T/ED Refugees check in here.....

[chlobo]

This thread is for all those folks who tried a T/ED diet but for whatever reason it didn't work out and you are now trying something new.

Please introduce yourself and let us know what your LO's major symptoms are and what your current regimen is.

My name is Carren. My DS is 8 months old. His main issues are mucousy poops (yellow to dark green), mild eczema/rash in various places on his skin and god awful sleep. He comfort nurses a lot.

I haven't completely abandoned TED yet as I'm very nervous to do so. Two weeks ago I started with a naturopath. We are currently doing glutamine, probiotics and cod liver oil for both of us.

[matey]

Hello! I am Amanda. My ds, Jack, is 4 months old (tomorrow!).

His main issues are eczema on his face, head, and body. He has been known to have some mucusy poops, although I am not sure if his poops are good or bad right now. He has major flare ups that cause his face/head to turn bright red and ooze. He is sleeping horribly right now, but slept much better prior to taking oral steroids two weeks ago.

I only did the TED for a short time. His symptoms disappeared and returned while eating the same foods. I have decided at this time to abandon dairy and eggs.

I am working on getting with a naturopath to get some things figured out.

We currently have a daily regiment that appears to have put the eczema into remission, although we are still treating his worst flare up spot with topical steroids, as I have not been able to get it fully healed up yet.

[matey]

Oh question about avoidance to dairy. Can I eliminate just the major dairy sources or do I have to eliminate everything. Like do I have to search packages for those unknown dairy terms? Is there any point in eliminating dairy if I am not going to worry about trace dairy? Is it all or nothing with dairy? Can I ask anymore questions?? :Lol

[nalo]

oops. sorry.

[nalo]

Matey -
unfortunately, it's all or nothin'. You need to look for whey, rennet, casein, sodium caseinate and others. I don't have a link for you at the moment but maybe someone does. The good news is that I have found it's not nearly as hard to avoid dairy as it may seem. Nothing like corn or gluten. However, you will find dairy in some very unexpected places like deli meat which frequently has sodium caseinate.

[matey]

I figured it was all or nothing, but was trying to live in denial. I have a list with all the magic words, so dont worry about a link. Dairy doesnt really sit well with me anyway, I just like it so much. I should really be thanking my ds. I think it is really better for me.

[nalo]

I'm Mary. DD is 9.5 months old and we've been dealing with this since she was 4 months old. Her main symptoms include mucous poop and bad nighttime sleep (frequent wakings, although right back to sleep with a cuddle and/or nurse...usually nurse ). She had a small dry patch on her chin which has healed, a yeast rash which has healed and she recently has been having nose issues - snoring, congestion, inflamed nasal passages I think, etc. that seem to be the main wake-up culprit right now. This symptom did not start until she recently had a cold.
Our regimen...
1. I know...T/ED refugees, buuut we still have some foods cut out including dairy, soy protein (allowing soy oil, soy lecithin), peanuts/tree nuts, eggs, shellfish, gluten. I think that's it. ETA: citrus (but allowing lemon/lime juice for cooking)
2. Probiotics w/ glutamine for both of us.
3. CLO for both of us.
4. Digestive enzymes for both of us.
5. Multi-vitamin, Cal/Mag, DGL, Vit. C for me.
6. Just started DD with some nasal spray, which has water, salt, xylitol and grapefruit seed extract and a vaporizer plus more steamy shower time.

[lovingkindness]

So...I totally blew my TED the other day, so I'll be joining you here. It was way too restrictive.

For now, we're excluding dairy, soy, wheat, gluten, corn, peanuts, tree nuts, fish, shellfish, and eggs.

DD is 12 months. She has definitely gotten worse since I fell off the wagon, but was never consistently better.

Her symptoms are reflux (and I am still not sure if this is completely food-related), painful gas several times a night, and occasional mucousy poops.

She is taking probiotics.

She is now up for the second time since going to bed two hours ago, so I have to go. I'm glad we started this new thread! Sending sleeping wishes...

[matey]

I forgot to mention the reflux my DS deals with. I dont know how I could forget that! He looked the the girl from the Exorcist yesterday.

[RoadWorkAhead]

Hi! I'm Kerri. DD is 14 months old. We gave up on the TED in November for testing, and are now using medical food so as not to further continue her pain/illness, etc. We'd been doing some variety of TEDs since she was about 2 months old with no long term success. The medical food definitely helped, but we're now coping with her current issues of chronic vomiting, constipation and FTT again. We've already been through all this and had improvement, so we suspect we're failing this medical food as well.

