Modish Monkeys Daily Diary
Introduction

In an effort to make less of a mark on our environment we decided not to include this portion of the diary in the book but instead include it on the website, our paperless instruction manual.  
 
We have 2 young children, one of which has suffered from eczema since he was about 2 months old.  We found no help any where and nothing which seemed to help us figure out what could be causing this skin irritation.  We seemed to be limited to what to do to help the skin, and nothing to help us figure out what was causing the reaction.  When my son was 2 his reaction hit its peak, it was from his eyes to his toes... I was beside myself and decided I had to do what ever it would take to get to the bottom of what was causing it! I took my son to a natural-path and dietician.  Low and behold I was told that it was an internal reaction to something which his body was not able to process or environmental influences.  Well, that was the first time someone had told me something other than put steroid/cortisone cream on him. We, from that day on monitored everything which went into, on, and around his little body.  We eliminated all the common allergy/intolerances and started to keep track of EVERYTHING!  Low and behold within a week of taking him completely off of all the common triggers, switching everything we could to organic, and putting him on some supplements, multivitamins, probiotics and closely monitoring his PH levels; his skin started to improve and dramatically. It wasn’t only his skin which improved it was also his whole demeanour! It was not the be all and end all, we now had to figure out of the common triggers what where the ones that were the culprits.  
 
For our son this process was our saving grace, the only downfall was we had to do it all in a coil notebook and had no guide as to different influences which could be affecting him.  WE TRACKED EVERYTHING! Over the period of about 6 months we discovered what he was intolerant/allergic to.  This process never fully ends, however you do get to the point where the need to monitor the daily activities rigidly goes away but every now and again something will trigger a reaction and the process starts all over.  I have to say though I would rather have the steps in place and established when it does happen than have to start from scratch and not know what to even look for.... it is a little like looking for a needle in a hay stack!
 
I am very happy to say that my son is approaching his 3 third birthday and we now have very manageable reactions and it has only been a handful of times over the past year.  It is usually when someone has given him something he is intolerant to thinking it is a nice treat for him, however they don’t see the discomfort he goes through for days to follow.  His reactions are now small little patches on the backs of his knees, feet or hands; they are never open sores any more and usually go away in a few days with some extra baths and lotion.  
 
No one can understand what it is like to watch your toddler sit on the floor scratching, crying and wanting help and you have no idea what to do! I can’t offer you a complete guarantee that the reactions will be gone forever but I can offer you a guide to help figure out what is causing the reactions and offer you advice and resources to help you eliminate the triggers from their lives! Please trust me when I say that it is worth the time and effort, it only takes me about 15 – 20 minutes a day to fill this book out.... I can’t even tell you what a difference discovering the triggers in your child’s life can make!
 
 
 
 
 

Daily Diary Guide

Congratulations on taking the first steps to help discover what is causing your little ones discomfort with allergies, eczema, and asthma!  This diary is fairly self explanatory and very user friendly; I even have my son’s day home filling this out when he has a flare up.
 
DAILY DIARY

ENVIRONMENTAL INFLUENCES
On the first page you will notice a section on the top listing Weather conditions, pollen conditions,  humidity, UV, etc;  you can find all this information at WWW.WEATHERNETWORK.COM .  This is a way to track the environmental influences.  
 
CONDITION OF SKIN AND PH LEVELS
You want to track the conditions of the skin at roughly the same time every day to just determine if your child is worse at certain points during the day. As for the PH Levels, if you decide to track this as we did you want to test your child at relatively the same time everyday.  You can do this with the PH Test strips (you can find these available for sale in our shop or at your local health food store), this is a very easy process just swipe it on their tongues and watch the strip change colors.  You will find in the package with your test strips a chart to see where you little ones PH falls for that period of the day.  If your child is more acidic than look in the PH Pamphlet in the back of your binder to see what foods you can feed them to help in the balancing for the day.  If your child is more acidic than you want to feed them more alkaline foods for the day, and vice versa.  
 
For more information on PH Balancing please refer to http://www.genuinehealth.com/skin/frontend/default/genhealth/pdf/ph_brochure_revised_en.pdf
 
SLEEP AND NAP SCHEDULE
This one is just to track their schedule and see if the conditions worsen or improve with naps.
Possible influences if their skin is worse with naps and sleep is some of the following;
Detergent and softeners used on sheets
Synthetic fabrics on bed (sheets, pj’s, clothes, etc)
Carpet in the room
Pets in the bed with them
 
BATHS AND LOTIONS USED
The best thing you can do for a little on with eczema is lots of baths with lotion applied before you dry them off (seals in the moisture from the bath in their skin).  You will find though that by tracking the baths you may find that your little ones skin flares up during or after bath time, you may want to look at the soaps, shampoos, conditioners, etc that you are using.  As well track the lotions you are using on their skin throughout the day to see if they are making matters worse or are possibly improving the skin.  With Allergies, you may find there are actually ingredients in the products which are causing the problems as well. Always something to think about.
 
