One mom’s journey with recovering her son’s autism

As a person who took my health into my own hands and recovered from a chronic illness that doctors believed I would suffer with for the rest of my life (i.e., Fibromyalgia), I am always interested to hear about others who have done (or are trying to) do the same for themselves. Obviously what works for one person is not necessarily what will work for others. But if spreading the word about these recoveries helps even one person, then it’s worth taking the time to do so.
Please read below to learn more from Channa Brennon about her journey to help her son recover from autismAs always, the content included here is intended for informational purposes only. 
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The following was sent to us from our reader, Channa Brennon….
autism recovery“I am always so glad to share my story with others, as I wish I had someone tell me in the beginning how powerful and dangerous the foods we put in our mouth can be.  I learned the hard way as most of us do. My son at three and a half was like a ferrel wild animal. He was violent, couldn’t talk and would never sleep. He was in severe pain. He would wake up all night long screaming. He was diagnosed PPD NOS….which falls under the autism spectrum. This was not anything but relief for me as I knew something was wrong with my son and finally I had proof.
After I fed him anything his stomach would blow up like he had swallowed a basketball. His colon was paralyzed. It literally stopped working. He would only poop with enemas, and everything he pooped was the whole food pieces he had eaten. Nothing was digested.
Surprisingly, the doctors told me there was nothing to worry about. I knew better, and I searched and searched and prayed for answers. Finally I met a woman over the internet who told me about Andy Cutler chelation and diet. I leaned that my son’s gut was so inflammed that nothing could get digested. I learned about food allergies, and yes my son was allergic to almost every single food he ate, but I found out about a rotation diet and cutting out all the grains and any type of processed food. I also started chelation which I believe had a part in the autoimmune issues/food allergies my son had.
I got a delayed food allergy panel and tried to keep out the foods he was most allergic too. I also cut out all grains from his diet becuse grains are hard to digest . I found that in the begining, with so much damage in his gut, he did good on homemade veggie soups – this was all he ate for about a week until the inflammation went down. Some people might think it’s extreme, but if you think about the fact that my son was wasting away on all the high calorie food I was feeding him, I knew I had to try something different. I alternated this with bone broth soups. And, as he became better, I added in more variety of whole foods. His food was as “clean” as I could make it. That meant no flavoring and no processed foods of any kind. Just simple organic veggies and later on beans, fish, chicken and eggs.
My son has come so far from where we started. He can now eat grains. I buy North carolina rice and organic oats.  I am working on learning how to make my own cultured sourdough bread. I also subscribe to the Eat Right for Your Blood Type philosophy, as my son and I are both blood type A and we do better on vegetarian fare. So I make lots of bean soups. I soak and sprout before I cook. We eat tofu that is non-GMO certified, and some chicken, fish and eggs. My son’s gut has healed to the point that he can eat goat yogurt that I buy from the whole foods store. It is my one and only processed food I buy for him and that is because they are one of the few clean company’s. Otherwise, everything he eats is from scratch. I never give in to processed things as my son can’t tolerate it.  It seems in your mainstream grocery stores everything is made with GMO foods – corn syrup, sugar and soy.
Forward to today… my son is 75 percent recovered. With a clean diet as number one priority, I believe we will find complete recovery. If you would like to read more about my journey, my blog is http://www.healyourchild.wordpress.com/.  Thank you so much for reading my story! Please share with anyone who may find it useful.”

14 “Must Haves” for the REAL FOODIE Kitchen (includes many recipes!)

kitchen must haves

Below is an overview of a few things we’d prefer not to live without in our REAL FOODIE kitchen. What would you add to this list?? We’d love to hear your suggestions in the comment section below!!

Crock Pot/Slow Cooker – We don’t have a particular brand preference, but a slow cooker is a MUST for occasional “low maintenance” dinner preparation like our favorite Crock Pot Roasted Chicken recipe! Also…the bigger the crock pot, the better – in our opinion!

Cutco Knives – We’ve owned this set for many years, and they’ve never failed us.

Fruit & Vegetable Chopper – This link is the brand we own. It’s also the only one we’ve ever tried, but it works great! And we found it at Costco for $20 or $25! It’s also available on Amazon!

Garlic Press – We LOVE this one from Pampered Chef! There is actually a big difference in how well garlic presses work, and we’ve been disappointed with many other (expensive) name brand presses.

No-slip cutting boards/mats. These are from Sur la table, but ANY type of cutting board that is “grippy” will suffice. After all, it’s no fun (and just plain dangerous, actually) to be chasing your cutting board around as you slice and chop!

Good Cook “Safe” Can Opener – We don’t eat many canned foods…but when we do open an occasional can of tomato paste or beans, there’s NO chance we’ll injure ourselves because we threw out our regular can opener after slicing open a finger on the sharp edge of a can lid. Yikes! I’ve seen these priced as high as $20 at some stores, but if you’ve ever cut yourself in this fashion, I’m sure you can appreciate the value!

Hand Blender & Mini Processor – This is the brand we own/use (because we found it at Costco for more than $10 cheaper than other stores)! It’s the only brand we’ve ever owned, but it works GREAT! We use it to chop nuts, puree soups, and to make our favorite homemade mayo recipe!

Hand Chopper – This gadget is great for dicing veggies or nuts. We also LOVE our mini version that we use for mincing garlic!

Popcorn Popper – We love making air-popped popcorn because there’s no greasy pan to clean up! Click here for our favorite Sweet ‘n’ Salty Popcorn recipe!

Salad Spinner – This is one kitchen tool we absolutely cannot imagine living without! No more soggy salads or waiting around for lettuce leaves to dry in our house!

Vita Mix – This is an expensive machine (about $400!!), but we use it a TON! It can turn even the most stringy veggies into smooth and delicious healthful drinks with a juice-like consistency! We also LOVE making health-ier desserts (like our favorite Candy Apple Dip) with our Vita Mix, and a regular blender just doesn’t do the job! We happen to own the Vita Mix, but Blendtec is another comparable high-powered blending machine that can do all of the same things! The best prices I’ve seen (for new machines) are at Costco – they have them on demo a few times per year at our local store!

Image result for food processor

Food processors are awesome! And the bigger, the better!! 🙂  We don’t have a particular brand to recommend; but this tool comes in REALLY handy for making some of our favorite recipes, like Dairy-Free “Ice Cream”.

Tovolo Groovy Ice Pop Molds – We love that these molds can be taken individually from the mold stand with their individual covers! We use these to make (dairy-free) Homemade Chocolate Pudding Pops and other tasty treats!

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The Eating Additive-Free e-book includes a 160-recipe natural cookbook and a 40-page grocery shopping guide to provide REAL FOODIES (and aspiring REAL FOODIES) with all of the recipes and information Chad and Christy Pooschke (founders of CompletelyNourished.com) discovered when they started converting to a more natural lifestyle. Click here for pricing and more details!

What would you add to this list of “must haves”?? We’d love to hear your suggestions in the comment section below!!

How to Increase Your Happiness in Just MINUTES!

One of the most important components of living a “nourished” lifestyle is…to feel happy! It’s incredibly easy to allow our happiness to depend on what’s happening around us – which is a great plan…as long as everything happening around us makes us happy! 😉 Generally, though, the events that surround us are a mixture of positives and negatives. So, it’s important to find ways of focusing our attention on the things that make us feel good! Here’s one of my favorite “tricks” for keeping myself focused on the positives…

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