What a blessing it is to discover that there IS something you can do to help your child thrive. It took all of two weeks, even after receiving Trace’s diagnosis at two years old, to realize that I was the expert in the room at our meeting to discuss his genetic testing results. His geneticist and genetic counselor gave me far less information than what I had already learned in my own reading, and they had no clue what this disorder looks like or how to treat it. The only thing they had to offer was medications to control seizures as needed, and at this point he had had none for two years. As for his delays and reduced neurological function, we had always been told was “nothing else we can do”. Well, that “nothing” wasn’t good enough for this Momma bear. Because I was the one living with him, I had already become his wellness advocate and the expert on all things Trace. I learned everything I could and I was even more determined to customize his nutrition and tailor it to his needs.

Once I got the reflux under control with his diet and he was able to keep food down, I was able to branch out and try other supplements. The next additions to his regimen were Ningxia Red and Mindwise. Both of these liquids are dark red and they do leave some impressive stains in clothing, so they were wildly out of the question while he was still throwing up all the time! But it turned out that these two supplements were the most life changing of anything I have ever given him. 

Ningxia Red is a whole-food based, liquid supplement that provides full body nutrition from the cellular level. It is the most anti-oxidant rich drink available, bringing oxygen to the cells and enabling the cells and muscles to breathe and function effectively. It is infused with essential oils to aid and increase absorption. It is the perfect supplement for any person needing full-scale nutrition overhaul. I began giving him a dropper full of Ningxia Red at each meal. This amounted to a little less than an ounce over the course of the day. I began to see his stamina and energy improve as his body was better able to utilize and absorb the nutrients he was receiving. He began to tolerate his physical therapy sessions much better as his hypotonic muscles showed their appreciation for the added support. He even began riding horses once a week during his physical therapy sessions and has built up his core muscles and stamina so well that today he can bear weight on his feet (supported) for nearly thirty minutes and is working hard to learn how to walk.

The next week, a friend recommended MindWise. It is a supplement that supports brain health and cognitive fitness. It contains healthy fats and vital nutrients to support brain function. To this point, Trace was still mostly non-verbal. He could barely babble, made very limited sounds, could not imitate any sounds that were demonstrated to him, and had no concept of intentional communication or ability to express language. She told me a story of her friend’s child, who had seen awesome changes in his speech language skills. We know that little boys often learn to talk later than girls, and that their brains need more fats, so this made total sense to me. 

Without question, I placed an order right in the middle of our conversation, and this supplement is what completely revolutionized his development. Within a week, he began making babbling sounds. It was the same sound over and over, but it was sound, nothing had ever sounded more beautiful...until he learned to say “Mama” a few weeks later! We actually still did not have Trace’s diagnosis at that point, because we were still waiting for genetic testing results. I have since learned that the majority children with his disorder are commonly non-verbal their entire lives. However, Trace has developed some consistent patterns of communication that his daddy and I, and even his sisters and therapists are able to understand. He love food, and the very first word he learned to sign was “Eat!” Of course that boy knows how to tell us he wants a snack! 

The benefits of MindWise have gone far beyond speech and sounds. Language was only the beginning of the changes we would see. Please understand that he had been working with a highly skilled team of fantastic pediatric therapists in various disciplines since his first birthday. He tolerated therapy, but suddenly, his physical therapy sessions became much more effective as his brain began to put two and two together. He learned to initiate movement and we saw him practicing his new therapy skills at home - finally mastering the transition from laying down to sitting up (instead of being placed and supported into an independent sitting position) and trying to get into quadruped (on all fours). My once stationary child became VERY mobile and very capable of traveling around the house, and watching him explore his home on his own terms for the first time had me in tears of happiness. Three weeks after starting MindWise, he figured out what his physical therapist had been trying to show him: how to push through his legs to go from being seated on a bench to standing up. Oh, he was so proud of himself that he CLAPPED!! 

We started to see huge leaps in progress in occupational therapy as well. In addition to clapping, he learned how to use both hands together, how to hold an object in each hand at the same time, how to hold his cup with both hands to drink, and mastered a pincer grasp to feed himself with finger foods. He began to understand that balls and wheels and dump trucks roll, that it is fun to turn pages of books, and that doors are fascinating things to open and close - and that often have fascinating people or objects inside them! In feeding therapy (a component of speech therapy) his oral motor skills started to become more organized and he learned to chew better so that we could progress from purées to chunky “soups” and then on to actually chewing tiny bites of food. He even drinks his Ningxia Red/Mindwise cocktail through a straw!

