Off To The Witch Doctor - Ooo Eee Walla Walla Bing Bang

It's been almost a full year that my son has had a cough and a runny nose. The cough goes away on occasion, but rears its ugly head with a mere week's break. And of course, when a toddler has a cough, the entire house feels his pain. Especially when he's up ALL NIGHT LONG hacking away. We've tried all the usual home remedies: honey, cool mist vaporizer, sitting in a room with steam, all with no results. I've brought it up with my child's pediatrician and she blames his immature immune system and the fact that "at this age kids are prone to at least 10 colds in a year"...Well, I know lots of kids his age, and he seems to be sick a lot more often than anyone else. So we asked another pediatrician for a second opinion. She thought that MAYBE he had a mild case of childhood asthma and prescribed him a puffer (which I didn't fill - mostly because he MIGHT have asthma...not because he DOES have asthma). I wasn't aware that asthma went along with a runny nose. He has no trouble breathing, he has no loss of energy. It just didn't seem right to me. I asked the pediatrician about the possibility of allergies but she scoffed and said no, she was sure that wasn't it.





A good friend of mine, who has a child similar in age, was also experiencing similar symptoms. She, upon recommendation of a friend, took her son to a naturopath, who ultimately diagnosed her son as having allergies - food allergies AND environmental allergies. Once she changed his diet and was aware of his surroundings his symptoms diminished completely.



So, I gave it some more thought. My son really could be suffering from allergies. The fact that the cough and runny nose really DON'T seem to be going away could mean that he's constantly exposed to something that his little body isn't tolerating. An allergy also could explain the rash that comes and goes on his body (his pediatrician said that was a mild case of eczema...and prescribed a constant slathering of cortisone, which I'm not about to do either).


So, I thought it was best just to check out a local naturopath and see what she has to say. My husband's benefits plan covers a portion of it, so it wasn't going to hurt. I visited a naturopath once for myself and felt like it was mostly a sham. I believed that each naturopath was told to diagnose their patients with candida (which I was diagnosed with, and I BET YOU A BILLION DOLLARS THAT IF YOU WENT YOU'D BE DIAGNOSED WITH IT TOO!!!!), get them to spend a million dollars on homeopathic remedies and send them on their way. To me, it was the same as going to see a voodoo priestess ... it just didn't seem right...






...but when it comes to the health of my children, I want to make sure I explore all avenues to ensure I have the REAL diagnosis.


I figured that if I was going to take my son to see this "quack", I might as well get them to check me out too. I want to be sure that my health is as good as it gets. Especially when I'm breastfeeding. I would like to know that I'm doing everything I can to provide my little girl with the best milk she can get, and I'm hoping they can steer me in the right direction. Being vegetarian sometimes means that my diet is lacking in certain vitamins and minerals, so I'd love to hear what they recommend.




My appointment is today and I had a VERY thorough questionnaire to fill out before my arrival, asking about my previous health, environment in which I grew up in, lifestyle, etc. This is definitely a different experience than the one I had a couple of years ago. In addition, they had a completely different questionnaire for my son to fill out. One geared strictly toward children, which I thought was pretty cool. I'm hoping that this visit is a successful one for the whole family and we can figure out some of the unsolved mysteries that have eluded us thus far. Wish us luck!