests also show he’s barely producing some very important chemicals such as serotonin and dopamine. But the issue is starting in the gut. When the gut is compromised, it can’t properly absorb food and manufacture important amino acids to create the neurotransmitters.”
“Okay.” I said again. “What do I do?”
“We want to heal the gut,” she said matter-of-factly. “When we heal the gut, we heal the brain.”
“Okay. SO WHAT DO I DO?…”
The Journey to Healing the Gut
And so it began. My journey to eliminate inflammation in Charlie’s body and brain in the hopes of recovering my son. I ran through the items the Nurse Practitioner told me to avoid… gluten, dairy, dyes, refined sugars. Seemed overwhelming but how hard could it be? I started googling foods I thought would be safe for Charlie. No one else seemed to know what I was talking about and quite frankly thought I was a little nuts the way I could graphically describe how the yeast organisms fed on even the tiniest amount of foods if left undigested…
…But when Charlie started speaking in complete sentences after 10 days of the pharmaceutical antifungal Diflucan, I KNEW there had to be something to this ‘Yeast Thing’.
And believe me, I would have put him on an I.V. Drip of Diflucan but the yeast would eventually grow resistant and his liver would be severely damaged.
“How do I do this?!?” was always at the forefront of my mind. (I definitely was No Fun at parties.) It seemed that every time I’d get glimpses of a ‘clear’ Charlie, his “wildness” would re-emerge. I had stripped his diet of practically everything from his former life, but consistent healing seemed elusive. I also dosed his supplements as instructed by “Dr Elaine” but some were causing him to be even more emotional than he had been.
I didn’t realize that his very sensitive body would often react to the manufacturing of the supplement including the additives used to improve taste on children’s products.
Not Equipped Lord. I’M. NOT. EQUIPPED. Sometimes I’d just put my head in my hands and cry, exhausted from trying. But then I’d dust myself off, and google that next piece of research– trying to decode Charlie’s brain.
AND THEN IT CLICKED. After much trial and error and many, many months of failed diets I found something that worked for Charlie.
The Body Ecology Diet (BED)
It was a yeast eradication diet that not only removed the Wrong foods, but also introduced the Right foods so that his gut could finally heal.
I realized that despite my earlier efforts, the primary reason I wasn’t healing his gut is because I wasn’t feeding him natural probiotic-rich foods and beverages.
I certainly WAS providing high quality probiotics but I learned that when one’s intestinal track is so severely compromised, even the best store-bought probiotics (and sometimes supplements) cannot be absorbed. In these cases, the intestines need real probiotics made from naturally fermented foods.
Enter The Body Ecology Diet (BED) by Donna Gates. The diet was not originally designed to help those with ADHD and Autism Spectrum Disorders but the results have been astounding in these communities and I can certainly attest to Charlie’s success. (For recovery stories and support, check out the BEDROK Program.)
I learned of Donna’s book by accident. (really? yes, really.)
I had been reading the Autism Breakthrough by Raun Kaufman – It’s the amazing story of the AUTHOR’S full recovery from severe Autism. The Body Ecology Diet was mentioned in the last chapter on Nutrition. (Which, quite frankly, I’d almost skipped because I thought I was such a Know-It-All on the subject.)
I know we’re talking about Yeast, but I must take a moment here!! If your child has even only glimpses of Spectrum Behaviors or even just ADHD, I beg you to read Raun Kaufman’s book! (And if you have no time and are more of a Hallmark Movie kind of girl, you can watch his full-length story on Youtube.
Using strategies from this book, I was able to teach Charlie so many things we had been struggling with. For example—how to give prolonged eye contact. We’d been working on this for years! Using Raun’s strategies, it took me exactly 30 minutes using his favorite game of Tickle Me Till I Die Laughing. And the best part is that it was a Permanent Change. After that book, I forever looked at teaching Charlie in a whole new light. I started to realize that Anything Was Possible—I just needed to figure out how to Reach Him.
BUT BACK TO THE YEAST.
The very night I learned of Donna Gate’s book, I downloaded and voraciously read The Body Ecology Diet in two days. I knew it was our next answer in Charlie’s journey.
And as with anything else I do, I JUMPED. All. IN.
Charlie's Transformation Begins
Understand that we had seen some miraculous turnarounds over the previous 10 months since first seeing our holistic Nurse Practitioner. BUT all were short lived and Charlie would regress when the rounds of Diflucan or Nystatin were completed. During this time we were doing our best at removing gluten, dairy, preservatives, dyes and refined sugar.
Within 2 weeks of starting the Body Ecology Diet, I knew something was happening with Charlie. Over the next 10-15 months we watched him transform.
I immediately knew the Body Ecology Diet was having an effect on Charlie because I watched his behaviors skyrocket within days of commencing. This die-off effect was always present when I administered pharmaceutical antifungals but I’d never seen the effect using Diet Only.
