7 months of constant colds - has this happened to you?

My 12 1/2 year old daughter was diagnosed at birth.  She's been on enzymes, Pulmozyme, chest PT, etc., but with that has been remarkably healthy -- her lung function is usually at, or above, predicted, no hospitalizations, no crises.  Then, starting this past August, she has had a constant run of colds.  Some develop secondary infections, others don't, but she's sick (very stuffy nose, mainly) for 10 to 12 days every month.  She has no allergies, no apparent asthma (we're testing for it soon.)  She tested positive for pseudemonas for the first time in February, but with Tobi it was erradicated in one month, but she still got another cold after that.  The doctor does not think the pseudemonas is the cause of the colds.   Has anyone had this experience?  Why is she getting sick so often and what can we do to keep her healthy other than isolate her from the world?

My daughter also started getting alot of colds when she was 12. She has chronic sinus problems and is now 16 and we have had sinus polyps removed 5 times since she was 9. One of the reasons I believe that she started getting sick more was puberty. It takes its toll on well girls, so think how hard it is on someone who gets sick more often. I do not know if this is the same with your daughter but everytime she is fixing to start is when she will be more likely to get sick.

I hope this helps.

Good luck. Courtney's Mom

CF is a very manageable condition, with cases of survivors living into their late 70's. The problem is that the conventional understanding and medical approach to CF is fear-based, relying too heavily on drugs, and not at all on Nutrition, which is something you can control at home, with excellent results.  1) Antibiotic therapy is utterly insane. It wasn't till my fiance discontinued her daily regime of antibiotics that her health, at age 32, improved dramatically.  The problem is that antibiotics destroy probiotics. Anti-biotic, after all, means "Against Life," and given that there are at any given moment over 10 trillion bacteria in the human body, all, mind you, there for good reason (secreting antivirals, creating vitamins, digesting nutrients like milk sugar, and probably maintaining an uncountable number of essential biological functions), antibiotics destroy both the good and the "bad."  Pro-biotics, on the other hand, accomplish the same end: crowding out and destroying bad bacteria, and more: yeasts and some viruses, but have no adverse side effects.  The cold-like symptoms you describe sound like a classic case of antibiotic shock. I would suggest a wide spectrum probiotic like Primal Defense (Garden of Life), or MegaFlora (Mega Foods), both which have 14 good strains of bacteria, including the all important Bifobacterium strains, which reside and maintain the health of the colon.  2) Green Foods Heal!  A recent clinical study established that wheatgrass juice was able to Heal lung lesions. The number of conditions wheatgrass is effective against is too long to list. But the key principle here is that Green Foods Heal. In esoteric healing arts Green is the color of the Heart Chakra turned inward. Whether a poetic metaphor or not, science has demonstrated the incredible healing power of chlorophyl, and its biological similarity to hemoglobin. It is quite literally plant blood, and is able to provide the body's cells with all the ingredients necessary (e.g. RNA/DNA) to rebuild healthy cells.  3) Adding enzymes to the diet of someone with CF is a secondary consideration to the quality and "life activity" of the foods being eaten. A puree of steamed dandelions, collards, kale, onions, garlic, etc, perhaps mixed with a little quinoa, will require very little additional enzymes to fully assimilate. And the nutritional benefits are immeasurable! My fiance practically healed her chronic acne, fatigue, and bowel issues overnight, by changing her diet to exclude dairy, gluten-containing products (no wheat!), soy, and high glycemic foods.

The cure to CF will never be found in genetic testing methods, antibiotic therapy, lung transplants, and all the traditional lucrative medical (medeival) crap out there! Nature heals, and it is every body's birthright to be healthy, to find balance in what nature offers, no matter what "condition" we choose to incarnate with as our particular challenge. I encourage you to look for natural answers to your beautiful child's struggles. The answers are there! Best of Luck.

Okay, for those that believe no meds is the answer, if it works for you cool beans, but it does not work for everyone and eventually it will turn around and bite you on the you know what. tried it and almost died within 2 months.

I wish the previous two entries the best of luck for as long as it holds up. It made me angry to read sayers, but we are all entitled to our own opinion and if it works for them for now, more power to them.

To Dot's mom, please take her to an ENT, it could be sinusitis which is very common in those with CF. ENT's have corny senses of humor but at least they try to joke and in this business you have to have a sense of humor After my first sinus surgery I thought I was in smelling heaven and after the 2nd one (4 years ago) I still do not have that many issues. The occasional sniffle, but I'm still in smelling heaven.

"The cure to CF will never be found in genetic testing methods, antibiotic therapy, lung transplants, and all the traditional lucrative medical (medeival) crap out there!"

Ah, natural/herbal/etc treatment is A LOT older than lung transplants and gene therapy so I don't see how they are medieval. Lung transplants are keeping people alive, not bits of grass and sticks.
Also Antibiotic does not mean against life, well not human life anyway. It means something that kills microorganisms which you can't see with your eyes, bacteria basically.

Back to the point, when I was about 10 I had a bout of pseudemonas and I was ALWAYS sick, always had a horrible cough and always had a cold, I cleared it up eventually though with cipro and haven't been sick as much since.