[mtn.mama]

I know exactly what you mean about not wanting to try out a food, stressing when you do, and staying away from some stuff without trying....

 

[RoadWorkAhead]

Yay for spaghetti squash, let's just hope its a true pass. We should know by Friday. I'm over my weaning kick. I keep reminding myself that even if she wa son formula she'd still react to the other things she reacts to, and get food off the floor, etc. and our lives would still be changed forever by being touched by our little Squeakums, and then I wouldn't have boobs to cure all. It helps that I have spaghetti squash to provide bulk for me at the moment. I just need something easy and bulky like that (We gave up on pumpkin seeds b/c it was so time consuming and not filling). We're waiting on a new supplement for our magnesium needs, but feel much better this time. HOw's everyone else hanging in there??

 

[damililove]

Hi mamas chiming in here to get some insight/support. We are looking into a modified ed and I'm wondering should I be doing more. I know that dairy is a problem, but also suspect wheat. Anyways, I see that a lot of you list only about 4-5 foods and I'm wondering is that really all you eat? I mean aren't beans okay? What about non-citrus fruit, green leafy vegetables and the two diets I was looking into were okay with all nuts and seeds except peanuts. I'm trying to be as diligent as possible, but my whole family has decided to do the diet to help give everybodys body a rest and perhaps solve some of the minor issue they might have. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. My dd2 is 14mths her biggest issue is dry sign and occassional really firm stools. I suffer with bowel issues myself and I would love to be better so I want to get this right. Any thoughts

 

[RoadWorkAhead]

Welcome! Yes, some of us really live on 3,4,5 foods. Its not for fun, thats for sure. MOst of us started out eliminating 1 or 2 foods. For me, it was wheat first, then dairy, then I said the heck with it and went all out TED. I now know that DD reacts to: dairy, soy, wheat, corn, tomato, potato, avocado, citrus, millet, rice, quinoa, steel cut oats, and spaghetti squash. ANd thats just the start of it...But she is fairly rare. Many kids only have top 8 issues (dairy, wheat, soy, egg, citrus, fish/shellfish, peanuts, treenuts) or only have symptoms occasionally that can be tracked through a food diary (like my DS who has contact dermatitis to salad dressing??). I wouldn't go to a TED without definite need, and even though I *knew* we needed it, we probaly started earlier than would have been recommended (in my case, it was just intuition). Good luck and feel free to post questions or PM us (or at least me, I shouldn't speak for everyone LOL)

 

[msfidget]

Hi mamas,
I'm currently bf'ing my 4.5mo old ds...and i'm getting so frustrated! fortunately, he's not so severe that he has blood in his stool, but he does have the mucousy poo and eczema. i have eczema pretty bad and i've just sort of learned to live with it so i just figured he got it from me. but what breaks my heart is how the poor thing just can't sleep...he writhes in pain all night. i first started eliminating cow's milk and soy, and i've been doing that on and off for about 3 months now. he has a tremendous amount of flatulence, which is what keeps him uncomfortable all night. it actually seems to be getting worse, not better.
everyone around me keeps telling me i need to stop bf'ing and to just put him on a hypoallergenic formula. it's making me crazy.
i'm going to start being very diligent and try to elimanate the top 8. but what i'm really worried about is starting solids with him. i've heard the rice cereal makes them constipated and i just don't want to make him any more uncomfortable than he already is.
are there any tips for starting solids in these babies?
thanks so much...

 

[mtn.mama]

msfidget- I don't know much about starting solids, but I'm thinking I'm going to delay as long as possible and give my baby a chance to stabilize her gut. I'm beginning to wonder if my baby wouldn't have a sensitivity if I didn't. I think now I was showing signs all through my pregnancy and just chalked it up to hormones. So maybe if I wasn't eating wheat or cow dairy or sugar all along then she wouldn't be sensitive now. BTW she's gassiest with the sugar, and now it seems so am I. Just food for thought.
L

 

[RoadWorkAhead]

misfidget: we're waiting to intro solids. I don't do rice cereal to begin wiht, and really won't now since DD is allergic/intolerant to rice. We're waiting until she's 12 months *theoretically* it may be before that, but we'll go with the GI and the allergist on that one, so 10 months at earliest since she's not seeing allergist until then. And I'll start with pears and squash, both cooked, since she seems to tolerate those best. And only while she's not reacting.

 

[msfidget]

Thanks for the help mamas. I just found a great sticky about introducing solids. I think waiting is definitely the way to go.
Thanks again!

 

[MayLibertySprout]

Hi mamas,
So glad this thread was started! I have been avoiding dairy since dd (5-13-07)was about 4weeks. She started with a terrable rash, eczema, mucusy poos, and reflux symptoms, oh! and painfull/unconsolable crying, how could I forget!

