[ainh]

I'm not on a total elimination diet (TED), but I've been on a strict elimination diet since February, which means that I've gone over six months without eating eggs, dairy, nuts and seeds. I've eaten only limited amounts of soy and I've cut out a lot of things that DS reacted to mildly in his diet or mine (peas, green beans, banana, avocado, melon, etc).

For me it was a jump. One day we're dealing with moderate eczema, the next we're at the allergist and find out he's allergic to eggs, dairy, soy, wheat, etc. Three days after that DS has an anaphylactic reaction to tahini and I realize that things are really serious.

I think the first month was hardest because I was so stressed out (knowing that his allergies were definitely life threatening), plus I didn't have any resources and I didn't have large quantities of safe foods around the house. I lost about 15 pounds that first month. I put wheat back in my diet (DS *only* gets hives when he eats it directly and it doesn't seem to come through the breastmilk too much for him) and I gained back 10 of those pounds over the next five months of EDing.

(For those of you that are on POFAK, I'm "juliag" over there

)

 

[ainh]

Just wanted to put out a little PSA on probiotics.

I was giving DS probiotics for awhile and his eczema just got worse and worse. Turns out that he has severe food allergies and there was casein, fish and soy lurking in those "safe for baby" probiotics. Most kids don't have the severe allergies that my little one has, but it is good to really check and double check those labels for allergens (or call the company, best yet). No pointing in cutting dairy from your diet if baby is ingesting casein (basically all probiotics contain traces of dairy--even the hypoallergenic ones from Kirkman Labs)!! UGH. I felt SO badly when I realized this and I fear that it really provoked his system to react even worse to dairy. That said...I do take a probiotic from Kirkmans myself now and hope that DS gets some of the benefits through the breastmilk.

 

[ainh]

Sorry to hear about the quinoa loss. I still haven't tried it yet. Partly because DS seems to tolerate wheat in my diet (or I pretend he does??). Anyway. I also have this weird feeling that I'm allergic to it. It's the weirdest thing. Whenever I pick up a box of it I get this very bad feeling. Maybe for DS, maybe for me? Who knows. I might have to give it a go for DS at least, as his wheat trial is rather inconclusive and probably a fail (given our track record). I hope that the pumpkin seeds work out for you! I think that you can have pumpkin if you can have the seeds...what's the concensus on this?

I regret that I didn't do a TED early on. Now it's easier for me to just trial things on DS directly...although I get very stressed and very scared every time I give him a new food. Or sometimes I don't want to know if he's allergic because then I'd have to eliminate. Bad momma, eh? I waited on grapes because I didn't want to have to stop drinking wine. Very bad momma

. Luckily he passed and I can still have some vegan wine when I *need* it

.

 

[ainh]

lizzie -- i wouldn't suspect the wheat. i'd guess it's the artichokes. luckily, there are lots of pastas that are just wheat out there. my guy is severely allergic to sunflower (and sesame) seeds. he throws up from just trace amount of organic sunflower oil and i dread what would happen if he ate an actual seed (he's had anaphylactic reactions to sesame). i'd be wary of all seeds if your guy is sensitive (poppy, mustard, etc)...or maybe it's just that one family of foods?

 

[ainh]

Actually, the blood test can be accurate for babes as young as 2 months, but the skin test usually isn't accurate until after six months...especially if the mom is doing a really good job of eliminating all traces from her breastmilk. FWIW, the skin testing was 100% accurate on my guy (matched perfectly with his reactions and RAST/blood test from later) when he was just nine months old. It was SUCH a help for figuring out my ED. I was able to add wheat and corn and salmon and tomato and confirmed that I needed to be strict about eliminating dairy, eggs, nuts, seeds and soy. I thought I was going to have to give up bf'ing until the results came back and I had some real information to work off of. A year later and we're still bf'ing and I've been off his allergens the whole time and am even gaining weight on the ED now!

 

[ainh]

Hey guys --

It does look like there's been a lot of recent activity here. Sorry to have to welcome more to this group. I'm going on 18 months of no nuts, seeds, soy, dairy and eggs. DS is severely allergic seeds (anaphylactic to sesame and sunflower and allergic to mustard) and gets contact reactions from milk (two drops on his back and he has 20 hives within a minute). He's never touched/ingested his other allergens, except through breastmilk back in the early days.

In our experience mtn.mama is correct on the eczema. If I accidentally eat something with egg in it then DS gets bad eczema very quickly. However, if I eat something with dairy in it, he gets very mucousy poops (but no eczema). Sesame was worst...his face would turn red after breastfeeding when I'd eat hummus. We had the best luck with going to a board certified allergist having SPT and RAST testing. It was very accurate for my son at 9 months of age and it made my ED very easy to figure out...no guesswork or over-eliminating.

Good luck to the new mommas. The first month is the worst. I lost a lot of weight during the first three months of the ED, then leveled of for six more months and then starting gaining (all on the same ED). It just took me awhile to get used to what I could make and keeping lots of safe foods on hand.