Finally starting food elimination diets for the first time. Advice?

[Hazelnut]

I'm so overwhelmed and yes I am scouring the internet in the limited time I have, but as you know it's overwhelming and I'm having trouble finding some good, concrete information. I suspect that at least one of us in this house is reacting to something (my ds), and when I read the symptoms it sounds like they even fit me.

I'm just looking for ANY good advice on this as I get started.

Would symptoms vary for different allergies? I'm just assuming dairy or gluten here, because we don't eat processed food and I avoid additives, artificial colors, etc. I don't think he really match typical BD symptoms thankfully, which is why I have always wondered if something he eats is setting him off. I grew up with hayfever and have other allergy symptoms myself (fatigue, dark circles, etc) but have never experienced an immediate reaction to any food.

Did you get a blood test to test for allergies? Are those effective b/c the info I am finding on the net is just all over the place.

We have a new pedatrician and I have an appt. for my 5 yo. I plan on insisting on a blood test, as well as a referral for an allergist, but he already said once that he didn't think it would be helpful. Well, he ordered one for my 3yo with asthma (thank god for that, he said "something is triggering it"; my old ped said "it's asthma. it has nothing to do with food." ). But wrt my older ds's behavior, he seemed to think that food could not be causing anything that was behavior related (not that we even discussed his behavior at length)

Did you start with dairy, gluten, all of the above? salicytes?
We've begun with dairy but not gluten 100%. In all honestly I think I will buy some gluten free stuff from WF b/c the idea of making my own everything gluten free sounds overwhelming at the moment.

I read about the Failsafe Cookbook here. Any other recommendations or websites?

How soon did you notice a difference or rule a group out? One of the reasons I haven't done this yet is b/c I've never really noticed a direct correlation (well except with sugar or food dyes, but that's not a surprise).

Also, my son seems to be OK in school, but is only in kindergarten for 3 hours a morning. He is incredibly oppositional at home, even when rested, fed healthy, given exercise, attention, etc. I assumed he was just persistent, spirited, etc., but I am tired of just assuming this. But is it possible that one could react to this and yet still be worse in the home environment?

Just looking for any help on this, as it's pretty new to me. Thanks.

[earthmama4]

I think taking out the top 8 allergens is a good place to start, taking out dairy, eggs, peanuts, treenuts, soy, fish, and shellfish. I also took out gluten and corn. Taking out the top 8 and a few foods you may suspect will still leave you plenty to eat. Do this for a full 2 weeks, 3 is even better. If after this time you are feeling well, then choose ONE food group each week to add back in, and watch for a return of symptoms. If symptoms return, eliminate it again and wait until you are back to symptom-free to try another food. Keep a food journal of what you ate and any reactions you may have noticed.

In my experience, it really did take tha 2-3 weeks to get to where the symptoms abated. The first few days are really hard - you will CRAVE foods. You may feel worse than ever. But after that, it seems that the diet cleanses your system and changes your pallet. I felt really well and healthy after the first week, but it took my nursing LO the full three weeks to heal. So it may take longer for kids.

Also, I don't know if I do a "whole house" elimination diet. It can be pretty overwhelming and it triggers some symptoms of craving, irritability, fatiuge, etc. I cooked regular meals for everyone else and just did the elim. diet for myself and my nursing baby. I didn't want to deal with grouchy older kids complaining about rice spaghetti if I was not in top form :, kwim?

[kjbrown92]

There are different types of elimination diets. If you try to do one food at a time, you may not see anything. For instance if the child is reacting to corn, soy, and milk, and you only take out milk, they're still going to be reacting, so then you don't think it's milk, then you try corn, and they're still reacting so you don't think it's corn, when it is, but since you're not taking them all out at the same time, you don't see it... know what I mean?

You could take out the top culprits -- milk, soy, gluten. OR you could take out the top 8 allergens. Or you can do SCD. Or you can do Failsafe. I did the Elimination Diet in Dr. Rapp's book "Is This Your Child?" and then I kept removing foods until I got to baseline (no reactions), then I added foods back in one at a time to check them. It took several months to figure out all the foods (because she was reacting to lots of them).

Asthma can be exascerbated by food (part of the allergy barrel theory).

If they are intolerant to foods, a regular skin prick test or RAST test isn't going to tell you much. It will rule out allergies however (I did them with my kids to rule it out). I had the ALCAT testing done for my kids. It was out of pocket, but worth it for us. My kids each had one false negative (and for DD2, it was her worst trigger).

