Where do I start?

[cristeen]

I've done the allergy/allergen thing for myself - but a lot of that was just trial and error, although I did do muscle response testing.  I have no idea how to do this with a toddler. 

So I have a couple threads on here from the last week - discovering DS' formula was causing the severe diaper rash.  And that removing that formula and replacing it with BM at bedtime led to better sleep.  But since his rash started, there have obviously been other things that have been triggering him, and I need to figure this out without having to wait until his butt is raw and bloody. 

When he started solids, we did the 3-4 day wait between introing new foods and didn't find anything, but now apparently we obviously missed something. 

So right now he has a cold, and yesterday he ate almost zero solids.  Today he had an egg, some lychee, some apple (his fave) and some beef.  I'm just not sure where to go from here.  He's 16 mos old and he demands solid foods - I have to feed him something (his stand-by is apple though).  Do I start back at introing foods 1 at a time 3-4 days apart even though that didn't work last time? 

I'm just stumped and hoping some of you BTDT mamas can help me find a path.

[kjbrown92]

You could go back to all breastmilk for a few days and then add things back in one at a time. Make sure to write all kinds of symptoms down. When I was first starting out I didn't know to look for things like interrupted sleep or more drinking or things like that as "symptoms". I was looking for vomiting or something easy to tell. If it's salicylates (apples are high in that) then it's a bucket thing, and he might not react when it's just a little but if he has a bunch, he could react. I don't know much about sals but other mothers on here do. How are you with a pendulum/crystal? You can do muscle testing on toddlers but I think it's with a proxy and I definitely don't know how.

[cristeen]

Unfortunately, right now he's refusing BM completely. 

I'm working on increasing his solids, but since we really only have a few "presumed safe" foods, he's not getting much variety at all.  I do know he's still reacting to something, since he had a belly ache yesterday and last night (wake up screaming bloody murder, only relieved by flipping him to all 4s and pressure to the stomach).  I've tried to be really careful about contamination with beef and dairy, but who knows how successful I've been. 

If I ask his ped for testing, what specifically do i ask for?  He's 16 mos, so I know some tests are supposed to be inaccurate at this age...  so what's worth getting (and paying for, since it's not covered)?