When Gianna, my oldest, was one and a half years old, she was diagnosed with pneumonia. It hit me like a rock, I felt my heart drop and at the same time I felt a burning rage flow through my veins. She had to be hospitalized for a week. She had an IV, oxygen mask, nebulizer, they were drawing blood, and giving her injections. I remember the first few days they couldn’t control her fevers. She would constantly be at 103-105. She was so brave. She cried at times, but at times she would just stay quiet, like when someone just gives up, and I could see her tears rolling down her face. I felt so helpless. What hurt me the most is that I saw this coming for a long time before it actually happened. For a little over a year, she had been suffering from high fevers. In four different occasions, we took her to urgency, emergency and her doctor. The four times they all diagnosed her with an ear infection and put her on antibiotics. She was on and off antibiotics for over a year and she kept getting sick. From day one, I knew it wasn’t an ear infection and I didn’t want her on antibiotics. The health conscience inside me wanted to put her on my supplements. But I allowed other influences around me to do the contrary. I didn't follow my instincts and allowed the doctors to do their thing. One day we couldn’t get her fevers down. We switched with Tylenol and ibuprofen every 3 hours, like the doctors told us, but nothing was working. My wife called her doctor and they didn’t want to take her in. They said they didn’t have any available appointments for 3 months. They wanted us to take her to emergency or urgency but I was tired of the run around. So I told my wife to get in the car and we drove Gianna to the doctor’s office. As soon as we got there, a couple of the nurses recognized us and we told them what was happening so they took her in to check her vitals. She was at 103.3. As this was happening, her doctor walked into the office and totally ignored that we were there. I was speaking loud on purpose, but she ignored us and kept her back at us. Another doctor heard me and shouted out from the back,”I’ll take her in.” “Bring her!” As soon as she picked her up, she said, “this girl has pneumonia!” Then she turned to me and asked, “what have you been doing?” “Why haven’t you brought her in?” I almost exploded on her, but I took a deep breath and remained civilized. I told her everything that had happened and how doctors, including Gianna’s doctor, the one that ignored us, misdiagnosed her four times. She sent us to get her chest x-rays and cut us in front of everyone that was waiting. By the time we were done with x-rays, she rushed the technician for the scans and she confirmed her diagnosis. By that time she had already called the hospital to where Gianna was going to be admitted and spend the next week getting treatment. After all of this was over, Gianna was put back on antibiotics and now has mild asthma. But it wasn’t the end. Months passed, she turned 2 years old and she kept getting sick and the doctor’s solutions were to give her stronger doses of antibiotics. Getting fevers and having issues with her lungs were not the only issue now. Because she had been on and off antibiotics for over a year, she started having problems going to the bathroom. She didn’t want to go “poop” because it hurt so much. She would cry and cry even before she went to the toilet. She was so constipated, that when she did go, her “poop” came out really hard and she never seemed to finish. At that age she learned to say “my pansa hurts.” She was still in diapers, but we were already trying to potty train her and this issue made it really hard because she would rather go in her diaper. That’s how I know her poop was very hard because we would change her diapers and we could feel it. I finally told her doctors that it was enough. I told them that they had been working on her and giving her antibiotics for over a year and she wasn’t getting any better. So I was going to take care of Gianna’s issues myself. Here’s what I did. Disclaimer: Before I get into this, I have to give a disclaimer. I’m not a medical doctor. I don’t pretend to know everything about health issues and/or diseases. I don’t diagnose, cure or treat medical problems. If you have a medical problem, consult with your doctor. This is my experience and not medical advice. 1. First thing my wife and I did was take her off all medication. 2. Since Gianna’s immune system was weak, we took her out of school and day care. If any of the other kids there were sick, it would be very likely that Gianna would have caught whatever bacteria or virus that was going around. 3. We made sure she was eating. We gave her the foods she liked to eat, but we made sure she was getting veggies and fruits into her diet. We gave her mostly whole foods and very little processed foods. 4. The only thing she would drink was water. By this time she wasn’t breastfeeding anymore and we didn’t give her cow milk or any type of milk or juice. 5. We started giving her greens twice a day. The same greens that my wife and I take. The reason I like greens so much is because we can get the same nutrients in 1 scoop of greens as we would get from a bunch of fruits and vegetables. The benefits of all of these nutrients are countless. If you’re going to take greens, you just have to make sure they are made from a credible source, that they have no chemicals, and that the ingredients come from whole foods and not synthetic ingredients. Gianna drinking her greens.
