Healing Chemical Sensitivities 101

Art Can Be Hazardous to a Sensitive Little Body

2010-02-13T07:11:00.000-08:00

Chemically sensitive children can respond to many environmental factors. School can be hazardous, as reactions to chemicals can emerge in both the physical and emotional bodies. Eventually, over time, these reactions can create an imbalance in their own belief system about who they are and the safety of the world they live in.

It takes time and patience to deal with a chemically sensitive child; yet what better use of our time than to ensure a child’s health and happiness?

One of my sensitive little clients recently reacted to glue and finger paints in his classroom. Red raw cheeks and lips were the outcome. His little body was quick to send this chemical out through his skin, which is not a bad thing of course. And yet for his mom, it was another clear message how chemicals of many sizes and shapes negatively affect him.

Oftentimes, this type of poisoning can lead to emotional outbursts and uncontrollable behavior. Luckily, this was not the case, as he had been detoxing his system for quite a while and his body was quick to expel the culprit through his largest organ, his skin.

What is a mother to do when she has a chemically sensitive artistic little boy who loves to color and draw? This “enlightened” mom knew just what to do. She researched natural art supplies. These powerful little sensitive children don’t have to go without. They simply have to go with the cleanest. This is the site that tested out best for him:

http://www.clementineart.com/?display=products

I am grateful for those in the world who recognize that the more we work toward cleaning up our environments, the healthier we will all be in the end…

What's Water Got To Do With It?

2009-02-25T04:16:00.001-08:00

Everything!!!

When Josh was little, he learned to distinguish the taste of pure water and impure water. His taste buds were so acute that he was able to know what was good for him and what was not. He used this information to his advantage.

The beginning of the school year - Second Grade.

It was September. Joshua's behavior turned sour, very sour. He came home from school each day throwing himself on the floor, with bouts of uncontrollable crying. He spent a lot of time in his room. He was unbearable to be around.

After a few hours he could calm down and rejoin the family without incidents; weekends were free of this behavior. I knew it had to be coming from school. My questions were consistent:

Were they painting?
Could you smell anything at school?
Were you using anything different in the classrooms?

His answers were the same, "No mom, I don't notice anything." It continued to be a mystery for two weeks. Each day was like the last, Joshua unable to control his emotions.

At the end of two weeks Joshua said, "Mom, the water at school tastes funny."

"STOP DRINKING THE WATER."

Josh arrived at school the next day with a water bottle and a note allowing him to have his own water. This was 20 years ago. It was not considered trendy to be carrying a bottle of water around with you. Josh's health was more important.

A week later, I met with Josh's teacher to explain the situation. She stopped me cold. "You don't have to explain anything. Since you took Josh off the water, his grades have gone up." How confirming for all of us! We are not crazy!

And then in December, the water company sent a notice that there had been a chemical spill in one of their wells. No worry, we'll just increase the standards for that particular chemical. Now who is the crazy one? Why would that be an acceptable practice? How many other children were affected by this water without knowing it?

For years, Joshua was extremely careful about the quality of his water. Water is meant to flush and rehydrate the system. Once chemicals such as chlorine or rust inhibitors (not to mention toxic poisons) are added to any water, the body must now work to filter it. It is no longer able to be used for its designed purpose.

A funny thing happened more recently to Joshua. He has since grown and moved to West Hartford. He called me one evening with concerns about his overall health. He was feeling exhausted and had no ambition. He could not focus at class and his memory was declining. He just didn't feel well at all.

With the help of muscle testing, I finally got to the issue. "What are you drinking?" I asked. He admitted that he was having concerns over the quality of bottled water as well as the plastic in which it is stored. He made a conscious choice to buy a quality water filter and put it on his tap at home so he could begin drinking from it. Not a good choice! Even his quality water filter could not get all the toxins out of that water supply. Josh had poisoned himself!

"STOP DRINKING THE WATER!" These were words I had spoken 20 years ago with Josh. Here we were learning the same lessons. A week later, I gave Josh a call.

I could tell by the tone in his voice that we had gotten to the root of the evil. He answered the phone happy and full of energy. "I'm good mom, it was the water."

Yes, we are still learning after all these years. And that's okay. What's important is that we remember to take our water seriously.

Have you Been Blessed with a Sensitive Child?

