Allergic to everything!?

[letileon]

Has anyone else had a breastfed baby that seems to react allergically to everything? My son's main symptoms are green, mucousy poop with blood (when its bad) and mild eczema. I've eliminated dairy, soy, eggs, peanuts, tree nuts and recently wheat and corn. His symptoms got better, not completely, but no blood and not green- just a little mucousy. But then in the last week they have drastically gotten worse. The only things I'm eating that I can imagine would be the problem are red wine...lunch meat and allergy-free chocolate (contains no dairy, soy, eggs, gluten, nuts, fish, shellfish, etc). I'm guessing it has to be the chocolate....anyone?

Oh and if you have had an extremely allergic baby do they grow up to still be allergic to everything or did they grow out of it?

[changingseasons]

Lunch meat often has dairy and/or corn in it as an additive. Eggs are sometimes used to clarify wines, but as far as I know that usually applies to white wines, not red.

Mine's not going to be a very encouraging story to read, but it's on my blog if you're interested (click my user name, and it's somewhere in there.)

[kjbrown92]

The other thing about lunchmeat is there can be cross contamination on the slicers.

[letileon]

Yes, I thought about the cross contamination, but I think the symptoms were getting worse before I ate the lunch meat...and I only ate a little on two occasions. His symptoms are more like they were before I eliminated everything. Not sure but I'm eliminating the chocolate, oats and wine to see what happens.

Also, I looked for your blog ChangingSeasons but I couldn't find it. I would be interested to see your story though.

[changingseasons]

Interesting. It must have gotten erased when they switched to the new software. I just added it to my profile again (I don't think we're allowed to put the link in the posts.)

[kjbrown92]

If it's the gluten in the wheat that's the problem (common), then the oats are a definite. Oats are always cross contaminated with wheat, unless they specifically say they are gluten-free AND many people who cannot tolerate wheat/gluten, also cannot tolerate oat (I think it's the similarity of the proteins or something like that). I know my two kids and I can't tolerate the oats as well as the gluteny foods. Are you keeping a food journal? Are you avoiding all gluten or just wheat?

[letileon]

I tried to keep a food journal for awhile but his symptoms seemed so arbitrary that I couldn't make heads or tails of it. It really seems like he reacts to almost any allergen I eat. I wasn't completely gluten free but now I am, just recently gave up oats....so now I'm dairy, soy, egg, corn, peanut, tree nut, gluten, chocolate, alcohol free.....that eliminates most foods in general. I eat a lot of rice ;)

[kjbrown92]

Originally Posted by letileon 

I tried to keep a food journal for awhile but his symptoms seemed so arbitrary that I couldn't make heads or tails of it. It really seems like he reacts to almost any allergen I eat. I wasn't completely gluten free but now I am, just recently gave up oats....so now I'm dairy, soy, egg, corn, peanut, tree nut, gluten, chocolate, alcohol free.....that eliminates most foods in general. I eat a lot of rice ;)

It eliminates most prepared foods, yes. But it does not limit most foods. There are still tons of food you can eat. We're dairy, soy, corn, gluten free, plus DS can't eat eggs or almonds. We can have peanuts but don't eat them very often. And the kids don't usually drink alcohol. We can also have chocolate, but again it's not very often. You still have every vegetable except for corn, and all fruits. And all beans/legumes besides soy and peanut. You also have all meats, unless you are a vegetarian. You just need to be creative. And if you're nursing, you definitely need to make sure that you get enough fat and protein. We fry with abandon. If you need help thinking of foods, here are some to start you out:

roasted veggies or roasted, baked, or fried potatoes (we make sweet potato fries and regular fries, since my DS can't have white potato)

steamed veggies

stir fry over rice (we use Coconut Aminos as a soy sauce substitute) or fried rice (egg free for DS) or sweet and sour chicken or pork over rice

right now I'm making braised pork and sauerkraut for dinner. I'm using my homemade turkey broth in it, and leaving out the carrots (since my DS can't have that). We get So Delicious coconut milk ice cream as a treat every once in a while (it's expensive) and I make my own coconut milk yogurt. I make sandwich bread, we use Namaste pizza dough (for pizza or just to dip in sauce). For a while I made my own ketchup and mustard, but I've found ones that are safe now. breakfast can be buckwheat pancakes or waffles, and pork sausage or bacon, real maple syrup, or Rice Chex or Crispy Rice Cereal with rice milk. We've sauteed bananas in maple syrup and coconut oil for a quickie treat/dessert. I've made my own sorghum tortillas to make tacos.

It's very disheartening and depressing and disappointing at the beginning. I've been at that point. And then you say, we need to eat. And you start concocting. If you've taken out the major allergens (any food can be an allergen, just so you know), then you could start the food journal over again. Make sure you write down all ingredients. It's much easier to see a pattern that way.

[letileon]

Thank you so much for all the ideas. We are starting to get a little creative, but you definitely have a lot more variety than we do! We don't have a Whole Foods, just a small, local natural market. Do you buy a lot of these products online? Also, where did you get the recipe for tortillas? I used to eat everything in a tortilla but I haven't found any I can have in the store. I'm guessing you came up with a lot of these ideas on your own, but do you also have a main resource (ie. cookbook) that you'd recommend? I have an allergen free dessert/baking book but nothing else. I really appreciate all the info, it makes me feel a lot better that even if he doesn't outgrow these allergies we can still eat interesting, creative and tasty foods!

