Dark circles under eyes getting worse and worse...

[BetsyPage]

I know my dd has food allergies (we avoid) and some environmental allergies, according to her ped (looking at eyes and nose and sees evidence.) The dark circles under eyes are just SO DARK I mean she really looks almost bruised there. It is just VERY pronounced.

I am at a loss as to what to do next... should I take her in for further allergy testing, perhaps she is being exposed to something I'm not aware of? We keep her room clean, in terms of bedding and vacuuming the floor... maybe add an air purifier? Put her on allergy meds?

She not seem to be manifesting any other "symptoms" of allergies, in terms of sleep, elimination, energy, etc. Other than itchiness from time to time, after she plays outside. My theory is the grass makes her itch, she will sit, roll around on it, etc. Or bug bites. No eczema or on-going skin issues other than the dark circles though.

I'd love to hear just your first thoughts... thanks!

[tanyalynn]

What type of testing have you done? Is it just IgE? There are a couple tests for IgG allergens (slower responses, not anaphalactic), and that's one approach. It sounds like there's another allergen involved, though you could consider a straight nutritional deficiency that's _not_ particularly allergen-related. Some folks get those dark circles due to anemia, and I've actually read that the reason allergens cause them is that the stress of our bodies dealing with the allergen creates very high nutritional needs (or problems absorbing nutrients, or both) that then creates nutritional deficiencies. Remove the allergen, and your normal intake of these nutrients would be enough to meet the body's needs.

How's her poop? I overlooked that my daughter's wasn't quite right for a long time, even after her allergens (only gluten and dairy, IgG both of them) were out of our diets. Working on gut health decreases stress in the body and I think increases the nutrients we get from our foods (even without something seriously impacting nutrient absorption like celiac).

I've seen my daughter's dark circles get better with both eliminating our food allergens, and with improving her gut health. Just removing the allergens wasn't enough for us. I make kimchee for us, and pickles too (the homemade fermented kind for both, they are incredibly yummy), and the kimchee especially seems really good at supporting good gut health. At the moment I'm also using high-dose biotin, but I wouldn't jump to that as a first response necessarily.

Here are a couple poop articles that were helpful to me:
http://www.enzymestuff.com/rtstools.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bristol_Stool_Scale

What foods have you cut out so far? Have you ever eliminated any foods and re-introduced successfully? Gluten's the first thing I'm thinking of, it seems quite problematic for a lot of people for a lot of different reasons and in different ways, but most people who have problems with it don't have IgE allergies, so they may not jump to eliminating it.

[BetsyPage]

Her poop seems fine to me, I'm not really involved so much anymore, but it's never been "strange" or anything. She's pretty regular and I've never known her to be constipated either...

I was thinking perhaps anemia though. The allergy testing she had done was the skin prick test- I am not sure what that tests for? She is allergic to peanuts and chickpeas, primarily, and some lesser reactions to a few tree nuts that I can't even recall so we just avoid them all for her.

She adores pickles, I wish I could get some good fermented ones, I'm not sure I can make them myself... She also loves yogurt, and I'm hoping over the next couple of months to start making my own yogurt and possibly kefir with raw milk. I would say that she is probably low on iron now that I think of it, but I do have grass-fed ground beef and dark chicken in my freezer, I'll be sure to get that on the menu as much as I can in the future and also think of other ways to work on her iron levels.

Thanks Tanya!