Purposeful Parent Tip: The experts are not always the experts on your child. Do your research!
This blog entry is a bit different than those in the past. Instead of me taking center stage, I decided to share information from another parent who has struggled and overcome some real challenges as a parent.
Maria Rickert Hong is a mother of two boys. From early on she saw that something was not quite right in their development. Additionally, she too, was having some physical challenges. Thankfully, it was her sons that not only got her on the path to good health, but now she is sharing her knowledge with other parents.
I talked with Maria recently about her journey to recover her sons from a myriad of physical disabilities and here’s what she had to say. Maria has a wealth of knowledge utilizing food and diet to heal the myriad of childhood disorders afflicting our kids today, like autism, AD/HD, sensory processing disorder and more. I hope you will take a moment to read through this information and investigate the wonderful resources Maria provided. She is also offering a webinar on the topic on July 10, 2012 at 2:00 pm EST.
1. How did you become interested in foods and their impact on children’s development?
My older son had been diagnosed with failure to thrive (which is when a child’s weight percentile falls 2 or more major curves on the growth chart or falls to the 3rd percentile or below), severe acid reflux and constipation his whole life and, at the age of 4 had a severe asthmatic attack. Rather than keep him on steroids and nebulizers for the rest of his life, I took him to the naturopath whom I had begun seeing for myself. The naturopath said to remove dairy from his diet. Doing so immediately eliminated the acid reflux and asthma.
There is a saying by Ann Wigmore: “The food you eat can be either the safest and most powerful form of medicine, or the slowest form of poison.” I completely agree with this statement.
2. Why is sharing this information with other parents such a passion for you?
It is such a passion because I was so shocked that none of the pediatricians, allergists or pediatric gastroenterologists knew that removing a food could have such a profound impact on my son’s health; most doctors receive little to no training in food or nutrition.
Instead, they prescribed Miralax for his constipation, Pediasure and Periactin for his growth delay and Prevacid for his constant vomiting. I discovered after doing my own research and talking to the naturopath that these medicines were only masking symptoms, rather than healing the root problems.
The root problems of these issues are gut dysbiosis and toxicity, which lead to immune dysregulation and nutritional deficiencies. These are the same root problems of the epidemic of childhood diseases that we see today: autism, AD/HD, allergies, asthma, OCD, sensory processing disorder (SPD), chronic ear infections, eczema, and autoimmune disease.
3. Tell me about the success you’ve had since adopting this lifestyle for you and your family.
I have recovered both of my sons from sensory processing disorder (SPD), allergies, asthma, chronic ear infections and eczema. Most of these recoveries were done with food as well as occupational therapy (for the SPD), supplements and the services of our naturopath. In addition, both sons had developmental delays; the older one didn’t walk until he was 20 months old, the younger one when he was 18 months. They were both diagnosed with failure to thrive, which we are still working on, and it may have
something to do with mitochondrial dysfunction, which we are now exploring. The root cause, as I was discussing above, is heavy-metal toxicity, which you can read about in my blog here.
After I discovered that my own levels of mercury, lead, arsenic and cadmium levels were extremely high, I immediately had my sons tested. The older one is at the 97th percentile for heavy-metal toxicity; the younger one at the 90th.
4. What are the most harmful foods for children today?
High-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) is the most harmful because it is in everything: salad dressings, ketchup, cole slaw, soft drinks and more. Did you know that this is how diabetes is created in lab rats? They’re just fed high-fructose corn syrup! And we wonder why there’s a diabetes/obesity epidemic? HFCS is typically also from genetically modified corn, which is harmful by itself, and often contains traces of mercury, a potent neurotoxin, from its processing.
My other candidates for harmful foods for kids are sugar, artificial colorings, trans fats, soy and its myriad derivatives.
5. What improvements have you seen in your family? Others?
My kids and I rarely get sick anymore. The boys are not throwing up after every meal,
which is an obvious improvement! Also, their sensory processing disorder improved tremendously upon the removal of gluten-containing foods as well.
I will say that going gluten-free/dairy-free is like masking symptoms; it’s not addressing the root problems of gut dysbiosis, immune dysregulation, etc. To do that entails a gut-healing diet, such as the Body Ecology Diet, Specific Carbohydrate Diet or Gut And Psychology Syndrome (GAPS) diet, as well as supplementing with probiotics, eating fermented foods and correcting nutritional deficiencies. You can read about how my son’s eczema was healed with the GAPS diet here.