2009-02-23T06:01:00.000-08:00

I am blessed with a chemically sensitive child. He was my gift; my teacher who taught me the meaning behind the sensitivities. He came to share information with me so I could share it with you.

I believe that more and more children are showing signs of chemical sensitivities. They often look the same as ADD or ADHD and autism. So how would a parent know if the symptoms their child exhibits are nothing more than sensitivities to chemicals? The only way to know if your child is chemically sensitive is to clean up your act, your home and your environment. The cleaner our water, food and environment became, the healthier Joshua became, both physically and emotionally.

A chemically sensitive child's body needs purity because their filtration systems are sensitive. The more pure the food and drink, the less stress it causes on their liver and spleen. A sensitive person is easily clogged by chemicals and poisons. It's just the nature of the beast.

Alternative medicines such as herbs, vitamins, homeopathics and flower essence help Joshua begin to heal his over-clogged systems. From the beginning, I understood that allopathic medicines were chemicals, and chemicals were his problem. They were off limits to Josh's sensitive nature. I became in expert in the field of alternative therapies.

Yes. I know.. it's a lot of work to be clean in a toxic world. Like anything we partake in life, the more we do it, the better we get at it. Josh and I got really good at making healthy choices so Josh could be healthy. Allowing him the opportunity to live a happy life in a world full of toxins became my mission in life.

My own experiences have taught me that most parents believe they have neither the time nor energy to change their lives for their child. It is easier to give a child a drug to hide the problem. But is it? Are there long term effects to drugging our children? And can they ever be drug free if we don't get to the core of the problem?

Whatever time and energy I spent helping Joshua heal was well worth the effort.

Medicines That Helped Joshua Heal

2009-02-20T07:51:00.000-08:00

Drugs were never an option for Josh. Drugs were chemicals and chemicals were the problem. We turned our attention to alternative healing being divinely guided into the world of natural foods and medicines.

My first memory of using alternative remedies was when Josh was very, very young.

Our home was on a long winding country road. Across the street was a field which was home to a number of horses who spent their time grazing in the grass. Josh was 2 years old when my friend and neighbor asked if she could take him for a walk to visit the horses. Within 10 minutes, Kathy was rushing in the door with Joshua in her arms. She was frantic.

She told me that within minutes of getting near the horses, his eyes started to water. Before long they took on the appearance of two golf balls, swollen in their sockets. We could no longer see his eyes, just a small slit from which he could look back at us. Yes, I was scared. I didn’t know what to do. For the first time I thought about rushing him to the nearest hospital. But then I thought, what would they have to offer him? I could never allow any one to administer chemicals with his history. And if they insisted, would the therapy cause more damage than the horses?

Not so coincidentally, I had recently purchased a book called “Everybody’s Guide to Homeopathic Remedies”. I ran to get my copy and looked up eye problems. I read that the homeopathic remedy called “Apis” might work for eyes that looked swollen as if they were filled with fluid. That’s how I would have described Josh’s eyes – filled with water. I went to my new kit and sure enough, it contained the remedy called “Apis”. I held the small bottle in my hands. And still I was scared.

Josh was staring at me through his two small slits trusting I would know how to help him. At that moment, he had more faith in me than I had in myself. I was entering unknown territory. I pushed my fears aside and popped a few pellets on Josh’s tongue. Within minutes I watched his eyes slowly turn back to normal. It was so quick, so easy, so healing, so non-invasive. That was the day I became a student of homeopathy.

From there, I found a homeopathic doctor that took Josh on as his patient. Dr. Bill loved a good challenge and Joshua fit the bill. Homeopathic remedies became our medicines of choice. I also became a student of herbal supplements and eventually introduced flower essences into our lives. Some of the products Joshua used during his most intense healing times were:

Cleansing Herbs:

Dandelion was used when he was young and sensitive. Dandelion is a gentle tonic to help cleanse the digestive and urinary systems. To this day, in small amounts, I feel it is safe enough for very young babies.

Burdock Root was used as he got older and the chemical sensitivities worsened. It was especially effective for the times when he had skin rashes and hives. It is deeper acting than dandelion and it seemed to be useful if chemicals entered his environment.

Yellowdock came into play when the chemical poisonings were extremely toxic. This was the period of swollen lymph nodes and cysts. Yellowdock helped to drain his lymphatic system so he could heal between poisonings.

