Our Journey With Milk

Where to begin?

I was raised on pasteurized milk.  Never thought anything of it.  Until we had our first child.
Go figure... kids changing the way we think about stuff!  LOL

Our first child was born in 1996 and was vax inj in 1997.  Instead of going with meds we wanted to do things using diet to control his ADHD type of symptoms (we have come to find out that he is a mis Dx ASD child).  We started using the Few Foods in combination with Feingold diet plans in 2001 after our 2nd child, a girl, came along.  We eliminated dairy along with a host of other possible allergens and started on a whole foods journey.  Instead of regular pasteurized cows milk we turned first to soy milk then alternated between soy and rice.  I thought then that soy was such a great thing.  Come to find out 2 years later that all that I had read was erroneous.  Soy Milk is NOT natural and I will Never suggest it to anyone ever again.  Soy should be consumed in small fermented amounts not like we, as Americans, consume pasteurized dairy.  In hindsight I could see a huge hormonal problem with our daughter while I was consuming soy milk and she was a nursing baby of 6 mos old - strange mood swings and other things that I didn't put with together with my consumption of soy milk until later.  Not to mention the problems that developing boys experience.  I sometimes wonder if my consumption of soy milk while pregnant with our 3rd (genetic mitochondrial disorder) child contributed to his disorder... we will never know.

In 2001 the internet was just becoming a great source of information.  By 2003 when our 3rd was born there was so much more information out there and the information was now conflicting with my belief system on the benefits of soy.(note: some time between 01 and 03 the medical community stopped suggesting soy hormone therapy for menopausal women as the connection between it and breast cancer was overwhelming)  I scrapped it all... I had to start all over again.  No pasteurized milk, no soy.

We moved to MO to have our own little mushroom farm in 2004.  That was also a very scary year for us as our 3rd child was totally 'failure to thrive'.  He wasn't gaining weight, couldn't roll over, sit up - all the things that a wee one was supposed to be doing - he did none - a deflated little football.  :(
We went from one Dr to another... "what can we do?" "how can we help him?"  We were at a loss as to what to do next.  Ten months into it with the same Dr. telling us to wait and see... he says "feeding tube".  I about hit the floor... I would have had my husband not been standing directly behind me!  I became determined on the long drive home that I would NOT allow that type of invasive medical treatment to be done on our wee son.  I had been begging this Dr to send us to a feeding clinic for months to which he would reply "they don't work".  I had heard the same thing before when taking our 1st son into the Dr when we wanted to try diet to manage his symptoms.  I guess I just don't give up that easily on my children and how food can heal!

Upon arriving at home that Tuesday May 4, 2005 - yes, you don't ever forget those types of dates! - I hit the net for information again and again for information - answers that the pediatric neurologist couldn't or wouldn't give me... I was really at the wouldn't point by this time, but that would take us totally off topic.  I was searching for anything - even alternative therapies that my mom would find totally loony!  I didn't care anymore... the medical institution had given up on our son and I wasn't about to.

On Friday I called a hypnotherapist friend of ours and asked him if he could do anything to help - he said no, but he reminded my of my schooling in psychology (yes, I have a degree in psychology with concentrated studies on child development and psy of women - so what do I have to 'remember'?) - "Pavlov's Dog... you have to retrain him to eat - you can't let him nurse - you have to make him realize that he HAS to get nourishment from another source." he said.  "But he won't eat anything but me?"...  I had to be strong.  I had to cut him off... I had to get him to become interested in food and quit having such a gag reflex on my own with out the support of a feeding clinic.  This was the hardest part for me - not nursing him.

I also called around to a massage therapist that worked on babies as well as called on a friend whose niece is a chiropractor.  I got in with both the following week.  Monday we went to the massage therapist and started the Rain Drop therapy on him and Wednesday we went to the chiroprator who before her treatment told me that he will either be WIDE awake and wanting to move about or will go right to sleep... my little boy fell right to sleep after both.

Back up a few days... after talking to my hypnotherapist friend I had become determined to try things his way - Pavlov's way - and cut Jacob off after his first feeding of the day on Saturday morning.  It was a long hard day that ended in victory!  He ate out of my hand at 4 in the afternoon... on Sunday he was eating baby food!  He still wouldn't drink from a cup - even a sippie or a straw.

A friend loaned me a book to see if it might help out.  Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon.  I was completely engrossed in the book for several weeks - actually months!   I was reading how raw milk could help... not just the milk itself but creating whey from the milk.  I was also reading about how gelatin could help him... I was going on the fact that he needed to bulk up and gain weight.  I kept thinking that body builders use a whey protein supplement to bulk up and stay fit and that should work for him.  I couldn't find a raw milk supplier and wouldn't make my own without it.  I didn't give up and put the word out that I was looking for raw milk.  Until I found someone I picked up a liquid (NOT DRY) whey protein supplement with gelatin and added it to his baby food.  The stuff was really thick and yucky brown looking.  'ewe' is the best way to describe it.  But it helped!  In that first month our wee babe went from a deflated football that would just lay there without expression to looking around a bit and puffing up!

At the beginning of June I got the call I had been waiting for... a phone number for someone that I MIGHT be able to get raw milk from.  The laws in our state dictated that 1) I had to contact her 2) I had to go to her place 3) I couldn't tell anyone... lol

When I got home I had everyone try the milk to see what they thought.  Everyone enjoyed the cool milk and immediately requested more.  So, on to Sally Fallons method for turning a quart of milk into curds and whey... the curds being cream cheese and the whey being a clear yellow green liquid filled with lactic acid that was going to help my son better digest his foods and get much needed nutrition out of it as his little system couldn't get it out on its own.  See my goal was to find high quality, nutrient dense food as he needed to eat 5 times as much food as we did to get the same amount of it... crazy eh?  Well, it was hard enough for me to get the little bit into him that I was - his tummy was so small and he had such an immense gag reflex - so I had to go even further to help him out.  I also started to make our own gelatin from chicken as Sally discusses in her book... amazing stuff that gelatin!  Amazing Healing Stuff! both the whey and gelatin are!

