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New Baby, post Vitamin A
Hi All,
Just a quick update, hopefully more good stuff to come. 🙂
My family began our Vitamin A detox on July 1, 2019. At that point, my family included myself, my husband, and our four kids ranging in age from 4-15. I've written a lot about the healing that began happening right away, which has continued.
This past February, my husband and I decided to add another family member, slightly experimentally and against better judgement because our track record with babies has included severe/unknown-cause health issues... I got pregnant right before I contracted what I now think was a moderate case of Covid - fever, headache, blue toes and fingers, shortness of breath, complete loss of taste and smell, sickest I've been in many years. I posted on this forum at the time because I made the mistake of googling "flu in early pregnancy"....wah! @Grant's advice to Think Positively rather than googling was spot on. 🙂
Anyway, after the "flu" cleared up (the rest of the family mostly just got the fever, nobody had the more severe symptoms I had), the rest of my pregnancy was uneventful. I felt better at age 40 than I had since I was pregnant at age 23, and possibly better (I was vegetarian back then, and was very hypoglycemic, which is no longer an issue).
On October 7, right around 37 weeks gestation (all of my babies have been born between 37 and 38 weeks), I gave birth to a healthy baby boy http://www.lifeisapalindrome.com/updates/welcome-world-baby-boy , and he and we are doing so great, so far! This is the first time I can report that my 2.5-week-old newborn...is sleeping! And nursing fairly adeptly! And NOT having green poop! And not-having terrible colic!! It is a revelation, really, to find out that I can produce milk without oversupply and, I assume due to the gut healing that has occurred for me in the past year and a half, feed a contented baby who is so sweetly happy and healthy and peaceful.
Never thought a woman should spend an entire nine-months of pregnancy without consuming a single leaf of kale...but I did, and feel really good, and the baby isn't appearing to need kale either. 🙂
One interesting thing: all my other babies developed TONs of "cradle cap" and pimples right after birth; this one has a totally clear scalp with no flakes or infant pimples or anything.
Thanks again for being out there, trying these crazy things together,
Sarabeth 🙂
WOOT WOOT WOOT WOOT (turning cartwheels for ya!)
@sarabeth-matilsky I am so happy for you! Thank you so much for sharing! Welcome to your new baby!
Hooray! 😁 I was wondering how your pregnancy was going. It is so good to hear a birth announcement from you! So glad he is a healthy little guy, and that you are doing so well also. Just wonderful news! Congratulations!!! 🥳👶🌻💛
Congratulations! Let the good news keep on coming for low vitamin A.
Quote from Sarabeth on October 25, 2020, 11:48 amHi All,
Just a quick update, hopefully more good stuff to come.
My family began our Vitamin A detox on July 1, 2019. At that point, my family included myself, my husband, and our four kids ranging in age from 4-15. I've written a lot about the healing that began happening right away, which has continued.
This past February, my husband and I decided to add another family member, slightly experimentally and against better judgement because our track record with babies has included severe/unknown-cause health issues... I got pregnant right before I contracted what I now think was a moderate case of Covid - fever, headache, blue toes and fingers, shortness of breath, complete loss of taste and smell, sickest I've been in many years. I posted on this forum at the time because I made the mistake of googling "flu in early pregnancy"....wah! @Grant's advice to Think Positively rather than googling was spot on.
Anyway, after the "flu" cleared up (the rest of the family mostly just got the fever, nobody had the more severe symptoms I had), the rest of my pregnancy was uneventful. I felt better at age 40 than I had since I was pregnant at age 23, and possibly better (I was vegetarian back then, and was very hypoglycemic, which is no longer an issue).
On October 7, right around 37 weeks gestation (all of my babies have been born between 37 and 38 weeks), I gave birth to a healthy baby boy http://www.lifeisapalindrome.com/updates/welcome-world-baby-boy , and he and we are doing so great, so far! This is the first time I can report that my 2.5-week-old newborn...is sleeping! And nursing fairly adeptly! And NOT having green poop! And not-having terrible colic!! It is a revelation, really, to find out that I can produce milk without oversupply and, I assume due to the gut healing that has occurred for me in the past year and a half, feed a contented baby who is so sweetly happy and healthy and peaceful.
Never thought a woman should spend an entire nine-months of pregnancy without consuming a single leaf of kale...but I did, and feel really good, and the baby isn't appearing to need kale either.
One interesting thing: all my other babies developed TONs of "cradle cap" and pimples right after birth; this one has a totally clear scalp with no flakes or infant pimples or anything.