Homeopathic Remedies

Josh's constitutional remedy from Dr. Bill was Staphasygria. This was the remedy for the very sensitive being whose senses were acute. Josh could taste and smell things long before the rest of us. It was also the remedy for those who could have outbursts of anger for no apparent reason. This too was a Joshua trait.

What Staphasygria did for Joshua was help him to move the chemical through the body more quickly. If we used it immediately after a chemical poisoning, Joshua symptoms seemed to be less severe and his emotions not as intense. We were pleased with the results we were experiencing.

Can any remedy ever heal chenical sensitivities? I don't think so. How can anything stop our bodies from reacting to a poison. This reaction is our body's way of speaking to us; it is a language. If we stop the language, we may continue to poison ourselves. And why would we want to do that? His remedy allowed him to heal from the poisoning more quickly. It was an answer to a prayer we had been asking for.

Some of the other remedies we used during his healing period included:
Apis - for swelling of the eyes when he came into contact with horses.
Cantharis - when his urinary system was affected.
Natrum Phosphate - to balance an over acidic body
Kali Phos - to help nourish his nervous system
Silicea - To help cleanse his body of poisons and chemicals

Flower Essences:
Emotions are stored in our body parts. Once stored, it is more difficult for the physical body to heal. Flower essences helped Joshua move this stuck energy so his body could heal physically.

Larch - to help maintain a state of confidence and security
Aspen - to calm his anxiety
Mimulus - to face his fears
Willow - to help him forgive

I realize that this type of healing is not for everyone. For those who choose different, however, it is a journey to self realization. What is self realization? It is the moment we recognize that the only one we can change is our "self". And in that moment of recognition, we begin to know that the journey to health begins with our first step toward love and forgiveness. I don't know any other way to get there.

The Emotion Behind the Sensitivities

2009-02-16T09:44:00.001-08:00

Physical symptoms are directly attached to emotional trauma, and the symptoms from chemical sensitivities are no different. Joshua started to recognize that the more frustrated he was with his differences, the more intense his reactions. So our mission now focused on, how do emotions affect his ability to heal?

Joshua came chemically sensitive and became dairy allergic. He was very different from his friends. Or was he? Was it possible that the only difference between Joshua and other children was that he was aware of what caused his symptoms and imbalances. Most of us go through life unconscious choosing instead to become victims. We are not accountable for our own actions and reactions. Joshua learned accountability.

What were his differences? Joshua could not eat food laced with chemicals. That eliminated any food that touted artificial this or preservative that on its label. Think about what that might be like 26 years ago. His choices were limited. It became easy to be resentful. In order to heal at his most intimate level, Joshua had to change his resentments of what he couldn't eat into an appreciation of what he could eat.

He learned to recognize his frustration with those who did not understand the intensity of his reactions to chemicals. Then he learned to change this frustration into forgiving those who continued to abuse his environment with poisons and sprays.

Once again, Joshua became my teacher, and I was the student. My journey with healing emotions began with Josh. This is what we learned:

Phase one:
The liver holds frustration of oneself.
The spleen holds resentment of others.

So.. if we choose to not forgive ourselves, and hold onto frustration too long, we soon make it be about someone else. Now the blame game begins.

Phase 2:
The spleen is directly connected to the mucus membranes.

If we choose not to forgive others and instead choose to continue resent them, it will eventually turn into victimization. This is called the "poor me" mentality. Josh got really good at this and often times found himself drenched in mucus membrane symptoms.

Victimization energy channels into the mucus membranes. What this does at this point is brings it all back to me, where it belongs. Because now I am sick with a sinus infection and don't have the time or energy to worry about someone else. Are you seeing how this works?

Phase 3:
The bronchial tubes hold the energy of resentment of oneself.

Now this victim energy comes back to me where it belongs.. and the healing process can begin. I am now focused on me and my own issues and energetically am detaching from that person or situation that I was so resentful about.

All of this anger and resentment clogs our detox organs - our liver and our spleen. Once clogged, chemicals can easily get stuck within the system, creating stress on the body. Often times, when the liver and spleen cannot do their job, the body will use the skin as a detox organ; hence, skin rashes can appear.

If the mucus membranes are backed up, it can cause allergies, putting great stress on the lymphatic system which in turn can create swollen glands.

What does this tell us? Childen with chemical sensitivities are quick to anger. They are often kind and gentle beings who can explode without warning. They are like little volcanoes waiting for eruptions. Once he recognized this aspect of himself, he could consciously choose differently. As his mom, it was my job to help him see the truth.

