Dairy elimination slip ups

[chilliepepper]

First, let me say, Jaimee I've been reading your posts with interest and am so glad you've been posting your questions because I'm benefiting too. Thanks to those who have been responding.

My question for today is, if I inadvertently ate a tiny amount of dairy (I've been avoiding it for 2 weeks now, trying to see if it's causing my 7 month old's mild eczema), is that going to confound my experiment so that I'm now back at day 1? About a week ago I took a bite off DH's plate, forgetting that he'd put a little parmesan cheese on his pasta. Also, a few nights ago we had some hamburger buns and I had forgotten to read the label...and when I did, darn it if they didn't have some kind of milk product in them! :

Related to that...with a food intolerance or sensitivity (and I'm pretty sure that's what we're dealing with here, not a true allergy), is there usually a correlation between the quantity of the exposure to the offending food and the severity of the symptoms? So for example, if it is dairy, could I expect to see only mild symptoms if I had succeeded in getting MOST of it out of my diet but had minor slip ups as I have? Or is it totally black and white, where if he's going to react, the reaction will be the same whether I ate a shred of parm cheese or chug-a-lugged a gallon of straight milk?

[elmh23]

Well, I don't deal with a dairy allergy, but my daughter does react to different amounts of soy. If she eats a little, then she bounces off the wall and maybe gets a little dry skin, if she eats a lot she gets allergy rhintis (can't spell, basically runny nose because of the allergy), is prone to illness (ear infections, colds, etc) and breaks out in eczema head to toe. My daughters peanut allergy is always the same though.

Good luck.

[Chinese Pistache]

Our situation is like elmh23's. The more dd is exposed to something, the worse the reaction.

[Jaimee]

When I was off dairy I accidently ate some potato chips that had lactose in them (how annoying!!). I called an ND and asked your very question. Her response was that the few chips I had should not set me back to day one, but to be more careful! : I guess the way I figure it is, you're "supposed" to go off dairy for a month, so mark your calendar for one month and mark when you had your slip ups. If you hit the one month mark and don't see any improvement, keep going until it's been one month from your slip ups. My logic here is that once you get to the original one month mark, being off dairy won't be as hard anymore and going another week or two won't seem as daunting as starting over does now. :

I was thinking we should start an elimination diet support thread where we can come to vent about our various food issues! After being off gluten, going off dairy again seems like a piece of cake (literally!! ), but I will miss cheese and ice cream. Sigh...