Many, many food reactions results on Elisa test

[mimim]

My 2 younger kids have been having symptoms that seems related to food sensitivities. I was able to id egg in my DS and dairy in my DD. Their ped ordered a IgE test for the main allergens and they tested negative for all. My Ds was also tested for parasites, bacterial infections, etc, because he had recurring diarrhea.

I have been fighting off yeast infections, vaginal and breast, since my DD was born in March of '05. Both were nursing. DD still is nursing.

We are already dairy, egg, and wheat free. I'm in the process of ridding our diet and home of gluten.

So, DS and I were tested for IgG allergies by a naturopath. I reacted only slightly to pineapple. Ds was reactive to almost everything. I don't have t he actual test in my hand yet, but I have a list of foods to eliminate:

almond, cashews, peanuts, macadamia nuts, pecans, poppy seeds, banana, most berries (not cranberries,raspberries, or gooseberries), mango, peach, pineapple, brussel sprouts, broccoli, carrots, cauliflower, cucumber, escargot, leeks, lettuce, onion, radish, bell peppers, string beans, tomato, zucchini, coffee, teas (black, green, and herbal), honey, and cane sugar, eggs, soy, dairy (cow and goat), gluten, grains list incl.: amaranth, wheat, oats, barley, rye, spelt, kamut, teff, and triticale.

:::

Shucks, no more escargot for us. But the vegetable list eliminates almost every vegetable that he will eat.

How seriously do I need to take these results? Anyone have experience with this test?


The naturopath says she believes this and his other symptoms suggest leaky gut, likely caused by intestinal infection by some combination of fungus/bacteria/parasite. We have an appointment to discuss diet and treatment options in a couple of weeks. I'd love some links/suggestions for things to consider until then.

I do lurk on the HTG thread, so you don't need to point me there.

[Caden's Mom]

No clue. I do know that rast and back scratch tests are not 100% accurate. Although the older the child, the more accurate it is *supposed* to be.

If it were me, I would eliminate the most allergenic and see what happens then. So if it were me, I would eliminate:all the tree nuts and peanuts, pineapple, fish products, tomato, eggs, soy, dairy. Wheat is another big allergen, but I'm not sure I could ever give that up. Best of luck!

[LauraLoo]

Originally Posted by Caden's Mom

No clue. I do know that rast and back scratch tests are not 100% accurate. Although the older the child, the more accurate it is *supposed* to be.

If it were me, I would eliminate the most allergenic and see what happens then. So if it were me, I would eliminate:all the tree nuts and peanuts, pineapple, fish products, tomato, eggs, soy, dairy. Wheat is another big allergen, but I'm not sure I could ever give that up. Best of luck!

I think the above is a good way to start. Just so you know, as a child I tested mildly to moderately positive to a lot of foods - cashews, brazil nuts, peas, green beans, carrots, orange, tomato, corn, onion, wheat, oats, rye, tuna, cod, salmon, shrimp, cow's milk, chocolate, and the list goes on and on. I know that my parents removed tomato and limited milk in my diet and I did ok with just those changes. I might have done better (I took allergy medicine and had allergy shots for about 8 years) if they had eliminated more, but who knows? I know that I have more problems with food allergies (milk in particular) when my environmental allergies flare up.

I had allergy testing done as an adult, and a couple of foods -- tomato and shrimp - were no long problems for me. I don't know if it's because they were eliminated from my diet when I was younger or whether I just outgrew them naturally.

[thepeach80]

Looking back, Evan more than likely had leaky gut from all the abx he was on as a baby (bad recurring EIs from his nasty reflux, that related to foods, it was a nasty circle of things). He was intolerant to about everything and I ended up weaning him at 12 mos and going to rx formula b/c we were both so tired and he was just miserable on bm. I did the total elimination diet before I weaned though and that helped a lot (w/ him not eating any solids). I would personally try something like that for both of you since you're still nursing and see if that helps and if it does, just add one food back in a time every 1-2 wks. It took Evan about 3 mos of formula only to finally heal and be able to handle food again. It doesn't sound like you guys are quite as severe, but still need to heal. Dr. Sears has great info on the total elimination diet on his site.

