How long on ED to identify food intolerances? - Page 2

[mylilmonkeys]

I'm in a very similar place as you, but I'm doing this for myself.  I knew I had dairy issues, so that one was obvious.  I read gluten problems can go hand in hand with dairy, so I went GF, too.  After a few days, I realized that the GF corn products were also giving me issues, so corn went, too.  I have accidentally exposed myself to dairy a few times, because dh does the shopping and is rather confused, poor thing.  Then I forget to recheck every label after him.  So, after less than a week it was very clear that both casein and lactose cause me reactions.  But, I'm not sure a child would be able to verbalize it.  Casein causes a nearly immediate reaction, with my ears and sinuses swelling up and pain shoots down my lymph system in the back of my neck.  Lactose is takes longer, but it saps my energy, and I get a milder version of the symptoms of the casein.  I can barely get myself out of bed the two days after a lactose exposure.  It takes me about three days to clear up enough to be 'normal'.  I don't think I've yet hit a month of no exposure, so I can't say what that would feel like.  On the other hand, corn gives me a feeling like my intestines are glued shut.  Uncomfortable, but not painful.  I get constipation with it. 

I started this because I finally got sick and tired of living with IBS.  It took an entire week to start having regular BMs, probably because it took almost that long to figure out the corn.  

I know different people react differently, but I hope when you reintroduce, my experiences can help you ask your child specific questions about what he might be feeling.  

[mytwomonkies]

Originally Posted by SweetSilver 

But in many people's experience, it's really not that obvious.  Unless you already have some idea that you will have trouble with the foods you choose, when can you decide that it's the foods you are consuming on the TED that are causing the trouble?  According to the experience of some, symptoms can last a month or more.  How do I figure that the rice is causing the problem and not something that I've given up?  I mean, theoretically 3 months on this diet might give you a clue, but then you'll have to do some shooting in the dark to choose your next foods, especially since you are not starting from a "normal" place.

I'm not trying to be difficult, I promise, but this can be confusing.  Would you test first?  (I did.  Now I feel better, and if I wanted to embark on a TED, I would have a clue as to where to start.)  

I guess I don't really understand where the confusion is coming from on this Maybe I'm just having trouble putting it all into writing :p You're right, it's still a guess as to what foods to start with but you're eliminating many more possible  culprits than if you just eliminate the top 8. If you're going to test than obviously that would give you a place to start. In my experience with people doing elimination diets a lot of the time they're doing it because they either can't or don't want to do testing. I guess I'm speaking to people who aren't going test first, if you're not going to test first you have to start somewhere and in my opinion a TED is the easiest place to start. You're right, it is all a shot in the dark. When I was doing my TED I found this chart helpful http://www.allergynutrition.com/resources/FAQ/15/Foods%20Most%20Frequently%20Associated%20with%20Allergy.pdf

Obviously some people will react to even foods listed as least allergenic but it at least gives you a place to start. If you start with the lower allergenic foods you're less likely to react to them.

I'm just trying to give my advice based on my own successful experience. I don't know what we would have done without a TED, I'm not sure if we ever would have figured things out.

[mytwomonkies]

If I knew then what I know now we wouldn't have even included a grain. We did ok with rice back then but after an extremely miserable gluten challenge we stopped tolerating rice. We are now on a grain free diet and aside from dealing with the ever annoying gluten cross contamination we are doing really well.

[SweetSilver]

Originally Posted by scsigrl 

Nope, a month would be the minimum I would try. Also, we didn't figure it out till ALL DS's allergens were removed.......I didn't see any improvement but we were missing his other 9 allergens so it didn't work..... So if you are missing one of the big ones, you may not see results till that AND the others are eliminated.

Quote:

Originally Posted by mytwomonkies 

The only problem with adding foods back in before you see any improvements is that they could still be reacting to those foods it's just that you haven't eliminated all their allergens and that's why they're still reacting......

Quote:

Originally Posted by APToddlerMama 

Personally, I thought pulling everything at once and then adding back was easiest.  Because for instance if you pull soy one week but you're still on corn, you may not notice that soy is actually an issue because corn is still bugging you. 