My ds was anaphylactic to dairy, eggs, nuts, peanuts, shellfish, fish, and allergic to almost everything else! He could only eat about 8 foods.
Luckily me & dh had been vegan, so I knew what to remove for the worst of it.
(This was 10 yrs ago)
So I have been here before but it is still hard!!
Just cheated yesterday, and feel SO guilty!! (yummy strawberry/banana shake my mean mother taunted me with! grrrr!) Only had a few sips...so bad.

ANYWAY, just wanted to introduce myself and say hi, and thx for being here!

PS- Anyone heard of the book "5 years without food - The food allergy survival guide" by Nicolette M. Dumke? It toatlly helped me w/ my son's allergies! We did a TED and rotation diet from there. It only took him 3yrs, and he out grew all but peanut, nut, & shellfish.

 

[msfidget]

question about wheat...
i've been avoiding dairy, soy, wheat, eggs, fish, and nuts. but i've only been back to being strict about it for a couple days.
a friend of mine who did an elimination diet for 9 months until her dd got allergy tested told me that the wheat elimination is done if you're worried about celiac sprue or something. is that true? i'm very doubtful that sprue is the issue here, so i'm wondering if it's ok for me to put wheat back in. what are your thoughts?

 

[Gracefulmom]

Count me in! I haven't had time to read this entire thread, but wanted to introduce myself...

I'm Heidi... mom to a dairy/wheat/soy allergic 9 month old. I eliminated dairy when she was 4 months and added wheat and soy a month ago. But I've been SUCH a cheater the last couple weeks, and I can see that it's affecting her -- congested nose, crankiness. Trying really hard to get myself back on track!

I suspect my 10 yo has wheat and dairy issues, too, but it's really hard to eliminate those for her. She gets too much food in other places. Sigh.

Thanks for starting this thread!

 

[mtn.mama]

Quote:

Originally Posted by msfidget question about wheat... i've been avoiding dairy, soy, wheat, eggs, fish, and nuts. but i've only been back to being strict about it for a couple days. a friend of mine who did an elimination diet for 9 months until her dd got allergy tested told me that the wheat elimination is done if you're worried about celiac sprue or something. is that true? i'm very doubtful that sprue is the issue here, so i'm wondering if it's ok for me to put wheat back in. what are your thoughts?

I don't know what sprue is. But eliminating wheat turned out to be key for us. The eczema went away 99%. We've been off it for almost a month I think. We can tolerate all the other glutens, and spelt is back on the menu! Our version of the elimination diet started us out with only chicken, rice, non-cole veggies and non-citrus fruits. Then I started adding in one food at a time to see what she reacted to. I didn't even get to try wheat, it just happened to be an additive to wasabi and soy sauce and she reacted strongly enough for me to investigate.

 

[WildCanaryCait]

wow i just found this thread....yay! I"m Cait...mama to a lil fella with a sensitive gut. We don't do the top eight at all along with some other things like berries. I give Aidan omegas/dha's and probiotics....he sooo loves to eat...has all his teeth..wants to try EVERYthing...but definitely knows the things that don't agree with him like carrots...he will refuse them every time they're offered (nitrites)...trust those babes

We do all our own baking...gluten free...we use bean flours rice fours lots of other things. Bobs RedMill has a great website with lots and lots of gluten free recipes and info on that issue...
I am working on reading alllllll these posts! yaaay and thank everyone in advance for all the insights****

 

[WildCanaryCait]

i forgot to add....we are working a homeopathic constitutional with our ND also....so far Aidan is a 'sulphur' ....we'll see what happens next!

 

[Hippiemommie]

I have a DS1 who will be 3 in Jan and when he was about 6 weeks old he started projectile vomiting and crying inconsolably. He also had these pimples on his cheeks. He would nurse and nurse and then cry until he would vomit then nurse nurse. He would sometimes cry so bad we were afraid something was happening medical. We took him to Children's hospital twice and to MANY peds and we got "reflux" and "pyloric stenosis" but neither of those felt right to me. He gained so much weight from where he would nurse to keep the acid down. I think by 6 months he was close to 25lbs. Finally I came across an article on the internet about diary and took it out of my diet. I only took out the obvious (to me at the time) dairy like milk and cheese. The vomiting went away as did the screaming. The rash on his cheeks is still there and is now on his arms. He can tolerate me having dairy now and he can have some of it himself without any obvious symptoms except the rash and I've been told over and over that the rash isn't from dairy (DH has the same rash) but I'm suspect.