Thanks again for being out there, trying these crazy things together,
Sarabeth
I am pretty well convinced that adults don't need much VA to keep up with body demands. But during growth, I do wonder if there is more use for VA. VA is ubiquitous, so perhaps it is hardly a worry in a diverse diet. But there was the story of the KFC kid who suffered eye damage on his limited, fast food diet. I'm betting there may be another increased need for VA in the teen years and even into the early twenties for men. But then again, I fall on the side of the fence where I think there are some small usages of VA.
If nothing else, I think that a new body and clean liver can handle some VA easily, and so there may be no downside to allowing some VA in the childhood diet. A friend grew up in a trad society and his school gave each child an egg a day.
I was also thinking how interesting it would be if Sarabeth got her breast milk tested for VA contents. For that matter, why aren't we testing other things besides blood? The body makes all sorts of things we could be testing that might give us a better idea of the load we are carrying. I'd like to know what is in the pimples on my face.
I was also thinking that Sarabeth might be unloading some VA over the course of preg and nursing... will her symptoms reduce?
Very interesting questions @lil-chick!
As to the kid who became blind on the KFC diet, there is another point to keep in mind.
It is not only about how much vA is ingested, it is also about what else is happening at that time to make us accumulate it.
Eating the KFC diet exclusively would raise immensely the amount of MSG ingested. MSG is an excitant that creates a lack of vitamin K. It is in fact an antiK product. There is a fine balance between A, D and K. Too much K will bring a brutal vA detox. Not enough K (for example if there is too much MSG but also other things) will stop the body detoxing vA.
So infect it is probable that the KFC kid had ACCUMULATED vA, and was not at all vA deficient.
From what I understand in my own body, it seems that activation of the vagus nerve (at certain times) is when thiamine is used to release vA. Being forced into sympathetic mode would ensure vA poisoning in the long run.
Quick update: baby is still very healthy digestively speaking, but unfortunately around four weeks it became a growing concern that he wasn't able to transfer enough milk due to his tongue tie (and to a lesser degree, probably his lip tie). We finally had to take him to get a frenectomy this week, which is a very traumatic situation considering it is a such a small surgery. Posterior tongue ties are truly a Modern birth defect, I think, because any infant with such difficulties in eating/gaining weight in past centuries would surely have perished - these are not the sorts of tongue ties that midwives could clip easily at birth (nor even notice - the net effect is that the infant has a very Tiny Tongue).
Anyway - it is super distressing to have an infant who can't get enough to eat, and I've been pumping and bottlefeeding (super time consuming!!) and putting him to the breast when he can, but it's not simple to re-learn how to use a tongue especially after a painful procedure, and it is exhausting for all concerned.
Why why why do I have five tongue-tied babies?? I have a feeling it has to do with B vitamins - I am severely folate intolerant (in supps, I mean), and folic acid (synthetic folate) is what they have been fortifying foods with to prevent midline defects of a more severe sort. It certainly does NOT seem to prevent tongue tie - which is definitely a midline defect (and my kids also have various other sub-clinical midline issues, like tiny sacral dimples, urethra-assymetry, etc.).
I have wanted to look up what my Vitamin A serum levels were the one time I had it tested, back last spring, but I cannot find the test results at the moment - I want to say it was like 52?
So - baby is still doing great, and I am still doing great, apart from the extremely not-great situation of dealing with this tiny birth defect that takes up a shit TON of time (like every waking minute), and the PTSD I have which is that I so much want to be able to nourish my baby from my breasts but I can't right now, and while it's possible I will be able to in the future if he can re-learn how to nurse, there are no guarantees...and I am not good with patience!
Interesting note - when baby started his ~1 month growth spurt, that is when his borderline milk transfer skills seem to have become Not Enough. And at that time, when he was getting too few calories, he got baby acne. This cleared right up when I started pumping and giving him bottles of my milk. Also, after getting the frenectomy on Monday, he's gotten a lot of cradle cap - yeast??
xoxo
Sarabeth
Hi Sarabeth so good to hear that your new baby is digestively well but not to hear about all the issues with the tongue tie. It all sounds very stressful & I hope things will smooth out now for you both.
I’ve heard other people talk about tongue ties in relation to vA toxicity but I can’t remember who & where. I follow a vegan person in the U.K. called Deliciously Ella who has cook books, cafes & products in supermarkets. I’m fascinated by her health as she eats masses of sweet potatoes. She has an autoimmune illness that she ‘keeps at bay with her diet’. I’ve come to the conclusion that the amount of legumes & probably the low fat elements of her diet are the factors balancing out the excess of carotenoids. Maybe she’s an efficient converter too. However my point is that she must have an accumulation of vA in her liver & her first baby had a tongue tie. I remember at the time wondering if it was to do with vA toxicity. I don’t know.