These were the quotes that made me wonder: if it can take so long to see results, it might be a while before one would suspect one of the TED foods, if the problems continue long after the diet is begun.  I'm just attempting to make a (admittedly lame) point that it can be hard to figure out that it is the foods in a TED that are causing a problem and not the residues of all the other allergies.

How long would you wait before you concluded that the rice (or whatever) was one of the major culprits?  I ask because 1.  I am allergic to lamb and rice and most other grains *except* wheat, and 2. Just because it's one of those things to consider when you are trying to figure things out.

I agree, it is a shot in the dark, and rice is usually not the culprit, at least relative to other grains.  I am just a bit too ready to mention it because 2 in our household can't have it.

Sorry to confuse you.  I can confuse myself sometimes too.  To paraphrase Pooh Bear: A Thing that seemed very Thingish turned out to be nothing at all.

Ignore this bar!

 

[mytwomonkies]

Originally Posted by SweetSilver 

Quote:

Quote:

These were the quotes that made me wonder: if it can take so long to see results, it might be a while before one would suspect one of the TED foods, if the problems continue long after the diet is begun.  I'm just attempting to make a (admittedly lame) point that it can be hard to figure out that it is the foods in a TED that are causing a problem and not the residues of all the other allergies.

How long would you wait before you concluded that the rice (or whatever) was one of the major culprits?  I ask because 1.  I am allergic to lamb and rice and most other grains *except* wheat, and 2. Just because it's one of those things to consider when you are trying to figure things out.

I agree, it is a shot in the dark, and rice is usually not the culprit, at least relative to other grains.  I am just a bit too ready to mention it because 2 in our household can't have it.

Sorry to confuse you.  I can confuse myself sometimes too.  To paraphrase Pooh Bear: A Thing that seemed very Thingish turned out to be nothing at all.

Ignore this bar!

You're right, it can be hard. It's definitely not an easy process, I just feel like it's easier than just eliminating one or even a handful of foods at a time. It still takes time and sometimes you have to go back and re evaluate because maybe a food you thought was ok maybe isn't or vise versa. You're still going to miss things, it's not a perfect process.

I don't know if this will answer your questions or not but...the way you make a conclusion about wether or not the food was really a culprit is by adding it back in later when you're at baseline (no symptoms etc.) Basically, you start with your set of foods (in our case it was lamb, rice, squash/zuchini, and I think I forgot this earlier but also pears) and give it maybe a month minimum (although your likely to see small improvements sooner) or better 3 months. If there's absolutely no change then you could either swap out one food or swap out all the foods for another set of foods. This is also where the food diary comes in handy. Once your symptom's are gone then you start adding things back in one at a time, I would add a food and wait a week to make sure there's no symptoms before moving to the next food. We had many failed food trials before we started getting some variety in our diet. But again, if you have the option test first by all means do it!

I can totally understand why you're histant to recomend rice if you have 2 that have issues with it! I'm the same with gluten. Gluten has turned out to be the main issue with 3 of us (I suspect DH too but he's in denial :p) so it's always in the back of my mind when I hear people are having issues with food. After we nailed down the gluten issues and got those under control we started tolerating foods we couldn't handle before.

I can confuse my self as well! Written word can be even more confusing too then having an actual conversation with someone. Love the pooh quote!

[SweetSilver]

Originally Posted by mytwomonkies 
I can confuse my self as well! Written word can be even more confusing too then having an actual conversation with someone. Love the pooh quote!

"Pooh began to feel a little more comfortable, for when you are a Bear of Very Little Brain, and you Think of Things, you find sometimes that a Thing which seemed very Thingish inside you is quite different when it gets out into the open and has other people looking at it."

from "House at Pooh Corner", ch 6.

 

[mytwomonkies]

Originally Posted by SweetSilver 

"Pooh began to feel a little more comfortable, for when you are a Bear of Very Little Brain, and you Think of Things, you find sometimes that a Thing which seemed very Thingish inside you is quite different when it gets out into the open and has other people looking at it."

from "House at Pooh Corner", ch 6.

 

Love it!

[aubreyroberts]

This is some of the information that I've been looking for. You are all very helpful!