Cerebral Allergies and our continued journey

As you might know, we are on the Journey to find out what exactly Nora is allergic to. Due to the lack of proper research into these "Cerebral Allergies", it is hard to find medical back up for your problems.

The other day I met a lady with a beautiful baby boy. He wasn't crying at the time but had very red cheeks. I asked if he had allergies and we got to talking. I told her and her husband very quickly about Nora and I and what my mom had found out. It seemed like it really struck a chord with them. That a lot of the things they had been trying to cope with really were similar to what we have been going through.

Sometimes I google Cerebral Allergy, Cerebral Allergies etc just to see if there is any new articles or research out there. It seems like each time I do I get more and more results back. I am so thrilled! Maybe someday people won't feel so alone and helpless when their children seem to have a personality disconnect. Can you imagine anything more perplexing to have you child be their normal sweet playful self and then have them suddenly switch to this rage filled, crying, angry mess? Or how about the new mother with her first child who is doing everything to cope with a child that is happy 90% of the time with the normal crying and fussiness but everyonce and a while (or every day if they are unlucky and are very allergic like I was!) their baby just screams and cries and fights and _nothing_ helps?

So anyway, earlier this week I made some Jello and of course it had to be Strawberry (hello red food dye! Yikes!) And of course Nora had some. I know I know. I know about her red food dye allergy so WHY oh WHY did I let her have some? I wanted to see if she was still sensitive and luckily the quarter cup or so that I gave her didn't give her too bad of a reaction. Just a little flushed cheeks and a bit of a saucy attitude. So yup, still sensitive to Red Food Dye. So that means she can have SOME blues and some yellows and greens. But no reds or anything like purple that also have reds in it. Here's the thing- red food dye can be in things that aren't even red! Sometimes they add red food dye to blue (which should make it purple but it changes the hue of the blue if they don't put too much in).

When you have a child with Cerebral allergies you have one of two roads that or a combination of both. You can either make everything at home, or become the worlds most obsessive label reader. It might take you a while to find replacements for all the foods you normally eat, but there is something out there to replace just about every food. Or you can combine them both, but you buy a preprepared anything- check the ingredients.

I have been reading about kids that are being diagnosed as having autism because their reactions to normal stimulus fall in the abnormal range. I mean it's not usually normal for a happy child to scream in rage at someone for saying goodnight to them, right? But I was reading about some mothers who start systematically removing certain foods from their child's diet and some of the symptoms (in some cases all the symptoms) go away.

Of course I realize that things like ADD, ADHD, and Autism are very real and that for kids that have these disorders- a dietary change might not be the magic wand that makes it better, however I wonder how many kids are misdiagnosed because the help and resources just aren't out there for those of us with cerebral allergies?