[pokeymama]

While munching a sea-salted turkey thigh...

DS is 7.5 months old; first flare, worsened sleep started at 3 months. Still avoiding dairy, wheat/gluten, major soy (will do Smart Balance), eggs, sugar. Also avoiding rice, oats, quinoa, and sweet potatoes due to suspected reactions...makes it tough when I can only have white potatoes and no grains). Still use squash, white potatoes, turkey/chicken, and avocadoes as my staples...will eat steak and salmon.

Symptoms: eczema (worse on face, but getting better), rarely will sleep more than 1 sleep cycle together unless I'm in bed with him, watery/mucousy poop/diarrhea, frequent diaper rash

Pedi didn't really want to find the cause of the eczema (said testing was so expensive and he'd probably grow out of it anyway , just gave us steroid cream (his face was very bad then, glad we used it, but we stopped using it on his face a few months ago, and recently stopped it on his body after intermittent use). That's the main reason we're dropping her.

The holistic MD/GP we're now seeing is a bit better but only offered IgE allergy testing and recommended we see an allergist. Still not totaly happy with him, there is a holistic pedi on DH's insurance list that we may see when his benefits kick in.

I saw a nutritionist few weeks ago when I was frustrated with the TED. My log is completely mental...I suck at keeping it. After discovering I was on antibiotics for mastitis about 3 weeks after the birth, she suspected gut damage. She upped my dose of CLO to 2 Tbls a day and put us both on Florastor (beneficial yeast probiotic she said the acidopholus/bifidus needed to grow again). We saw little signs of improvement (would string 2 cycles together esp. 1st thing at night but still not for naps...grr, Dad could get hims back to sleep - didn't need to be nursed to sleep, less frequesnt/creamier poops, skin got a bit better but not clear). We've messed up somewhere though as poos are watery again, skin has flared a bit, and sleep is worse (but he's also trying to crawl and starting his sleep regression I think for this agae). Luckily he goes right back to sleep (right now only nursing will do, falls asleep in Dad's arms but wakes up when horizontal).

Per the nutritionist, we're off the Florastor and on reg. probiotics. I'm on DF acidopholus (Bluebonnet?) and DS is on FloraBaby. I've been told FB is rice-based so keeping an eye on that. Should probably bite the bullet and get something new for him.

OK, as many people probably already know I only know how to write books. Congrats if you got through it!

[nalo]

warning - some discussion of ED follows however, I still think this is the best thread to post it in.

we still have some foods cut out including dairy, soy protein (allowing soy oil, soy lecithin), peanuts/tree nuts, eggs, shellfish, gluten. I think that's it. ETA: citrus (but allowing lemon/lime juice for cooking)

okay - this is my current no-no list but I have a question. After reading some posts from other people on various threads I am now scared that by cutting out some of these things I will make DD sensitive to them even if she wasn't before (dairy is the only thing I KNOW she can't have). I am considering adding a few of them back in on a rotational basis and would like some feedback on that. Dairy will stay 100% out because I know she is intollerant to that and gluten will stay 100% out for now because I believe that will help us heal her gut. I never eat tree nuts anyway really so that's not an issue and I will continue to not eat citrus just to keep that acidity out of her system but I am considering starting to eat eggs, shellfish and peanut butter again, all on a rotational basis. My hx with these, in case it matters - I ate lots of PB before I decided to cut it out so I think there is a chance she had become sensitive to it but I have no way of telling (her symptoms don't really change with adding/deleting foods except for dairy, which is why I am focusing on healing right now). I ate as many eggs as your average egg-eating person I guess. A few times per week plus in baking. I love prawns and probably ate them a few times per month. I am thinking of allowing eggs and PB once per week, each, and then prawns whenever it comes up - probably a few times per month again. I don't know if I should do a true trial of each of these first and consume a decent amount for a few days to guage any reaction or just start in with it. Would love some thoughts on this... Oh, also...I have continued to eat corn as my last holdout since that one is so overwhelming to me. Maybe I should start rotating this as well??? I just don't want to create more problems and I guess there is never a way to know for sure...

[matey]

Bumping our thread.

DS has stopped slepping on a reflux pillow and seems to be doing ok with it. It has caused me some back aches since I am not moving during sleep, but oh well.

