guinnea pig

Jasmine has, at least in principle, been accepted on a trial. The trial is to assess whether the use of softened water would have any impact on her eczema.

Softened Water Eczema Trial

It's early days yet and we have yet to have Jasmine checked to see if her eczema is 'moderate to severe'. We also need to have an engineer out to see if they can even fit the softener. Either way, it's an avenue to follow. I must admit though, I am a little concerned as to the risks of the salinated water effect. More research required methinks.

On another note, we've received the latest batch of supplements from the kinesiologist, all aimed at tackling the candida and leaky gut and strengthening Jasmine's tummy.

We'll still be taking the flower remedy - Daffodil formula FF14 (one pill, morning and night). We'll also keep the New Vistas Microflora homeopathic drops (x4 drops morning and night) and the BioCare Acidophilus Plus (1/4 teaspoon with her evening milk). The new additions are New Vistas Baby Thrush homeopathic drops (x4 drops morning and night) and New Vistas Digestive Enzyme Liquescence homeopathic formula (1/4 teaspoon before her evening milk).

We'll see how all this pans out! Fingers crossed :D

Results...

Below are the results of the Kinesiology tests for the various products we took along.

Positive Vital Force

Cold Pressed Evening Primrose Oil- (+) Vital Force
Silver Shield Gel- (+) Vital Force

Neutral Vital Force

Organic Massage Oil (Base oil 250ml- sunflower, almond, wheatgerm, Drops x20 lavender, 10x Chamomile 10 x Sweet Marjoram) - Neutral Vital Force
Rice Milk Provamel Purple- Neutral Vital Force
Rice Milk- Rice Dream- Neutral Vital Force
Aveeno Bath Oil- Neutral Vital Force
Waitrose Bottom Butter- Neutral Vital Force
Pampers Baby Dry Nappies- Neutral Vital Force (?) - possibly need to re-test
Jason's Best Organic Calendula Cream- Neutral Vital Force
Bonjela Teething gel- Neutral Vital Force
Olbas oil- Neutral Vital Force
Lavender Essential Oil- Neutral Vital Force
Baby Wipes- Johnson's Extra protection- Neutral Vital Force

Negative Vital Force

Jason's Best Aloe Vera Lotion- (-) Vital Force
Aloe Vera Juice H2O Gillian Mkeith- (-) Vital Force
Diprobase Cream- (-) Vital Force
Aveeno Cream- (-) Vital Force
Epaderm emollient- (-) Vital Force
Fruit Pot- Peaches in Grape juice- (-) Vital Force
E45 Cream- (-) Vital Force

Unlocks Muscle- Very Negative Vital Force

Hydrolysed Milk- Nutramigen 2- Unlocks Muscle (very negative)
Uguentum M Cream- Unlocks Muscle (very negative)
Waitrose Coconut Oil (solid) Unlocks Muscle (very negative)
Vicks Vapour Rub- Unlocks Muscle (very negative)

Ooops

Our experiences seem to be shooting some holes in the Kinesiology theory. The evening primrose oil seemed to exacerbate Jasmine's itchiness in contrast to expectations, and creams supposedly negative towards her appear to have no outwardly ill-effect. ...then we have egg, a substance that Jasmine apparently had no adverse effect to...

We had gone for the weekly shop and mum and dad, having missed breakfast, sauntered on over to the cafe to satiate our hungry bellies. Seeing as we had sat down to eat, Jasmine naturally expected to eat aswell, and not content with her measly rice cake she beckoned pointedly towards our plates. Having confirmed with the chef that there was no dairy and things had only been cooked in oil we gave Jasmine a few mouthfuls. She munched away happily and we dutifully cleaned our plates and continued on with the shopping. Steph noticed a little flaring on Jasmine's face, but we thought that may have been a reaction to the cream coupled with the heat of the cafe.

Jasmine fussed throughout the shop, scratching away, she was in no way content to sit in the trolley. As the shop drew on the itching got worse and Steph had to take her outside to try and calm her as I was paying up. She fussed all the way home. At 1pm it was a little later than her usual lunch time and she could have been hungry. We tried feeding and she had just a spoonful before it was clear something else was amiss.


Her body was covered in hives. They started out as individual lumps, but were soon merging together to form a large expansive swollen layer. Unlike the earlier episode where Jasmine's face was more affected, this swelling seemed to concentrate more across her body, with only a mild swelling around her face. Thankfully there was no major swelling around her throat and mouth and her breathing remained as normal as you might expect.

We gave her a dose of Apis Mel (30c) and we cooled her off by bathing her in tepid water, followed by coating her in calomine lotion. She was still fussing, though less so, as we put her into a sleep suit and had calmed down massively by the time we had gone back downstairs (at roughly 2pm). She snuggled into my shoulder with barely any scratching and was soon fast asleep. I lay down on the sofa and let her sleep on me as Steph nipped into town to replenish the supplies of creams we knew Jasmine could cope with. I managed to get the travel cot made up downstairs with her still asleep on my shoulder and lay her down wrapped snuggly in a blanket and clutching her muslin.

She was so sleepy and a little emaciated with bloodless lips comparative to having awoken suddenly in the night. She would stir if I sat her up, but would protest and was clearly not herself. She drank well when offered (just water) and thankfully her breathing remained strong and steady.


