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Joshua at 2.5 years on his mom's shoulder |
Catherine attempted to follow the doctor to question him on the symptoms she had noted, especially the bloody diarrhea. Dr. Zimmerman said it was just Toddler Diarrhea
, caused by a lack of fat in an older child's diet. But,
she said, Joshua's had this diarrhea from birth!?
Yes, it is unusual,
Dr. Zimmerman replied as he walked away. But,
Catherine called after him, what do I do now?
Go home,
he said, Go back to eating a normal diet, stop depriving yourself for no reason. Your child is just spoilt!
Catherine was so angry and confused. Without thinking about the consequences to Joshua, she decided to prove her point. If the doctor wanted to see how sick this child really was, she would show him. Catherine went home and drank a half-pint carton of milk. She certainly enjoyed this, after living on such an austere diet for months.
That night Joshua developed a fever, which rapidly climbed to 104.2 degrees F. Joshua started vomiting, and continued to vomit every ten minutes for three hours. Catherine nursed him as often as he would accept it, fearing he would dehydrate. Not only did he have a high fever and vomiting, but also his bloody diarrhea was back - after three months without it.
Finally, Catherine called a neighbor to drive Joshua and her down to the Hospital for Sick Children. Catherine was frantic with worry, because his vomiting would not stop, and Joshua was becoming very weak and sleepy.
Once they were out of the house, and on their way, the vomiting suddenly stopped. At the hospital, Joshua slowly woke up to his surroundings. During the time they waited in Emergency, although not his old self yet - Joshua was greatly improved. Upon examining Joshua, the Emergency Room doctor could find nothing wrong with him. Joshua's fever had dropped to 101 degrees F. Looking at Joshua, the doctor probably thought Catherine had just over-reacted.
The doctor felt Joshua was not dehydrated enough to need to be admitted, but wanted him to drink a cup of water before they returned home. Catherine asked if it could possibly have been a reaction to the milk that she had consumed. No,
the doctor said, that would be impossible - so little would actually pass through the breast milk.
The doctor felt it was just a bad case of the flu. Catherine wondered, but didn't ask - was there such a thing as a three-hour flu???
On the way home, Catherine felt a huge relief that Joshua at least wasn't going to die because of her foolishness. But as Catherine and Josh stepped over the doorstep of their home, Joshua began vomiting again. The doctor had said not to nurse Joshua for several hours - to give his stomach a rest. So Catherine held and rocked Joshua through out the lonely night, as Joshua cried and vomited. But with nothing in his stomach, he finally stopped vomiting and went to sleep.
Joshua continued to cough and wheeze for almost a week, along with the bloody diarrhea. Eventually his body healed from this assault to his system, and Catherine's conviction to protect this child grew.
Milk Matters: Infant feeding and immune disorder |
Catherine tried to introduce solid food again when Joshua was twelve months old, with the same difficult results as before. Joshua ended up being exclusively breast-fed until he was 18 months old. Frequent visits to Dr. Harris found Joshua growing and gaining weight well within normal range. Dr. Harris, a solid supporter of Catherine's instincts regarding her child, felt the delay in introducing solid food would hopefully give Joshua's system time to mature and accept solid food.
Maintaining a growing and active toddler on such an austere diet for herself was taking its toll on Catherine, however. She became very deficient, making itself known with a life-threatening asthma attack, when Joshua was 17 months old. If not for the lucky phone call from a friend who was knowledgeable about asthma, just as Catherine was drifting off into respiratory failure, Catherine might not have survived. Her friend, Susan, demanded that Catherine go to the Emergency Room immediately, and that she would meet her there.
They were in Emergency for eight hours before the doctors were able to get Catherine's breathing under control. Putting her on intravenous and inhalation treatments, the Emergency Room doctor told Catherine they planned to admit her to the hospital for a minimum of one week, but more likely for two weeks. Catherine asked if it would be possible to admit her baby along with her, since she was still breast-feeding - and Joshua was still totally dependent on her for his nourishment.
The only way the hospital would do so, would be if Joshua was admitted to the pediatric ward, but he would only be allowed to visit once a day. Besides, since the doctor was giving Catherine strong medications to aggressively treat her asthma - Joshua would have to be weaned.
Fortunately Susan, a friend Catherine had met through La Leche League, was also a volunteer for the Asthma Society, being an asthmatic herself. After discussing the medications to be prescribed, Susan knew them to be safe, for short-term use, while nursing.
Catherine insisted she would have to go home, since it was impossible for Joshua's health for them to be separated. The doctors were very displeased, but could not force her to stay. Catherine had her sister, Bonnie, stay with her the first night - just in case Catherine should go into distress again. Wanda, another friend Catherine had met through the La Leche League who dealt in nutrition, brought over vitamins and proscribed a regimen to boost Catherine's immune system and work on her deficiencies. Within two weeks, the doctor pronounced Catherine completely clear of asthma.
