Suspected Sensitivities... talk to me about introducing an elimination diet to a 3 year old.

[Juvysen]

I think Ds1 has a food sensitivity and behavioral issues because of it. I'm reading "is this your child?" and I think Ds has dairy issues if not wheat, too. I know other people in our family (uh, including Dh and I) have dairy issues, so I don't think that's a difficult guess. Anyway, so now I need ideas on how to eliminated his favorite foods (um, bread and milk) without complete total freak-outs. He'll drink water, but he's not interested in substitute milks (I've tried coconut milk and almond), though he'll drink soy milk... but I'm not overly interested in feeding him a lot of soy.

So, those of you who have btdt, how'd you do it?

[Juvysen]

I was thinking maybe I'll eliminate dairy first for a month and see if that's good enough? then remove wheat later if need-be, so I don't rock his world too much?

[Juvysen]

anyone?

[mamafish9]

Seems like a plan - take out dairy first, and see what the result is. Then you can decide if you need to pull gluten or not. If he'll drink water, then you can use a milk sub (we like coconut milk) for baking, etc, give him water to drink, and it shouldn't be too huge a shift for him (and you!).

[Juvysen]

He loves cheese, too. And in the next few weeks we have a family reunion, are staying at someone's house, and then going on vacation w/my dad and his wife who always plan to cook... any idea how to direct a 3 yr old around that?

[Theloose]

I'd wait till after the family stuff to start eliminating, just cause of the stress/confusion. Also, unless you're an old pro at elimination diets, consider the first few weeks 'practice' - it's so easy to slip up in the early days.

As for making it easier on him, having an abundance of snacks/treats ready at a moments notice and not trying to make other changes (low sugar, etc) at the same time.

Finally, if he's addicted to gluten/dairy, that sounds like an opioid response, and stomach acid support like zinc or ferments and b12 might be useful as well.

[tanyalynn]

I'm trying to remember how I explained it to DD, she was 3.5yo when we cut out gluten and dairy. At first I didn't even tell her, I cut it out for myself and did it for the whole household at once. I felt better within a couple days, maybe I just told her factually that these foods were bad for our bodies? If we'd still had some people eating bread and cheese and she couldn't, that would've been bad, very hard on her and me. If someone else is going to keep eating stuff like that, I'd at least find a place where it's completely out of sight.

Travelling with dietary restrictions, esp the first few trips, is really stressful. It gets a lot easier, we've been travelling 6 of the last 9 weeks and I'm not insane, but there was a learning curve. I'd plan to do this after your travels, but you can take this time to find a few other breakfasts, for example, and portable lunches and things like that.

There are a lot of gluten free blogs, if you can experiment with some of them to find new versions of special treats that your family enjoys, that would probably help.

[Deir]

Jenna- Is this your middle child? I am dealing with major behavior problems with mine since the baby is getting so much more social. The baby is definitely having food reactions so reading this forum alot was making me think about ds and maybe he also was having reactions.For sure ds is sensitive to artificial color and junk- I am sure of that so we avoid it. But every day about 40 minutes after he had his healthy breakfast, he would have a tantrum or some other problem. I thought, "Maybe food is the cause of his miserable behavior and tantrums" Well- the baby and I just left for 4 days to visit family and guess what? NO TANTRUMS! Anyway- In our case I think my son's intolerance is to me and the baby!!

[mamafish9]

I'd use the next few weeks to introduce him to some alternatives - e.g. have one day a week were you drink coconut milk, or have a meal that normally users cheese with an alternative (pasta with tomato sauce instead of cheese, for example). You can also start reducing dairy and gluten where it's easy to do - expand your repertoire of naturally dairy & gluten free meals, get him used to some of those. That way the elimination diet won't be such a radical change for him.

The other approach, if you don't have a family trip in the next week, and the behaviors aren't a lot of fun, is to go cold turkey now and see what happens. A week isn't enough to see the full impact, but it would give you a pretty good idea of whether you're going to see improvements or not (may start with 3-4 days that are worse, but after that should get better). If you don't see any change in a week off dairy & gluten, then either those aren't your culprits, or not your only culprits. But if you do see significant improvements, you'll know you've found a piece of the puzzle - and you can decide if it's easier to deal with being GF/DF while traveling, or dealing with the behaviors they generate.

[Juvysen]

Deir - yes it's my middle child.

Thought I'd come back and update... we cut out dairy, but we're waiting on gluten. Dairy seems like a definite yes, and now that he's mostly off it for a while, we seem to get more obvious reactions. We also have noted reactions after chocolate and certain kinds of apples. I think he also may have some sensory integration trouble, and I'm realizing that many of the left over behaviors we get from him are strikingly similar to things my oldest did at that age.

[subtlycrunchy]

For my own issues with dd, I am finding good info at Healthy Futures, including this article on how to use elimination and other clues to pinpoint allergens and triggers. Hope this helps: http://www.healthyfutures.com/allerg...ction-children

[kjbrown92]

Are you keeping a food journal?
If you do decide to take out gluten to see, and it is an opoid response, just know that you might get some hellish days (not to talk you out of it, but to prepare you). When I removed gluten from DS (and I didn't even realize it was a problem until an intolerance test came back with it), he had 3 days of acting like a heroin addict, begging for a crumb. It was heartbreaking but we did it. And he's been gluten free (and dairy free and others) for over 2 years. He's 10yo and has been on and off elimination diets since birth. DD2 was restricted since 1yo. Then when she was 3yo, she got a bunch of stuff back (with a blood test) and lost a bunch of stuff she'd been used to. The transition is always hard, but in the end, it's worth it with less reactions (and healthier food overall).