Hello,
Back in early July I posted a question re: my child losing wt on the IBD remission diet but I never got a reply.
We have managed to keep Kyle(14 yr old) off medication for over a year now. He has Crohn's. Last summer he followed the Jini's elemental diet protocol for about 8 weeks, gaining 20 lbs and labs normalized. With the stress of school, and eating differently than the other kids, etc., his inflammation increased and he didn't gain anymore wt.
He started the elemental diet again this summer to help him gain wt. He was getting about 3500 to 4000 kcal daily, using the Oil of Oregano protocol, and using the probiotics at night. Also included George's aloe vera juice with mucosaheal. Resulted in good labs but he hasn't gained a pound, in fact lost 2 lbs(He is growing taller) but he has no appetite.
We are getting frantic now....he looks so skeletal now. The gi doc wants to put him on remicade or imuran.
Question: 1) have any ideas why he didn't gain wt?? I was so hoping he would gain wt, he is starting highschool this year and he weighs only 90 lbs. 2) are there any appetite stimulants you know of that could help? It seems if his gut was healing he would have an appetite.
I hope to hear from you soon.
Thanks
Jeannie

Hi, Jeannie.

If he's growing taller, the only thing I can think of is that the calories went into growth (height) rather than weight. Particularly at his age, a lot of boys are experiencing a growth spurt....girls tend to be a bit earlier. Jini might have some other ideas for you, as well, but that's what comes to my mind.

You know, actually, appetite is as much of a mental thing as a physical thing. Suffering with a digestive ailment, it could very well be that your son has a lot of negative associations with food, rather than associating it with pleasure and good times. Also, it has to be admitted, the food you start out with following the elemental diet, (basically close to a baby-food diet with everything very soft and/or pureed) is not exactly the world's most exciting stuff to the palate.

I know you're probably scared and at the very least, things aren't the way you'd like them to be. If you can, address whatever feelings you have of this sort on your own. We've spoken often enough that you already know I'm a big fan of EFT for this.

When you feel that you're coming from a strong enough place inside yourself to do this, try to very gently draw your son out. Accept what he says and how he feels and both of you can take that into consideration as you decide the best course of action from here. We know what the GI doc thinks he needs. The important thing is: When he reaches deep down inside himself, what does your son find that he needs?

(I know how hard that can be, having two children of my own. They don't always say what you wish they'd say or feel the way you wish they'd feel and sometimes it's hard to just listen in a very respectful manner and then correct them - if correction is needed - in an equally respectful way. That's my ideal for parenting and I only wish that I could meet that standard myself with perfect consistency.) So if that's hard in everyday life, I can only imagine that it must be a whole lot harder when the stakes feel so high. But I still believe that your son is your best and most important ally in your quest to help him regain vibrant health.

Jini expressed that nicely in her words to Aria's mom in a post from earlier this month.

I am sorry you've waited so long to hear from someone. Between the kids' summer vacation and my Mum being in hospital (she's out now), I've had a hard time keeping up with everything that I usually do with relative ease.

Thanks,
Nicole

Hi Nicole,
I really appreciate the kindness and encouragement in your words. I have to admit though, this pathway for healing Crohn's is very difficult to continue with a teenager. Emotional issues are overwhelming. Then, for him to follow the IBD Remission diet for the 2nd time around and actually lose weight; and it is definitely hard when you see your teenager look so skeletal/malnourished again(it appears like I am starving him). How many go arounds with the IBD elemental diet will it take to get him in remission/healed??? I know each person reacts differently. I know I sound frantic(which I am, I want to see some results) but I want to do something to help. I now know that good labs don't necessarily mean there is no disease activity. Kyle's recent Barium Swallow test 2 weeks ago(which by the way was about 7 days after completion of the IBD elemental diet) showed at least 1 lesion at the terminal ileum of the small intestine). I am sure the elemental diet improved his condition, and the results of that test would of been a lot worse if he hadn't gone on it....so I am grateful for the Absorb Plus, but is there any light at the end of this tunnel???
Thanks for letting me vent. I am very appreciative of this forum.
This is definitely a longggggg healing journey.
Jeannie

Hi, Jeannie.

Please don't ever feel that you need to thank me (or anyone on the forum) for letting you vent. We all need someone to listen and understand where we're coming from when we're going through a hard time!