I simply cannot rave enough about Mindwise. It has fully revolutionized his life. It is obvious that today, he understands everything that is said to him. He follows verbal commands very well, such as “Come here; Sit up; Lay down; Close the door.” He is learning to feed himself with a spoon. He is highly observant. He loves people watching and enjoys playing around kids his own age. He loves a funny face or a round of patty-cake and has the best laugh. Oh, and he loves to have his picture taken and actually says “eeeeee! (Cheese!)” for the camera. He knows he’s cute!!

Since then, Ningxia Red and Mindwise have been his primary, daily supplements. His “smart juice” is an unwavering part of his daily regimen. I should mention that they are staples in MY daily regimen as well. How else am I supposed to keep up with four active kids, six years and younger?! When I drink my Ningxia in the morning, I feel like I’ve just put on my SuperMom cape!

(***These statements have not been evaluated by the FDA, and are not meant to diagnose, treat, or cure any illness, and should not replace the advice of your medical professional and health care providers. Please remember that YOU are in charge of your own life and wellness decisions! If you would like to learn more about Young Living Essential Oils or supplements, or for a personal wellness consultation to explore the supplements that could be useful in your own family’s life, please contact and follow me on Facebook at “Oily and Wise - Young Living with Lorna Miller, Independent Distributor.”)

To start your journey with Young Living and receive education and support from me and my amazing team, click here: http://yl.pe/4d4m

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I am so grateful that in His great wisdom and foresight, God had already set me on a path of better living years before Trace’s conception. His very life was spared in the womb from a threatened miscarriage by God’s mercy and protection, and because I already had Young Living resources at hand in my home that literally saved his life. I was learning about better nutrition, so that I could keep myself and my babies healthy during four back-to-back pregnancies. And I was already confident in the knowledge and safe use of essential oils. Branching out into another of Young Living’s trademark product lines was simply the next step.

As I began to learn more about Trace’s individual struggles with absorbing nutrients, I knew that I needed the best supplements available so that his body would be able to use and absorb what was given. So I began to incorporate Young Living’s supplements into his daily routine one at a time. Even as a baby, I trusted Young Living’s supplements to be safe for him and adjusted dosages to be more appropriate for his age. With each one, I began to see drastic improvements in his overall health and demeanor, and also in his development.

I began by targeting improved digestion and gut health. Trace has several food intolerances and sensitivities that indicate a severe lack of enzymes in his gut. He is gluten and lactose intolerant, and for a long time could not tolerate eggs. He is sensitive to other foods as well, such as tomatoes, bananas, beans, certain citrus fruits, and preservatives such as citric acid. Before I learned about the connection between GERD and gluten intolerance, he threw up 50 to 100 times a day, every day, from infancy to 19 months old. We tried everything, saw all the doctors, took all the medications, tried all the formulas, and nothing alleviated the issue until we eliminated the gluten. The horrific diapers and screaming belly aches went away with the elimination of dairy from his diet.

The earliest supplement I started him on, at less than a year old, was Sulfurzyme. This was long before I discovered the true cause of his constant vomiting and reflux, but he was one sick baby. I desperately needed to give my baby some relief from the intense burning in his belly. His reflux, triggered by gluten, was completely resistant to medication despite months of various prescription drugs. I would empty a bit of Sulfurzyme from a capsule into his bottle and he would eventually become comfortable enough to sleep for a short time. This has continued to be a great supplement for him even beyond the discovery of food allergies and the cessation of reflux. 

I also started him on MightyZymes chewable enzyme tablets. Even before he was able to chew, I ground them up and mixed them into his puréed food. Enzymes are incredibly important for digesting foods and utilizing the nutrients therein, as well as helping the gut and the brain to function well. 

During this time, I also used essential oils on him, diluted for his sensitive baby skin. DiGize, Peppermint, and Fennel essential oils were common in our rotation. 

In my prayer time one day, the Lord set me on a path toward researching food allergies. Alarmed at the connections I was making in my research, I jumped in with both feet on overhauling his entire diet. There is a backstory here that I struggled with chronic low milk supply and all my babies have thrived on donated breastmilk. At the time that I discovered the gluten and dairy triggers, donor breastmilk was almost his sole nutrition, because he couldn’t hold anything down. Everything came back up almost immediately. As soon as I suspected those triggers, I completely ceased the breastmilk because I could not find a gluten/dairy free donor. He was 19 months old, well beyond the age that most children are able to eat solid foods, so I immediately made up a batch of mixed vegetables with a little bit of chicken and puréed it all to almost a liquid consistency, and just gave him almond milk to drink for about two or three days, just to see what would happen. I added about 1/8 tsp of Sulfurzyme and MightyZymes to each meal. 

