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Do you share my familys health problems...?
8th April 2005
“You've been out in the sun too long, Matt.”
That's what I said to my eldest, Matt, last summer when he bundled into the house with the kid from next door. He'd been out in the garden, building a castle out of some mud and what appeared to be the contents of my stationery drawer.
How does a 5 year old get to top drawers with such skill? Can they levitate?
Anyway, he had this angry looking rash across his arms and stomach. Nothing too bad by the look of it, and he wasn't in pain. So I rubbed in some after-sun lotion and thought that was that.
But the rash didn't go away.
After a few simple tests at the doctors, it turned out he had an allergy. It's not a major problem. But he'll have to avoid certain foods for the rest of his life. Which seems a shame.
My other two kids are fine, for the moment. But as you'd expect, I've kept an eye out ever since for information on children's allergies.
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4 ways to prevent your child developing allergies
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There are some tried and tested ways to help your kids build a resistance to allergies:
- If you can, breastfeed your child for the first four months. Switch to cow's milk too early and it could cause the body to react negatively. This is because the protein molecules in cow's milk are not the same as human milk, so your baby's immune system will see these molecules as the enemy - and go on the attack.
- Don't switch to solids too fast. A baby's stomach and digestive system takes a while to be at full operating capacity (you can tell I worked in engineering for a while!) so go easy. Solids can trigger an allergic reaction if the body's not ready for it.
- When your baby IS ready to switch to solids, introduce new foods one at a time and make a note of any reactions. This way you can see if there's any allergic reaction. Symptoms can include rashes, eczema, severe drowsiness, dark rings under the eyes, restlessness, excessive thirst and moods. When you suspect that a certain type of food causes a problem, wait until the symptoms subside, then go back to that rogue food once more. If the symptoms return, it's clear that that food is a nono.
- Rotate and vary foods as far as possible each day. Some allergies are caused by frequency eating one type of food. So don't have the same cereal every day, and vary the type of bread you buy.
This is a broad list, and there are numerous books and sites that give a far more specific foods dependant on age, but here are some of the least allergenic foods:
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Fruit and vegetables, pulses, beans, rice, fish, oats, eggs, soya.
Some sources suggest you leave the usual culprits - wheat, dairy
products and nuts - out of your child's diet for the first 12 months.
And here's something that surprised me...
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Four vegetables that have turned from hero to villain!
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Apparently, you shouldn't feed children less than 8 months old
tomatoes, potatoes, peppers and aubergines.
Why?
Because they're from the same family as deadly nightshade!
But you should gradually add them to the diet after 8 months.
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A cunning plan to get your kids eating fresh vegetables
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As you may have noticed, vegetables figure in the foods that are good for kids. No surprises there. They're good for adults too.
But tell that to children and you'll get a screwed up face and URRRGGGGGHHH! thrown back at you.
'Just try some. They'll make you strong.'
'I don't care. I'm not eating THAT!'
A Mexican Stand-off in the kitchen.
So here's something you can do so that you both win.
Sneakily (there's no honesty allowed in this ploy), grate vegetables up and add them to tasty, kid-friendly foods like mince and mash, burgers (homemade, good burgers), soups... anything that will disguise all that dreaded goodness. Gradually make the vegetables a little more obvious - grate them a little coarser. This stealth approach will work wonders.
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The weirdest drink that tackles psoriasis
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Keeping it in the family, I've just come across a fantastic treatment
for psoriasis - something that affects my wife.
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Psoriasis is where the skin gets scaly, because outer skin cells reproduce too quickly. It also triggers itching and also inflammation of the joints.
Research shows that a build up of toxins in the system can aggravate the condition because, weirdly, toxins help skin cells build up more quickly.
So it's essential to clear toxins out of your system if you suffer from psoriasis. Too spring clean your gut, make sure you take a digestive enzyme supplement.
You should make sure your bowel is purged too. And the usual way this is done is to eat wheat bran.
But I've recently been told of a better way...
Avoid the bran. Instead, take a tablespoon of flax seeds, soak them in water, then drink it down. I'm not sure how tempting this sounds, but it's worth a try.
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My pain in the neck. What I can do about it?
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I don't know if I've told you about my injured neck before. I've bored everyone else with the story over the years, so I don't see why you should be let off the hook.
It happened at while I was playing rugby for my polytechnic team (back in the 1800s!) I was sprinting down the wing, wind in my hair, try line in sight, when…
Bang.
I was walloped by 15 stone of Gloucestershire. The tackle cricked my neck and ripped a tendon. I was in a neck brace for three weeks. And to be honest, the embarrassment hurt more than anything else.
Since then it's never really been the same. I've had prescribed
anti-inflammatories, something I hated from the off because I've never
liked the idea of pumping chemicals into my body.
I've eaten lots of oily fish (the Omega-3 content is an excellent
natural anti-inflammatory), tried ginger, pineapple, papaya - but still
my neck twinges and flares up from time to time.
Nothing seems to help. Or am I missing a trick?
If you've know of (or have even heard of) a remedy for a cricked neck,
I'd love to hear about it. Just drop me a line, and I'll share your
findings with our small circle of good health addicts.
That's it for this week. I'm off to help with the shopping. Not that I
can carry anything too heavy.
Bad neck, see?
Till next Friday,
Ray Collins
The Goodlife Letter
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