Can you continue as a vegetarian while doing the elimination diet?

[spatulagirl]

Can you continue as a vegetarian while doing the elimination diet?

My almost 9 year old is out of control and I need help. Friends suggest trying an elimination diet to see if his behavior is affected by food. We don't eat meat at all and so I find the idea of eliminating soy, gluten and dairy as very scary in terms of what to feed him.

I am thinking about eliminating cane sugar, all dyes, soy, gluten, corn and dairy. He has no physical problems when eating these foods but I am hoping one or a few of them might be the culprit to his horrible behavior. Parenting him has become so exhausting.

[kittywitty]

You *can*. But I found it utterly stressful to have one more thing out of the diet without a medical need. I was on a very strict elim diet for about 2 years on and off with #3 and ended up getting scarily underweight. I ended up going back to meat when I got pg. I know some people do it fine, but it did not work for me. If gluten wasn't on that list I would say it was doable, but that was the kicker for me.

[Ianthe]

Hi, we are a vegan family, and recently stopped eating wheat (mostly gluten free) and soy. I pretty much stick to rice and bean dishes, and try to do a different ethnic variety each night to keep it interesting. Mexican rice and beans, Indian rice and beans, Italian rice and beans... right now I am making a lentil loaf that is vegan, gluten and soy free, with roasted potatoes and summer squash on the side.

If you go check out the vegan/vegetarian forum, you can find some great recipe ideas

[mamafish9]

I think if those are the only foods you need to take out, it is possible to do it on a vegan diet. However, you may discover the need to remove other foods - a common culprit with behavior issues, for example, is salicylates. Or you may end up with a child who is reactive to nuts, beans, squash, or nightshades (e.g. potatoes, tomatoes, eggplant). At that point, we've had several threads in this forum where most mamas conclude you have to start selecting foods based on "need" rather than "choice" - so you keep out the foods that have to be out for reactions, and expand the list of possible food items to pretty much anything else.

We were soy, dairy, gluten, corn, potatoes, and salicylates free for a while. I can't imagine having pulled that off in any kind of nutritionally sound way without eggs and meat.

I think the kicker is when you start to loose foods that matter nutritionally. Soy, gluten, and corn are all easily replaced. Protein sources, good fat sources, those are harder. Loose too many of those and you start to cause nutrient deficiencies, which can make food reactions worse.

[spatulagirl]

That is interesting about the salicylates. I will have to keep that in mind after we do the common eight.

After reading more we are going soy, gluten, corn, dairy, chocolate, sugar, dye and egg free. I am not concerned about the month or so it takes to figure out what he may have allergies to (after doing more researching) i am just freaked out about if he is allergic to more than one. But I will cross that bridge when I come to it.

Thank you for your responses.

[fruitfulmomma]

I am gluten-free and currently bf'ing a gf, low-sals, no latex cross-reactives baby. There is no way I could do it without animal-based foods.

Our safe food list is basically...
Pears and Limes
Rice, Quinoa, and Buckwheat
White Potatoes
Beans, Peas, and Chickpeas
Green Beans, Onions, Cabbage, Cauliflower, Brussels Sprouts, Garlic, Iceberg Lettuce, Celery, and Asparagus
Unprocessed and very minimally processed animal products - meats, cheese, yogurt, sour cream, etc... I have to be real careful with labels because many of them contain our additives from our no list.

[Weevil]

I'm vegan, eat very little soy, and I have given up gluten for trial periods before. It's actually not that difficult once you get used to it (the hardest part for me was the sudden almost overwhelming bread cravings - for homemade white bread fresh out of the oven - it was very strange, like once I knew I couldn't have it I wanted it).

Another option would be to eliminate one food at a time and see if there is an improvement, then add it back in and see if there is a reaction. This could be pretty time consuming though, and it might be some while before you get to the real culprit. How feasible this is depends on how quickly you need to find a solution.

Good luck

[spedteacher30]

I personally could not do it. I ultimately ended up needing to eliminate soy, milk, eggs, nuts, peanuts and corn. Because of the soy and nut allergies, I also had to be extremely cautious with beans.

I ended up eating poultry and fish for protein after being a vegetarian for 20 years.