So in order to truly heal chemical sensitivities, Joshua had to heal his emotions. He had to come to a place of accepting his differences and loving who he came to be. He had to forgive those who chose to continue using chemicals around him even if they knew it could make him ill. Josh learned to avoid those people and those places with compassion.

It was not an easy journey for Joshua; yet it was always rewarding. He learned that the only way to heal was to change himself. This is how Joshua became a master of change...

Symptoms of Chemical Sensitivities

2009-02-16T07:54:00.000-08:00

Chemical sensitivities come in many shapes and sizes. It is very dependent upon the type of chemical that a child comes in contact with as well as the length of the exposure.

These are some of the symptoms Josh experienced throughout the years. Although he is less sensitive than when he was little, chemicals still continue to aggravate his system.

Skin Rash
Boils
Acne
Headaches
Hives
Inability to focus
Digestive problems
Swollen glands
Sinusitis
Swelling of the hands and feet
Dizziness
Urinary problems
Allergies to the environment
Uncontrollable shaking

Along with physical symptoms, his emotions were also challenged when he became toxic. These are some of the ways he would emotionally react to chemical expsoures:

Bouts of crying
Bursts of uncontrolled anger
Frustration
Impatience
Lots of fears

Why are They so Sensitive?

2009-02-15T13:17:00.000-08:00

Since the beginning of time, the Earth has flourished in bountiful harvests, supplying all the necessities her living creatures need in order to survive.

And one day, along comes a great invention.. chemicals. And in man's insane wisdom, our mentality becomes "more is best". We no longer have to live with the insects of the world; we can now eradicate them. We can spray poisons in our air, on our soil and in our water, killing everything in its path. And just suppose, the air, the soil and the water are becoming stressed from all these poisons that we feel we cannot live without. And as the Earth becomes stressed, do we follow suit? But instead of those of us who introduced this poison into our world, it is the next generation, the sensitive little beings being born unto us who can no longer tolerate our insanity.

What if these beautiful babies we birth have chosen to come to this wonderful planet to show us the errors of our ways. How would they do that? Would we recognize their emotions, imbalances and symptoms as language? Are they struggling to focus and learn because their bodies are clogged with additives and preservatives? Are allergies rampant because there is no more room for chemicals and poisons in their little bodies?

Have the crystal children arrived to teach us how to love the joy of nature, free and clear, pure and clean? Are we too busy to notice? Too stressed to change? Is it so easy to give our children drugs because its too hard to deal with the truth?

I believe this new generation of children have a huge mission in this lifetime. They have come to save us from ourselves; and with or without us, they will save our Earth. Their little bodies will scream at us until we realize we are not only poisoning the Earth, we are poisoning our babies.

What will it take to make us stop?

Foods to Avoid

2009-02-15T12:09:00.000-08:00

The quality of our food is just as important as the quality of our water. Josh's food was always inspected before eating. Organic was always best. His food had to be free of anything artificial whether it be chemicals, preservatives or colors. White flours and white sugars became a way of the past and organic whole grains, vegetables and fruits became his mainstay. The better he ate, the happier he became, physically and emotionally.

I am always amazed when I watch children with ADD, ADHD or autism being given drinks with colors or caffeine, not to mention the exhorbitant amount of white sugars. These drinks have to go. Water is the answer, and it has to be pure spring water. Water with fresh lemon and pure maple syrup is also helpful to cleanse the system of toxins. However, don't use it as a replacement for pure water throughout the day.

Cow products also affected Josh's ability to breath and digest properly, so we turned our attention to goat, sheep, soy and rice alternatives. Goat and sheep products helped him maintain the healthy fat levels essential to his growing body.

Cleaning products and detergents were replaced with more natural choices. And scents were avoided along with fumes. Yes, that includes all your fancy perfumes and cosmetics whose odors linger long after you have left the room!

Our world and our choices affected Joshua; the more green are home and environment, the healthier Joshua became. It was a win-win situation for our whole family.

Family support was essential to his healing. We did not have special foods for Josh. If he could not tolerate a certain food, the rest of us went without. And with each change in our lives, we watched all of us become healthier and happier.

At 27, Joshua continues to nurture and accept himself for who he is. As he grows he continues to heal and learn more about himself. He makes a mother proud!