Starting a Rotation Diet-Help!

[Huck]

We got the IgG results for my 8 month old daughter yesterday. Glad we did it (if it proves accurate) b/c I would have NEVER guessed she was reacting to some of these foods! We also did a panel of 16 inhalants & the spice panel.

I've been off of dairy, soy, corn, gluten, nuts, sesame, citrus, tropical fruits, nightshades, chocolate, coffee, & sugar since February. (a few coffee breakdowns) And off of legumes for a month. So who knows about the false negatives/positives for the blood test!

Here's my first attempt at constructing a rotation diet. Please give me some feedback!! Any foods to omit or green veges to add? I'm concerned about her reacting to the brassicas b/c of the broccoli reaction...

DAY 1
chicken
salmon
trout
coconut & oil
buckwheat
kale
collards
turnip root/greens
kohlrabi
artichoke
sunflower seeds
pecans
maple syrup
chocolate
cinnamon
paprika
turmeric
coriander
cloves
cardamom
nettles
eyebright
evening primrose oil
topical-coconut oil, calendula, evening primrose oil

DAY 2
beef
mutton
shrimp
apricots
raspberries
barley
rice & rice milk
oats
millet
lentils
garlic
mushrooms
spinach
sweet potato
olives & oil
avocado
rooibos tea
mustard
dill
marjoram
parsley
peppermint
fennel
rose hips
cod liver oil
baker’s yeast
topical-olive oil, apricot oil, aloe vera, oatmeal

DAY 3
turkey
tuna
oyster
red snapper
blueberries
huckleberries
amaranth
green peas
bok choy
sesame seeds & oil
walnuts
coffee
hemp seeds & milk
honey
ginger
licorice
borage oil
nettles
eyebright
topical-beeswax, borage oil

DAY 4
buffalo
sardines
black beans
pinto beans
mung beans
peaches
quinoa
rye
zucchini
yams
beets
parsnips
cress
pumpkin
pumpkin seeds
flax seeds
spirulina
green tea
cumin
oregano
basil
rosemary
thyme
cod liver oil
topical-shea butter, oregano

Here's what she reacted to:
All the Grasses (low-high)
Cat antigen (low)
Dog epithelia (moderate)
Dust mite mix (low)

All Dairy (moderate-high)

Apple, Lemon, Orange, Pear, Plum, Strawberry (low)
Cranberry, Grape, Papaya (very low)
Grapefruit (moderate)

String Bean, Corn, Spelt, Whole Wheat (very low)
Peanut (low)
Almond (moderate)

Asparagus, Cabbage, Carrot, Green Bell Pepper, Radish (very low)
Broccoli, Cauliflower, Cucumber, White Onion, Red Tomato (low)
Celery, Lettuce (moderate)

Vanilla (moderate)
Dong Quai, Milk Thistle, Saw Palmetto (very low)

Sorry so long! TIA!

[kjbrown92]

was there a gluten/gliadin test as well?
And did you test yourself as well? Because if you are reacting to different things than she is, then she can be having reactions to your reactions.

[Huck]

No reaction to Gluten & Gliadin!

I didn't test myself but I was just thinking about that. I'm slowly reintroducing the foods that we have been off of and watching for reactions. I noticed some digestive issues yesterday & today after eating black beans & peaches, but I could have just eaten them too close together. I've actually been feeling really good on the diet we were maintaining since Feb. So then I won't add in the foods that I don't feel comfortable with for myself (beets, chard, potatoes, lobster...)

I also thought that she got a little worse after I ate rutabagas. Do you think she's likely to react to the whole brassica family?

It's really hard to tell with her rashes, because she's definitely reacting to the grass pollen right now.

[kjbrown92]

I don't have time to look at all the food families right now, but did you do the rotation based on the food families? You seem like you have a lot of variety on each day, which is good.

[Huck]

Yes, that's what I tried to do. I based it on the sample one in the results booklet and changed it so that the food combos sounded better to me.

Oh good, you think the variety is good. I was worried that there were too many foods and that would make tracking down a reaction too hard. I'm obviously not going to eat every single one each day.

[kjbrown92]

Originally Posted by Huck

Yes, that's what I tried to do. I based it on the sample one in the results booklet and changed it so that the food combos sounded better to me.

