By Ann Hutyra, Modern Holistic Health Lead Biological Health Coach
www.ModernHolisticHealth.com
As more and more chemicals find their way into our food and water supplies, body care products, and everyday use items – it’s becoming harder to live a toxin-free life. What about babies in the womb who can’t read a label or make sure they’re eating clean food? It becomes the mother’s burden to make sure everything she uses, from body care to cleaning supplies, and all the food she eats, is clean and toxin-free – which is quite an undertaking!
The latest studies from the Environmental Working Group show the average baby is now born with more than 200 toxins in their body! Several similar studies were conducted by the EWG over the past two decades, all showing very similar results – babies born today typically have a very high toxin load.
At Modern Holistic Health, we recently started working with a one-year-old client. Her mother came to us when she couldn’t find help to figure out her baby’s issues. Although the baby girl was happy and seemed to be healthy, every time she tried to introduce solid food into the baby’s diet, the baby would have blood in the stool. This can be very alarming for an adult to experience, much less have your one-year-old exhibiting these symptoms. So the baby’s diet consisted only of breastmilk.
After our initial visit with the girl’s mother, we ordered a whole host of labs and what we found was surprising. The lab results showed that not only did the baby have very high amounts of toxic mold in her body, but she also had multiple heavy metals and chemical toxins. The family admitted that they recently found mold in their home and were working to have that remediated, but where did the other harsh chemicals and toxins come from?
Both BPA and glyphosate are incredibly common toxins in our world today. BPA is one of the ingredients used in plastics, but can also be found in body care products, canned goods, and even some water supplies around the world. Glyphosate is the most commonly used pesticide in the United States, and although it is banned in many countries, it still finds its way into people’s bodies all over the world. BPA is most commonly known as an endocrine disruptor and causes major hormone imbalances, but can also contribute to a host of other symptoms and diseases. Glyphosate is a big disruptor of the gut and microbiome and is also linked to celiac disease and even cancer. For our young patient, glyphosate, along with the toxic mold, was likely one of the major root causes of her gut issues.
What’s interesting about this case is that even though the baby was eating little to no solid food, and mostly consuming breast milk, her Wheat Zoomer test showed she was already showing elevated antibodies to wheat and gluten, which we could potentially also connect to the glyphosate exposure.
Cesium was one of the heavy metals that came back on the young child’s lab results as being extremely high. Cesium is a radioactive element and is a byproduct of nuclear explosions, although it is also found in the soil and can be in drinking water. This family lives in the Middle East and was not far from the Beirut bombing in 2020, so they believe the cesium exposure is likely from that, and could be affecting the whole family. Interestingly, this event happened two years before the baby’s birth – so did the toxins get passed in utero from mother to child, or was there ongoing exposure after the fact? While we don’t know for sure – either of those scenarios is possible. Cesium exposure can cause severe symptoms, including nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, bleeding, heart palpitations, and fatigue – so we also believe this was a clear link to the baby’s gut-related symptoms.
Finally, a Gut Zoomer test for the child also showed a bacterial gut infection, which could contribute to elevated food sensitivities and her challenges in introducing solid foods into the diet.
After all this data was collected, we knew the baby would ultimately need to detox. The beautiful thing about our detox protocols at MHH is that they can be customized for anyone at any age – even a one-year-old. We started this baby on some gut support, probiotics, and detox support, and the mother now reports that she is no longer seeing blood in the child’s stools when she tries new foods – which is a huge win! There will be several more months of detox and gut healing ahead for this child, but we are confident that she can completely heal from her symptoms and have a healthy life.
If you need help navigating your own healing journey or help for your child, please reach out to our front office or go to our website and book an appointment with one of our coaches.