Lo and behold, he suddenly started keeping all of his food down. It was uphill from there! Within two days his eyes started to brighten, and we started to see a happy little boy emerge from this body that had been just so riddled with pain. He gained a healthy appetite and started to eat regular meals with us (of course, puréed to a manageable texture and consistency for his then lack of developed oral motor skills). He finally began gaining weight and at almost three years old he has tipped the scales at 30lbs (he weighed only 17 lbs at his one-year check up). Occasionally, an irritating food slips back into his system due to an overly generous baby sister, and those two supplements (Sulfurzyme and MightyZymes) are still invaluable for helping us to move through the hard days of working through those reactions.

With his dietary improvements, an established supplement regimen, and a huge amount of prayer, my little guy’s life suddenly began to change for the better. The two pictures with this post were taken just a month apart from one another, with some giant food changes in between. He looks like a different kid! 

My favorite part of the story comes in tomorrow’s part 3 post, so be sure to come back! 

(***These statements have not been evaluated by the FDA, and are not meant to diagnose, treat, or cure any illness, and should not replace the advice of your medical professional and health care providers. Please remember that YOU are in charge of your own life and wellness decisions! If you would like to learn more about Young Living Essential Oils or supplements, or for a personal wellness consultation to explore the supplements that could be useful in your own family’s life, please contact and follow me on Facebook at “Oily and Wise - Young Living with Lorna Miller, Independent Distributor.”)

To start your journey with Young Living and receive education and support from me and my amazing team, click here: http://yl.pe/4d4m

Guest post by Lorna Miller  A Heritage Living Team Member 

Nutrition. It’s one of those important but vague words that really means very little to the human mind until one begins to break down the various facets of it to understand the body’s needs and what those building blocks of nutrition actually DO for the body. We know we need to have “good nutrition” and “ease body to function properly, but we don’t actually know what that means. And we have have no idea how nutritional supplements compliment a whole food based diet and improve our body’s ability to absorb nutrients from our food.

In the minds of most, “proper nutrition” sounds boring. It translates to “go on a diet.” On the plate of the majority of Americans, it means brown rice instead of white, whole wheat bread, no salt, low fat, and artificial sweeteners; yet still those types of food-pyramid-driven diets miss the mark terribly when aiming for a certain goal of lowering blood pressures and cholesterol levels or balancing blood sugars. This nation is perishing for lack of knowledge. The general populace has no idea the difference between simple and complex carbohydrates, the purpose of protein, why the brain needs healthy fats to function well, or that consuming pink sea salt can actually save the lives of those struggling with cardiovascular issues or migraines simply by replenishing critically deficient minerals. And most have never given a single thought toward how we can help the special needs population to thrive just a little bit better by providing their overly taxed bodies with real, nourishing food and targeted nutrition supplements.

I had never given this much thought until I became a special needs mom myself, and saw my son’s abilities begin to drastically change with a better diet. I cannot suggest that we can cure these disorders with food, but I do believe that we can change their lives in incredible ways just by implementing sound nutrition to enable their brains and bodies to function just a bit better.

Over the last several years of learning about the various aspects of nutrition, it has become apparent to me that while the vast majority of Americans suffer from severely deficient nutrition, the special needs population suffers even more. Often, their nutrition is unintentionally neglected in the name of survival. Of course, I am not criticizing special needs parents at all - after all, I am one! Being the parent or caregiver for a special needs individual is intense in ways that are unimaginable to the general population. The experience of having another human being completely dependent on you for their very existence, long beyond infancy, is especially taxing. There are so many day-to-day details to keep up with that add up to the utter exhaustion of the caretaker. Feeding these sweet souls often becomes a matter of survival. Fill the belly at the appropriate times with whatever we know will not be refused or rejected, and move along. I do it too. This is nothing to take offense over because I know that this doesn’t happen on purpose or with the intent of neglect. Please understand that this is NOT an attack. I am on your team, Super Hero Parent! I know it is just easier to feed them the things that we know go down easily and keep them happy for a while, so that we can focus on surviving under the weight of the day’s to do list.
Life is heavy with another person’s needs placed squarely on your shoulders. It’s just what we do to survive.