I hear you and I sympathize. And now I can sympathize not just from the perspective of a patient but also from the perspective of a support person....based on my experience with my mother's recent illness (which she's still recuperating from). I think it might be even more energy-intensive to be in a support role than it is to be the one who is sick and healing.

Based on my own experience and also from listening to other people, it's important to remember that the elemental diet is a wonderful tool but not necessarily the end of the healing journey. Speaking for myself, I still had a lot of work to do healing following the IBD Remission Diet, although I feel strongly that it did give my healing a strong jumpstart; there was a world of difference in how I felt before and after the diet.

Obviously, I'm not you or your son. But I can say that there were times that I, too, became very frustrated and desperate-feeling and like you, wondered if there was a light at the end of the tunnel of my own healing journey. (And this was well after I followed the IBD Remission Diet.) Every time I had to go back to Phase One of the Wild Oregano Protocol, I felt disappointed - even though I knew that it's common for people to be on it for two to three years. But at this point, a little more than a year after I followed the IBD Remission Diet for the first time, I consider myself to be in complete remission. I haven't had any lab work done because I feel too good to bother with it.

I really, truly think that for many of us, the real key lies in emotional/spiritual healing. The physical aspects are vital to address, absolutely, but they're more obvious and comparatively easier to deal with.

So if something you're doing in a physical sense to facilitate healing isn't producing the results you think it should, it's time to go way down deep inside with the open and accepting curiosity of a child and ask why. Maybe it's a simple matter of more time, maybe there are emotional or other blocks to healing that need to be addressed, maybe it's a combination of both or other things. Maybe, when you're feeling scared and confused, you need to re-connect with that deep side of yourself (I always think of it as hitting bedrock) on a daily basis for reassurance: Is this the right thing to do?

Is Kyle open to EFT? I've been working with EFT Master Rue Hass for the last eight months (in fact, I just had a telephone session today) and it is a profoundly healing therapy. It has made a BIG difference for me. If he finds a skilled therapist that he "clicks" with, this may be a big help in furthering his physical healing.

If you've read When the Body Says No, you'll have no doubt of the powerful effect the emotions have on the physical body. Emotions affect the endocrine system which affects the immune system and it cascades from there: they're all as intertwined as the fibers that make up a multi-strand rope.

The bottom line is, you need to find out what he wants. If HE doesn't want to follow a holistic healing protocol, then all the beneficial physical things in the world that you can do are going to be handicapped in their effectiveness. Don't get me wrong: I believe passionately in natural healing because when it's effected, it's on a deep and lasting level. But the one who is ill needs to be an active and desirous participant in the process for this level to be reached. Find out where that desire is and use that fuel.

On the subject of desire, some of us may need healing right at that level. One person I spoke with, who told me that her GI doc told her she had the most advanced case of Crohn's the doctor had ever seen, shared with me that she was having a great deal of trouble eating the way that she knew worked well for her physically. Later in the conversation, she mentioned that she really felt that on some level she'd be better off dead and was choosing foods to that end. Now, I'm not saying that your son is dealing with blocks to healing as serious as this, or even at all - I don't know him. I'm mentioning this person to illustrate that emotional issues can influence the course of disease.

Another aspect to consider is the law of attraction. Harnessing this in your favor may also be helpful.

Here's an excerpt that I found interesting from a book by Dr. Carol Look called Attracting Abundance with EFT. (Dr. Look's website is www.CarolLook.com.)

"Karen" obsessed all day long about wanting more money. Her focus was not, however, on money, it was on the lack of money in her lfie. She thought about her pile of bills and worried about how she would pay them by juggling her paychecks, and unwittingly attracted more lack into her life this way.

People who feel desperate about losing weight are chronically focused on the parts of their body they want to get rid of....which means those parts can in fact grow right before their very eyes! Use EFT to alleviate the focus on fat and the negative tone of your vibration.

Actually, the LAW of ATTRACTION is always activated in your life. This law refers to an energetic formula; whatever you focus on, you will attract into your life. So if you are worried about all your bills, or aches and pains, or how people don't like you, you will be attracting more of these limitations into your daily life.

Your assignment is to find ways to enjoy today, even if you are poor (or single or sick). Finding reasons to feel better and thoughts that make you feel happier will bring the money, the success, good health, or whatever you are looking for, into your life faster.

Dr. Look's book is very good and you can also find some very helpful information on harnessing the Law of Attraction in your favor on the www.emofree.com site. Dr. Pat Carrington wrote a terrific series of articles on this. Try doing a search on The Secret; that will probably bring it up.