For my kids, yes, they have different symptoms for different foods. For DS, for example, with soy, he gets a rash above his lip and monster tantrums for 7-8 days after ingestion (starting about 20 minutes after ingestion). With milk, he wets the bed, and screams for 3-4 hours with "leg pain". With eggs, he cries for a couple hours straight the day following ingestion and is very needy at night (and has trouble falling asleep). He is 8yo for reference. For DD2, she ranges from bedwetting to crying 10-12 times a night to "folliculitis" like symptoms. She's almost 4yo.

There's a recipes sticky at the top of this page that's good. And there are several blogs with recipes (mine can be searched by allergen).

Start a food journal. Write down everything. And be as detailed as you possibly can with food, times, symptoms, etc.

[Hazelnut]

I thought peanuts triggered more physical reactions like hives and wheezing. Can they cause the reactions that others like gluten can?

I haven't read a whole lot yet about the way allergies work with our bodies.....

oh man i can barely handle gluten/dairy free. If I do eggs and nuts then that will be hard for me.

[Chinese Pistache]

Check out this thread: http://www.mothering.com/discussions...d.php?t=934866

[Hazelnut]

thanks!

[earthmama4]

Originally Posted by Hazelnut

I thought peanuts triggered more physical reactions like hives and wheezing. Can they cause the reactions that others like gluten can?

I haven't read a whole lot yet about the way allergies work with our bodies.....

oh man i can barely handle gluten/dairy free. If I do eggs and nuts then that will be hard for me.

Gluten and dairy are the hardest IMO to avoid and still eat "normal". If you can do that, the other stuff isn't so hard.

For me, the severity of my sons symptoms resulted in me wanting to do a more "severe" elimination diet. If he had more mild symptoms, I may have started out more simply. Even changing nothing and just keeping a food/behavior journal. My newborn had rectal bleeding and I was desperate for fast conclusive answers so the total elimination diet was the way to go for me.

So if the symptoms aren't too severe, maybe just take out a few suspect foods and see where you are in two weeks and go from there.

Keep in mind that any food can be allergenic and can cause any number of reactions. The top 8 are just the ones that are most common so a good place to start. There is also good info and some charts that rate the allergenicity of foods at this website. http://www.wholesomebabyfood.com/allergy.htm

Its geared toward intoducing solids to allergic babies, but the info is applicable to anyone dealing with allergies. It helped me decide what foods to have in my diet and what ones to eliminate. Hope that helps!

[Hazelnut]

Some great points here- so is goats milk out? I was doing just fine with a little goat milk, and made kefir with it and bought the yogurt. What i read online made me think that it was only an allergen for people with severe dairy allergies, which I don't think would be us.

oh man if I had to do tree nuts and fish too I really wouldn't know what to eat beyond some basic produce.

Also, if it were to affect one's behavior, would it also manifest itself physically too? We don't really have any other issues. It was ds's behavior sometimes that prompted me, and it got me thinking about my fatigue and some other stuff.

Are the blood tests not usually covered by insurance? It doesn't sound like they are very reliable if false negatives are common.

[Chinese Pistache]

Originally Posted by Hazelnut

Some great points here- so is goats milk out? I was doing just fine with a little goat milk, and made kefir with it and bought the yogurt. What i read online made me think that it was only an allergen for people with severe dairy allergies, which I don't think would be us.

oh man if I had to do tree nuts and fish too I really wouldn't know what to eat beyond some basic produce.

Also, if it were to affect one's behavior, would it also manifest itself physically too? We don't really have any other issues. It was ds's behavior sometimes that prompted me, and it got me thinking about my fatigue and some other stuff.

For an ED, cut out all animal dairy. You can reintro when you get to baseline. Most people with true allergies to cow dairy can't tolerate goat or sheep unfortunately, and then, only some of those with other dairy intolerances can tolerate goat/sheep.

[Hazelnut]

thanks. Just got back from TJs and spent too much and beyond produce, we sure have a lot of rice cakes, brown rice pasta, rice this rice milk rice that. and chicken.

Anyway, I'm assuming oatmeal is out? It seems like the only gluten is from cross contamination, which I guess counts. Just not sure what to give for breakfast with no eggs or dairy! if we wind up having to continue with this I know there are a lot of recipes out there with alternatives to flour, but right I'm just trying to get through a couple weeks and see what happens.