Reacting on Total Elimination Diet

[hae703]

I have been on the total elimination diet for a week now and was planning on two weeks, but I think DS may be reacting to something. My guess looking over my food journals is pear, but I can't be 100% certain.

He's had a little bit of blood in several diapers and his sleep is getting worse again (it had vastly improved after eliminating the top 8, but as he still had green mucusy stools with some blood we went forward with the TED). It's not anything major, but I still feel like it must be something I'm eating.

At this point I'm eating Turkey, Yellow and Green squash, pears, rice, and sweet potatoes (or yams rather because they were easier to find). I also use Olive Oil and salt & pepper. I didn't realize it mattered what type of salt until I read something today about corn being in iodized salt? Although I don't have any links to corn as causing blood in his stool up to this point.

Do you think I should keep up for another week or since I'm seeing small amounts of blood should I start swapping out foods now? Any suggestions on what I should swap pear with if I start there? I was considering apple, but I see it's somehow related to the pear family so I'm not sure that is a good idea.

I had so hoped I'd see some small improvement in his poops by now so I'm feeling rather discouraged.

[kjbrown92]

I'd say switch the fruit (both my kids react to apples, and one of them reacts mildly to pear) out. Though what is giving you an inkling that it's the pear and not one of the other things? I'm just curious. I would switch out something at this point especially if it's going downhill instead of up. How about a fruit you didn't eat a lot of before... kiwi? watermelon? papaya?

Yes, there is corn in iodized salt. Kosher salt and most (but not all) sea salt is corn free. Corn is everywhere unfortunately.

[hae703]

There were a few things that made me think pear. First, I ate a lot of rice and a pretty good amount of green and yellow squash in the two months I eliminated the top 8 and reading my food journal they don't seem to connect to any sort of reaction prior.

As for the pear I had a small amount of pear juice and/or canned pear on days he had either that evening or the next day showed some restlessness, sleeping trouble, but three mornings in a row I ate a large fresh pear and the first two nights he had a very mucusy poop in the middle of the night (and he NEVER poops during the night) and all three days he had a small amount of blood in a diaper right around 24 hours give or take after the pear.

Turkey and Yam are also new, but there were days when I ate a tiny bit and others where I ate a ton of one or the other, but looking over his symptoms for those days the blood (which in him seems to typically show up the following day) didn't show up until day 4 of my eating turkey. However, I did at some point (not sure when) switch the turkey I was eating only because I bought it from a different store.

Yesterday I only had a small amount of pear juice, no actual pear and today no blood, seemingly no tummy ache, but his sleep is total crap. Although that seems to take longer to go back to normal from past experience.

Papaya is on the list of lower allergenic foods although I've never had one so not sure if I'll like it enough to eat every day. Worth a try though.

I see grapes and raisins on the list of lower allergenic foods. Can those be tried together since they are made from the same thing?

I'm running into a lot of moms whose kids are allergic to the supposedly least allergenic foods. I guess I shouldn't expect he wouldn't have a problem with them as well.

Afterall, his mommy is only allergic to one thing-Benedryl. And I don't think you get any less likely than that-lol.

[hae703]

Yikes sorry for the novel-lol. I didn't realize I got that carried away.

[kjbrown92]

If you want to do grapes and raisins, I'd say they were fine to do together. Don't get golden raisins though because they have additives. And watch additives if you get grape juice. Some have citric acid which is corn.

[hae703]

I think I'll try that then. It gives me something to snack on and something to add to my rice cereal in the morning.

Good to know about the citric acid. You know DS had lots of diapers with blood after starting baby bananas and I wondered if it was the bananas or the citric acid. However, I noticed he did not have any issues after taking infant tylenol which has corn syrup. Is it possible to react to some versions of corn and not others?

Thanks for the advice.

[kjbrown92]

Citric acid that I'm talking about is the kind that's added to food (which in the US is corn-based unless declared otherwise). Baby bananas should just be bananas, in my book.

For some reason, the infant tylenol is okay with my corn-intolerant child (as is the dye-free benadryl). Not that she gets either of them very often. I can't even remember the last time she had one. And there's one child in DD2's nursery school class who can't have HFCS but can do every other kind of corn just fine.

[hae703]

The Gerber bananas he reacted to had citric acid in it. I think to keep it from discoloring. I thought about just trying to mash up banana and try it but then decided to see if I could figure things out just with my diet and held off on all solids.

I didn't realize corn reactions could be so varied. Well I guess that is still a possibility then.