It’s been awhile but I wanted to share my personal story again and where we are now.
My son is now 11 years old. His first episode was at age 8 months old. He wasn’t diagnosed with PFAPA until 18 months old. Before I finally finished my training and education as an NTP, we had mild success with occasional breaks in his cycling (which was every 17 days, and the episode lasted 5 days with fevers up to 105.9). But once I started my training I was on the RIGHT PATH to having the ROOT CAUSE of these episodes. By the time I was done training, I had completely ceased his episodes.
It has been years (approaching around 3 years I think) without a flare of his condition (PFAPA). There were times where I saw signs that it might be approaching (because we let things slip back in that we knew were NOT ok for him), but we were able to get it under control before it happened. (And don’t be fooled this is chronic and they won’t just grow out of it – I have adults between the ages of 30-45 seeking help with new PFAPA diagnosis.)
In these last few years, I have been helping other families who come to me find their child’s ROOT CAUSE of their episodes. I can safely tell you that each and every child has a different root cause. BUT the most common component of EVERY child I meet is their intake of processed and packaged food. Even if it’s a generally “clean” sourced packaged food, it lacks so many vital nutrients for function it’s a contributing factor to the problem. These episodes are caused by a break down in the immune system that is caused by several factors, and underlying things that are different per child, BUT it’s mainly from lack of nutrients, and use of products on a daily basis rather than eating whole foods.
How about us?
As I said my son has had about three colds total over the last three years (about one per year), lasting a couple days to a bit longer one this last time. But that’s it. I mean that’s it. I have nothing else to report to you. He even mentioned this at our dinner table the other night. Why is it that so many others are so sick, and have so many allergies and so many health problems mom? It’s because of how we eat and how we balance our nutrients and we take care of our bodies through food and supplement. That is how. There is NO other explanation.
I have not had lupus symptoms or flares in nearly eight years myself, and only go to my doctor once a year now for blood work that I like to get to continue monitoring my NUTRIENT needs. Not because I need it for the doctor. This is a mutual agreement between us and it works.
None of us have chronic health issues anymore. Could we if we stopped what we do? YES! That’s the thing. Eating whole foods and having great nutrition is a lifestyle – it’s not a temporary diet or a quick fix. It’s how your body heals when you weren’t well and then will continue to thrive without developing problems in the future.
Over the last few years as we all have really worked hard to maintain this state, none of us had even utilized a doctor. So much so we actually never met our deductible and when the annual physical came around for our child we had to pay because we never used the deductible. Can you imagine? It is possible. And this is from a house with a diagnosis of lupus, and PFAPA.
Is this easy?
It is NOW because it’s a routine. But sometimes I want to just not bother and be convenient too. But anytime I lax on that those health problems are right around the corner and I know it’s true so I don’t. It didn’t take long to get comfortable or in a routine with this. Only about one month truly. For those with harder times in transition maybe up to three months, but usually just weeks before it feels like a routine and within a month a good comfort level. Can you imagine having such an improvement in such little time and with more time added everything about this fading into the past (as long as you stick with your new routine)? You can.
If you lapse what happens? You will likely get a flare depending on how long and how much you lapse off the new foods and let those irritating foods back into your life. This is a chronic problem, and it’s related to the food supply and our body imbalances, so if we let that back in we will get the same result. Always remember, if you keep doing the same things you will continue to get the same results. If we change and fix the underlying things we get a different result.
If you just want a good starting point, grab my Functional PFAPA book here or on amazon. This will get you thinking about what it means to change from processed foods to real food. It gets you thinking about things that need to go and what will come in place of those things. One thing to remember, and I continually remind my PFAPA families, this isn’t just ONE nutrient, or ONE thing that makes this happen in our children. It’s combination of factors, and balance in the body. We just work together to get rid of the irritants and create balance in the body again. The sooner you let go of the notion that it’s as simple as boosting XYZ, the better off you will be. It’s not about boosting one thing out of control, it’s about getting body balance back and getting nutrients in full effect and BALANCED. I help you do just that!
You can have relief from repetitive fevers too. It’s possible.
