ED Day 5, big breakout

[GoddessKristie]

Today was day 5 on our elimination diet. There are probably two things I can take out of DS' diet that would make this a total elimination diet, but I didn't feel like those were really causing a problem.
Today around 10:00 DS was unsupervised while I answered the phone for MAYBE 3 minutes and when I returned he had scratched his legs and back until they were bleeding. I kept a close eye on him for the rest of the day and by afternoon he had big splotches all over his thighs, even where he hadn't itched. Later he was itching all over.
The only thing that changed is that DH did not put cream on him before bed last night. I know it can take a long time for things to get out of your system on an ED, but this is a BAD breakout. Please reassure me I'm feeling quite hopeless.

[nalo]

Can you provide any more info? How old is your LO, are you BF, what foods are you/he currently eating on the ED, what supps are you taking, what topicals are you using, etc. If there is a more comprehensive pic of your situation you will be able to get better feedback here.

[GoddessKristie]

Sure! He's 20mos, we are BF. We took out all of the major allergens except fish and tree nuts, we are eating grocery store meat rather than grassfed. We also took out all citrus, caffeine, gluten, yeast, spicy foods, beef, chicken, pork, pineapple and papaya.
In the last three days he's had:
Orange Roughy seasoned with salt and pepper, broiled
Turkey Bacon
Applesauce
pears (canned)
banana
grapes
rice chex
potato chips fried in sunflower oil, salt is the only other ingredient
turkey burger
It just occurred to me that I let him have a muffin yesterday at the HFS, I checked the label carefully but perhaps there was something I didn't see... I'll see if the wrapper is still in the trash. I know it was gluten free, egg free, but it was chocolate so it had cocoa in it
Salmon
lettuce
white beans
wild rice
almond butter
black raspberry

That's all I can remember and my food diary is not nearby. That should give you a general idea.
I'm taking a daily probiotic and we're using a cream that is lanolin in a beeswax base. we've been using that for a week and a half now and I tested it in an area he doesn't break out in to be sure it wouldn't worsen things.

He was sensitive to milk in my diet as an infant and started breaking out in eczema around this time last year. That was when he was having a lot of new foods, but I didn't know eczema was a sign of food intolerance for some time after. So, we cut out milk and that helped for a while, but he was still breaking out regularly. We're hoping this elimination diet will pinpoint it.

We saw an allergist last week and he was tested (spt) for 15 things including the big 8 and some animals. All came out negative. He was off anti-histamines for 7 days prior and the controls reacted perfectly.

Thanks for any help you can give me. I feel so crazy and don't trust my own instincts anymore. I just want my babe to be better.

[chlobo]

I would try eliminating all processed foods - so no muffins unless you cook yourself, no turkey bacon, etc. Also, is your probiotic dairy free? Other than that I'd ax the nuts.

ETA: They always say things get worse before getting better. Since the skin is a major elimination pathway perhaps this is just toxin exiting the scene.

[kjbrown92]

Most muffins have dairy in them unless it was specifically vegan. That's the first thing I'd suspect. Because they can add all sorts of stuff into that. If the baking powder isn't specifically corn-free, it's got corn in it too.

Don't feel hopeless. Just remember to bring snacks with you so that you won't feel like you need to buy a snack when you're out. I always keep a couple of rice cakes in my pocketbook and if we're at the grocery store (or anywhere) and DD wants something, I give her a rice cake for instant gratification.

On so few foods, you might want to rotate as well, so you don't become sensitized to any foods that you are now consuming in large quantities.

[GoddessKristie]

The muffin had the following ingredients:
WF GF flour, org. sugar, iodized sea salt, GF baking soda, WF GF cocoa, Org. Vanilla, safflower oil, org. lemon juice, distilled water, powedered sugar, GF chocolate chips.
I didn't know they had chocolate chips, that's probably milk. See anything else?

[kjbrown92]

The gluten free flour blend could be anything - white potato, corn flour, soy flour, etc. Usually the iodized salts have corn in them (I haven't found one that IS iodized that does NOT have corn), org. vanilla probably has corn alcohol in it, "powdered sugar" unless it's specifically corn-free, has cornstarch in it. Man, that muffin was filled with corn. The chocolate chips most likely had soy in them too. Is your son okay with citrus (lemon)?

The damage is done. I'd say go back on the diet that you were doing and the flare will subside, then add foods back ONE at a time, 3-4 days apart (longer if there's a flare).

[GoddessKristie]

I called the HFS and talked with the baker (they make them in-house) and she read some ingredient lists for me and the cocoa had soy, the chocolate chips were dairy free but loaded with soy, the flour was sorghum, legumes and potato, the powdered sugar was corn free and the vanilla had corn syrup in it. She uses 1/2 tsp of vanilla in 18 muffins. We had two between us, so I can't see the corn being the problem. All arrows point to soy.