I thought it might be helpful to have a thread for those of us struggling through understanding salicylate and/or -amine sensitivity specifically (and any other compound that is found in a wide variety of apparently healthy foods and body products.) I know mamafish is dealing with this, but who else? What tipped you off to the sensitivity? What symptoms do you get? What are your biggest challenges thus far in dealing with it? And what are some new foods or products that you love?
My first DS, almost 3, has multiple food allergies which were all figured out before he was a year old. However, I was constantly dogged by the idea that there was *something* else. My family (DH in particular) got very eye-rolley with me-- they would tease me that everything negative DS did "must be a food allergy." But I was sure there was something else.
The strange thing was that he would react to a food sometimes in a very minor way, but not react to that same food at some other time. (The chief culprits were citrus, strawberries, cinnamon, pineapple, and tomato products.) He would get irritated around the mouth to varying degrees. He would also develop a urine-based diaper rash very quickly even though we do Elimination Communication and he wouldn't have been sitting in a wet diaper. It was enough for him to have had one miss, get the pee on his skin, and BAM- 1/2 hour later, angry red rash. It's also true that he gets what I now recognize is urinary incontinence with a high sals load-- so we would have more misses during those times. I would try everything on the rash (including copious amounts of aloe and aloe-containing hydrocortosone) and nothing would help. And then, just as quickly as it came, it would be gone. Just like that. With no apparent correlation to what I put on it or didn't.
And the real confusing thing was that on occasion, for no apparent reason (i.e., he nor I had had any of the "big" allergens he can't tolerate-- dairy, egg white, nuts, or shellfish)-- he would suddenly just be covered (and I mean covered) in angry, angry eczema or hives.
I've also really noticed that he gets very needy and clingy... and that it comes in waves. This caused me to be really paranoid about sleep, figuring it was just that he would get really overtired. I spent a lot of his babyhood trying to get him to sleep. Now, I wonder if he wasn't tired, but just processing chemicals-- or, I guess, failing to process chemicals.
We're struggling through strawberry season right now. We have a huge strawberry patch in our backyard, and he is crazy about them. He had perhaps a bit too many over the last couple of days, and ended up with slight diaper rash (though he is potty trained), urinary incontinence (which gets more traumatic for him the older he gets)
, slight eczema in his creases (though that could be due to the piece of cheese I ate on Tuesday), and the whinies. Oh, the whinies. It makes me crazy.
We are discovering that epsom salt baths are WONDERFUL. He comes out mellow and they seem to help in the long run, too.
But I am eager to build a little sals-amine support group here. Who are the rest of y'all, and how are you doing?
My first DS, almost 3, has multiple food allergies which were all figured out before he was a year old. However, I was constantly dogged by the idea that there was *something* else. My family (DH in particular) got very eye-rolley with me-- they would tease me that everything negative DS did "must be a food allergy." But I was sure there was something else.
The strange thing was that he would react to a food sometimes in a very minor way, but not react to that same food at some other time. (The chief culprits were citrus, strawberries, cinnamon, pineapple, and tomato products.) He would get irritated around the mouth to varying degrees. He would also develop a urine-based diaper rash very quickly even though we do Elimination Communication and he wouldn't have been sitting in a wet diaper. It was enough for him to have had one miss, get the pee on his skin, and BAM- 1/2 hour later, angry red rash. It's also true that he gets what I now recognize is urinary incontinence with a high sals load-- so we would have more misses during those times. I would try everything on the rash (including copious amounts of aloe and aloe-containing hydrocortosone) and nothing would help. And then, just as quickly as it came, it would be gone. Just like that. With no apparent correlation to what I put on it or didn't.
And the real confusing thing was that on occasion, for no apparent reason (i.e., he nor I had had any of the "big" allergens he can't tolerate-- dairy, egg white, nuts, or shellfish)-- he would suddenly just be covered (and I mean covered) in angry, angry eczema or hives.
I've also really noticed that he gets very needy and clingy... and that it comes in waves. This caused me to be really paranoid about sleep, figuring it was just that he would get really overtired. I spent a lot of his babyhood trying to get him to sleep. Now, I wonder if he wasn't tired, but just processing chemicals-- or, I guess, failing to process chemicals.
We're struggling through strawberry season right now. We have a huge strawberry patch in our backyard, and he is crazy about them. He had perhaps a bit too many over the last couple of days, and ended up with slight diaper rash (though he is potty trained), urinary incontinence (which gets more traumatic for him the older he gets)
, slight eczema in his creases (though that could be due to the piece of cheese I ate on Tuesday), and the whinies. Oh, the whinies. It makes me crazy.We are discovering that epsom salt baths are WONDERFUL. He comes out mellow and they seem to help in the long run, too.
But I am eager to build a little sals-amine support group here. Who are the rest of y'all, and how are you doing?
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. She's a lucky kiddo.
. I'll stick with the assumption he's low on zinc!
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