How Mainstream Medicine Failed Me

I am going to preface this by saying, I am first and foremost a scientist. I believe in evidence based practises and that there is a scientific explanation for most things, if not everything.

At two weeks old my son, Arthur, didn’t sleep an entire night after I ate a significant portion of dairy in the evening. When I asked a doctor about this I was told, its extremely unlikely he has a problem with dairy and newborns just have up and down nights. Turns out, not true.

At three weeks old, I was told my son has a bit of a tongue tie but releasing it was be an absolute last resort. Actually, it was a significant tongue tie that was causing significant functional issues. 

At 3 months old, I showed a doctor the putrid mucousy poo’s that my son was producing multiple times a day. “Looks like a normal immature gut poo to me”. Nope, not true either.

At 5 months old when I told a doctor my son doesn’t sleep, I was told, some babies just don’t sleep. Also not true.

At 6 months old when I finally realised my son’s tongue tie was causing him so many problems, he had it lasered and off we went. Except getting a tie release doesn’t magically fix the problems it causes. It takes months of rehabilitation to get the muscles and jaw functioning well again.

At 7 months old when I told a doctor that my son is reacting to absolutely everything I eat and as a result doesn’t sleep. I was told, “Don’t focus on the food so much, some babies don’t sleep”. Still not true.

At 8 months old when I was told I must stop breastfeeding or try add foods back into my diet even though it resulted in my son not sleeping.

At 9 months old when a doctor told me he doesn’t believe my son would react to food chemicals through breastmilk, yet didn’t actually ask me why I thought he was. 

At 10 months old when I was concerned my son wouldn’t swallow any solid foods andwas told it was just his pain association with food. 

At 11 months old when a different person also told me that my son wouldn’t swallow solids due to his pain association with food, even though he would happily put food in his mouth and spit it out chewed bits. 

At 12 months old when I stopped seeing mainstream medical professionals because I felt like no one was listening and no one would help. 

Then at 14 months old I strayed from mainstream medicine. I had no choice, we were out of options. My son was still 100% breastfed, didn’t eat, didn’t sleep and we both had just 3 safe foods. 

In the back of my mind was that quote by Tim Minchin, “Do you know what they call alternative medicine that's been proved to work? Medicine.”. But medicine didn’t have an answer for what was happening to my son. How could my son react to EVERYTHING he, or myself ate. It’s absurd. There has to be an answer. 

By chance I came across a chiropractor, who does applied kinesiology and practises integrative neuroimmunology. A trawled through her website and so much of what she said resonated with me and my son. This HAD to be it. This has to be the answer because there can’t be no explanation for what was happening to my son. 

Within 2 days of that first appointment my son slept better at night.

Within 4 days, my son started swallowing solid foods. 

In 4 weeks, we introduced new foods with no reaction and sleep was still good. 

Now 8 weeks in, we are still working slowly, bit by bit, but there is actual progress.

This is it. Alternative medicine has fixed my son. I don’t even fully understand what caused my son’s problem or even what this treatment is, but it’s working and it’s AMAZING! This is the answer!

Now don’t get me wrong, there are times where mainstream medicine helped, but I went down every single path there was to find an answer and I still came up with nothing.

You see, there is another part of the Tim Minchin quote that I forgot about. “By definition, alternative medicine has either not been proved to work, or been proved not to work.” But sometimes science isn’t black and white and sometimes, it’s far more complicated than we can understand. Just because it hasn’t been proved to work, doesn’t mean it doesn’t work. There are so many things in science that just don’t have the research to prove something is the case. But tt just means more research is needed to help us understand it. 

A study found that there is a 17 year age gap between a new research finding and when that finding is put into patient care and health practises. That means mainstream science is 17 years behind the ball. 

Maybe in 17 years time, this problem that me and my son suffered with, and the same problem I know so many mums around the world are also struggling with, may actually have an answer in mainstream medicine.