Jenni’s Journey is taken from an interview with Healthy Living Magazine April 2005.

Jenni how did you become involved in the health and wellbeing arena?

Well my journey began twelve years ago when I met my husband Chris.  Before meeting Chris I had been to see traditional doctors if I got sick which thankfully was not so often.  Chris on the other hand never seemed to be 100%.  He would have a runny nose or eczema, he would be sneezing or coughing a lot and would have occasional cold sores.  Lots of little things that didn’t seem to culminate in a serious problem but meant that he was never fully well.  He also suffers from asthma and food allergies.  Over the next 7 years we went to see doctors and naturopaths (thank you Chris for introducing me to alternative/complementary medicine) but any remedies or medication we were offered never seemed to really change the situation.

Then my first son Alex was born and despite a difficult and traumatic birth everything seemed to be OK.  That was until I started to introduce foods.  Alex became covered in eczema, had puffy cheeks and eyes, blisters on his cheeks, refused to eat, and at times was just hard to handle. It was a stressful time. He would wake in the middle of the night screaming and crying and he would be covered in blood from scratching his eczema.  We would bathe him and he would gurgle and talk and take it all in. What a trooper! And he still is…

I began questioning why Alex had this and what could be done. I went to a new GP recommended by other mothers, and he was great, he asked about family history.  We  explained about Chris, but the doctor didn’t mention the possibility that food allergies could be genetic and he prescribed a cortisone cream which he said not to use on Alex’s face because it could be dangerous, just on his body.  I accepted that, I just wanted my baby to be well.  The cream worked but the eczema kept coming back and we kept using the cream although not on the face.

I hadn’t thought about his diet or that allergies could be the cause so I started to introduce a variety of food, as instructed by baby health nurses everywhere. I had given Alex a spoon of some food I had made up and he immediately started to swell up.  It started from his mouth all the way up his face and on to the body. I thought I was going nuts, a neighbour told me to take him straight to the doctors and hurry. I was frantic, he was coughing and spluttering and I got him there as quick as I could. By the time we saw a doctor, the swelling had gone, he had hives all over and the doctor suggested he might be wheat intolerant.  When I questioned the doctor about the rash returning and what else we could try, he told me that Alex was a ‘rashy baby’ and not much else could be done.

I went to a new doctor. We had similar conversations and I was told after trying yet another, but stronger cortisone cream that didn’t work, that no child had ever failed this cream! How can my child have failed a cream? Hasn’t the cream and the doctor failed us!!!  It was so frustrating, I thought there’s got to be more information out there.

I was still feeding my child a ‘normal’ diet and we had another ‘episode’. This time after eating we thought he was choking, we made him vomit, held him upside down and he still was making that drawing in sound when he tried to breathe so we rushed him to the local doctors who put him on ventolin and sent him for a chest x-ray which came out clear.  On my first check-up visit with this new doctor (number three), telling him all the information and also the other ‘episode’, he asked me if I was a first time mum. I said yes and he nodded and smiled. He then told me Alex was probably asthmatic and to continue with the cream. Alex was about nine months old. How can a baby be asthmatic?

I was at my wits end. Not only dealing day to day with a child with eczema over his whole body and not being able to relieve it for him but having these ‘episodes’ and nobody even suggesting any alternatives.

Well, the sisterhood came through for me. Thank God for women! I met a mother at a mother’s group who took one look at Alex and said she could tell what was going on. She sat me down on our first introduction and told me to go to a particular GP and ask for my child to be allergy tested and for a referral to the Allergy Clinic. She was very firm and told me the doctor to ask for and also the dermatologist to ask for. I did that and within two months had seen both doctors and we finally had some answers. I made some radical changes to our home and diet and we have been living relatively eczema free for nearly two and half years. 

The answer I had been given was that Alex had severe food allergies and was anaphylactic to dairy, fish, nuts and eggs. Not the answer I was looking for, but the answer I needed to change our lives for the better. It was also the catalyst that led me to change my career and devote my time to helping other people and sharing knowledge about personal health empowerment.  I learnt that you have to question everything!!  We have to support one another without judgement or reprisal.  We have to trust our instincts and step up to question the information we are given. One woman I had never met or seen before gave me the information and strength from within herself to change not only my life but my son’s life and my family’s. That is what we can do for each other. That is what Thriving Healthy Women is all about.”

And how did you and Miranda meet?

After I had found out about Alex’s allergies a friend from my mother’s group who knew Miranda asked her to come and speak to me about toxins and chemicals in the home that could be aggravating Alex’s condition.  Miranda helped to eliminate a lot of undesirable ingredients in my home and suggested alternative products for us to use.  We became good friends and then Miranda asked me to help her spread the word through our community about natural healthy living.  We started to present workshops together in Australia on topics such as Toxic Free Living and Nutrition and we received such excellent feedback that we decided to expand our activities and create the website. 

What is your vision for the business and the future?

My vision is all about sharing information with other women and giving them the support, strength, courage and questions they need to get the right answers.  Not just for themselves but for their families and their communities.  I want to help other women to be the best that they can be.  We live in a great time where we have the technology to access information globally and in all areas. We can get information that was only available to practitioners and academics ten years ago and it is now available to anyone. I urge people to take advantage of this and to empower themselves. You may not get all the answers, but you will be able to ask a different question, and that itself could lead you on a path of great discovery.