6. What do you hope to accomplish with the knowledge/expertise you’ve gained?
I want to let other parents know that recovery is possible! Recovery is possible from autism, ADHD, allergies, asthma, SPD, OCD, chronic ear infections, eczema, colic and autoimmune diseases. Most parents, most doctors, don’t even know that. I can help other parents implement a healing diet that is the foundation for recovery from symptoms.
7. What changes have you made in your family’s diet?
It’s been a 180-degree turnaround for me. I used to buy lots of packaged, processed foods. Now, I cook about 95% of my food from scratch, or I buy organic, prepared food from trusted, local sources. My kids used to eat macaroni and cheese all day long; now, they eat kale and sauerkraut. No lie!
8. How do you handle foods from others, i.e., playdates, birthday parties?
I have what we call our “once a week” (sometimes it’s twice a week) rule. Once or twice a week, we eat out at a restaurant, party, etc. That way, we can just relax and enjoy ourselves.
9. What resources would you recommend to other parents?
David Katz, MD, has a terrific program called “Nutrition Detectives” that’s aimed at having kids understand how to read a food label. He makes a game of it. My 6-year-old loves to play nutrition detective when we go to the store!
For basic nutrition and food advice, I recommend a traditional diet based on the principles of the Weston A. Price Foundation. Their website has loads of informative articles, such as “The Ploy of Soy”, “Cholesterol: Friend or Foe?” and “Principles
of Healthy Nutrition”.
For those starting with a gluten-free, dairy-free diet, I love “The Kid-Friendly ADHD & Autism Cookbook”; it’s got a lot of useful information in the beginning chapters. For
those going further with a gut-healing diet, I recommend three books, “Gut And Psychology Syndrome”, “Breaking the Vicious Cycle”, and “The Body Ecology Diet”.
8. What would you recommend other parents do? How do we make our foods safer or avoid the worse offenders?
The best way to eat safer foods is to eat as much fresh food as possible; eat little or no packaged, boxed or bagged food. If it’s got a nutrition label on it, look for ones with 5 ingredients or less. Here’s a hint: if it’s got a nutritional claim on it, like “low fat” or “only 100 calories”, it likely isn’t nutritious. I would take an extremely close look at the
nutrition facts label for those foods.
Avoid foods with high-fructose corn syrup, monosodium glutamate (MSG), artificial colors and flavors, soy derivatives and trans fats (partially hydrogenated or hydrogenated oils), including margarine. I recommend eating as much organic food as possible, as there are confirmed links between pesticides and autism and AD/HD. I also recommend high-quality meats and eggs; the highest quality are pasture-raised/grass-fed.
9. How can parents get in touch with you? Do you have any upcoming events?
I invite parents to check out my website: http://mariarickerthong.com/. I’ve got alot of recipes, blogs and research about various health topics (AD/HD, allergies, diabetes, autism, adrenal fatigue, hypothyroidism, etc.) there. There’s also a page for parents to contact me for a free health-history consultation.
You can find my blogs at Epidemic Answers and my recipes and blogs on Pinterest. I’m on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. I post highly informative tips multiple times a day, so if you’re looking for free advice, those are great places to catch me handing it out. Of course, you can always call me at (917) 553-6673 or email me at mariarickert@yahoo.com.
You can sign up for my monthly newsletter here, and I’m hosting a webinar about “Autism, ADHD, Allergies, Asthma, SPD, OCD and Autoimmune Diseases” on July 10, 2012 at 2:00pm EDT. If you’re viewing this past that date, check my website for
a link to the recording. I will continue to host webinars, so if you follow me on Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter or sign up for my monthly newsletter, you’ll be sure to know about them.
About Maria Rickert Hong
Maria Rickert Hong is a Holistic Health Counselor who received her training in over 100 dietary theories from the Institute of Integrative Nutrition. She has taken almost 40 different cooking and health classes at the Natural Gourmet Institute in New York City. She is a board member, director of social media and blogger for Epidemic Answers, a 501(c)(3) non-profit whose goal is to help parents recover their children from chronic illnesses like autism, ADHD, SPD, allergies, asthma, acid reflux, chronic ear infections, OCD, autoimmune disorders and other chronic illnesses. She has recovered her sons
from sensory processing disorder, asthma, allergies, acid reflux and eczema.