Lastly, make sure you're supporting yourself. I've found that it can be very intense being there for someone else, even in the comparatively short term; when it's your child and it's stretching over months/years, I can only imagine what a strain that emotional load can become.

For what it's worth, you have my kudos, Jeannie. It's obvious from my conversations with you that you are a very caring mother who is anxious to do the very best she can for her child. You have my heartfelt respect and my sympathy for what I can see is a very distressing and difficult time you're going through.

Sincerely,
Nicole

Hi Jeannie,

Sorry for taking so long to respond to this. Again, like Nicole, I have been away on holidays and dealing with some family issues myself.

As Nicole has already outlined in her posts to you - Kyle really needs to look at the emotional side of his healing. Nicole has already given lots of insight and advice, so I'm not going to repeat all that. I too am a big fan of EFT for this sort of problem.

The only other thing that could be hampering his weight gain is a hormonal imbalance. As I state in LTYG, you need to find a doctor who specializes in hormones to be able to assess this. Also, hormones are very directly controlled by emotions, so if you address the emotions via EFT that may also automatically balance the hormones.

take care,
Jini

Hi Nicole,
Thank you for the "thought provoking" suggestions, and your compassion. I think this is much more of a emotional issue than I ever thought!!! Kyle has now reached a point with the Absorb Plus that it causes his heart to flutter(he waits about 30 minutes before drinking it and then belts it down); so, I assume it is not something he wants to drink or maybe doing this because my husband and I want him to do this. It wouldn't surprise me if all of his associations with food are negative. Unfortunately, he has lost another 3 pounds and he has no appetite whatsoever. How quickly could this EFT work?? You know I am looking for a quick fix now. Kyle told me last night that he feels broken and can't be fixed.
We've taken him for "talk" therapy but this didn't seem to help at all; I had my sessions too. Oh I can see he/we will never get better until we address these issues with a more effective emotional/psychotherapy.
Thanks again; and, hope your family is doing well
Jeannie

Hi, Jeannie.

EFT can work very quickly - you'll find lots of anecdotes regarding what Gary Craig calls "one minute wonders".

On the other hand, when you're dealing with serious issues, it can take a lot longer to really get at the roots of all of them. That doesn't mean that there's no benefit right from the beginning, but rather that the benefits are cumulative, at least in my experience. I'm feeling the benefit of the therapy in areas that I've never even directly addressed with EFT.

There's really no way to know for sure how Kyle will respond until he tries it. And again, it's important that he wants to.

If he's open to it, he can start right from that "broken and can't be fixed" feeling - which is not to say that he can't start somewhere else - wherever he wants to, really.

The way I found my therapist, Rue Hass, was by reading Gary Craig's newsletters (available at www.emofree.com) for awhile. Eventually, two therapists stood out to me as people I thought I'd really like to work with. One of them was Rue (she was my first choice) and I just love her.

One thing to know ahead of time: It's not unusual for people with serious diseases to initially experience worse symptoms.

Here's an excerpt from Rue Hass' book, The 8 Master Keys to Healing What Hurts that may shed some light on that. She wrote this in response to a fibromyalgia sufferer who experienced this early reaction.

Perhaps, somewhere inside and maybe even unconsciously, you may be feeling some significant fear that the work we have begun will strip you of some of the defenses in your life and leave you exposed and vulnerable to old challenges.

So the part of you that has been protecting you in an odd way through your pain is continuing to do that by giving you even more pain to make sure that you keep the status quo in place.

That part of you means well, and in some ways it has been useful in the past, but it is using an old, very limited strategy that for a long time now has been hurting more than it is helping. There is now another part of you that deeply wants to heal from the pain - and it has recently become more hopeful, which is upsetting the balance, the ecology that you had created inside.

These two parts of you are in conflict. Right now the pain producer is still in charge, and probably is feeling threatened by the hopeful part. But still, I believe that....pain producer has a positive purpose for you in your life, even though that may sound odd and not be evident on the face of things.

I am wondering if we might approach the "pain producer" more slowly and gently, first acknowledging its usefulness in your life, and the reasons for its resistance.

Eventually, in a timing that is comfortable for you/it, we can invite it to become an ally on your path toward health instead of treating it as the "enemy".

Rue's website is www.intuitivementoring.com

Thinking of you.

Nicole