Daughter's Menses

[Cobalt]

Hi All:

My daughter started menstruating at few months ago at age 12. Her periods seem to be pretty heavy and uncomfortable. I just re-read Dr. McDougall's article, Hormone Dependent Diseases.

I have been McDougalling for years now, but my husband is not; and he's the cook for the household. My needs have influenced his cooking somewhat, but he's not willing to give up all his meat and oils. I make my own breakfasts and lunches, and a salad for everyone at dinner. He does the rest, and he's a really good cook. Most of the time now he makes a cooked vegetable dish for dinner w/o any oil. My daughter and I are lactose intolerant, so she hasn't had any milk products for some years now. Sometimes she eats the meat served at dinner, and sometimes not. She does eat Daiya cheese quesadillas regularly and a pint of dairy-free ice cream weekly. The whole family is gluten free. Her main carbs are corn tortillas and fresh fruit. Some vegetables are consumed, but I'm always encouraging more.

My question is this: If I can convince her to to cut out the meat and oils (at least as a test), do you think her periods could be easier/shorter? I realize this step would be much healthier, but I can't convince her to do it for overall health reasons. I read the article mentioned above to her (I'm not sure she really understands the technical nature of the subject enough). She said she'd try to cut down on the meats and oils, but I didn't get overwhelming interest. I think I can get my husband to make more McDougall type dishes for her if he can be convinced of the benefit. I've already tried to feed her what I eat and she has rebelled. No more multi-grain mushes for breakfast! She ate that for about 5 years and then one day she refused. Now her dad now fries corn tortillas in Pam and adds home-made ketchup for her breakfasts. She has a yeast reaction to sucrose, so we use agave or stevia for virtually all sweetening needs.

Thanks in advance for your reply.

[scooterpie]

Wow, 454 views and no advice/replies whatsoever! However, since the thread is almost 7 months old, you've probably figured it out by now:-)

At any rate, and for anyone else who may benefit, you might want to ask this in the "health issues" forum as well. This may be the 2nd time I've even looked at this forum--never replied until now.

Since she drinks no fortified with vit D milk, does she get plenty of sunshine and thus her body is making D? Is she overweight/obese? (That can contribute to not making D from the sun.) Have you had her vit D level checked?

Actually I wouldn't bother getting it checked, though I'm certainly NOT a dr, and go ahead and give her a supplement of vit D--600 IUs is recommended from the below link for her age. Unfortunately if she's dangerously low after testing, it will take a lot more than 600 IUs per day to compensate. Lower D levels have been shown to cause painful periods in adults. Not sure about kids and not sure if there's a tie-in to heavy periods.

It's one thing for you to be gluten-free, but if a child has no signs of celiac disease it's just depriving them of another source of possibly precious nutrients they could be benefiting from. She may be missing out on all kinds of important nutrition.

Again, I'm not a dr, dietician or healthcare professional of any kind!

http://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/VitaminD-QuickFacts/

[Cobalt]

Thanks for your interest in this topic Scooterpie.

I do have an update. My daughter stopped eating meat for the most part and her periods got easier within a month or two. Over the holidays she ate quite a bit of meat and her next cycle was heavy. So, she's now not eating meat again. We just got home from an event where dairy-free carne asada and chicken tacos were provided. She declined.

She is not overweight and she gets lots of sun...we live in San Diego County. It's my understanding from reading what the professionals say on this website that it would not be recommended for her to automatically take vitamin D just because she doesn't drink fortified cow's milk.

She doesn't seem to have celiac disease, but she gets hot and sweaty and has a poor night's sleep if she eats gluten. Her father has the same reaction. I get skin rashes when I eat gluten. That's why the household is gluten free.

[scooterpie]

Good to see your update Cobalt!

That's excellent news about your daughter's periods improving. I imagine at least one other person will read and benefit from your posts! Good that she gets REAL sunshine too!

[Peashoot]

It's really interesting to see that she worked that out for herself after noticing the difference when she didn't eat meat for a while. I imagine that with a 12 yr old, this is the only way of convincing them to do anything.

[Cobalt]

Yes, Peashoot, intrinsic motivation is the goal in this house. I just wish I could help her find the intrinsic motivation to clean her room.

[evapaw]

I know this is an older post but just a quick story for anyone interested:

I started mcdougalling six years ago. I was a teenager at the time suffering from endometrioses. I was eating a lot of vegetables at first, and after a few months on the diet my period pains and PMS disappeared completely and my period was regular for the first time. Over the years however the difficulty seemed to come and go, and I thought it was related to adding nuts and soy to my diet, so I would try to avoid them. Yet even when I cut out nuts and soy completely I still had difficulty. Then I settled into a pattern of having SOME pain and discomfort during my period pretty consistently, at the time I was mainly just eating rice and beans. I decided to try out Dr. Fuhrman's diet , and within a month I was back to zero pain or discomfort, even though I was eating a lot of nuts and soy. It occurred to me that all the times I had more problems with my period I wasn't eating as many green and yellow vegetables. I don't know if I was simply getting less fat by eating more vegetables or if it was the higher nutrients as Dr. Fuhrman says, but since I've made a point to include a lot of vegetables in my diet and haven't had any problems.