Do I wean my toddler or join him on the 'diet'?

[marlee]

I am feeling discouraged. My ds is 21 months. His excema has gotten much worse and he was just tested again. The list of foods to avoid for the next 8 weeks is very long. I've been through this before when he was and infant and it was worth it.

I really can't see weaning him but I don't know if I can be so strict on my diet! Help maybe I just need support. I find myself thinking things like. Well he won't nurse for at least 10 hours maybe I can have a little of a restricted food. Or how bad can it be if I eat of tablespoon of salsa (tomatoes restricted) and I nurse him for 5 minutes every three hours. It is only a small percentage of his nutritional intake.

He also tested 10/10 for candida. Do I go on the restricted fruit diet too? Of course we are already avoiding all sugars.

Thoughts? Information? Support? Lecture? Personal experiences. I welcome it all

[kjbrown92]

If what you eat affects him, then go on the diet with him. Your breastmilk is still helping him heal. And he got the intolerances from somewhere, maybe you, so maybe you'll find yourself getting better at the same time. Are his IgE or intolerance triggers? There's a lot of support over on the allergy subforum as well. And if you need help thinking of ideas for food with a restricted diet, for both of you, we can help there too, if you give us the list of foods.

[Marnica]

I would go on the diet with him. My DS is 25 months and he (and me b/c he still BF) is gluten free, yeast free and soy free and dairy free. That's a lot of foods out the window. He actually just had the alcat test today and I fully expect the list to keep growing. If it revelas 20 more foods to avoid, then he will and I will right along with him.

I believe BF is important, and while he doesn't do it often (2x/day) for a minute or 2 each time, he does still do it. I know avoiding tons of food is hard, but I try and look at the positives (I've lost alot of weight and am thinner now than b4 I was pregnant! I also feel much better myself since going off gluten. I remind myself it's not forever and I knew that having kids is a huge sacrifice. This is just one of those sacrifices IMO.

[deditus]

Our household is gluten free, dd and I are gluten, dairy, soy, and egg free. DH eats eggs ( a very mild intolerance for dd AND I) and puts half n half in his coffee. So yes, you can do it. I only recently weaned dd so I cut her intolerances for that originally but I do MUCH better w/o them and I would never eat her intolerant foods in front of her, I think that would be incredibly rude.

[marlee]

Thank you ladies for your support it is much appreciated

[leafwood]

so so so hard! but i will also encourage you to do it w/ him. my dd (30m) has been dealing w/ weight gain issues and we did dairy/gluten free for the last 7-8m. at first i thought it would be very hard...for a second...but i am not doing a feeding tube and that made it a lot easier to skip the foods i would have missed. you will also be much more creative about substituting foods if you do it w/ him or even as a family (in the house at least). hope it is a worthwhile process!!