Baked Milk Muffin 4 Months Out, Probiotics, & Chelation

Our daily muffin

So it's been a nearly 4 months since our baked milk challenge and up until about 3 weeks ago, getting my son to finish the muffin was a chore. Mainly, he complained that his stomach hurt or his lips itched. I backed all the way down to 1/4 muffin a day, then I would slowly build it back up. Presently, he's at 1 muffin a day. In all fairness I started giving him digestive enzymes with the muffin about 3 weeks ago, which seems to have been the reason I could escalate it back up to 1 whole muffin. I give him the muffin first thing in the morning with breakfast. But just before, I break open a digestive enzyme cap and pour enough out to fill 2 empty vegetarian capsules size number 3 (one of the smallest). He no longer complains of a stomach ache. In fact, he asks for seconds.

The other thing I've been doing lately is giving him a probiotic. I was experimenting with a lactobacillus mix, but stopped because he got eczema flare on inner elbows and backs of knees. I'm not sure if it was coincidence, since pollen was high as well. However, I temporarily stopped. Although, I have been giving him Gerber Soothe Colic Drops which contain l. reuteri. This is the same probiotic as the BioGai, but licensed to Gerber. (Side note, I have purchased online & via pharmacy - and even in pharmacy, they kept it on shelf, not in refrigerator). At any rate, you can read about the BioGaia research here. My son is not an infant, but a 7 year old - soon to be 8. I give him around 10-11 drops a day. The nutritionist at Gerber, with whom I spoke, said that 100 million would be the dosage for both infants and older. However, I've doubled the dose. We'll see because most of the studies are on infants - but I remain hopeful. And it seems to me completely benign.

Our hair test

A couple weeks back, I did a hair test on my son (the results posted here). I dropped the results with our nutritionist, who said she'd look them over and we'd discuss. Although, her first response - was what do these numbers mean? What do the hair results of the general population look like? Isn't everyone exposed and so wouldn't we all have elevated levels. This is something that I don't know the answer to - and if I get a chance, I'll do a follow up call to the lab.

But, the 2 things I've done & decided are - I've stopped getting our camel milk in plastic and instead been getting it in glass. The cost of the milk has gone up with the added shipping weight - but I feel better about it. Also, in preparation for doing the lose dose Andy Cutler low dose chelation, I've started introducing my son to DMSA. The dose has been approx 6mg that I give 1x a day. We are on 4th day today. While I understand this isn't the recommended process, I want to make sure he can tolerate before delivering around the clock. So far, so good. I'll do it 5 days, then this weekend probably start with DMSA.

What turned me onto chelation is 2 things - 1. there are some similarities in the immune issues in kids with autism and allergy - 2. I read a study that linked arsenic to elevated IgE and asthma. This was a study that was done in India or China - and they found with alpha lipoic acid chelation of arsenic, IgE levels dropped as did severity of asthma symptoms. I'll have to look for this abstract again and post link.

The Baked Milk Challenge

I substituted light olive oil for the canola oil.

So we passed the baked milk challenge. Yay! I am elated, almost to the point of being numb. I tried tweeting from the hospital - to take myself out of the emotions of it - but alas my cell phone signal was kerplunked. My son had coughed in his sleep the night before, so I was concerned he may have been having an asthma issue. He hadn't had the steroid inhaler for a couple days either. At any rate, they checked pulmonary function and it was fine. We also did not do a skin test, but just jumped in. Our time went somewhat like this.

• 1:30 at first dose of 10% of 2 muffin full dose (recipe makes 12)
• 1:50 ish - nurse checked skin, mouth, tongue, lungs, and blood pressure. Second dose - 20%.
• 2:15 ish - nurse checked vitals again, skin.... good to go for third dose - 30%.
• 2:35 ish - vital check again... and the final 40% of the 2 muffins.

My son finished about 2:55. Then we sat and waiting for 2 hours. All clear. And without a valium drip for me. The doctor's recommendation is now to eat the full 2 muffin dose 2-3 times a week. My son of course begged me to have a muffin today, so I gave him one. He is fine, thankfully. The follow up to the baked milk challenge, according to my doc is -

• First we do the 2 muffin dose at least a couple times a week.
• After couple weeks work up to everyday.
• After couple weeks/month of that we can do a couple times a day.
• Then we can try another recipe but with same dose of milks (powdered & liquid).
• After a couple weeks/month then we can try other milk products in baking: sour cream, butter, yogurt, buttermilk... but with the same dose of milk protein.
• Then we can consider, if all is tolerated well, trying something like cheese - but it must not be gooey - more like the bubbled/charred cheese on the edge of pizza crust. Couple weeks/months...
• Then you move to gooey. If all this is going well, then the next step would be coming in for a liquid milk challenge.

Well at this point, we are happy to have an additional food. But it must be at this point, and all points until gooey - cooked at 375 for at least 20 minutes. From what I've read, the studies about baked milk - under-cooking can be a problematic thing. I think we'll be sticking with the baked milk muffin recipe as is - with it's 20 minutes at 400. I don't love this - well because from what I've read, the browned part of food can be a big contributor of AGE's. But we went through with the challenge, so for now - we're dealing with eating it.