Oh good, you think the variety is good. I was worried that there were too many foods and that would make tracking down a reaction too hard. I'm obviously not going to eat every single one each day.

As long as the food families stay together, then the food combo changes are fine. I've never heard of some of the foods on there (like eyebright) so I have no idea how you'd use it. We don't eat all of the foods on our rotation days either. Like for us, day 4 had salmon and turkey on it, so we really rotate those every 8 days, since we do it every other day 4, if you know what I mean. And on day 2, we have broccoli one time, and cauliflower the next one.

It's still a good idea to keep the food journal just in case there were false negatives.

[Huck]

Thanks Kathy! Eyebright is an herb that is commonly used with nettles for pollen allergies. DD was reacting to broccoli, which is in my multi vitamin, B complex, and calcium so I wanted to careful to not let her get sensitized to herbs & spices.

Still wondering if i should avoid all brassicas b/c of the broccoli/cauliflower/cabbage reaction?

[kjbrown92]

did any brassicas test okay? my kids were all over the map on food families. One would be okay but not others. Two would be okay, but 3 bad in another family. Etc. If you add anything that wasn't tested, then I'd keep track of it, just in case.

[Huck]

Nope. Broccoli tested at a 2.5, Cauliflower at a 2, Cabbage at a 1. Those were the only brassicas tested.

Did your kids get rashes on their cheeks? I can't get her cheeks to clear. We just got the test results on Thursday, so this is only day 4 without the foods she reacted to on the test. How soon should I expect them to look better?

Anyone know if the cat/dog/dust/grass reactions would give her a rash on the cheeks or just food reactions?

I've got dust allergies and DH is allergic to grass and neither of us had cheeks like hers as a babe.

[kjbrown92]

DS got bright red cheeks from soy. DD2 got red cheeks from apples. I think it's one of those things that can be caused by any food. Some people say that it's a salicylate thing (red cheeks) and it's a bucket reaction. Is it just red, red and chapped, red and pimply?

Do you have cats and dogs? And if you had them and got rid of them, it'll take a couple of months for the dander to get out of the air.

[kjbrown92]

Another issue with the rotation in the case of a nursing mother is that if she's eating those foods on day 1, and you're eating the same foods on day 1, then she's actually getting those foods on day 1, 2, 3, and 4, since it takes at least 4 days to get out of your milk. So I'm not sure how effective a rotation diet is in that case. My kids are on rotations, but they were much older when they started it and I wasn't nursing anymore. Did you ask the doctor about that?

[Huck]

Good Morning. Her cheeks range from red, to red chapped, crusty (with a yellow color), sometimes pimply and sometimes oozing. I've tried treating them for candida/yeast with nystatin (antifungal) b/c she's teething and they're always wet & it reminds me of the cradle cap she had on her head. The nystatin hasn't seemed to work.

I wondered about sals, but she's not reacting to some high sals foods, so it didn't seem like it to me... What do you think?

We do have cats & dogs. We just put away all area rugs and have only hard wood floors, which we are attempted to damp mop daily. Dogs have been mostly banished to outside. Cats come in to eat, then leave. We have 2 air filters running, kitchen & bedroom.

Good point on the rotation diet with nursing. I will ask.

My laundry soap has grapefruit pulp in it. Any recs. on a different one?

[ASusan]

Originally Posted by Huck

Good Morning. Her cheeks range from red, to red chapped, crusty (with a yellow color), sometimes pimply and sometimes oozing. I've tried treating them for candida/yeast with nystatin (antifungal) b/c she's teething and they're always wet & it reminds me of the cradle cap she had on her head. The nystatin hasn't seemed to work.

It was our experience that this went away after we took out the major offending foods. We haven't seen red cheeks in almost 2 years.


I don't know what to do about the breastfeeding and still having the food in your milk a few days later. This is a reason why I haven't done a rotation diet yet, and why I am considering weaning...(but DS is over 2.5).

My guess is that once you take out those offending foods, things may get a LOT better.

[sbgrace]

Are these IGE allergies?

I'm coming with my "avoid this bad news" thing so pass if you aren't concerned about IGE allergies or you're ok with some risk of sensitization of other things.

Allergists would say you don't feed a child allergic to tree nuts other tree nuts. There is a risk of cross contamination (major) and you could sensitize. She's allergic to one tree nut. She's got a much greater chance of outgrowing that if she develops no more tree nut allergies. You rarely outgrow multiple tree nut allergies.