CLOTHING
With Allergies, eczema, and Asthma you will find that there are so many things which could actually be hidden culprits to the skin and their internal systems.   Clothes can also be a trigger for little ones, especially synthetic fabrics, wools, etc. The best thing you can do if your child is currently really reacting is to dress them in breathable natural fabrics such as organic or regular cotton.  
 
DAILY ACTIVITIES AND NOTES
This is one factor we didn’t even consider until my son started flaring up on his hands and feet this past spring, low and behold upon tracking his daily activities we were able to link it to fresh cut grass and his sand box.  Needless to say the sand box was removed from our yard and within days his skin cleared right up.  Also, for us Stress can be another trigger, so I try to balance our day based on all the above catagories, routine, routine, routine! We discovered that if we have had a very busy stressful day it can also irritate his skin, although as all of us know those types of days do happen and we just find ways to give him down time by himself.  If my son goes to a friend’s house and plays with homemade play do we discovered his hands flared up from the wheat in it.  We have discovered so many little environmental factors from tracking his play throughout the day.  All the things you wouldn’t even think about can be enough combined to cause a substantial flare up.
 
DAILY FOOD, MEDICATION, AND SUPPLEMENTS TRACKING PAGE
This page is fairly straight forward.  You want to track all the food which comes in contact with your child and note any reactions they may have to it.  Our son recently tried kiwi (has had it in the past with no problems) and low and behold his tongue started to swell and his face broke out in hives almost instantly.  Needless to say we now keep an epi pen on us JUST IN CASE! But it is just an example of why we need to track the food which comes in contact with our little ones.
This diary goes everywhere my son goes, day home, grandparents, etc.
 
You also want to track the supplements and medications your child is taking to see if there are improvements or reactions to the conditions.  
 
If you are in the process of an elimination diet for your little one this chart will be your bible to track conditions when you introduce a common allergen food.
 
WEEKLY SUMMARY
You will find this page has a similar layout to the daily diary sheets to make it easy to fill in.  With this sheet you want to look through the past weeks pages and find any links or suspicious triggers that you would like to keep an eye on.  
 
THE ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS
You want to go through the weeks conditions add them up and divide by 7 to get your averages for the week or you can just estimate it for your self.  You want to mostly watch and see if you notice any changes in your little ones conditions based on changes in weather, pollen index, humidity, etc.  The weather can play a large part in the reactions as well.
 
FOODS/ REACTIONS
You just want to go through the week food diary and find any suspicious links that you think may be a trigger to follow more closely the next week.  Once you come to a conclusion that something could be a trigger and eliminate it COMPLETELY from their diets for 2 weeks, track their conditions while the suspected trigger has been eliminated and then reintroduce it for a few days and see if the condition returns. It is all trial and error, and your child will thank you when their symptoms begin to clear!  I have a few good book and websites listed http://www.modishmonkeys.ca/eczema-allergies-asthma.asp under Elimination diet links that your can refer to for thorough instructions.   You can also meet with a dietician or pediatrician, allergist, or Natural path for more details as well.  
 
 
 
 
REACTIONS TO ALL THE FOLLOWING CATAGORIES
You want to track all the other factors in the same way, if you are noticing something has been causing some reactions track it in the weekly summary and watch it from week to week.  Eliminate that trigger from their life and see if there has been an improvement or if it has stayed the same.
 
Average Condition of skin throughout the day
Average it out by referring to your daily diaries and note the averages at all three times of the day
 
Notes
You want to list any trigger or factors you may be following in detail, as well as any little changes in their reactions, demeanour, and new things you think you may want to try for the next week, etc.  This is your area to just note down whatever you can think of relevant to the kids or to you.  Remember as well, the kids are not sick, the just have something in there little bodies that reactions and causes these conditions.  We have discovered my son’s allergies and eczema to be a blessing in disguise, it has changed the way we live for the better and are SO aware of everything around us now.
 
If you at any time have any questions or need clarification on anything please feel free to contact me at your convenience by email  renee@modishmonkeys.com or at 1866-968-0293.  Thank you again, and be blessed.