kids, allergies and sleep

[Sandrine]

Can we have a discussion on how allergies can affect sleep in a child?


Here's my prob. dd3, 4yrs old, is almost at baseline. She still has a few symptoms like congestion and wax in her ears but the biggest symptom that affects her (and me) is her sleep.

She's wheat, dairy, oats, corn and soy free.

I work hard to make sure that she doesn't get any of her allergens but I guess maybe some other food may be affecting her. Plus dh and my mom aren't as serious and don't see it like me. For example, my mom give dd3 nutella which has dairy. but it also has hazelnuts that I don't give to dd3 either. So she is mostly treenut and nut free.

Her sleep is disrupted around 1hr after she goes to bed. She wakes up and has no clue what woke her up. She cries until we get there and when we ask what's wrong, she doesn't know. Last night, she told me that her bed and bedding bugged her after I asked her to tell me or I was going to get mad for her waking up for nothing. : Not sure as her bedding is soft and she's been sleeping in that bed for a few yrs now but I do know that it's not the most comfy bed. She may wake up for only once or like last night, it was 3x before 11pm.

So please help me brainstorm allergies and sleep. Thanks!!!

[kjbrown92]

For us, sleep was tied in with the food. Once the triggers were removed, sleep was deep and long. Is she gluten free or just wheat free? Have you tried food journaling to see if there's a pattern? If it's every night, it seems like it's got to be a staple in her diet vs. off and on where it would be something less frequently eaten.

[Sandrine]

Originally Posted by kjbrown92

For us, sleep was tied in with the food. Once the triggers were removed, sleep was deep and long. Is she gluten free or just wheat free? Have you tried food journaling to see if there's a pattern? If it's every night, it seems like it's got to be a staple in her diet vs. off and on where it would be something less frequently eaten.

She's gluten free. I only give her gluten free foods( like store bought bread(it was too hot to cook and lazyness and "granola" bars from Enjoy Life). I give her rice and sometimes buckwheat but she hadn't had that one in a long time(3ish mths or so ago)

I think I will start food journaling. Maybe I can find the culprit.

It's not every night but recently it's been often enough for me to notice, ykwim.

[mamafish9]

I'd suspect a food - and I'd track contaminations - is there a pattern with what DH/MIL give her?

I'd also try some magnesium or Epsom salts baths, that can be very helpful for sleep.

[Sandrine]

Originally Posted by mamafish9

I'd suspect a food - and I'd track contaminations - is there a pattern with what DH/MIL give her?

I'd also try some magnesium or Epsom salts baths, that can be very helpful for sleep.

I'm not sure what dh does or give to her that may affect her. He does what I ask but doesn't take it as seriously as me either. He doesn't get that if we make sure that she is allergen/intolerance free that maybe, just maybe, she will be able to have that food later in life on a rotation. He thinks the opposite as in a little can't hurt and that would help her not react as much the next time like allergy shots for environment allergies.

It could be the cross-contamination. Maybe we will have to get her own cooking stuff(pots and pans and ustensils) to really eliminate the chance of one. Right now, we mostly clean the cooking stuff really well. I also will make her food first, like her sandwich/school lunch before making the bigger girls' lunch.

As for my mom, she's mostly good but sometimes she slips like the nutella. For her, if I don't see a reaction then she's ok. ugh My mom suffers from allergies and doesn't take it seriously so I can't make her understand how to completely help me out on this, ykwim. I also know that this wkend, she didn't get those 5 allergens, so maybe it's a new food.

Ugh my bath is out of commission for about another wk. We are renovating the bathtub but we are almost finish, so for sure by the wkend we will get to use it again. Would soaking her feet in Epsom salt work too??



Thanks you two for the help!!!

[Sandrine]

ok, I have another question.

When we started all this, I found out that she react to tomato sauce and had a small rash around her face when she ate it. She used to eat ketchup all the time and have spaghetti/noodles about once a wk or so. Once I figured it out, we stopped for a few mths and then we tried it again but there was no reaction, so we put it on rotation of about 1x a wk.

She did have some tomato sauce on sat for lunch. I don't remember if she slept well that night or not but sunday night was yesterday, so it wasn't a good night.

I wonder if that could be the cause?....

[mamafish9]

In that case, she may be reacting to salicylates or histamines (both really high in tomatoes).

To reduce sals sensitivity, try mag orally, and also molybdenum and some P5P (active form of B6). For histamines, vitamin C and sublingual methyl B12.