[letileon]

Oh and just found your blog...great stuff!

[DevaMajka]

Also just something to throw in there- vitamin/mineral deficiency can contribute to allergy type symptoms, and leaky gut can cause allergic/intolerant reaction to more and more foods until you heal it (and yeast overgrowth can contribute to leaky gut). So if you don't find that removing the top allergens helps a lot, you might want to look into those things.

[letileon]

How do I deal with yeast without giving a probiotic (which I have found all contain allergens)? The reason I ask is because we had thrush and his symptoms of allergies began just as his thrush was subsiding. It has been suggested to me by my lactation consultants that this could be a contributing factor.

Also, how would one handle vitamin/mineral deficiencies in a 6 month old?

[changingseasons]

Kirkman Labs makes an infant probiotic that is top-allergen free.

Many vitamins/minerals will transfer through your milk, so it's really important to make sure you're well nourished. Vitamin D is one that is often low in babies (and moms), and will transfer to babe if you supplement yourself.

[Tattooed Hand]

I don't want to discourage you, but I cut out all those things and never reached a baseline. At 12 months we had some tests run and she is allergic to things I would never have thought - rice, broccoli, tomatoes, carrots, watermelons, cantaloupe, lettuce, etc... in addition to the big allergens. She is also highly allergic to coconuts, sesame, oats, sweet potatoes. It's a long list and I would never have known without a blood test.

[ivynicole]

I would suggest allergy testing. I recently had facial and mouth swelling due to Kiwi. Something I have eaten for years. Got allergy tested and I am allergic to...Wheat, rye, oat, corn, peanut, soy, tomato, apple, water chestnut, latex, avocado, celery, carrot, banana, kiwi.  If someone has allergies to outside allergens like mugwort or ragweed then it can cross pollinate with foods and cause you to have allergies to those foods. 

The babies stool sounds like a gluten problem. Avoiding all processes foods is the best route. I also do eat a lot of rice. We have been eating more stuffed peppers lately as that is one of my favorite rice dishes. lol

if i would have just done an elimination diet to find my allergy i would have not know most of these allergens as the symptoms were very discrete if any at all. If i continue to eat those allergens then the allergy may get worse or could cause scaring or inflammation of my intestine. 

[SpottedFoxx]

I didn't read all the replies but I just read something about this (and for the life of me I can't remember where).

Are you sure your baby isn't getting too much foremilk?  Try pumping for a few minutes first and then having baby latch.  This reduces the amount of foremilk (which has a lot of sugar which can irritate baby's gut) and gives the baby more hindmilk.

[DevaMajka]

Originally Posted by Tattooed Hand 

I don't want to discourage you, but I cut out all those things and never reached a baseline. At 12 months we had some tests run and she is allergic to things I would never have thought - rice, broccoli, tomatoes, carrots, watermelons, cantaloupe, lettuce, etc... in addition to the big allergens. She is also highly allergic to coconuts, sesame, oats, sweet potatoes. It's a long list and I would never have known without a blood test.

Same story here. So far, we are pretty sure ds2 reacts to sweet potato and banana. There are other things, but I haven't tested/confirmed them yet. Oh, and raisins and kiwi (to a lesser extent) cause the worst mucousy poop in ds2.
Taking out the top 8 allergens, and top intolerances didn't make a dent in his eczema (because I was eating lots of sweet potato- there's definitely a pattern of sweet potato causing his worst eczema/rashes).  So anything can cause trouble. I had an allergic reaction to mango that I went to the ER for, years ago. Sweet potatoes and mangos are in the "least likely to be allergens" category.  

Does it come and go, or are his symptoms always bad? If it comes and goes, are you food journaling?

[letileon]

Yes, I would say it comes and goes, but definitely related to what I'm eating. Like, recently it got a lot worse because I was eating "allergy free" chocolate. I guess he's allergic to the cocoa. He's recovering from that. I am food journaling now, I wasn't until recently. Sometimes his symptom seem arbitrary. My pediatrician doesn't seem concerned as my son is gaining weight and doing well. He really doesn't act like it bothers him.

Do people really avoid all the foods they test allergic to? Now I don't want to get tested so I can keep eating avocado!

[SpottedFoxx]

Allergy testing isn't all that accurate.  My SIL is a pediatrician and had sent one of her patients for allergy testing.  He came back a very strong positive for peanuts.  The boys' mother was horrified.  How is that possible?  All the kid eats for lunch is PB&J!  I came back with a negative to skin testing and faint positive in rast for chocolate.  My mouth blisters and my throat swells if I ingest chocolate. 

[Tattooed Hand]

We had ELISA IgG done and it showed an severe reaction to a handful of things that we have since cut down. DD's rash is going away and she woke up once in 11 hours last night, a new record, even though she is teething. I do think there are some false positives on that list - like rice - but I am going to be conservative for 2-3 weeks to get a baseline and then test the stuff I am suspicious of. One of those things I was beginning to suspect was a problem even before we got the test (coconut) but I had been ingesting a ton of coconut for about the last 7 months and I wish I had known sooner.

Also interesting is that alot of the stuff she shows a high level of reaction to, she doesn't like to eat.