A Nutritious Lesson...

Last year my son, P, had an allergic reaction to Amoxycillin--a REALLY bad reaction.

Ever since his stomach has really bothered him, and his cheeks and ears turn bright red among other symptoms.

I finally took him in to see what the problem was, and after a semi-traumatic bloodwork session, we found out that the child has a HUGE build-up of yeast in his small intestine all due to the antibiotics and the horrible reaction he had.

[This public service announcement is brought to you by...me.  If you or anyone in your family needs to be on an antibiotic, wait until the end of the prescription and then immediately start pushing a Pro-biotic into your/their system.  The result could save you/them from several different ailments!  And now back to your regularly scheduled blog post.]

So, the doc tells us he's got a yeast problem.

Remedy:  Put the child on a strict anti-yeast diet.

If you're like me, you might think, "Oh, okay--no bread!"

I was wrong.

He's not allowed to have carbs or sugar--that's what starves the yeast in his body and makes it die a horrible death.

Meal planning has never been so...complicated!

Uh, Delena?  How does this apply to homeschooling?

Ever since we got the "anti-yeast diet" news, P has been REALLY interested in food, nutrition, and diet.

We have even worked this into his science lessons lately.

While looking at a photo of the Food Plate (did you know the food pyramid is no longer in use?  I feel so OLD!), he now can tell you what he is not supposed to have, and he can identify whether it's "protein" or "carbohydrates" or "dairy."

While we were visiting my parents this last week, my dad had a bowl of cereal for breakfast.  P was VERY quick to start telling him that that was a carbohydrate, and that it was NOT good for him due to the fact that it breaks down into sugar.

I've created a nutritional monster!

This week he is learning about complex carbohydrates vs. simple carbohydrates.  He's five years-old, and he's fascinated!  We've went around the kitchen trying to identify complex and simple carbohydrates, and he's gotten REALLY good at it.


This whole experience has made me, once again, appreciate homeschooling.  The fact that we can take something real going on in our lives and learn more about it--he just wouldn't have that opportunity anywhere else.