Dealing with an Allergy Kiddo

I'm not sure why it's taken me so long to talk about allergies with you all! I have a true allergy kiddo, River, and for a long time his challenges consumed our family life! He is allergic to milk, gluten, peanuts (scary!), grass, pollen, cats, dogs, horses, and pretty much any other allergen you can think of. Asthma, skin rashes, scratchy throat, diarhea, stomach cramps, you name it; River has had it! And for a long time his allergies and symptoms defined him in his own mind, and in ours! It was dark days for River for a while there. We chose an EXTREMELY unconventional treatment to boost his autoimmune system, helminthic therapy, which is just fancy talk for purposely infesting him with sterile hookworms. (I told you it was unconventional!) and that made an incredible difference for him in ways I couldn't even have imagined. BUT, just figuring out his treatment wasn't enough. We also had to adjust the way we were parenting him so that we were treating him like a normal kid without the sad-sack, sorry-for-you attitude that was totally destroying him. River is an awesome, clever, confident badass today and his allergies are like a tiny part of him, like his hair color or the fact that he loves football. Tune in to the group videos this week to learn more about how to get on the right track with allergies!!!