WELL, I just gave birth to my second son. At 1 week I noticed that he was spitting up after every feeding and having bad gas. I couldn't remember if this was normal newborn behavior so I took dairy out. He still has bad gas and it seems like it happens from 7pm to 9pm every night. He cries and cries the only thing that consoles him is nursing and nursing. I would think, "Oh this is another allergy" and then I would think "Maybe it is just that my breast are engorged and he is drinking too much milk" and sometimes "Maybe this is normal newborn behavior." Since taking dairy out he doesn't spit up as much and it isn't as curdled as it was. The area around his anus isn't as red either. SO tonight we went out to dinner and I had dairy overload. I ate mac and cheese, butter, and sour cream. On the way home DS started crying and as soon as we got him he puked twice BIG pukes and then cried and cried. I feel so guilty but part of me wants to hear that it is normal for newborns to do this and it isn't an allergy.

The total elimination diet seems overwhelming. I am having such a hard time just keeping diary out but I want what is best for DS. Please give me your thoughts on where to go from here. DS is 2 weeks old today BTW and we have been giving him 1/4 a tsp UDO's Choice Probiotics.

 

[raquelita]

wow there are so many questions on this thread already........
hmm i am thinking i need to get on that wild ride called the candida diet, sigh
ds is 15 months and we've batted with thrush on and off for...oh well, a year? lately he's been breaking out with exzema and finally i have too! plus a host of other symptoms pointing to candida overgrowth
i have cut out gluten and dairy(except yog) and refined sugar but it looks like we need to go thefull distance and i'm nervous!
do i cut him off of fruit? he loves it so
any recipie ideas? or links with candida or elimination diet recipies?

 

[raquelita]

a close friend of mine has an allergy to citrus and chocolate and whenever he eats the he gets a pimple like rash on his face, arms and legs
he had a son last year who had the same rash-which stopped when his mama cut out chocolate and citrus
the elimination diet is a bummer, but it can help you find less obvious allgergies or intolerances

 

[Twinklefae]

Hippiemomma- your son sounds like mine! WE're at 8 weeks, and over the past two we've gone from a litle bit of bum rash (that I knew meant an allergy, but have been ignoring) to a sandpaper rash on his face, crying fits all afternoon, no naps (he usually sleeps a least two 3 hours naps a day) massive amounts of spitting up, and mucousy poo. (Also in massive amounts)

I've just started eliminating dairy (my sister has problems with dairy, and had similar symptoms as a baby, as far as I can tell. My mom's dead, so its hard to know)

I'm here for support. How do you guys do this? I'm only a day in and HATE it. I eat a lot of dairy usually, and find it very hard to work around. I don't know how those of you on severe diets function. Any words of wisdom? I'm very depressed about the whole thing right now, and feel guilty I didn't stick with it when I tried this a month ago. It's just so hard!

 

[Maggirayne]

I'm on here for the Candida Elimination diet, I have to go but will come back tomorrow to talk to you!

Fruit you cut out the first week or so, I like Dr. William Crook's books. He has a Yeast Cookbook--I just got it.

I think wheat and sugar are the worst for us, I ate brownies (half a pan on my weekend off and got whammied with congestion and a headache and just felt awful, don't know if her Thrush got worse.

Quote:

Originally Posted by raquelita wow there are so many questions on this thread already........ do i cut him off of fruit? he loves it so any recipie ideas? or links with candida or elimination diet recipies?

 

[Marlet]

I think I'm here for a bit. DD2 is 2 months old. She has an eczema type rash (though I googled it and it doesn't look like it) that comes and goes. It's always been little spots right around where her diapers sit so I assumed it was from the wet dipe and/or wool. The other day though she got a spot on her upper arm and last night she got a ton on her other arm from her elbow up. She spits up ALL the time. She's colicky. She screams when she eats sometimes and starts gulping so fast and so hard that she just spits up more which makes her scream more. She has mucosy poop too. By themselves I was able to come up with some excuse but last night watching her cry while she ate and seeing the rash/spots on her arm everything in me screamed ELIMINATE! Sigh.

We're vegetarian and already don't do soy, wheat (and most grains really..including grain flours like corn), and peanuts but that's due to DH's food issues. We've been slowly making the switch to a raw diet so we have a lot more nuts in our diet (almonds, sunflower kernals, pumpkin seeds, and spanish peanuts...all raw). Looks like I will be cutting out egg, dairy, and all nuts for now. The dairy won't be too hard since we've been phasing that out anyway (mostly due to the fact that it gives me bad headaches that I think is related to something non dairy related). The nuts will just be a temp. I think. Better safe than sorry you know? We had stroganoff the other day and that's when I noticed her poop change and the first spot appeared. Since that was egg (the noodles) and dairy (the sauce) those are definitely going. So sad it has to be during the holidays. Lots of good food I'll be passing on this year.

This is hard for since DD1 was so opposite. I could drink a gallon of coffee, 4 lbs. of chocolate, and 4 lbs. of broccoli and she wouldn't bat an eye. This poor girl reacts if I look at a 12 oz. can of Pepsi.