Further, you've got a lot of seeds on there (allergenic and some cross w/tree nuts) and you said you were avoiding sesame yet there is sesame--why?

Sesame is a horrific allergy. It's got a high potential for serious anaphylaxis and it's absolutely horrible to avoid. It's second to only corn I think in the difficulty with avoidance and, again, it's got high potential to also kill. And then it crosses with tree nuts (particularly cashew and pistachio) and almost all (all?) hemp is contaminated with it because of shared fields in my understanding. My sesame allergic child breaks out in hives with hemp.

I don't remember if mango is on your list but if it is it needs to go with your hemp/sesame day if you leave those in. It crosses with them and cashew/pistachio.

Her tree nut allergy needs an epi pen (two actually). I hope they did that? If not ask.

[kjbrown92]

If you've still got cats and dogs, then it's still adding to the allergy bucket, with the dander. Even if they're completely removed, it takes 2-3 months to clear the dander from the air, so if they're still going in and out, I don't know how much it helps or not. My DH has allergy-induced asthma to cats and dogs, and I know how much his breathing is affected even by "outdoor" cats who only come in to eat, so I guess it depends how much the foods are playing into it and how much the animals/pollens are playing into it.

[BirthKathy]

My son has moderate to severe eczema that is primarily caused by food. We had him tested by Quest (RAST), ALCAT (intolerance) and also USBiotek IGG/IGE. He was 8-11 months when he was tested.

His worst area is his cheeks. They react pretty quickly to offending foods. Red and itchy quickly and then bumps crop up within a few hours. If it's a big reaction, the bumps pop and ooze over the next 12-24 hours. Thanks to all the testing and an elimination diet, we've been able to remove all major triggers and he is doing well. We still have to spot treat him with hydrocortisone every other night, but his cheeks are smooth now for the most part. It took 1-2 months for his cheeks and chin to smooth out after the big triggers were removed and once we started using Hydrocortisone because the skin was so thickened.

Anyway, what I did was create a limited but well rounded diet for myself with the test results that we had. I then started introducing foods to him one at a time. It has been a slow process, but he is now eating 3 full meals a day. He doesn't have enough foods to rotate yet, so I just make sure not to overdo any one item. Based on his reactions, I have lost some foods in my own diet, so that has been hard. But his skin looks great compared to when he was younger, and he is much happier and healthier in all ways.

We have found some false negatives, so I would recommend taking it slow if you can. He also is doing fine on some foods that were listed as low on his tests. Just use the results as a guideline.

[Huck]

Thanks for all of the feedback!!

I talked to the ND today about the rotation diet and foods still being in the milk. ND said that we're doing the rotation diet so that she doesn't become sensitized to any food that I might be eating daily/often & that we're hoping that the foods we're using based on the IgG blood test are safe. That said, I am really watching for reactions as we add in foods that I've been off of for nearly 5 months.

I did realize today that one of the supplements that I was still taking has grapefruit seed extract (OOPS!) so I pulled that today. Crossing my fingers that her cheeks start to clear up a bit. I added the two new supplements that I got from the ND - one is to get rid of yeast and the other is the heal her gut. I'm making a note to double check them with the manufacturers to make sure they're safe.

sbgrace-We've only done IgG testing. We were avoiding sesame as part of an elimination diet to see if we could get her rashes to go away by pulling the major/most common allergens. But it wasn't working b/c she wasn't tolerating a bunch of veges/fruits & vanilla that I was eating, plus the dog/cat/dust/grass problem. We do have an epipen. I am definitely wary of introducing nuts and plan to do locally harvested walnuts & pecans in the shell (from people who just have a few trees in their yard). I will wait on the nuts for a while and I'm not going to give her any. She's only had yams, carrots, blueberries, & codonopsis root.

kj-I think we'll evict the cats too. We need to figure out where to put their food outside where the racoons won't eat it all. Dogs are no longer coming in... though I don't know how that will work in the winter. They are getting old and probably won't be happy with the cold weather. Heated doghouse?

birthkathy-Thanks for the info. on your son. I am taking it slowly. I've actually been afraid to reintroduce foods. My ND gave me the okay to start trialing foods a month or so ago, but I ended up taking more out b/c I didn't feel like we'd reached baseline.

Thanks again!