Little Darren with mum Jincy
It has been a busy few years for Jincy Jerry and her family. Jincy and her husband Jerry, and children Chris (11) and Darren (3) two years ago became Irish citizens – of which they are very proud. But much more significantly, the health of her youngest son, Darren, has improved significantly thanks to a simple pin prick blood test.
Ever since he was born Darren has suffered from poor health. Jincy, who is a nurse working at a Dublin Hospital, spent much time worrying about her youngest son because he suffered from acute diarrhoea, regular chest infections and eczema.
Jincy said: “Darren suffered from bad eczema but he also had very bad problems with diarrhoea. He would have six to seven bowel movements a day and the situation was not getting any better. He also suffered from very bad chest infections. The chest infections and bronchitis resulted in him being rushed to accident and emergency rooms during the night time. We would be awake listening to his breathing and you could hear his rattling chest.”
That all changed last year when a friend recommended a food intolerance test. Darren undertook the Yorktest simple pin prick blood test and awaited the results. The laboratory test revealed that Darren was intolerant to a swathe of different foodstuffs, including yeast, carrots, eggyolk, dairy, egg white, nut mix, beef and corn.
In certain instances such as dairy and eggs the intolerance rates were very high.
Being of Indian origin it did not take long for Jincy and her husband to radically alter the diet of her youngest. “We cut out all of the foods which were marked as intolerant. We began cooking with rice much more so and the changes were dramatic. Within a month I could see the change – his bowel movements became regular and his chest improved dramatically.”
Darren had been on various courses of antibiotics because of his chest infections and also on anti-histamine syrup. She was almost immediately able to stop the antibiotics – being a nurse she was extremely conscious of how an overuse of antibiotics is not recommended. While she occasionally has recourse to anti-histamines for Darren, this is also much less frequent.
“You could say as a nurse I approached the Yorktest programme with a doubt and certainly a cynical attitude. I decided I would give it a try because my friend recommended it. The change has been wonderful in terms of his improved chest and now no more diarrhoea. He still suffers from some eczema but I have always been able to treat that with creams and it was never really an issue,” she says.
“In simple terms the test for us outlined what foods Darren should avoid. It tells you the various degrees of intolerances and it makes it easy to follow and to start the changes in food intake that can have such a significant effect.”
In fact such has been Darren’s progress that she has slowly been able to reintroduce some of the foods that he misses – bread for instance. But she keeps a careful watch on his progress.
Being a busy working mum and having moved into a new house in Finglas in north Dublin, Jincy often had to take time off work to care for Darren. It was also somewhat problematic in finding childcare because of his condition.
As new Irish, Jincy and her husband, who is an IT engineer, are looking forward to their new life in Ireland as citizens. They arrived here 10 years ago. Now with Darren in fine health, they are looking forward to the future.
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About YorkTest
YorkTest Laboratories is Europe’s leading provider of testing for IgG antibody reactions to foods and drinks; tests which are offered with Nutritional Therapist support. YorkTest Food&DrinkScan can be purchased from www.YorkTest.ie or by phoning (01) 2022701.