What does food refusal mean?

[BirthKathy]

So my son only has a few foods he can eat besides breastmilk. One is egg yolk, and he was eating one a day for a couple weeks. He started refusing them last week. He also refused the rice flour birthday cake we made him that smelled kind of eggy. The weird thing is, he'll eat his liquid vitamins and powdered probiotic even though he makes a terrible face each time.

I posted recently about his allergic reaction to coconut cake.

http://www.mothering.com/discussions....php?t=1217619

I'm starting to wonder if his reaction was to the egg whites, and not the coconut. The only egg whites he had had before the cake were just the traces that stick to a soft boiled yolk. I was eating them also.

He has already (blood) tested negative to egg whites and coconut - how do I figure out which one caused the reaction without going through another reaction? They are both good sources of nutrition, and I would be happy to have either one in his diet. I'm wondering if we should find an allergist and do a skin prick test. So far, we've done all testing and treatment through our Naturopath.

[Therese's Mommy]

My dd originally tested negative for eggs via spt. I then tried to feed her eggs. I made them all different ways. It got to the point that where I would put them in front of her and she would start yelling "all done!" while trying to rip her bib off. About 6 months later we had her tested via RAST for eggs and she tested highly positive. So, in our case, refusal to eat egg meant allergy. She also refused to eat avocados and bananas and turns out she is highly allergic to them as well. Of course, she has refused other foods, but strong refusals have usually meant allergy in our case. Of course, she doesn't refuse every food she is allergic to. She happily ate some coconut milk and ended up being allergic to it And ita, coconut or egg would be a great addition to anyone's diet. I would be so pleased to put either in my dd's diet.

[rhesp1212]

For us, refusal usually means a sensativity as well.....sometimes he'll happily eat a bite or two and occasionally a full serving. But if we offer it to him again, he won't even touch it if he's sensative to it. Often he'll take just a bite or two, spit it out and that's it. Later on, a rash will show up.

[BirthKathy]

Yeah, I'm thinking he must be refusing for a reason. Thanks for your input! Someday we'll have this all figured out, right? Right? ;-)