But even in a medical setting, these kids’ nutritional deficiencies are neglected. Children are given feeding tubes (out of necessity in most cases) because they can’t chew well enough or swallow safely, but then the primary offering in those g-tubes is formula. Why not real food? There is little to no guidance offered in the department of better diets. Parents are not being educated on what vital components like enzymes and trace minerals and healthy fats can do for their children’s overall health. It is as though, because these sweet kiddos were dealt a tough hand in life, that they are not worth being poured into with REAL nutrition. Do we really believe the lie that there is nothing more we can do to help these children have better quality of life?

Thankfully, long before my journey as a special needs parent began, I had already begun using a certain brand of wellness products in my home, and it just so happened that this brand had a huge variety of essential-oil-infused nutritional supplements. I already had a few of them in my home, but up until this time, I had not paid too much attention to those supplements much beyond trying the multivitamin and a juice product. Research and studies on Trace’s genetic disorder center around learning how to help the brain produce these protein and neurotransmitters, so as to create a medication that would help the body to bridge this gap. Obviously, such a medical advance could take a lifetime. So while we are waiting on this miracle cure for STXBP1, I began my own research on a more basic level. I have been busy learning how I can help to fill in these gaps with sound nutritional supplements to help my son to have the best chance possible at learning to use and control his own body.

My son Trace is a 2.5 year- old boy who already has an amazing story of God’s power and protection on his life. He is a happy and thriving, highly observant, very social, very sweet little boy and loves the interaction and attention of people around him. He has a rare genetic change on the STXBP1 gene on the 9th chromosome. There are fewer than 300 known, diagnosed cases in the world. This change does not have an associated syndrome but is classed as an epileptic disorder. It inhibits the body’s ability to produce and make use of certain protein amino acids, and affects the way the nerve synapses in the brain produce and process neurotransmitters, causing seizures, neurological disturbances, and developmental delays. Essentially, it short circuits communication between the brain and the child’s body. Trace has not had seizures since he was a newborn, but he does have some tremors and tics present, especially when he is happy or excited. He has global developmental delay and takes speech, occupational, and physical therapy three times a week. His progress over the last year has been substantial, and I am so amazed every day at the things God is doing in his life! 

This is a story of a momma who wanted the best for her baby. Over the next few days I am going to share with you the things I discovered and the changes that have made huge differences in my child’s life. I am so excited to share our story, and the incredible difference Young Living has made in my family’s life. Stay tuned for the next few days as I share my ideas and his testimony.

(***These statements have not been evaluated by the FDA, and are not meant to diagnose, treat, or cure any illness, and should not replace the advice of your medical professional and health care providers. Please remember that YOU are in charge of your own life and wellness decisions! If you would like to learn more about Young Living Essential Oils or supplements, or for a personal wellness consultation to explore the supplements that could be useful in your own family’s life, please contact and follow me on Facebook at “Oily and Wise - Young Living with Lorna Miller, Independent Distributor.”)

To start your journey with Young Living and receive education and personal support from me (Lorna) and my amazing team, click here: http://yl.pe/4d4m

Spice up the night with Goldenrod.

Goldenrod is BACK IN STOCK! Item #: 3562

Go ahead, get the schoolgirl giggles out. I giggle every time. The name evokes a graphic mental picture. The name says it all. This oil should go in your Essential Rewards order STAT. Limit 1 per account per month (because really, how much can you handle)!?   

Apply one to two drops in the palm of your hand with V-6 oil. Mix and apply to his inner thighs and work your way up. 

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Make a romantic Tingle Massage Oil to heat things up with this month's FREEBIES, Sensation oil and V-6 oil complex.

Dilute more with V-6 if it's too tingly. Test sensitive areas before using.

Directions

Worried about some heavy party snacks? Here are a few favorites to support your digestion.

Make a Tummy roller by combining 15 drops DiGize and 15 drops Peppermint; fill withV-6 complex; roll on tummy before and after eating. 

One drop of SclarEssence Vitality in water before a meal for digestive support. (SclarEssence is FREE with 100 PV ER order.)

Digest & Cleanse supports healthy digestion and soothes gastrointestinal upset caused by stress, overeating, and toxins. It helps soothe the bowel, prevent gas, and stimulate stomach secretions, aiding digestion. Item #: 3293