While his behaviors escalated I was weirdly excited. (“It’s working!!” I whispered to my inner mad scientist.) And then. On day 10. IT HAPPENED.
“Can we go to the park?” he asked.
I was caught off guard. Charlie NEVER wanted to go to the park. As a matter of fact, he’s the first to ask if he could LEAVE the park.
The sensations of the wind, sun, and various other sounds were all too much for Charlie to take. For him to ASK me to take him to the park absolutely astounded me. It was just days before Thanksgiving and I was up to my ears in food prep and no time for excursions.
“Boys! Grab your coats! WE’RE GOING TO THE PLAYGROUND!”
And that’s how it began. The boy who was always miserable or locked in his own world was slowly joining us in ours. People who saw him just a month into the diet assumed I’d put him on medication because the change was so drastic. His own kindergarten teacher watched the change happen right before her eyes.
For the entire first three months of that school year (prior to the Body Ecology Diet) she did what she could to bring peace to an extremely hyperactive and unsettled Charlie. She asked the gym teacher to alert her to free periods so Charlie could run freely all over the gym to let off energy. If he was seeming very out of sorts, she’d have the Occupational Therapist take him to the PT room and wrap him snugly in the ‘body boat’ which was suspended like a swing.
Charlie started the Body Ecology Diet on November 15th of that year. After returning from his Thanksgiving break, Charlie never again required the special gym time or body boat.
After 15 months on the Body Ecology Diet we slowly allowed Charlie to eat more regular foods. We learned his body was a sensitive vessel and was greatly affected by whatever he put in it. Being a child, he was (and can still be) a bit challenging when it comes to wanting to eat the ‘fun food’ his friends are eating.
We certainly give in from time to time and he feels it.
He will get very congested, cough and even get stomach aches if he goes too far off a diet of whole foods. If he really overdoes it with gluten, dairy, preservatives or refined sugars then he really pays the price. His emotions will rise and plummet seemingly without reason, his focus will greatly decrease and his impulsiveness and anxiety will soar.
Even his physical appearance will alert us to inflammation caused by wrong eating. His pallor will change, sometimes red cheeked and sleepy looking. His greatest indicator — his right eye will go off center, shooting skyward.
So Check This OUT– Charlie’s severe eye strabismus was corrected with surgery at age 2 ½ although one eye was over-corrected. Despite patching, the eye would often sit upward and off. An unexpected effect of the yeast eradication diet… Charlie’s EYE COMPLETELY STRAIGHTENED OUT. –Crazy, right?
So here’s the question I always get from moms who want to help their kids: IS IT HARD?
This REALLY isn’t the question they are asking. What they are REALLY asking is THIS:
Is it Hard Work?
Of course it is. If you wanted a new job, IT’S HARD WORK. If you want straight As, IT’S HARD WORK. If you want to make more money, IT’S HARD WORK. If you want to lose weight and have a toned body, IT’S HARD WORK. If you want an awesome relationship with your spouse, IT’S HARD WORK.
If you want to heal your child’s gut, IT’S HARD WORK.
BUT THAT’S OKAY!
Even Charlie knows our mantra “You’ve Gotta Pay to Play,” and will now often choose a right food instead of opting for a wrong one. He knows he’ll spend days having a to do a nasal saline rinse just to clear the congestion and hates when his tummy aches or he can’t seem to hold his emotions at bay. For the kid who literally used to jump in circles, ask strangers obsessively if they owned a dog, repeatedly chew on his shirt sleeves or bounce his head into the sofa cushions, I now get this from my 3rd grade son:
“Mom, Friday night is the spring party at church and they’re having pizza and ice cream sundaes. I want the pizza, but can you bring my special chocolate cake? I might even want the lemonade, but I won’t have the soda. I’ll just do a nose rinse the next few days and I’ll be fine.”
To this I reply, “Ok, you can have 2 small slices of the GF pizza and I’ll bring the cake. But we are having water or I can bring your special lemonade.”
MOMS–YOU WILL BE CHALLENGED. BUT YOU WILL DO WHAT DONNA GATES OUTLINES IN HER BOOK. And when you make your 50th jar of homemade coconut kefir or fermented veggies so you can provide his body with powerfully rich probiotics you will SMILE at your accomplishment.
And when your child spits his fermented veggies in your face, you’re just going to brush it off and lovingly ask him to eat three more spoonfuls before he can go watch TV.
YOU WILL DO THIS BECAUSE YOU ARE A WARRIOR MAMA AND YOU KNOW THIS WILL HEAL HIS GUT.
And healing his gut means healing his brain. 😊
Carolyn offers encouragement and knowledge so other moms can experience the same successful results as her son. One of her older sons, also ADHD, struggled for YEARS with O.D.D. symptoms. She wants you to know you can have control over symptoms even when given that VERY overwhelming ADHD or O.D.D. diagnosis.