too much gas - food intolerances?

[meemee]

my almost 8 year old has always had a lot of gas.

but lately it has gone up more. she has really loud adult sounding burps and flatulence too.

she now burps at least a 100 times a day and flatulence at least 30 that i hear.

recently she complains of stomach pains towards the evening.

our diet has not changed radically.

we are waiting to do an allergy test with the doctor.

i am thinking food intolerances. and want to start an elimination diet to figure out what's going on apart from following up with the doctor.

any advice or guidance will be very helpful.

i am not relying much on the docs to help as they really try to 'mask' than heal.

[tanyalynn]

Gassiness was a symptom of food intolerances and a bad bacterial balance in my DD's gut, cutting out her food intolerances, gluten and dairy, helped, and adding in a good probiotic helped too. I tried homemade kimchee, for us it worked quite well.

[meemee]

thanks tanyalynn that's what i told dd that we would start with cutting out gluten and dairy AND adding a good probiotic.

how do i start an elimination diet? any resources? the thing is i am not sure what all has gluten.

are there some guidelines you follow about the diet?

i can figure lunch and dinner. but i need guidance esp. with breakfast food.

should i keep a food diary of exactly what she eats? for how long? a couple of months?

should i also test her for celiac?

or should i try one at a time? start gluten and then try dairy

[tanyalynn]

Reading in the Allergies forum will be really helpful in getting started. Tons and tons of old threads. List several breakfasts, lunches, and dinners that will work for your situation. Dinner is pretty easy, other starches like rice, potatoes, quinoa, corn (tortillas?), lentils, those are easy ones to just sub in for wheat pasta or bread/rolls. There are other GF grains, they're just less familiar.

Gluten: wheat, spelt, barley, rye, kamut, triticale, maybe a couple more less common wheat-related grains
Oats are usually x-contaminated with wheat unless they say gluten free and have a protein that is similar--some people react to it as well even though it's not quite the same

Read more in the Allergies forum, some people are very sensitive to cross-contamination and some are not (DD is not, I don't think, whereas DS and I were quite sensitive early on, now 3 years later we are not so much), for discussion on things like toasters and non-stick cookware and plastic food storage containers. May not be an issue, but knowing it's a possibility keeps it at the back of your mind to consider.

Breakfast: eggs and fruit; bacon or breakfast sausage and fruit; cooked grains like buckwheat, amaranth, millet (they can cook up similar to oatmeal); GF bread (read a lot for good brands or try a mix like Bob's Red Mill mix); some breakfast cereals are GF and you can choose a non-dairy milk (personally I wouldn't add in a lot of new soy when you cut out dairy given how cross-reactive milk and soy are); breakfast tacos with corn tortillas. More ideas in Allergies, I am not very creative with breakfast.

I didn't do a food diary at the beginning, I did one later to try to figure out my son's face rashes, but at first, you could just wait and see what changes and what doesn't and then start journalling if there are symptoms that are coming/going.

I don't think *I* would've felt better without taking out both gluten and dairy. Some folks have different symptoms for each--but I wouldn't take out dairy, for example, see no difference, then add it back and THEN take out gluten. At some point, you want to have all the suspected foods removed at the same time.

Do you suspect celiac? I don't for us, we're gluten intolerant but I'm almost certain none of us has celiac. Depending on how you test, you may need to continue eating gluten (the official test requires that, there are alternative tests that don't), and then you'd need to decide if a celiac diagnosis is helpful for you. Lots of threads in Allergies about that, people decide both ways on whether the diagnosis is helpful for them in their situations.

[mellowjello]

I totally agree with Tanyalynn. (I also would avoid soy, too.) Goat milk is very different (less allergenic) from cow milk and could be a good option, as well as coconut milk. Even better would be to eat either coconut or goat milk as yogurt which breaks down the lactose (can cause bloating, pain, cramping) to make it more digestable. These would be great for breakfast. Probiotics are key! Food based probiotics are even better (like yogurt, cultured veggies). Taking a probiotic with every meal (or a digestive enzyme, but not both) will help to digest the food well and decrease stomach pain/bloating etc. Introduce/increase probiotics slowly.

Make changes very very slowly and support detox (b12, and all other B vitmains, all minerals, especially magnesium, epsom salt baths are great for magnesium). Sleep is super important to support all organs of detoxification. Make SURE that she poops everyday. Toxins are bound in the stool for excretion and will be reabsorbed (and need to be re-detoxed) if she does not pass them.