I suspect a food allergy, but where to begin?

[jenniet]

My three year old son is my love and light but also a HUGE challenge. He has terrible tantrums, is very hyperactive, and can be very aggressive. He had GERD as an infant and was put on antacids which stopped his pain but he still spit up constantly until he was over a year old. He was exclusively breastfed and when he started solids he was always a pretty good eater. Also, his skin has always felt a little like sandpaper. Three different pediatricians told me there is no reason to suspect a food allergy but I am beginning to wonder. How do I test for food allergies? What foods would I eliminate first and for how long? Thanks, in advance, for any advice.

[mamafish9]

You may well be dealing with some food reactions - but the very first thing I would try is magnesium. Magnesium deficiency can cause all the behaviors you are talking about - and antacids deplete body magnesium. Lots of kids are magnesium deficient, and even if he's not, trying some magnesium won't do him any harm.

The easiest is to try Epsom salts baths (2c in warm water bath for 20 minutes, every night). My DS also needed lots of oral magnesium (he's 3 and I give him 250mg a day of mag glycinate, split into 3 doses). Some people use natural calm - any mag except mag oxide is OK.

If magnesium is part/all of the issue, you should notice improvements within a few days.

If you want to look at food allergies/intolerances, the top 4 intolerance foods are dairy, soy, gluten, and corn. You can try pulling them one at at time (e.g. dairy first, then dairy + gluten, etc), or you can just take out all 4 for a week and see if you notice any improvements. Dairy and gluten can take longer to see the full impact, but you'll see some improvement in a week.

[jenniet]

Thank you so much. So interesting about magnesium, I have never heard that before. I am willing to try anything, the bad behavior is really taking over our lives. Tonight we took him out to dinner and he ran up to a stranger and growled in his face. Then he was jumping on and off stools by a counter and when he fell off another customer tried to help him up and my son hit the man who was trying to help him. Then another person walked by and my son kicked him. It's awful and we cannot find a reasonable explanation for the behavior. We don't have cable, I stay-at-home with him so I know there are no child-care provider issues...sigh...

[moss]

have a looks at doris rapp's book "is this your child". while i dont necessarily agree with her method of treating allergies, she gives a really good overview of how to recognize allergies that docs can miss. she also gives rotation diets, etc