Food Allergy Families

I've been meaning to post on here about it but I had been waiting until I knew if it was helping DD or not. And I do believe it has helped her.

For those of you who haven't heard of it - NAET stands for Nambudripad's Allergy Elimination Technique. When DD was first diagnosed with allergies, I remember reading on some sites where people mentioned it but when I went to the website or learned more about it, I thought it sounded "hokey" and couldn't possibly work. My in-laws were going to a NAET specialist and also recommended. I still resisted going. But DD got really bad in December and we started really eliminating food groups in January. But still she was miserable and we had to put her on steroids for two months and even then as soon as she stopped taking the steroids, she went back to being miserable. That is when I decided to try NAET because at this point - what did we have to lose. We started seeing a local NAET specialist in March.

NAET is basically using Eastern medical philosophies about clearing out "allergens" and training your body not to react to them. You can go on YouTube and see videos of the testing procedure but basically they give you a little glass vial to hold and then test your muscle response to determine if your body is reacting negatively to what is in the vial. If so, then they use acupressure on the spine (and sometime other locations) to "clear" the allergic reaction. You then must avoid the "allergen" for 25 hours. After that, next time you come in, they test you to see if your reaction is better to that "allergen". They have a set of 10 basic items that they want to go through before they concentrate on things they know you are allergic to.

DD is going to her 20th appointment today. (We decided to give it 20 treatments before deciding whether to continue or not since I had read that you don't always see a change until 5 to 15 treatments.) I think we started seeing a change after about 3 or 4 treatments. It started out small. Her skin started looking better and after about 7-8, she scratched less and when she did scratch, her skin seemed to handle it better. Before we went in for treatments in March, her legs and feet were horrible - red, full of scabs and bleeding from her scratching. Right now, it is mainly just her feet that still have problems. Her skin looks and feels better. Her reaction to things we knew were are problem - like dairy - have greatly reduced. I don't think we are done with treatments yet and will continue them for longer. I have read that some people take anywhere from 10 to 100 treatments to totally clear their problems and since she really is allergic to everything, I expect it to take a long time. It is great to see that she scratches less and even better that she has had less abscesses form.

Ok - I rambled on enough. I will try to post a before and current photo of her. If you have specific questions, let me know.

Ok - adding a photo didn't work - let me try the link to the album in snapfish - http://www2.snapfish.com/snapfish/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=3474418022/a=152858097_152858097/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish/
The first 3 photos are of DD in December when she was at her worst. The last photo was taken this past Wednesday at the beach.

Wow, that is improvement. Do they claim that she will be free of the allergies when treatment is complete or is the therapy an ongoing thing? Are you still doing the elimination diet too, or did you stop that? (I'm surprised she looks so meaty - I was imagining a *really* skinny little thing after all of that diet stuff lol!) She is adorable, by the way.

Deb

Thanks - she is my eater - always hungry and wanting a snack,

In December we got rid of our pets which helped a lot. In January we eliminated dairy which stopped a lot of the scratching. But as we eliminated other things, we didn't see much help - except with apple juice. There was no way we could eliminate all the foods on the list at once but we did eliminate quite a few at one time and some we easily eliminated and had since October (peanuts - the one she scored the highest on though we have never seen a reaction to them). Right now she is pretty much eating whatever she wants - including peanuts. She seems to do fine with items with milk as ingredient (like Nutrigrain bars) but still does a little scratching with yogurt and whip cream. (Haven't tried straight milk or ice cream - still using soy versions) The scratching is WAY less than it was and her skin handles it better now.

Yesterday was our 19th appointment and at the 20th one the doctor said we would go over what we still need to do. We use to go twice a week since I wanted to "clear" her allergies as fast as possible. They have you sign something in the beginning saying that they don't claim to "cure" allergies. From talking to the doctor, when they test they are looking for at least an 80% improvement at that time and that your body should do the rest either over time or when other allergens are done. I have read many people say they are no longer effected by their allergies after treatment. I think it depends on what your allergic to and how often you go. Some people go monthly (we are now doing weekly visits). So it could be ongoing for awhile but yes, there is a time when you no longer need treatments. For some it is sooner than others. Because DD is allergic to everything, I think ours will be a little longer but we won't go past this year with treatments unless we dropped down to monthly.