How do you handle food intolerance?

[3 Star Mom]

I've been reading some of the posts here for a while, and I suspect that my ds, who is 3yrs., may have a food intolerance of some kind. I got him tested for allergies, but have herd that an intolerance will not show on an allergy test. His symptoms are: irregular poop, canker sores, dry skin, tiredness, irritability, constant drooling. Does that sound like a reaction to food?

I just feel very overwhelmed at the thought cleaning out my cupboards and getting all different food that is hard to find and expensive. And then keeping a journal of everything that he does eat.

Is it hard to keep your kids away from problem foods when they are not with you? Like at grandparents house. What if you got to a restaurant?

I realize that this would change my life significantly, I know it would be for the better to eliminate all the junk that we are probably consuming, an I know that I am being somewhat selfish but the thought is still overwhelming.

[kjbrown92]

Originally Posted by 3 Star Mom

I've been reading some of the posts here for a while, and I suspect that my ds, who is 3yrs., may have a food intolerance of some kind. I got him tested for allergies, but have herd that an intolerance will not show on an allergy test. His symptoms are: irregular poop, canker sores, dry skin, tiredness, irritability, constant drooling. Does that sound like a reaction to food?

Irregular poop as in infrequent? diarrhea? constipation? mucousy? blood?
Does he sleep well at night?
Dry skin can just be from lack of humidity in the air, etc. But according to our doctor there's a fine line between dry skin and eczema.
Constant drooling at 3yo? That's not teething.
Put all together, it could be food intolerances... how long has it been going on - since infancy? since starting solids?

I just feel very overwhelmed at the thought cleaning out my cupboards and getting all different food that is hard to find and expensive. And then keeping a journal of everything that he does eat.

You don't have to clean out your cupboards until you find out the culprit. It's only expensive if you insist on substituting foods that are like what you've had all along. As in if he can't tolerate gluten, you could just go without bread, crackers, and pasta, but if you want to get gluten-free bread and rice pasta, and specialty crackers, then yes, it is going to cost more. I make gluten-free bread once or twice a month, crackers once every couple months, but we have rice pasta about once every 2 weeks. I'm big on trying to make "equivalents" but you certainly don't have to. Especially when you're first starting out.

Is it hard to keep your kids away from problem foods when they are not with you? Like at grandparents house. What if you got to a restaurant?

My kids with intolerances are almost 10yo and just turned 5yo. But DS has been off and on restricted diets since he was born, and DD2 has been restricted since 14 months old, so I know what it's like when they're younger. When they're with anyone else, I provide food, unless I feel comfortable that the other person is going to be just as diligent about reading labels as I am. My kids go to preschool and public school, and they are safe there, with the food lists posted, and providing their food. We don't go out very often, but if we do, we go to places I know that we can get safe food, like Outback Steakhouse and Red Robin, and we make sure that we're clear to the server about what the kids can't eat.

I realize that this would change my life significantly, I know it would be for the better to eliminate all the junk that we are probably consuming, an I know that I am being somewhat selfish but the thought is still overwhelming.

We do eat better now. We don't catch as many viruses. My DD1 (no food intolerances) cat/dust allergies are practically non-existent now. And I learned how to cook. So there are upsides. Once I took out the foods, and the kids started behaving normally (drastic reduction in tantrums, sleeping normally, no more bellyaches, no more eczema, etc.), I didn't want to go back to the way things were. But there's plenty of people who have stomach problems and they say they'd rather live with the pain than give up xx. Or they'd rather get tubes in their kids ears than "try" to go off dairy to see if it would help (both my SILs). Because it's too "hard". Everyone has a choice. If what's going on with your child is bothering you, then maybe you could see if you could change it. If it's things that you can live with and don't seem that major, then don't. It's up to you. Sure it's a pain, but it does get easier with time.

[cowKIDmom]

and just to add....
Intolerances/delayed reactions can be tested for using the IgG allergy testing. We used Great Plains Lab for this testing using blood.
It can be done with a food diary and elimination diet. But I couldn't imagine how hard that would have been in our case as one of my sons reacted to pretty much everything. I would have had a lot of confusion and doubts had I been using the elimination method/diary, and probably would have missed some of the offenders also. I am all for blood personally.

[3 Star Mom]

kjbrown92
Ds's poop is usually like diarrhea and mucousy and ranges in color from yellowish to brown to green. As far as frequency he is pretty regular, about once a day.

His night sleep is much better than it used to be but he still has stretches where he will be up 3-4 times a night, especially when he has a canker sore. When he was younger his sleep was very erratic and he was a very light sleeper. From birth to about 6mo. he never stopped crying, if he was awake he was crying and he was extremely hard to get back to sleep.

When he was still nursing, before starting solids, I tried to eliminate some foods from my diet (dairy, chocolate, anything very acidic) to see if it would help but nothing seemed to change. I also did not notice any drastic changes when he started solids, nothing that made me think, he should definitely not eat that.