6. We started giving her the probiotics we take. We had to open the capsule and give her the powder with water. She didn’t like it, so in the beginning it was a little struggle. We used the syringe so that she could take them. Back then we didn’t have the probiotics we give her now. Now, at the age of five, she takes them daily on her own. Probiotics are good bacteria that help keep the gut healthy. Probiotics, like the greens, also have many other benefits, especially strengthening the immune system and helping with constipation, which is what Gianna needed at the time. Most people think that probiotics should only be taken if you have problems going to the bathroom. But that’s not the case. I’m regular, but I take them to keep my gut clean and healthy. Video where I talk about the Probiotics7. Now that she’s older, we started her on kids digestive enzymes. She’s going to school and we allow her to enjoy the treats and some of the foods that are not so healthy. At home we feed her the healthiest we can, but we’re not perfect. But outside of the home, she sees the sweets, the chips, the cookies, the french fries and the processed foods. We do have a limit and draw the line on certain things like soda, but we don’t deprive her of many things. So the digestive enzymes help her digest her food so that she can absorb more nutrients and eliminate the waste. Our bodies were not created to digest chemicals and most of processed foods, which is why there are so many digestive issues. Digestive enzymes have helped Gianna stay healthy and keep stomach aches away. For more information on the kids digestive enzymes click here. Number 7 was after the fact. It only took a couple of days when Gianna started “pooping” normal again. But we kept her home for a month before we took her back to school. My wife and I kept on this regimen for about 3 months and we eased off a bit afterwards. Now Gianna is 5 years old and she got a fever a few months ago during the season when there was a major flu going around. What was interesting was that her temperature was at about 101. We gave her greens and her temperature normalized almost immediately and never came back. That has been the only time she has gotten a fever since she was 2 years old. She has had the sniffles a few times, but nothing major. The amazing thing about this is that we haven’t given her any medications since we took her off medications that one day. At the same time Gianna got a fever, my little one (9 months at the time) got sick with Influenza A. We did not give her a flu shot, but we were running into the same problems with her. She temperatures of 103-105. We took her to urgency 3 times and they couldn’t figure out what was causing the high fevers. We followed the protocol of switching Tylenol and ibuprofen every 3 hours, but that wasn’t working… again. The fourth time we went urgency, they sent us to the ER. There they took a swab sample and used a catheter to test for UTI. The analysis came back positive for influenza A. The doctor told us that for influenza A, they could give her a medication called Tamiflu, but it had to be given in the first 72 hours. When we took her to the ER it had already been 4 days. The crazy thing is that the next day, she was better. Her fever went away and she was still a little sluggish, but she didn’t get anymore fever. The whole time during this crazy, scary, blur, my wife and I were giving her greens and probiotics. Plus, since she’s still breastfeeding, my wife was loading up on her greens, probiotics and all of the supplements we take. Besides the Tylenol and ibuprofen, we didn’t have to put her on any antibiotics or antiviral medication. Vianney drinking her greensI’ve been a big believer that our bodies can heal on their own. For that to happen we need to give the body what it needs. Our bodies need oxygen, water, nutrients and they need to able to eliminate the waste. Now we live in a time where our foods have chemicals and the nutritional value in our food is very low compared to many years ago. Knowing this, if we’re going to feed our bodies processed foods, foods with chemicals, and foods that are low in nutrients, we have to help our bodies by cleaning them and give our bodies the necessary supplements to be able to handle the “stuff” that our bodies can’t process. I like to focus on keeping my digestive system clean and healthy and it’s what I did with Gianna. By doing this, it’s almost by default that the rest of the body is able to stay strong and healthy. #coachnilo #nutrition #greens #probiotics #digestiveenzymes #babyhealth #daddysgirls #daddylife #health #supplements #healthygut #influenza #flu #fever #constipation |
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