Harper's Story

Chunky, eczema, hair loss, and stuttering—these are all things that our pediatrician said were “normal.” I knew deep down it wasn’t. I am a chiropractor and a functional medicine physician, and I knew what the pediatrician was saying wasn’t accurate. She wasn’t chunky; she was swollen and puffy. There is a clear difference between swelling and fat. Like many moms, we don’t listen to our gut instinct or our education and go along with what our pediatrician says. I do love our pediatrician, and she is very knowledgeable, so why not believe that my daughter’s health issues were “normal”? This was an ongoing conversation I had with our pediatrician since Harper was 18 months old.

In 2020, when she started to lose her hair in smooth, oval patches, I knew for certain she had a gluten issue. I took it upon myself and sent her blood out for special food allergy testing. To no surprise, it came back that she was allergic to gluten, dairy, eggs, casein, and black pepper. That is the day our gluten-free journey began.

First, I want to say that going gluten-free, egg-free, and dairy-free with a toddler is harder than you think, especially when the majority of her diet consisted of eggs for breakfast along with various forms of bread, pasta, and crackers throughout the day as meals and snacks.

Harper had a little stutter when she spoke, and we noticed that within a week of her going gluten-free, her speech improved. We also noticed that she started moving around and running outside more. She never said anything hurt, but she also wasn’t speaking much and probably didn’t understand what she was feeling. As the days, weeks, and months passed, she lost weight, her skin cleared up, she spoke more with little to no stutter, and her hair started to grow back. She was happy and healthy. We noticed that if we were out and about and not prepared or traveling and she accidentally ate something with gluten, her stutter would worsen. It was a telltale sign that she had eaten something she shouldn’t have.

She did really well until a few months ago when she started sneaking foods that she thought were gluten-free but clearly weren’t. I would ask her if she ate anything she shouldn’t have, and she’d say “no,” but I could tell there was a difference. I first noticed that her speech was sometimes not as clear. As the days and weeks passed, I noticed her face start to swell, especially around her eyes. She has complained about her legs hurting and not wanting to run. She doesn’t have eczema or hair loss, but you can notice how her sneaking hidden gluten foods has affected her.  

People often ask if I know what caused her food allergies, and I believe I do. When Harper was only three weeks old, she developed a fever of 104.8°F. In the ER, they found out she had kidney infections and was septic. She was on many IV and oral antibiotics on and off for months. I gave her probiotics in her bottles and tried to keep her gut as healthy as possible, but I do believe her being so sick while so young caused her current food allergy issues.

I hope that by sharing our journey, others will become more aware of how our gut health affects overall health. It’s important to listen to our intuition when it comes to our kids, family and ourselves. I hope to educate people on how we healed Harper’s gut along with the bumps, struggles, and victories we’ve had along the way.

~Dr. Alexis Noggle DC, CFMP, PNLP