Bad news from the Dr today :(

[sosurreal09]

DD is 2 y.o and has an untested but seems to be true dairy allergy. She/I have been dairy free since she was about 4 m/o. We are still nursing and I am 20 weeks pregnant but still making milk.

So she has been sick for 2 weeks (all kinds of stuff) and we brought her to the (holistic) ped today. He said he thinks she has another allergy or multiple allergies that we are unaware of and don't produce any noticeable symptoms until her immune system is compromised (like by a virus/cold etc).

So looks like we are in for 3 rounds of allergy testing...only issue right now is we have to wait until our insurance kicks back in in 3 weeks.

I'm nervous about the procedure. She FREAKS OUT at the Drs I mean really badly! It takes us a half hour just to weigh her, she is hysterical and will not hold still. I feel like I am violating her every single time we go.

I'm also worried she will have a bunch of food allergies...they aren't easy to have and no one even understands how I've gone this long without dairy could you imagine being pregnant and cutting out more foods? I mean I will do what I have to but I can only imagine what people will be saying about that.

Anything I can do in the meantime to help her since we have to wait to do the testing? She is on a probiotic and takes D3.

We eat all organic as local as possible foods. She is a picky eater and only really like vegetables (all kinds), bananas, and eggs. Sometimes she will eat spaghetti and rice and potatoes. I cook with coconut milk (so delicious) and earths balance "butter", olive oil, safflower oil.

We try to avoid soy and corn.

Do you think juicing might help? I have been adding a splash of organic store bought juice to water just to flavor it a bit since my supply dropped and she wasn't taking in enough liquids...but I know refined juice like that is not good for her. IDK how to get her to drink juiced juice. Maybe a better recipe?

Thanks for the vent/support/suggestions :)

[SweetSilver]

I'm not going to second guess your doctor, just respond to some of your questions.

With the juice, start of by giving her some bottled organic juice, the cloudy stuff, and add more juiced juice to that until you can give her your own.  Or go the other direction, make a yummy smoothie and slowly thin it out (smoothies have more fiber in them anyway).  Definitely use blackberries or marionberries if you think the color green (or orange) will cause her to curl her nose up.  It might not work, but it's worth a try.

My veggie-loving (dairy allergic) daughter loooves raw sauerkraut and I love the sauerkraut juice.  (I drank the stuff from the bowl and I don't have any more and I am craving it like a pregnant mama!)  I know I have to be careful with probiotics because some bacteria give me GI distress, but this sauerkraut is really good in all ways, though it might not have nearly as much as commercial probiotics do.  But it makes me glad that dd is finally getting some p.b.

You could skip the testing and try elimination instead.  I don't regret testing my daughter at 2yo, but I will admit the results were mostly obvious (and she didn't protest).  It wasn't until she was 4.5 when we tested again did it shed some light on symptoms that cropped up when she was about 3.5.  

She's not breaking out in hives or having her throat close on her?  Then if you don't want to push her, you have a good excuse to put it off-- indefinitely.

How long do you expect to nurse?  Or is it open ended?  The answer to that would inform the road I would take.  Really, her biggest reactions at this point would be from direct contact with the food, your milk being such a minor source (until the baby is born and your milk comes in and she helps drain your engorged breasts like my friend did with her daughter!)  I might wait until I am done nursing her so that the ED is hers alone.

[sosurreal09]

She isn't having any noticeable reactions!

The Dr said it's b/c of how sick she gets when she gets sick (always croup cough no matter what). It's been over 2 weeks right now and she has had 3 days of croup, 10 days of diarrhea with runny nose and bad cough/coughing fits at night but not croup sounding), and 2 days of vomiting. She now still has the cough, a slight ear infection, and runny nose.

Another thing that may be of note is that she STILL isn't STTN. Not if we are co-sleeping or if she sleeps in her own bed in her own room (which she doesn't protest either)

The Dr said undiagnosed allergens can lead to all sort of issues. She is a happy healthy kid but she gets sick a lot although it has diminished at least half since we stopped vaxing her. (vax caused seizures, intestinal bleeding, constant pain, constant illness/viruses etc) When we stopped vaxing at 9 m/o she was completely better by 12 m/o with no symptoms even when directly ingesting dairy. Then we stupidly vaxed her again at 15 m/o with just Hib and she got really sick again (7 ear infections in 5 months, never had one in her life before) and suddenly became allergic to dairy. (it was eliminated since 4 m/o b/c we thought the intestinal bleeding was from intolerances but it wasn't I was down to eating lamb, lettuce, and olive oil only for months and she was still bleeding)

I feel like the testing would be good to have but I'm worried about the impact it will have on her. He said it's a holistic allergy test so it's different than the conventional one...IDK about all that we couldn't talk much b/c DD was freaking out about being there and screaming her lungs out.

[scsigrl]

So there is no reason but she's sick a lot?

If that's the case, she may have intolerances but not allergies.  An IgE allergy would produce something noticeable not that she's sick a lot.  Though even that doesn't scream intolerance to me.  Those usually cause GI issues.

[sosurreal09]

She doesn't have GI issues since we stopped vaxing at 9 m/o. It took until 12 months to heal her gut but she is fine now.

I guess it's just the way she gets sick or something. I really can't remember how he said it but it seemed to make sense. He is an allergen specialist though. He said it could be food OR environmental/household etc. Said it could be one thing or multiple things and we should have don't the testing when she first came to the office (in April this year).

IDK too much about allergies to tell you the truth.

[SweetSilver]

I can tell you from personal experience how undiagnosed allergies *can* affect your daily life.  That was me for 40 years!  How did I miss this stuff?  And I feel so much better.  BUT, I never was particularly sick, just feeling crummy and tired.  So, I agree with the doc's logic.  But I also think about the trauma of doctor's visits-- even holistic doctor visits.    That needs to be weighed against the need to diagnose allergies with doctor's visits.  You need to ask yourself (like you're not already!) is it worth the visits?  And why three?  Is there a basic test that can be done with one visit that will do for now?  Would beginning an elimination diet be better?

In my younger daughter's second year, she started getting colds that lasted forever, and 3 out of five ended in complications, including pneumonia.  I had to drop one of my housekeeping clients because her husband was in chemo and I couldn't work when the girls were sick.  She was never NOT sick that year (she was 1 to 1.5)  Now?  This year's not so good, but she has been great every year since.  She has no food allergies currently, and she has been tested.  Intolerances?  Possible, but mild if so.

If your daughter wasn't so traumatized by the doctor's office I would be very encouraging about testing, because that's me.  I feel better when I have some results on paper (why? I don't know...  It's just a place to start I guess, like a map.  I like maps!)  You feel like you've *done* something.  But at some point, you stand in your daughter's court.  My daughter begged to not have her 4yo booster shots, so we didn't, and we haven't yet 3 years later.  The doctor's office became less traumatic for her as a result.