However, in the meantime her body had gone into survival mode. Joshua was nursing less, and becoming very quiet - sleeping a great deal. Catherine was so wrapped up in her own poor health she didn't notice - grateful for the fact at the time. Foolishly, she had felt if her milk supply had decreased Joshua would have nursed and cried more often, not less.
Just ten days after Catherine's asthma attack, her older son Michael commented that Joshua's ribs were sticking out. When Catherine looked down at her precious baby - she was totally appalled at her seemingly lack of awareness.
Breastfeeding Mother's Guide to Making More Milk |
Without realizing it, she had lost her milk. But instead of demanding to nurse more, this baby was simply fading away before their eyes! His belly was sunken in, his eyes large in his head, his previous rolls of fat at his wrists and ankles were gone!
Knowing the best way to build back her milk supply, she got into bed with Joshua, a stack of diapers and lots of fluids nearby. She encouraged Joshua to nurse as much as she could, but after a few days - she knew her milk was no longer enough to maintain him alone. Catherine had to start him on solid food right away. He needed more calories - immediately!
Catherine started Joshua with sweet potatoes and avocados - the two foods he seemed to have the least amount of trouble with. These two foods were also to be his longest lasting foods. It was almost a year before he started reacting, and lose these two foods.
Just prior to her asthma attack, Catherine had taken Joshua to a second allergist, Dr. Rosen. His skin prick tests had shown that Joshua did indeed have extensive allergies. To maintain a four-day rotation diet, Dr. Rosen suggested adding lamb and pears to Joshua's diet. Catherine, knowledgeable of food families from rotating foods for her first two sons, was afraid to try pears - since they are in the same family as apples.
So she tried baking a banana for 5 minutes in the oven and found Joshua tolerated it better. But Catherine continued to struggle with a food for the fourth day. The lamb caused Joshua to scream when it touched his tongue - for a long time after he kept pulling at his tongue and drooling terribly. Each other food Catherine tried, if he didn't react immediately, would last from a few rotation days to a few months, before Joshua would start reacting to it as well.
Catherine felt fortunate to live in a high ethnic neighborhood, as she found a wide variety of fruits and vegetables she had never heard of before. After trying most of the commonly known foods, Catherine bought every new food she found - eventually compiling a list of over 150 foods she had tried on Joshua.
Pineapple gave Joshua a raw, red, pimply diaper rash. Persimmons left him choking and gagging, grabbing at his tongue and mouth. Onions, carrots and kiwi fruit did the same. He choked and vomited immediately with parsnips and rice. He choked and gagged on chicken and peaches. Beef left him coughing and full of mucus. Beets, quinoa and raisins gave Joshua diarrhea and a stubborn diaper rash. Papayas, prickly pears, and eventually avocados, gave him a severe diaper rash - he was in incredible pain from it. All varieties of melons left him wheezing and coughing, with more diaper rash. Oranges gave him a diaper rash of pimples and, along with cucumbers, left his cheeks inflamed. Wheat, rye, oats, barley, peanut butter and potato made him miserable, whiney, screaming, unreasonably demanding with violent temper tantrums.
After suffering so many severe reactions to foods, Joshua became very sophisticated with testing new foods. He knew by simply smelling a food, and would absolutely refuse to eat it. Anytime Catherine was foolish enough not to trust Joshua's judgement, and try to sneak it past him by mixing it in with a food he would eat - Joshua would suffer a severe reaction. Proving that he knew very well which foods he couldn't tolerate.
Despite Catherine's desperate attempts to locate safe foods that Joshua could tolerate, he still refused to eat more than a couple of tablespoons of any food per day - or nothing at all if he was reacting from a previous meal. So Catherine's breast milk continued to remain Joshua's main source of nourishment for several years.
After Catherine's asthma attack, Dr. Rosen tested her allergies. Catherine was found to have extensive allergies as well. However, she was becoming very uncomfortable with the allergist's questions regarding her breast-feeding relationship with Joshua, which were becoming way too personal and strange, along with his leering at her breasts.
Maybe It IS All in Your Head . . . and You Are NOT Crazy! |
So Catherine asked Dr. Harris if she could recommend another allergist. Dr. Harris had just received a notice of a Clinical Ecologist who had just opened up a local office, and she felt he might be able to offer a different slant on the problem.
Dr. van Hooganhuize listened carefully to Catherine's story, and did some preliminary scratch testing. He also found Joshua to have extensive allergies, and suggested the perhaps Joshua was reacting to the chemical composition of foods - opposed to the foods themselves. The doctor felt, since Joshua was often reacting to many of the foods the very first time a food was introduced - he could not have simple, common allergies.
Dr. van Hooganhuize suggested testing Joshua through sublingual drops (under the tongue) of minute amounts of a suspected allergen. The first test was sterile spring water - Joshua had no reaction. The second was salt water - within moments Joshua was asleep. Catherine hesitated to even mention this to the doctor - after all Joshua was still a baby. Dr. van Hooganhuize said many of his patients had that reaction - he said this is why people often fall asleep after a big meal!