[USAmma]

UGH! My heart goes out to you. I almost don't want to know the full list of what my dd is allergic to. Did they give you a scale of severe to mild reactions?

[mimim]

Originally Posted by USAmma

UGH! My heart goes out to you. I almost don't want to know the full list of what my dd is allergic to. Did they give you a scale of severe to mild reactions?

I just got the actual results with a graph of the range of reactions and SO many of those foods are very mild reactions. I can't believe she suggested I immediately eliminate all of those foods, some of which he was NOT tested for and are not related to foods he reacted to. : I'm not that happy with this doc for freaking me out with that awful list.

Also, she failed to mention that he had a severe reaction to sesame. We eat hummus all the time, too. But, I made some with sunflower seed butter and it tastes great!

So It looks like we'll have to be really strict with avoiding for a long time:
Gluten grains (eg. wheat, rye, spelt, kamut, barley)
Eggs
Sesame
Amaranth
Pineapple
Blueberry
Most cow's dairy
Peanuts
Tomato

And limit:
Lettuce
Radish
Soy
Peach
Banana
Goat dairy

Whew! That I can handle, especially if he will probably heal enough to eat some of the less reactive stuff pretty soon. I do really wish he could tolerate eggs. They are so nutritious. Later on I might try NAET to clear him of that, if we can afford it.

[USAmma]

That looks so much better!

[daniusa]

mild to severe reactions

What lab did your Elisa test come from? My son had his food panel done by Bio-Tek. Our ND suggested we only eliminate the moderate and severe food reactions. This test can have false negatives (as far as I have learned can not have false positives.) Traditional RAST testing can also have false negatives and skin testing can show false positives.
Our ND told us to ignore the mild food reactions.
My son has a shorter eliminated food list than yours (gluten/casein/eggs/pure oats) and are positive that he is allergic/intolerant to another food -- and are still trying to pinpoint what it is. Best of luck to you!

[LauraLoo]

Originally Posted by daniusa

Our ND suggested we only eliminate the moderate and severe food reactions. This test can have false negatives (as far as I have learned can not have false positives.) Traditional RAST testing can also have false negatives and skin testing can show false positives.
Our ND told us to ignore the mild food reactions.

I'm not sure that I agree with this - it would make me nervous to try it with a child, but what was suggested for me was to elimate mild to moderate suspect foods from the diet for about 3 weeks. Then introduce a single suspect food in a large amount for 2 to 3 days to see what the reaction is. It makes logical sense to do this to see what happens, but I'm not sure if the risk is worth it.

[Icequeen_in_ak]

I don't know how much faith I have in the allergy testing.

My daughter tested positive for rye and cashews on the prick test, and tested positive for wheat, garlic, pork and carrots on the patch test.

We've done complete elimination of everything and while her digestive problems are a million times better (she was up to prevacid twice a day for massive reflux) her ezcema is still present. I don't know how long it takes to clear it... or if something was missed on the test that she's still reacting to.

[jaidymama]

A close friend of mine, and I have been learning about allergies for some time now... her daughter has had three different allergy tests beginning last winter with the skin test, then the IgG, and this fall had the IgE. I have only had the IgG done with my dc.

Based on what we have learned from the ND and allergists (mostly my friend has seen... rather her daughter) we think we have a better idea of what we think about allergies...

For instance, they have had three different kinds of tests and all three had different results. And it wasn't until she had the IgE that she found out her daughter had an egg allergy!

I guess what I'm getting at is that it seems to me that there isn't one particular answer... in some cases you may want to each kind of test (IgG, IgE--blood draw and skin scratch). And you will want to find out about "healing the gut" theories, which are just as important as eliminating the food from your diet.

Also, if you're not getting good information/advice from your doctor, then don't hesitate to find another one... Or talk to her about your concerns.

Good Luck!