The canker sores didn't start until about 18mo. and I wonder if that causes the drooling. He definitely does it more when he has one, but there always seems to be a little bit, like he just doesn't swallow, but he has no problem swallowing when he's eating or drinking.

He has never been diagnosed with eczema, but the dryness of his skin is very patchy and he often gets rashes on his face and chapped spots on his chin and cheeks (probably from the drooling). His scalp is dry too and he still has some cradle cap.

It seems like I am always trying to figure out what is going on with him.

Thanks for all the other tips

[3 Star Mom]

Originally Posted by cowKIDmom

and just to add....
Intolerances/delayed reactions can be tested for using the IgG allergy testing. We used Great Plains Lab for this testing using blood.

I am interested in that, can you give me more info please?
How did you find out about this lab?
Was it expensive or would insurance cover it?
How long did it take for results?
What were your sons symptoms before testing?

Any other info you want to offer about this would be welcome. That's part of my fear, that I would start a very frustrating process and not find any answers.

[Marnica]

We just did the entero lab tests....

I had done blood tests previously and they showed nothing (IGE and IGG). Im not a big fan of the blood tests. The fecal test seems to be more specific, more sensitive and more accurate, at least for the things they test for. They don't test for all things.

Soy
Eggs
Gluten (can also do the gene testing to se if you have either the gluten sensitivity gene or the gene predisposing to celiac)
Yeast (dietary, not candida albicans)
Dairy

Also can do a malabsorption test to see if nutrients are being absorbed or not

So now after alot of other testing which revealed all was fine (i knew it wasn't), I now know that DS is intolerant to gluten, yeast and soy.

I'm glad we did this. I feel now I can take some action. DS and myself will now be free from all 3 things as im still nursing. Gene testing revealed DS had 2 genes indicating he got one from me and one from DH so I am basically gluten intolerant as well.
http://www.enterolab.com

[kjbrown92]

We got testing through www.alcat.com. All of the blood tests can miss things. And if the entero lab only tests for those 5 things, then they're missing alot of foods, corn being a huge one. With the ALCAT test, there was a false negative for each of my kids. I also did a previous elimination diet with DD2. I did the ALCAT test a year later (or was it two?), and she added some foods back in but lost some that she'd been eating all the time.

With those symptoms, I would do something. Mucous in the stool shows that there is inflammation. We also did stool testing through Genova labs and found that DS was missing most of the good bacteria, so now that he's on the right probiotics, he's adding foods back in. Sleep was a big indicator for my DD2.

[tanyalynn]

Elimination diets can help a lot if the list is pretty short. For my kids, gluten and dairy, and then I could see that DS is also intolerant of cashews, soy, and chocolate. For really long lists, once you get past the top 8 plus corn, it would get a lot harder to do just with a journal--possible, probably, but harder. But since EDs worked for us, I can't speak to different types of testing.

Food intolerances do make some things trickier. Travel is trickier, but I learned to manage--I bring a few pans, pre-cook some food that we can just grab and eat, and then I cook on vacation. The kids have learned pretty well to ask before they grab food at playdates or potlucks, and they can identify easy stuff that has gluten/dairy, and they don't just grab a complicated dish without asking. It took consistency and getting in the habit of bringing our own food before it was an easy routine, but it's normal for us now. Holidays take more work, but a lot of the work is the first year--the first Halloween, the first Thanksgiving. After that, it's a lot easier.

For me, when I'm tired out, the big things that keep me going and keep me content with my choices are that a) my kids are eating a wide range of foods, much healthier than we used to eat, so it's more nutrition now, b) the kids are learning to enjoy real food, their baseline is based on real, whole foods, so growing up, this will be normal for them and they won't have to un-learn bad habits like I have (that I still struggle with), c) they're learning to choose among whole foods for the ones that their bodies will benefit from now--sometimes they want more veggies, sometimes more meat, sometimes homemade soup when they're sick, like that, and d) they know how to pay attention to how their bodies feel.

That last one--as an adult, I can now see that I've learned to ignore a lot of little things that are "off" for a long, long time. My acupuncturist asked me if my back was hurting--and I realized I wasn't sure, I wasn't having stabbing pains like I've had at some periods in my life, but general achiness? And I thought and realized I was, I'd just ignored it. Ditto on my wrists feeling a bit weird, not really carpal tunnel but maybe minor shades of it--but I just ignored it. If my kids were eating gluten and dairy, they'd be having weird digestive issues, I think they'd feel sluggish and not great, maybe irritable. And I think slowly they'd learn to accept that as normal and then ignore it, and I want them to do better than I have.

Oh, and canker sores? The two things that worked for DD were supplemental zinc and homeopathic natrum muriaticum. Were you the one who started a recent canker sore thread somewhere? DD doesn't get canker sores anymore, it's so nice.