Tonight i ate bread that seemed to laced with some sort of butter!! Also, I did not get the assitance I thought I would when inquiring about keeping my entree dairy-free at a restaurant. That made me a little angry.

[changingseasons]

Originally Posted by matey

Also, I did not get the assitance I thought I would when inquiring about keeping my entree dairy-free at a restaurant. That made me a little angry.

I have completely given up on eating out... the last time I did, I specifically listed all the food allergies when ordering, and my plate came out with a tomato covered in melted cheese. So first, I was sad because I LOVE cheese and I couldn't eat it, and second- I wondered what else they forgot about while preparing my meal.... Needless to say, DD had a reaction from that meal. That was my last dining out experience.

[nalo]

Yes, the no-eating-out sucks big time. I'd like to say at least it saves money but that's not true because I'm now spending so much on supplements/vitamins and special foods!

Well, I ate 2 eggs today at 3pm (had been off them for weeks simply because they're a "top 8", didn't suspect an intollerance) and at 9pm DD woke crying (nothing new there) but it was obviously a pain cry. I was waiting for her to have gas but all of a sudden she just spewed the entire contents of her VERY FULL belly. I didn't think food could get into breastmilk that fast so I don't know if she is having a very quick reaction to those eggs or if this was totally unrelated. I'm off to look up the quickest possible time food can get into milk. For the record, I did take my enzymes when I ate the eggs and she got her enzymes before that feed. She also hadn't eaten a full meal since 1:30 (she ate this meal on/off between 7-8pm) with a few small snacks in the middle of that second nap so I'm thinking perhaps she just way over ate. I'm having trouble getting her to nurse more frequently than naps and bedtime which I think is too long to wait but what can I do??

[mtn.mama]

Some research says that proteins peak in breastmilk 2-4 hours after Mom ingests the food. This said, my dd usually reacts 16-24 hours after I eat something. With that kind of rxn I'd be very careful... were eggs the only anomaly today or could it be a bug or just too full? We're having luck with homegrown egg yolks here. It appears that we're sensitive to the whites. So I've been boiling yolks then peeling off the skin and its working... just in case you want to try something different. Good luck! (and hope she just over ate!)
Lisa

[changingseasons]

Originally Posted by DoulaMary

Yes, the no-eating-out sucks big time. I'd like to say at least it saves money but that's not true because I'm now spending so much on supplements/vitamins and special foods!

Well, I ate 2 eggs today at 3pm (had been off them for weeks simply because they're a "top 8", didn't suspect an intollerance) and at 9pm DD woke crying (nothing new there) but it was obviously a pain cry. I was waiting for her to have gas but all of a sudden she just spewed the entire contents of her VERY FULL belly. I didn't think food could get into breastmilk that fast so I don't know if she is having a very quick reaction to those eggs or if this was totally unrelated.

No kidding- we've spent so much on groceries (all the organic meats and veggies) that we've surpassed any money that we might have ever spent eating out.

I've also read that food reactions normally happen (in your LO) 2-6 hours after you consume a food, and that seems to be the pattern for us when I introduce a new food.

[nalo]

That would be so crazy if she were responding to eggs (yes, these was the only new/different food). I mean, puking was never a reaction she had to foods before we started this whole journey of ED's and whatnot. I would have expected a reaction to look like worse mucous in poop and maybe some pukey smelling spit up but the big vomit??? WTH? So how do I test it now since I'm not sure? No matter what, I'll give her a long break because obviously she needs to feel better but should I eat eggs again in a week to see what happens? (If so, I'll eat them early so we can deal with any issues during the day).

[changingseasons]

I think that when you reintroduce something that she hasn't had in a while, you get a way bigger reaction than while you were consuming it regularly. At least that's what I've read, and my DD seems to do the same thing. After we took eggs out (that I had been eating a LOT), then had a brownie mix or something that had cooked eggs in it (oops) a couple weeks later, she had a huge reaction. I hadn't even thought eggs were a problem before that.

[nalo]

Okay, the big vomit seems to be a totally isolated event. Could this still be an egg reaction? I've just never seen a reaction to one specific food (besdies dairy a long time ago - smelly spit up and tummy pains, but ongoing - not isolated) so I don't know I'm looking for. I don't know if a reaction can be one isolated event like a big puke or if it's usually a bit more than that in duration of symptoms. Help???