She was still very sleepy come 5pm and following another dose of Apis Mel we called NHS direct just to get some advice. An on-call doctor called back shortly after and having run through Jasmine's symptons and history confirmed that sleep was probably the best thing for her, so long as the swelling didn't interrupt her breathing and her condition didn't deteriorate. The doctor advised keeping some Piriton syrup in the house should we encounter a similar flare in future.

Jasmine was showing a little more of her usual exuberance by 7pm and we gave her her rice milk and some pear slices before putting her to sleep in the travelcot downstairs. Despite sleeping most of the afternoon, she soon settled and was curled up against the side of the cot, reassuring us with her rhythmic breathing. We transplanted her upstairs a couple of hours later when we went to bed and she only stirred a couple of times in the night, and had to join us in the morning, sleeping on me from 5 till 6.

Other than a little remaining swelling she seems to be pretty much back to normality.

We won't be trying egg again for a little while!

Tests

We had another meeting with the Kinesiologist on Saturday, armed with a crate full of lotions, potions and various other things to test Jasmine's resilience to. The main things we wanted testing were the hydrolysed milk and a couple of the creams we use daily.

We'd had suspicions that the milk was still proving a problem. I know the idea of being hydrolised is to break down the relevant dairy nasties within the milk to a level at which the immune system doesn't detect it as dairy, thereby not causing an antigen response. However, Jasmine was still getting very bloated which made for very uncomfortable intestinal areas where she would squirm for a lot of the night trying to find a comfortable position to sleep in.

I'll post the full results later, but there were some interesting observations, namely the hydroliyed milk wasn't good for her, and neither was the cream we've been using. There were a few other neutral and positive results but it isn't quite as simple as that...

Armed with our newfound knowledge of Jasmine's weakspots we approached her routine that evening a little differently. Evening primrose oil had shown itself to act in a positive manner towards Jasmine and accordingly we used this to rub into her legs, arms, chest, back and face. We also opted to immediately cease the hydrolised milk and start a course of rice milk (tested neutral). The worry with the rice milk is that it is defiecient in many of the nutrients that you would typically find in formula milk/cows milk, but this should not pose too much of an issue for a 2 weeks trial, especially considering Steph is cooking evey one of her meals from good healthy organic produce.

Jasmine went down fairly awkwardly, though we attributed this to a late night, an hour later than usual. 3 hours later she was still itching furiously and complaining heavily. This was not her normal itchiness throughout the night, she seemed in a lot of discomfort. Despite the 'positive' effect evening primrose oil is supposed to have on her I believe that this was the cause of her discomfort. We decided to give her a late night bath and a full scrub down, change all her bed clothes and start again with Aveeno and herb oil as we had the previous few nights. She was much, much calmer! We had also used a new 'gel' on the nape of her neck; Silver Shield Gel. Steph has her suspicions about this aswell and like the evening primrose oil, this was given a positive for Jasmine in the muscle testing.

Now I know to make the disctinction between what may be good for Jasmine internally, and what may react negatively on her skin. By the morning she was her normal chirpy self. The rice milk seemed to have no ill effect (she's had rice milk many times in the past with no suspicious behaviour, though the times we've used evening primrose oil on her face I've noticed excessive rubbing of her face afterwards, though previously I put this down to her being tired and the eczema on her face).

Speedy

We figured it was time to take Jasmine off to the shops to her first pair of shoes! :D She dutifully crawled around the shop like a little mechanical monkey as we waited. She behaved very well when the lady went about measuring those teeny little feet. Her right foot is a massive size 1 and half, width f and her left is almost size 2, width e. She officially has tiny feet :D

Her 1st shoes are a lovely pair of crawlers! With a soft rubber sole that stretches up above her toes to give maximum traction! :D

Jasmine seems happy with her upgrade and soon put them to good use buzzing around the place. We're a little concerned that she seems to be dragging her left foot when crawling, with the toes facing outwards (right foot toes facing inwards). I think we'll get it checked out just to be on the safe side.

One interesting point to mention is Jasmine's reaction to the carpet of the store. As she crawled along testing a number of shoes she had to have her trouser legs rolled up. Within 10-15 minutes her legs had begun to flare. We've not come across this before, but it could be a little contact dertmatitis with whatever the carpet was made up of. Something to mention to the kinesiologist next time to see if they can confirm anything.

Kinesiology

Today's experience was Kinesiology, a practice which tests the body's muscle response to questions asked of the subconscious. Our Kinesiologist, Pauline Dalley, soon had some potential food types and elements that oppose Jasmine, including Soya, Goat's Milk! Cow's Milk, Whey, Lentils, Sporoboromyces (mould) and Silver Birch pollen. The potential list was quite extensive, but those were the big guns.

After listening to Jasmine's history Pauline strongly believed that one of the roots of Jasmine's issues is over-zealous candida albicans, particularly because steph (mum) was on 2 antibiotics for a week whilst still breast feeding.

So, in essence we need to reduce/remove it's presence, re-introduce some heathy gut flora and mend any leaky gut which may have resulted from the overgrowth.

The plan of action: Avoid sugar! All forms - white, brown, molasses, syrups, glucose, maltose, dextrose, fructose, honey and any foods with these ingredients. ....should be interesting! >.<>