Looking for some TF mentors (food allergies and TF)

[Aletheia]

The more I read about traditional eating, the more interested and excited I get. It feels right to me. And I believe my family needs a nutrition boost.

BUT....

DS1 has multiple food allergies. Can anyone help me to

1. Figure out what TF foods can replace his non-TF foods (soy milk, etc.), and
2. Share with me any stories about how following a more traditional diet has mitigated or even cured food allergies in your family?

Regarding point 1, DS is allergic to:

• Casein (dairy)*
• Egg white
• Tree nuts (so we avoid peanuts as well)
• Shellfish

*Yes, we've tried raw milk-- I rubbed a tiny drop of raw goat's milk on his arm, and less than 1 minute later he had a hive there. I am curious to try butter, though... I might try a contact challenge with that tomorrow, just to see. There is little to no casein in butter, and he used to tolerate it in my diet... or at least I thought so.

I'm still breastfeeding him, so I avoid all of these as well. The main thing we eat a lot of as a consequence of these allergies is soy, soy, and more soy. We (he and I) go through about a gallon of original flavored Silk brand soy milk a week. We eat tons of tofu. We eat soy-based cream cheese replacements, sour cream replacements, and soy yogurt (which I do make using "Soy Nice" brand soy milk.) We eat a lot of soy. This worries me. We have recently tried some hemp milk. He doesn't like it, but could get used to it I think... would that be better? Maybe I should try to be pumping, and have him exclusively on breast milk. Can I make breastmilk yogurt? I don't know if I could pump that much; I have a three month old too. And I already feel like a cow.

We don't do egg yolks because I worry that they will always have enough whites on them to compromise his (fragile) immune system.

I am afraid of all fish because of mercury.

DS is such a sparkly personality. He is very bright and verbal, and lots of fun. But he gets every cold that comes within a city block (having a newborn has made me really start counting cold-- we've (all three of us, poor little baby) had FOUR COLDS in the 11 weeks Lio has been on the outside. That's less than 1 every 3 weeks.) There have definitely been very few days when everyone in my house is healthy. Something has got to change.

DS1 also has asthma (as of a couple months ago) and eczema on his legs that just won't go away. I'm trying really hard to figure out what triggers the eczema... but in the meantime, it's obvious to me that we just aren't healthy and I want to change that.

Will eating TF change that? Please tell me yes!

Phew-- long post. Sorry!

[quietserena]

That's serious allergies if he's got a contact reaction to milk! Definitely not a good thing for him now.

I feel like I should point you to the Gut Healing Tribe over in the Nutrition and Healing forum. There's a cheat sheet stickied somewhere that has a lot of information. A lot of people here have had success trying to heal the gut and elliminate some allergies. At the most basic, that means taking some sort of probiotic (water kefir, kombucha, fermented veggies if you can, infant probiotic if the kidlet in question is mostly nursed) and avoiding foods that do damage. At the more complicated side you find the GAPS diet and similar diets which is a whole another undertaking.

The simple changes i'd suggest now:
Can you take and give him CLO? In my experience that helps with colds immensely. Actually, I've been kicking myself for not nudging DD into taking it more. She's nursing but my supply is nearly non-existent and so she's probably not getting the good stuff. She's got a head cold now, teary eyes, drooling, runny nose...

Adding extra fat to his diet. Can never go wrong with that! CO would be a good option. I hope butter works out too but given his severe reaction to goat's milk, ghee might be a better choice.

Finding substitutes for the soy stuff. Perhaps find when you drink soymilk the most and see if you can't sub another beverage. Some kids like bone broth, though mine won't go near it. She rarely drinks milk or juice either. *shrug* I guess we just haven't gone down that road yet. She loves to get a sip of my honey/vinegar drink. (1 t vinegar, 2 t of honey in a cup of water.) If you can do coconut, you can make coconut milk cocoa, perhaps? Good fat and tasty! I rarely recommend rice milk (recipe) because it's nutritionally kind of empty, but while you're transitioning away from soy it might not be a bad thing. You could even soak the rice and when you sweeten it go for molasses or something equally packed with minerals.

DD has decided I gotta go draw fish for her so I"ll leave you with those. I hope this helps! And someone with more allergy experience will come along for sure!

[handzfull]

I know this isn't a TF solution, but it's natural. Have you heard of NAET? It's an allergy elimination technique that we used on my dh for food allergies. It helped immensely. You can google it and find the main website for it along with a directory of practitioners in your area. HTH!

[tanyalynn]

We're gfcf, so it's easier for us that we don't have a milk replacement at all (because the usual things we wanted a milk for were gluten-related--like breakfast cereal). For baking I'll use a little rice milk or coconut milk for rich things, and coconut milk for general things I want to be creamy.

For minerals, we make homemade stock (bone broth) and it's easy on the gut (which we also appreciate) and the minerals are very easy to absorb. We do fermented veggies for the gut health aspect too (and they're actually _very_ tasty). Before a couple moves that disrupted my routine, I searched out a couple places to buy lots of bones at reasonable prices. We did a lot of soup.

Do you eat meat? If you're eating the tofu for the protein, and you're willing/able to eat meat, then I'd go with that.

Consider zinc with lots of illnesses, and vitamin D too. But at least for some (like us) it can take a while to see an improvement even with supplements.

[LionTigerBear]

First things first-- start probiotics for you and DS1. I like Dr. Ron's Friendly Flora, which he is only shipping for a couple more weeks (he doesn't ship over the winter), which is dairy-free, but I'm sure there are other good ones too. Homemade water kefir or kombucha could be another good dairy-free source of probiotics.

Then I would look into the GAPS diet or other temporary, grain-free healing diets. I recommend reading the GAPS book-- Gut and Psychology Syndrome. Healing the Gut is a great thread to start with, but try not to get overwhelmed by it.

Whatever you do, good luck!

P.S. We found that a small amount of raw organic beef here and there was very healing for us. The organic beef is expensive but when you eat it raw (I just sliced it very thin and marinated it) it goes much farther, because it doesn't cook down, so you get almost twice as much meat for the money.

[Ruthla]

If I was in your shoes, I would completely avoid all dairy and eggs, at least for now.

Instead, I would focus on the whole, natural foods that you CAN have- fruits, veggies, and meats. Are coconuts considered a tree nut?

My top priority in your situation would be to cut back on soy products. I don't think it's practical to completely eliminate all soy foods right now, but I would definitely work on cutting back. I would try to eliminate the soy you use by elminating those foods, rather than trying to find replacements for everything. You could make oatmeal instead of cold cereal with soymilk. You can bake with water or juice instead of soymilk. I'd make more meat and less tofu, avocado-based spreads instead of "soy sour cream", and offer water or juice as beverages. I'd eliminate the soy yogurt and get probiotics through vegetable ferments.

It sounds like you have no restrictions on any meats or poultry, so I'd serve those often and make bone broths from those as well. And if your only concern with fish is the mercury contamination, then I'd get the family onto fish or cod liver oil supplements- mercury stays in the protein portion of fish, not the oil.

[honeysesame]

yes, the asthma and eczema (and colds too) can absolutely be helped by a change in diet. i'm glad you're looking at changing from the soy; among other things it is hard to digest (which affects the asthma and eczema as well). and.... not to give you more things to cut out, but once you start eating more tf, i would also take a look at grains-- see if eating them whole and soaked/sprouted/fermented helps but if it doesn't after a while, think about taking a break....
good luck, strength, and courage to you!
baby steps....