Cathy,

My daughter is 8 yrs. old.  She was on maintenance antibiotics for 9 months
of the year for the first 6 years of her life.  It gets complicated though.
We adopted her in Paraguay when she was 3 months.  The foster mom told us
she was eating mashed potatoes, hard boiled eggs, bananas, and formula (a
dairy formula that is more like the kind you give older babies that was
mixed with sugar and cereal).  We took her off everything but the formula
(without the sugar and cereal).  The Dr. had her on antibiotics and sulfa
drugs while we were there.  So was this the beginning of all the
problems.....I'm not sure.  I don't remember when the ear infections
started.  But I did not put her on dairy until she was close to 2.  My
brother-in-law is a naturopath and had me giving her acidophilus in her
bottle to try to keep her intestines working right.  The Drs said tubes
would just get blocked so that wouldn't help.  Last year was ear infection
free, but the diarrhea started.  The Drs kept saying it was an intestinal
virus.  I finally let my Drs (the MDs) know I was not happy with this after
6 months.  My brother- in-law did some testing on a Vega tester(?), which is
non-invasive and said that it was due to candida and the "bad" bacteria
overgrowth.  Since I have taken her off all dairy and put her on a bunch of
stuff he gave me.  He thinks that she may be able to eat dairy again after a
few years.  I'm hoping I won't have to take her off all wheat, but I'm
trying to cut down.  Her behavior at home and her attention and handwriting
at school have improved alot since starting all of this.  So to make a long
story short, I think all the medications and the type of food she was eating
during her first 3 months may have been a large part of the problem.  Would
she have ear infections and dairy intolerance anyway.....?

Cindy Rooth