Can someone tell me about ring around anus?

[Thing1Thing2]

Ds has had a red ring around his anus since he was born. He is a year old. I always thought this was normal. I have been through so many breastfeeding struggles with him. As far as I can tell, he has allergies to corn, banana, dairy, soy and possibly gluten. I have taken all of this out of my diet, months ago (except the gluten which I took out 2 weeks ago) but the ring remains. I have read up on all the hidden ingredients and now we just eat veggies and fruit, organic meat and dishes made at home. Corn seems like the worst b/c its in almost everything.

Can someone please explain to me why the ring is there in the first place and how to get rid of it. Is there something else I am missing?

I just want my lo to be healthy. Even if it means I can't eat anything.

[Theloose]

We had a thread on this a while back:
http://www.mothering.com/discussions....php?t=1062640

I don't know what triggers it in dd, but it definitely comes and goes, and correlates to her not feeling very good...

[Thing1Thing2]

Thanks - I will read the thread.

I have been on an elimination diet for what seems like forever. Now that Ive banished gluten, I am not making enough milk to feed my son! Not only that, but I feel that Im not getting the nutrition I need. I wonder if there are any other mothers going through this...

[Chinese Pistache]

Read the Elimination Diet thread up in the Resources sticky at the top of this forum. You can definitely get enough nutrition without gluten; the thread talks about lots of ways to do it.

[Aletheia]

I also have a post about this somewhere-- search on "doom" to see if it comes up? (The ring is sometimes called the "Red Ring of Doom").

But to make a long story short, we ended up finding out that Group A Strep can present that way, and often correlates with a child being fussy or feverish as well. It's an easy thing to culture- ask your doc about perianal strep.

That didn't end up being what we had, though-- stupid dermatologist thought I was crazy to say it was a food allergy issue for us, but he was crestfallen when the test for strep came back without Group A Strep! Apparently it is an underdiagnosed illness, and he was excited about writing it up-- he even took pictures of DS's little behind.

But I just wanted to mention it because it could be part of your battle-- might be nice to know.

Here's the thread: http://www.mothering.com/discussions...highlight=doom

[JaneS]

In DS's case salicylates caused this too.

[Thing1Thing2]

Oh my! I just read through all the links you sent me - got some great recipes and ideas for nutrition... and I happened opon some "detox pathways" discussions. Im not sure if confused or overwhelmed is the right word to use.

What's wrong with a simple elimination diet?

[Theloose]

Originally Posted by BonnieNova

Oh my! I just read through all the links you sent me - got some great recipes and ideas for nutrition... and I happened opon some "detox pathways" discussions. Im not sure if confused or overwhelmed is the right word to use.

What's wrong with a simple elimination diet?

A simple elimination diet worked for us until we tested gluten and it failed. Gluten was our first test. After that, we were losing foods right and left and never at baseline to test them again. There are three times I've been convinced we were at baseline - right before testing gluten (dd was 7mo), after I added in adrenal support vitamins (dd was 18mo) and after adding folate for my detox pathways (dd was ~27mo). In the mean time, we tried a simple elimination diet, a TED, SCD, failsafe, just ignoring everything but the known major triggers... You name it, I tried it. That experience has led me to believe wholeheartedly that our food sensitivities have more to do with nutrient deficiencies and blocked detox pathways than with the foods themselves. Just not eating gluten/dairy/soy/corn/almonds/stone fruit/potatoes/squash/eggplant for the rest of time isn't a good enough answer for dh or for me. First, I want to know *why* dd (and to a lessor extent, I) react to these things, and second, my main motivator, I want to do EVERYTHING I can to avoid this happening in the next kid. So I choose the nutritional healing route.

[Thing1Thing2]

It seems I am in the same boat as you were. We react to so many different things at different times. Like just yesterday, I had a reaction to tomatoes - and I usually am not allergic to them at all.

Also, if I eat alot of something - I usually have a reaction to it. I have excema most of the time and never really related it to food allergies until I had this lo and did some research. It turns out that when I limit myself to certain foods, the excema lets up a little. Then I start to overdo it on the foods I can have and that causes a reaction!

I didn't know food allergies can be "healed". That is so good to know. It seems so complicated to me at this point though. Any ideas on where to start?

[Theloose]

www.detoxpuzzle.com and www.eatingcultures.com are a couple of sites I'm collecting my notes on. I've learned a bunch since putting together eatingcultures, but it's a good starting point without being toooooo overwhelming. I hope.

A bunch of people have started threads here, too, for the sake of brainstorming some nutrients they might be in need of. The chat thread links has a bunch of them

[Thing1Thing2]

Thanks - Im going to look into those links. I am learning so much from this forum!