Established we have dairy and soy....now what?

[True Blue]

I've traced DS's problems definitely to dairy and soy. Soy adds to his eczema, and dairy gives him eczema, runny nose, gas. Dr. Sears says there could be a dairy threshold. I don't know if I should eliminate every trace of dairy from his diet, try to find how much he can handle, or what. And why do some things declare soy and others don't with the new labeling?

[tanyalynn]

For the first couple years (I'm a bit shocked that we've been gluten and dairy free for 3 years) I didn't try to push the dairy issue. I recognized soy later because DS has a much higher tolerance for it, so I just fell into minimizing it but not eliminating (soybean oil and lecithin seem fine, and I've only slowly phased out treats that had some soy protein in them).

A reasonable amount of milk would make DS vomit when he was little, and that was enough of a reaction for me to really stay away for a long time.

I guess I wanted to make sure he had a good, solid stretch of time to get in better health, to work on our overall health problems, before considering trying some dairy. I'm considering trying butter soon, I expect he won't react immediately, not sure if it'll cause subtle stuff that's difficult to identify. That's a consideration--what if the reaction is, say, a higher tendency toward ear infections _only_ when your LO is sick for some totally unrelated reason? That prospect put me off for a long time.

I think the only benefit to finding a tolerance is convenience. That's the reason I haven't eliminated every bit of soy--not being able to consume soy lecithin, for example, takes out a LOT of convenience foods and I'm not convinced it's a stress for DS to deal with it.

re: labelling, some labels seem to explicitly state soy or wheat or whatever, but others only say it in the list of ingredients--I'm wondering if it's considered declared if it says wheat flour, for example, in the overall list of ingredients. I'm confused by labelling, I admit, I read the entire list each time.

[Sandrine]

To be able to treat dd3' eczema, we completely took dairy, wheat, soy, oats and corn out. Her eczema is completely gone. After 6mths, we trialed corn and didn't see any symptoms. So it's now on rotation(once a wk) in her diet. In a few mths, we wil probably trial another food.

HTH

[lyterae]

DD is dairy intolerant and trace amounts will set off her eczema and stomach aches. Initially the allergist told us that she should be able to handle yogurt and "light" cheeses, through trialing we found this was not the case. She is completely dairy free at this point in time.

If you're looking for milk alternatives, my DD particularly likes almond milk and coconut milk(and yogurt). I mostly use them for baking/cooking as a replacement.