By the end of the summer our little guy was doing stuff... starting to roll over... kicking and playing with toys with his feet.  He had missed out on so much that when he did start to wake up he developed from his feet to his head instead of his head to his feet.

I made all sorts of things with our new found food source, Raw Organic Grass Fed Milk!
Whey, cheese, cultured butter, yogurt, ... and then I discovered KEFIR!  Pretty awesome stuff!  We could actually feel it entering our system and adding much needed probiotics - essentially healing us from the inside out.  And here we thought we were doing pretty good... whole foods etc... well, you have to get the lactic acid working along with the beneficial bacteria colonizing the gut and we obviously were lacking.  The result... better immune systems - we rarely got sick anymore and when we did it didn't last as long - Jacob included!
Jacob continues to make great strides in his growth and development.  His body size was greatly effected... he is more than a year behind even touching the charts on weight for his age and his height... on the lower side of average.  But he continues to improve... ever so painfully slowly, but improve he does.

FF a few years.  We are pregnant!  WOW!  We had given that up... I was 39 - going to be 40 by the time our wee one was born.  I was Dx with gestational diabetes - shock - horror - I could no longer eat my kefir!  NO MORE SMOOTHIES!  UGH!  Just when you NEED to be eating a boat load of probios to keep up with the stress that a new baby growing inside brings on.  Now what?  hit the grocery store and the net - again...  I find Almond milk... nice smooth creamy almond milk... yum!  I still couldn't consume what I needed to though... I wanted KEFIR!  Through our food coop I saw that some people were ordering yogurt and wondered if I could get kefir too... SCORE!  I find coconut kefir through our food buying club.  What is so special about that?  Coconut helps to heal the gut!  ok... and.... It is Lower in carb points!   Perfect solution for a person with diabetes... even gestational diabetes.  What does all that mean?  Well, with coconut kefir I was able to have my smoothies again!  Yippee!  And I didn't have the effects of too many carbs at one time like I did when consuming milk.  I  could eat coconut kefir... then I found coconut milk and started reading more and more about the many benefits of coconut... the Amazing Coconut!  book recommendation:  Coconut Cures by Bruce Fife.

Move on to a year later and we are pregnant again!  Oh My Goodness!  And here we had thought that we were done.... lol - it had taken so long to get pregnant with the 4th that we had given up completely and figured we were just getting too old... and then to have TWO!   When our 5th was born I was 42.  I had experienced gestational diabetes again... knew the symptoms this time and pre-emptive stiked it.  Long before my dr had suggested doing the test I was eating like I was Dx with it.  This helped me out a lot... no symptoms like the first time with it and baby was the perfect weight!

In the last five months we have also delved into hemp milk again.  I say again because back when we were doing the diet with our first we had tried it and enjoyed it every now and then... alternating our alternative milk sources from soy to rice to hemp.  Now, we alternate between rice, hemp, and almond... RAW is always on the menu for the children unless they request something else or we are out of it.  Bob and I do not drink a lot of milk per se... we do eat it in its fermented form often, but as older adults we find that milk isn't something that we crave or need for our bodies.  I make cultured butter.  I cook with ev coconut oil and then add the butter after cooking.

Some people question milk in general - saying we are the only species that drinks the milk of another mammal.  In my experience that isn't completely factual.  Since I have a bit of background with critters I can tell you that I've seen dogs nursing kittens as well as squirrels.  Cows nursing deer, llama, alpaca, and more... many good mama critters will 'share' their milk and help out a baby - it is amazing to watch!  Number two we must remember that people have been drinking raw milk all through the ages... "The land of Milk and Honey" anyone...
People would fill their goat or sheep stomach 'flasks' with milk and hang it over their shoulder... these nomadic tribesmen would carry about the load all day long in the summer heat and it would ferment in there... creating kefir!  And they would drink it and then refill the flask the next day for another days journey.  They milked goats, sheep, cows, horses and other equine.  Equine?  Sheep?  yes!  I have read several things on what milk is closest to human milk... in this order this is what I have found:  equine, sheep, goat, Jersey cow, Short Horn cow, and down the line ending with the Holstein at the bottom of the list of milking cows!  WOW!  Holstein, the most common milk cow - at the bottom?  Yep, not as rich in milk fats... you will find that a dairyman will actually rent or own several Jersey milk cows to supplement his tank in milk fat.  They get paid on how much milk fat is in the milk when it is tested.  While the Holstein has a LOT of milk to give (it is a BIG cow) it isn't nearly as good for you, is harder to digest, and in the case of our factory mil production - lacks essential vitamins and nutrients, enzymes, and milk fats that help people digest the milk.  Another thing to note is that one should NEVER drink 2% milk... we, as a species need to have the milk fats in order to digest the milk properly and not end up with a belly ache or signs of lactose intolerance.   Ohhhh so many things to think about.....

Yes, I'm a WAPF er - and proud of it since it saved our son's life!  And continues to help us in so many ways from allergies, to immune system enhancing... there are so many things that organically raised - hormone free - antibiotic free - grass fed milk gives us!  So many things - and truthfully... this post would be endless if I put it all here.  I encourage you to do a search here- on our blog, on the internet, check out books at the library, look up studies about raw milk - take control of your health... Heal you gut and enjoy a glass of strawberry smoothie using raw milk Kefir... To Your Health!

Now it is your turn...
What is your milk story?