Hubby and I went away this weekend. Whoo-hoo!!! If you know us, you know we will use any excuse to have a weekend away from our child. Not that we don't love being with him, but we love not being with him too sometimes. A good friend was getting married in Maine so lobster and foliage here we come! Usually we would leave Mateo with my mom, but since she was out of town as well, we had to pawn him off on someone new. His speech therapist. Yes, it's a little unconventional, but she does know him very well. She's at our house every week, she has two older girls that love him, and she's a doctor. A doctor. And with all his medical stuff going on lately (we are still nebulizing cause his breathing is consistently sucky), he's probably better off with her than he is even with us. So, to "Laura's" house we go!
Well, "Laura" has a partner that I didn't know very well. Actually, we had never met, but I had heard lots about her. Apparently, "Laura's" partner (I'll call her "Sally") is an alternative medicine organic naturopathic homeogenic type thingy. Something like that, I don't really know. The only thing I do know is that she really really believes in something called the "Blood Type Diet". Not to be confused with the "Blood Diet", which I was calling it all weekend, and wondered why people were giving me weird looks. Anyway, Laura had mentioned that they only eat organic, no dairy, limited meat,no processed food, etc. and it all had to do with their blood type. Great! Who cares, right?
But it did come up while I took Mateo for a visit before the weekend when Laura asked what kinds of foods Mateo eats. Just the basic kid food; chicken nuggets, hot dogs, yogurt, french fries, soup, pasta, anything covered in ketchup, etc. But Laura is not one to push her beliefs on anyone and just mentions the kind of food they eat and ask if that's okay to give him. I say, sure thing if he eats it, otherwise just pop something processed in the microwave and he should be fine, right? (Okay, I'm not a horrible parent doomed to overweight children with heart disease at 15, I do make him eat fruits and veggies and try to keep the junk food to a minimum. But on a side note, the kid is most definitely not at risk for obesity at this point. He could even stand to gain a few pounds.)
Anyway, when I went to drop him off at their house, I got to meet Sally, who I found out is quite passionate about the "blood diet - wait, no....the blood type diet," (why do I keep doing that?). As I was describing all the medication Mateo is on, as I've said before, it's a lot,Sally starts looking very alert and asks if I've ever tried changing his diet. Yes I did, once when he was having diarrhea for 3 weeks straight and we thought he might be allergic to milk. Turns out it was all the juice boxes we were giving him to work on sucking for his speech therapy. Here's what transpired after that.
Do you know you can get him off the medication and improve his health by changing his diet?
I'm just doing what the doctor says.
Do you mind if we experiment on him by changing his diet this weekend?
I just want him to eat and be happy.
What's his blood type?
I have no idea.
I have a testing kit upstairs, it's just one little prick and I can tell you.
That's nice. (to Laura) Don't let her touch my kid.
Sally - I just think if you love someone you would want to do what's best for them instead of pumping them with medication that will have long term side effects.
Me thinking to myself - Maybe this was a bad idea.
Laura was nice enough to step in.
But I continued to get dirty looks from Sally the whole time, as if I don't love my kid because I don't happen to agree that medication is the devil. Well, sorry, I do believe in modern medicine. Once again, most of my generation was raised on our pediatricians advice, be in penicillin for an ear infection or an inhaler for bronchitis, and, once again we turned out alright. Well, besides a sudden increase in heart disease and cancer. But I'm sure the two aren't related. Or are they? Hmmm....
Anyway, when I went to pick him up on Sunday, I thought I might have to endure a solicited speech about how medicine is dangerous and he'll probably grow a third arm when he's 10 because of it. But she wasn't there. Maybe she couldn't stand the sight of us easy mac-fructose corn syrup-spaghettio-loving parents.
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1 comment:
You crack me up.
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