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Written by Tichina Arnold

Hello Bloggers,

My name is Tichina Arnold and on March 16, 2004, God blessed me with the most beautiful baby girl (Alijah Kai). She was perfect and as I sat gazing at her in the hospital, I wondered what had I gotten myself into.

An innocent little human being was solely dependent on me! I took all the CPR and breastfeeding classes and learned quite a bit.

I breast fed Alijah for the first four months as she thrived and grew into a healthy child ... so I thought. However, I was a single mom and it was time to get back to work so I decided it was time to wean her to the bottle.

I tried my best to research baby formula and after much reading I knew that I did not want to feed her any form of animal's milk.

I then began consulting with other moms as to alternatives. A very good friend suggested almond milk because it worked well for her two daughters because it had sufficient nutrients for healthy development. Thus, I started my baby on almond milk.

To my dismay and surprise, I was feeding her the almond milk not knowing that she was highly allergic to nuts of any kind!

Her face, arms, neck and back broke out with a horrible rash, and as tiny as she was, she was scratching fervidly. She literally looked like a monster! I took pictures to document it. Aside from the the shock that I had almost killed my baby, I quickly switched to rice milk and purified water also added the help of a topical cream. Her itching was alleviated and her skin began to slowly heal. I learned through trial and error all of the many things that my baby was allergic to... and she was only four months old.

I still had a nightmare ahead of me that I could not foresee: When she was 8 months old I was feeding her from my plate that happen to have shrimp on it. Just like mother birds feeding their young, I would chew pieces of different foods and feed them to Alijah as her taste buds grew. All of a sudden, I look down at Alijah only to see her eyes watering and her scratching at her neck while she grasped for air. I quickly picked her up and forced her to regurgitate the remains of the food. Truly, I did not know what was happening this was my first! You can only imagine my fear and panic at that moment.

After much testing, I was informed that my baby had "severe allergies" and was suffering with eczema and asthma in its severest form. Our lives immediately changed forever. I have done so much research trying my best to find a more holistic, organic and healthy way of dealing with her constant outbreaks due to eczema and asthma.

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