running out of ideas...what to try next?

[rhesp1212]

My DS is 21 months and has a tremendous list of food hypersensativities. All of his reactions are delayed and occur as a rash on his face, diaper rash, reflux and eventually vomiting if we continue to give it. We are doing a 4 day rotation with a very limited diet right now as those are the only things he can tolerate right now. He used to be able to eat more proteins but has become sensative to them over time. I'm on a desperate hunt for vegetables, as he has either grown very tired of squash, zucchini and green beans or he is becoming reactive to them. I'm out of ideas for vegetables to try!! Any suggestions???

Here's a list of what he can NOT eat:
**ETA- these are based on food trials and patch testing

Grains:
Wheat@
Rice@
Millet 2/10
Amaranth 3/10
Kamut 4/10
Wild rice 5/10
Buckwheat 4/10


Vegetables:
Broccoli
Cauliflower
Kidney beans
Lima beans
Pinto beans
Asparagus
Corn@
Butternut squash
Sweet potato*@ 12/09
White potato* 2/10
Green peas@ 2/10
Chick peas (Garbanzo beans) 3/10
Black beans 4/10
Kale 5/10
Spinach 5/10- fast Rx IgE?
Carrots 4/10 – fast Rx IgE?
Acorn squash 5/10

Fruit:
Mango
Oranges
Pineapple
Lemon
Lime
Banana (retried 3/18/10- failed)
Avacado
Proteins:
Neocate
EO28 Splash
Cow’s milk@
Goat’s milk
Soy@
Whey protein isolate (beneprotein) 1/10
Eggs@
Chicken@
Turkey*@
Lamb*@
Veal@
Catfish@
Almonds@
Peanuts
Pasture fed chicken eggs 4/10


Thanks!!
Valerie

[Koalamom]

Originally Posted by rhesp1212

I'm on a desperate hunt for vegetables, as he has either grown very tired of squash, zucchini and green beans or he is becoming reactive to them. I'm out of ideas for vegetables to try!! Any suggestions???

These sensitivities sound like sals reactions, or atleast some of these. Have you checked in the sals thread for support/ ideas? What I am also thing of is by cutting out so many foods your ds is lacking more and more nutrients to handle these food chemicals. I found that all the foods we cut out are slowly being added back in by adding in essential nutrients.

[Koalamom]

What about lentils, tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuce, black eyes peas, onions? Don't think I saw them in the list.

Are you nursing him?

Is he getting enough enzymes for aiding in digestion?

[mamafish9]

I'm with bluebirdmama - I'd be concerned that he's running down in nutrients. I'd add a magnesium supplement, and trace minerals.

I'd also consider some testing:

1) Hair elements test - that will tell you his status on several minerals, as well as any metals toxicity.

2) Comprehensive stool analysis - you're losing a lot of starches, and that can be from gut bacteria and/or lack of lactobacillus (good gut bugs).

We lost a ton of starches when DS' zinc was lowest (low zinc = low stomach acid = poor digestion of practically everything).

You also might consider digestive enzymes. We used to use Enzymedica, but my hands down favorites now are an enzyme blend from Dr. Amy Yasko, here, with lots of pancreatin. DS can even eat corn now on those, and he never could before. If you try those though, start SLOW, they can cause lots of die off.

[rhesp1212]

I guess I should have also shared what he CAN eat! Right now he's on a rotation using the following foods: green beans, quinoa (questionable right now), oats, grass fed beef, spelt, coconut, flax, red lentils (can't do black or green), pears, apples, and grapes/raisins. He also tolerates the following but won't eat them lately unless I disguise them somehow which makes me wonder if he has become sensative to something (he has a rash right now and I don't know what it's from): zucchini, yellow squash, spaghetti squash, portabello mushrooms, beets and beet greens, and cod fish. We also tried raw goats milk and he did okay on it the first couple of times and then he seemed to start reacting to it. I'm going to retrial it again this weekend and see what happens.

He is no longer nursing (stopped in December), but he does get a complete multivitamin twice a day (Nano VM) so I'm not too concerned about his overall vitamin and mineral intake (although I know he could still be low in some of them). I've only tried one set of enzymes before and he broke out in a diaper rash that looked like the skin melted off of his bottom. And that was after just a tiny tiny bit put on his lip. It was awful. It was a vegetable/fruit based one since he can't tolerate any amount of trace forms of soy, corn and dairy...makes it very difficult to find something for him to take.

Oh, and he drinks about 4-8 ounces of water kefir daily and then just plain water. So, I think he's probably getting plenty of probiotics from that. We did see some improvement when we added that into his diet

Thanks!
Valerie

[rhesp1212]

I have read through the sals thread, but i don't really think that's it. It's been a while, but I don't think his symptoms really match up with a sals sensativity either. He can eat a TON of grapes and raisins, which are extremely high in sals and not have a problem with them at all.

[mamafish9]

Originally Posted by rhesp1212

He is no longer nursing (stopped in December), but he does get a complete multivitamin twice a day (Nano VM) so I'm not too concerned about his overall vitamin and mineral intake (although I know he could still be low in some of them). I've only tried one set of enzymes before and he broke out in a diaper rash that looked like the skin melted off of his bottom. And that was after just a tiny tiny bit put on his lip. It was awful. It was a vegetable/fruit based one since he can't tolerate any amount of trace forms of soy, corn and dairy...makes it very difficult to find something for him to take.

Oh, and he drinks about 4-8 ounces of water kefir daily and then just plain water. So, I think he's probably getting plenty of probiotics from that. We did see some improvement when we added that into his diet

The Nano VM is excellent relative to most children's multis, but it doesn't have nearly enough of certain things to address deficiencies or higher than normal need. My DS at 2yo required 5x that amount of D, B6, mag, zinc, & molybdenum. The stress of food reacting drains the body of many of these, particularly zinc & mag in our experience. So I'd still consider trying substantially higher doses of a few of those.

Also, the water kefir is wonderful to be doing - and if you saw improvements from that, I would consider running a stool test (it would suggest he either has too many bad or not enough good stuff in his gut, or both) - and knowing what might get you further down the road of gaining foods back (and/or not losing foods you eat a lot of). Giving kefir with food can help with digestion as well.

[PeachBaby]

I also agree about the lack of nutrients. One thing I've learned, especially with young kids who are still growing, is that they need enough MACROnutrients (CHO, FAT, and PRO) first and foremost, which can be hard to keep up with, especially since elimination diets make it so hard to find things to eat. I learned quite a few things from reading this book, "Special-Needs Kids Eat Right." I believe it is a good read even if a child is only dealing with food allergies/sensitivities/intolerances.

How about eggplant? Cabbage/Chinese cabbage? Radish? Tapioca? Fresh basil leaves? Shredded nori seaweed? Tahini? Prunes?

[rhesp1212]

dang....well, he has now become sensative to 3 of his staple foods that he was doing so well on. Lentils, zucchini and yellow squash are now out!! I'm so upset!! But, on the bright side, he looks like he's doing okay with tomatoes (although he barely eats any of it), strawberries and we are retrying sweet potatoes since he's been off of them for 6 months. I think I'm going to request bloodwork to be done to check his vitamin levels.