At his next visit, Catherine carried a happy, alert child into the doctor's office. Two drops of a minute amount of phenol was dropped under Joshua's tongue - Catherine returned to the waiting room, struggling with a screaming, out-of-control child. It was all she could do to keep him from banging into the walls of the narrow hallway. Called back into the doctor's office ten minutes later, Catherine was greatly relieved to watch Joshua return to normal after a neutralizing dose - another minute amount, in a different concentration. Further testing of food chemicals produced a wide variety of symptoms - from hyper-activity to crying, a runny nose to coughing and wheezing. Each time, the doctor was able to neutralize the reaction.
But when the doctor tested Joshua for his reaction to milk - it took several hours, before he was able to find the correct neutralizing dose to stop Josh's extreme reactions.
Joshua was to take two drops three times a day from these little brown bottles. Further, Dr. van Hooganhuize suggested Catherine go on a rare food diet. This meant Catherine was not to eat any food she normally ate on a regular basis, and she was to rotate these rare foods as well.
As a result of this diet, Catherine found her own moods better, her energy level higher and her coping skills and concentration improved. But Joshua's ability to tolerate any foods did not change.
Catherine had read of a connection with Candida molds and allergies. She called the local support group for sufferers of Candida, and was told a counselor would come to Catherine's home to help work out a diet plan for Joshua. Consulting a swinging pendulum, the woman who came form the Candida Foundation asked it questions and checked Joshua's tolerance of a Soma Board
and Purple Plate
. The woman's pendulum told her that Joshua could not tolerate them. She was unable to find any reason or help with her pendulum and suggested Joshua might be Electro-magnetically sensitive. Since Catherine and Joshua lived with a half-mile of a major Hydro right-of-way, this woman told Catherine to line her walls with aluminum foil. Catherine thanked her and paid her for her time - but did not put much value in this pendulum!
BREASTFEEDING: A Journey Worth Taking: Breastfeeding Basics and Stories of Triumph Over Breastfeeding Challenges |
Joshua continued to do poorly, losing foods faster than Catherine could locate new ones. He was losing weight and had stopped growing. A friend suggested another doctor who was a naturopath. Normally a quiet, easy-going child when his diet is clear - Joshua terrorized the naturopath's office. As Catherine chased Joshua around the office, protecting both Joshua and the doctor's belongings from harm - she tried to answer the doctor's questions. The naturopath suggested Catherine go on an organic food diet, and to take Joshua off all foods. Catherine expressed her concern again that Joshua was losing weight. She did not feel capable of providing total nutrition for a now 20-month-old child. Also she expressed concern about the ongoing costs involved for these special foods and doctor visits. This doctor told her if she really loved this child, she would do anything for him. Further, his fees were non-negotiable and payable in full, up-front - Catherine would simply have to give up something else to pay him!
Existing on less than $1,000 per month, her life revolving almost solely around this little boy and his allergies - Catherine knew there was simply nothing else left to give up. She could not accept this man's complete lack of understanding or willingness to arrange a payment plan and she never returned.
Dr. Harris noted that Joshua was down to 19 pounds and asked Catherine to take Joshua to a pediatrician known to be sympathetic. The pediatrician found Joshua to be in exceptional good health considering all his allergies, and commended Catherine on her loving care and concern over him. He noted the patches of eczema, the rumbling in Joshua's tiny chest, the rashes and pimples on different parts of his body. His suggestion was to visit a nutritionist who specialized in food disorders problems.
With renewed hope, Catherine took Joshua to visit this Dr. Levy and explained his story. She showed the doctor the little brown bottles of neutralizing drops, containing mostly spring water. Dr. Levy appeared to listen very carefully, and seemed understanding. When he examined Joshua, he found him underweight and tiny for his age (now 22 months). Dr. Levy said the downy fuzz across Joshua's shoulders and down his back, the severe cradle cap on his head and his decayed front teeth were all signs of severe malnutrition. The doctor wanted Joshua hospitalized immediately.
Her dentist, whom she took Joshua to for regular dental check-ups had already told Catherine, that his front teeth were decaying as a result of a park slide accident at 13 months.
Dr. Levy wanted the neutralizing drops analyzed, for he feared Dr. van Hooganhuize was poisoning Joshua. He spoke with Catherine's family doctor while Catherine sat there, listening to all the technical terms he used. He convinced both Catherine and her family doctor that Joshua could die of malnutrition very soon if something wasn't done immediately. He wanted tests done to see if Joshua had any internal causes, such as a lack of enzymes or not being completely connected from throat to bowel.
[ Joshua's Story - The Child Who Could Not Eat! - Part 1] [ Part 2 ] [ Part 3 ] [ Part 4 ] [ Oh Gosh! They Are Debating About Me!! ]
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Born to Love articles are written by Catherine McDiarmid-Watt
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Last updated - April 5, 2024
