All these symptoms

One of the advantages in the world of special needs is that we parents can quite easily network with each other, especially if the child has such a clear variant as an extra chromosome on chromosome pair 21, what is known, among other things, as Down's syndrome. We gather in associations, on social media and in groups created through the habilitation, etc. It provides great opportunities, partly to just talk in general, gain understanding, recognition, but also to avoid reinventing the "wheel" one more time and instead learn from other people's knowledge and experiences. In this way, we are spared a lot of headaches and searching for information.

Large parts of what is bumped and wet when we meet are problems with digestion and not least constipation, lack of energy, eczema and weight. Our children who have DS follow, for example, a special care program with extra focus on, among other things, the heart, thyroid gland and celiac disease. That's great, but as I said before, care focuses on removing the symptoms and then laxatives and cortisone creams come at rocket speed, because doctors look at symptoms and work with medications. Great in many ways, but it doesn't solve the problems, it only camouflages them for the time being.

The tests taken regarding celiac disease and the thyroid gland do not make us any wiser either. The tests can show, for example, that the patient does not have the gene for celiac disease, and then there is no problem. Or as in the case of hypothyroidism, you are informed that the child has hypothyroidism but not which variation. It's actually pretty useless information. If the hypothyroidism is Hashimoto's, then it is an autoimmune disease. If we want to try to improve the lives of our children with Morbit's down, it is the lifestyle we have to look at.

If we now return to that thing with gluten, for example the lack of the particular gene for celiac disease does not mean that one's body fixes gluten. A person who is intolerant to gluten protein probably has his problems. You don't get sick from bouncing, but if you constantly fill up with, for example, "sandwiches" that are constantly provoking, sooner or later you'll stop.

So you can have problems with gluten protein, which many of us have. Here, for me, there are two paths to choose from if you want to be convinced. Either you go to a functional medicine doctor and get properly investigated. Here, through broad blood panels, you can try to find out the problem and then work to give the body the best conditions, or you can take a good look at the family's lifestyle, and by that I actually mean the whole family's lifestyle. I believe that it benefits everyone in the family if everyone pitches in.

This thing about gluten being messed with is familiar to many of us. For example, if we think about the wheat we eat today, the modern hybridized dwarf wheat with its 42 chromosomes, it has a very high number of different gluten proteins with a completely different structure than the wheat we ate 50 years ago. That wheat was then called simple wheat or single grain wheat. It had 14 chromosomes and had a very small number of different gluten proteins. Today, we simply have a different product with completely different properties that may not be completely healthy for us and have health consequences that can be quite crazy.

"Don't touch my sandwiches, my cookies or my pasta!" That is the most common protest. Nah, but then it probably won't get any better either. Honestly: Is it reasonable to take medication for bowel function and skin problems? Instead of walking around the child, we should toughen up and start eating real and nutritious food. Should we really let ego and gossip come before well-being?

There are not very many people who feel good about the diet that is standard today and I think that maybe it is time to collectively roar and go against the grain, that we collectively demand a better diet instead of saying "a poor child" has to eat different  or special diet. We should simply jointly help ie the whole family to change lifestyle and diet. Then maybe it will suddenly become completely normal to eat real nutritious food and not eat heavily processed food full of junk that does nothing but harm to all of our bodies.

I'm aware of the problems with going this hard on that point, but maybe we should think twice about boosting the food instead of just stuffing ourselves with non-nutritious food just to fill us up. Satiety without nutrition only gives satiety and nothing else. Our lives have to work. Everyone has to work and we won't do that if we don't get the right conditions.