i've eliminated dairy (all hidden forms also) for two weeks. I've eliminated soy, corn, gluten, nuts, and many other allergens for 1 week (today i eliminate citrus, long story that one). how long before ds's skin would show improvement if it is allergy related?

it was cradle cap turned dermatitis spreading all over his face very itchy.

oh, and has anyone eliminayed salicylates and found relief?

Glad you made your way over! Welcome to the Allergy forum. :)

For DD, her skin is the last of the symptoms to improve after a reaction. I would say it's probably around a week before there are noticeable improvements. (Her other symptoms start to subside around 3-5 days.)

Dairy could easily take a few weeks to completely get out of your LO's system, the others probably a week or so. Also- have you eliminated all the hidden sources of corn? Corn is a sneaky one... it's everywhere! It has been by far the hardest allergen to eliminate for us.

i don't eat packaged food, so not much can "hide" in my diet. i make it all from scratch. supplements are a worry, so i've limited them.

the pattern was it was a little better when i started the elimination diet (lamb, zucchini one), but then got worse. it was then i realised it must have been something i was still eating - which seemed impossible. then i learned about salicylates - both zucchini and pears (pear skin) are high in it. the only two items i was eating other than rice and lamb!

It may not be salicylates. There are moms on this board with kids allergic to pears or rice or zucchini. You just never know. Try changing out the foods in your TED to some others, like another fruit, another grain (quinoa, for example), another veg. You can look at the Joneja food scale to see which foods are "less allergic" in North America (no guarantees, of course, but it's a starting point).

It may not be salicylates. There are moms on this board with kids allergic to pears or rice or zucchini.

That's us! The ED didn't work for me at first because it turns out DD is allergic to pears and squash (all except zucchini).

then i learned about salicylates - both zucchini and pears (pear skin) are high in it. the only two items i was eating other than rice and lamb!

Are you sure the rice was safe from corn and gluten? If it was enriched rice, it probably wasn't corn free.

Dairy can take up to a month to be out of your system, and possibly another 2 weeks before it's completely out of your milk and the baby has it out of his system too. Gluten can take months for improvements (though it may work faster through breastmilk, as you won't have to wait for YOUR gut to heal before the baby feels the improvments- in my own case going GF took a while to be helpful. Baby guts heal faster than adult guts, especially with BF babies.)

All I know about saliclyates is that when I took them out of our diets for DD2's sake (Feingold Stage 1), I didn't notice much difference, but when I reintroduced saliclyates I felt much, much better. I think my body needs the "asprin like" effects to reduce chronic pain.

It's just I keep hearing that when a diet actually works, there is some improvement within a week, regardless of the time they say a substance takes to get out of the system. I wonder of the truth of how long it takes to get out of the system, because has anyone stuck at a diet for two months for it then to work? Some tell me two weeks and then I hear four and now I'm hearing six.

It's so disheartening. I'm very very thin. I can't diet much longer. (105 lbs) we need the nutrients and fish oils and all the things I wanted to give him. Instead I'm stuck with this crap that may not even work and I won't know if it does for months. It's ridiculous.

I also keep hearing, "it worked for us" but they don't say if it worked in days, weeks or years.

Hmm. I'm really not sure if it's different when you're cutting stuff out of your diet for the sake of an infant. I've only done food eliminations for my own sake, in adulthood, so everything reacts more slowly.

I mean, are you even positive that allergies are part of the problem? Skin problems can also be caused by lack of EFAs. Unless there's any indication that he's allergic to fish, could you add in the fish oils to the allergen-free diet and see if it helps?

I was on them but cut them out last week. he's had diarrhea that's green for two months (only had normal poo for his first three weeks) it's now FULL of mucous and thick bands of white stuff. he had chicken pox mildly when dd got them three weeks ago so i put the mucus down to that. i also regularly block fed to control the green but it's just a mess. he isn't "right". there's something very wrong here.

DS1 is allergic to lamb, so it's totally possible that it's something you're eating on the ED.

My situation is different because DD did not have skin issues - just gut/poop issues. But, it did take a couple months for her gut to heal and her poop to get normal, once 100% of dairy was out of my diet. I'd say at least 8 weeks...