TED and suspected food chemical sensitivities

[DevaMajka]

Does anyone want to tell me what to eat on my TED? I'm only partially kidding. Nah, I'm not really kidding at all.

I keep fudging on my TED. Or ED (since I seem to keep adding foods). It's always foods that I *think* are safe, but obviously there's an unsafe food in there somewhere, so I don't think I can assume anything at this point.

Here's what I know:
-When I did a really high sals week, his sleep was a wreck (was fine before and after that week), but his rash wasn't any worse than it had been when I was low sals.
-When I trialled dairy, we weren't totally at baseline, but his rash didn't get any worse. That was a few weeks before his belly button rash started.
-I've suspected sulfites, added benzoates, amines, glutamates, and probably other stuff. Especially sals (obviously) and glutamates.
-I had the thought that he reacted when HE ate wheat and egg, but I couldn't tell you exactly what made me think that.
-When I started eating wheat, specifically sourdough, his main rash got better.
-The rash under his bellybutton started a few days after I ate gf oats, and the day before I trialled wheat.
-His belly button rash doesn't seem to come and go in relation to my diet like his main rash does. We're treating it as fungal to see if that's it.
-I have no reason to suspect cashews. I've gone periods eating them and not eating them, and it seems to make no difference at all.
- My TED of banana, flax, black beans, rice cereal, cow's milk, sea salt and butter failed. His rash got worse after 2 days.

These foods are all low in the food chemicals I suspect (as far as I've read):
wheat, butter, milk, chicken, beans, golden delicious apple, pear, celery, cashews, rice, quinoa, millet (I have a gfdf quinoa millet waffle recipe that has sea salt, corn free baking powder, canola oil, and sugar).

I will go crazy if I have to eat meat as my only protein source. I really need to figure this out- poor ds loves to eat, and he has so little variety. And we haven't even figured it out yet.

[LisamommyRN]

I'm just coming off a TED myself, I ate chicken/turkey, sweet potatoes, pears, and zucchini/carrots for two weeks. I am not really a meatatarian myself, but I didn't feel like there was a safe vegetable protein to start with.
Anyways, it worked, and I'm adding foods back in now. I don't know much about the food chemicals, but from your list I would go with chicken, pears, a starch and a veggie... sorry this probably isn't much help, but it worked for me.
As much as being really strict sucked, I feel much better having a baseline to start from.

[mamafish9]

Honestly, at this point I'd work on some nutrients - mag, mo, b6, sublingual B12, trace minerals. Eat well, eat a widely varied diet (easy on the sals, cuz darlin', those he reacts to, LOL - but the mag/mo/b6 should help). Eat some meat, some dairy, some eggs, but not too much of any one thing (I know meat isn't something you want to be doing, but there's plenty of nutrients in meat you and he could be short on - at the very least, maybe meat for him?). Lots of nutrient rich foods, avoid additives (artificial flavors/colors/sulphites). Keep a detailed food journal. See where you're at in a month or two, unless you get a really bad reaction.

TEDs don't work for everyone, and I think staying on them too long can start to create problems of their own. It's a wonderful time of year to just try to eat a widely varied, really healthy diet, supplement to address nutrient deficiencies, and see where you end up in a few weeks.

My two cents, anyhow .

[Koalamom]

I would cut out the main allergens and then work on adding in nutrients. MO for my son makes the biggest difference.

And quite the opposite, MEAT is one of the main causes of rashes for my son. With my dd, it is dairy and eggs and not enough stomach acid, so zinc for her really helps. I know that meat has alot of zinc, but for some reason it doesn't help her much. I have been giving her tons of pumpkin seeds and that makes a big difference. I really should get a supp of zinc but the funds are low right now and I don't know what to get for a child.

[DevaMajka]

Originally Posted by LisamommyRN

As much as being really strict sucked, I feel much better having a baseline to start from.

Yes. I KNOW I will be so happy having a baseline to start from.
I was thinking along the same lines as you- chicken, black beans, a grain, pears, celery. Probably add golden delicious apples, because we never seem to have enough ripe pears in the house.
So far today we've had rice, pear, and black beans. So we're on track so far.

Originally Posted by mamafish9

Honestly, at this point I'd work on some nutrients - mag, mo, b6, sublingual B12, trace minerals. Eat well, eat a widely varied diet (easy on the sals, cuz darlin', those he reacts to, LOL - but the mag/mo/b6 should help). Eat some meat, some dairy, some eggs, but not too much of any one thing (I know meat isn't something you want to be doing, but there's plenty of nutrients in meat you and he could be short on - at the very least, maybe meat for him?). Lots of nutrient rich foods, avoid additives (artificial flavors/colors/sulphites). Keep a detailed food journal. See where you're at in a month or two, unless you get a really bad reaction.

We're doing mag, a b complex, sublingual b12 (just started a week ago, to see if my wierd tingling sensations were a b12 deficiency), mo (just started a few days ago), and whatever's in the Thorne prenatal vites.

I was REALLY hoping that eating a varied diet would help, but I did that when my grandma was here, and his rash got worse. That was only a week, but he was itching at it, and I felt awful. His sleep wasn't too bad most days though. So that's interesting. I definitely included some sals, but I probably wasn't super high in them. Yeah, I was thinking about that yesterday- there's no doubt in my mind that he reacts to sals, and his reaction is sleep. It's wierd that he doesn't get a rash from sals anymore. But maybe that's because of the supps.

I've also wondered if a TED wasn't a good way to figure out a food chemical sensitivity. If I eat just a few things, we're going to be high in whatever food chemicals are in those things, yk? So perhaps the reason the last one failed was because of so much calcium or so many bananas, and not necessarily because he's sensitive to normal amounts of any of those foods. I'm starting to wonder if he is sensitive to dairy or wheat though.

Originally Posted by bluebirdmama1

I would cut out the main allergens and then work on adding in nutrients. MO for my son makes the biggest difference.

I think I'm going to do a last ditch effort TED before I follow mamafish's advice. I'm going to cut the dairy and wheat, and just eat the low chemical foods that I wrote above. I think I'll give it a week max. It seems like his rashes have always improved greatly in 4 days (though obviously never totally at baseline).

If I'm not at baseline in a week, I'm going for mamafish's plan!

But I hope you all don't mind if I report back here how it's going. I think it will help to chat about it

[JaneS]

FWIW it was a Rotation Diet which allowed us to figure out sal sensitivity, but I felt that it took much longer than if I had even known of the sal issue to begin with. Back in the day, ss wasn't on anyone's radar here, so feel lucky even though you are pulling your hair out now!

And believe it or not, rice gives my DS rashes, so it literally could be anything. I feel for you mama, I know exactly how it is.

Ditto supplements! I'd also be concerned about a source of saturated fats.

[DevaMajka]

Yep- I'm totally grateful that I learned about sals here! Most of my favorite foods are high sals, so who knows if I ever would have figured it out!

saturated fats- hmmm. Canola oil is on my "probably safe" list, but I know you're not a fan of it. I bet olive oil would be ok. His sals sensitivity seems to have gotten higher. Is olive oil saturated fat? I wonder if I should try coconut oil? Maybe I ought to wait a few days before adding that.
I guess either way, I won't be doing this for too long. I think egg is one of the first things I'll add back- I'm pretty sure it's safe when I eat egg in reasonable amounts. Not so sure it's safe when he eats them, though.

I've debated on taking out the rice too, just because it's been in our diets pretty much since the beginning. Wouldn't be hard to replace it with quinoa or millet (or my waffles )