On ED, eczema staying constant, not better then worse like before (Salicylates ??'s)

I was eating (before yesterday):
chicken, rice, rice bread, carrots, asparagus, almond butter, blueberry jam, spinach, balsamic vinegar, olive oil, banana, grapes, kiwi, avocado, sweet potato, and squash. (oh, and coffee with flavouring, but not creamer)

I've taken out so far:
almonds/almond butter, blueberry jam (it has pectin, which is from apples ), and the coffee flavouring.
I also stopped taking any vitamins yesterday. I didn't realize they could have soy, dairy, etc etc in them.

I'm adding quinoa today (because I hate eating so much meat), and possibly zucchini, and honey. It's really hard to find a balance between taking enough out to figure it out, and leaving enough in so that I don't go crazy, kwim?

The only things we think so far are that he may be sensitive to apples, because it fits the timeline, and that rice is ok because when HE started eating it, his rash was not bad and didn't change for about 3 days.

I'd stick with what you took out for 4-5 days, and see if you see a difference. If not, I'd get the vitamins back in - it's really easy to get deficient on an ED.

And then I'll mention... if he is sensitive to apples, it's possible he's sensitive to salicylates (a naturally occurring chemical that is high in apples, and many fruits). It seems like EDs tend to gravitate towards high sals foods - on your list, the highest sals are almonds, blueberries, grapes, olive oil and balsamic vinegar, and I think kiwi. Squash, sweet potato and avocado are also high, although not as high as the first group. Honey is super high, zucchini is high.

So, if taking out the things you just did doesn't seem to address things, you might try taking out the highest sals foods/limiting their quantity, and adding in some lower sals foods and veggies.

Before your ED, you probably had some days where you ate lots of sals, and other days where you ate fewer - but on the ED, you probably eat quite a bit every day (so more consistent reaction).

How is his sleep? Does he get wild/hyper? Red cheeks/ears? Stuffy nose? (All pretty typical sals reactions).

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What kind of chicken is this? I know that if we eat chicken from non organic raised birds, we get skin issues and congestion. And I am sorry to say that I would cut the coffee and creamer or whatever flavouring out too.

Yeah, I think I'll probably take out the rice bread, just to be sure. And the coffee- it's actually decaf. I already stopped using the flavouring, but may as will stop the decaf. Coffee with only sugar is just not the same.

The chicken is not organic. Meat is so frickin' expensive here. I got a killer of a deal on the chicken, and it was about $2/lb. That's the cheapest it ever is. Any meat, really.

Are there any beans that are less allergenic? I'd really rather eat beans or lentils. I'm so sick of meat. I had been eating lots of beans when his rash started, which is why I cut them out. BUT I did eat lentils the first day (I know, that's bad. there were leftovers no one else was going to eat) of my ED and it didn't seem to affect his rash. Maybe it would be better to use lentils than meat. I'd be happier, and it would be cheaper.

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Another piece to try to fit in to the puzzle. hehe
Where would I find info on salicylates in foods?

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Just googled sal sensitivities. He pees quite often. His cheeks are red/rashy (dx'ed as eczema). His sleep...he wakes a lot, and it seems to be related to discomfort, not just waking to nurse. I attributed it to teething. He has mucousy poo (didn't read that that is related, though).
(he's sick right now, but I don't think he typically has a runny nose).

ooh, he does often wake up at night for an hour at a time. Not when he's sick, but if he's feeling good he night. He doesn't cry, just wakes up. He *wants* to go back to sleep, but can't, and ends up waking up to play.

It should be easy enough to sub some high sal foods for low, without really going off of my original larger list of ok foods. I was planning on doing a rotation diet of sorts, to make it easier to keep track of reactions.

I was also reading that while meat is low in sals, *aged* meat is higher. So one can only guess as to the sal content of traditional grocery store chicken.

Maybe this:
Quinoa, rice, lentils (since they seem likely to be safe), brussels sprouts, rutabagas (of course, I have to try it to see if I like it!), canola oil (instead of olive oil), carrots, asparagus, banana, grapes, avocado, sweet potato, and squash.
And I was using brown sugar and pepper- I'll cut those out (I didn't figure either could matter).

I know they aren't all low, but it might be a step in the right direction, and it seems doable to me.

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I so know that waking...!! Try supplementing magnesium as well - if you are deficient, that might help.

For your list, I think that's OK, except for grapes (those are sky high, and in the early days, my DS reacted if I ate even a few - try pears instead) - do the avocado, sweet potato and squash in moderation. Don't worry about using brown sugar, a little won't matter.

Aged meats are high in amines - which sometimes comes with sals sensitivity, but not usually. For now, don't worry about that and eat some meat, you need the fat. Try just sals avoidance for a week, if that doesn't get you progress, then you can move to other issues. I liked ground lamb for fat and flavoring.

Good luck!

Thanks so much for all the help

No grapes then, and I actually do have a calcium w/magnesium supplement. Hopefully it doesn't have soy- I emailed the company.

I would do pears, but his rash got worse a day or so after he ate pears. It also correlated to when the steroid cream would have worn off, so it might not have anything to do with the pears, but I want to leave them out for now. I hope pears are ok- he LOVED them!

ah, good to know. Another one for the grocery list!

His rash is now getting worse. I did start using coconut milk a couple days ago, and he "ate" a corn tortilla chip last night. I got most of it out, but I'm sure he injested some.

Oh, and I ate beef yesterday (I was pretty sure I'd be sick if I had to eat chicken again). That's why it's important to stick with a list, because then you can narrow it down better if there's a reaction.

If he gets to baseline, then you can both add in foods ...

With sals sensitivity, it often means you can add in a bunch of low sals foods as a group, which was really great for us. I also added eggs back in very quickly, which helped with not eating so much meat!

Remind me again how old your little guy is? There are some supps which can really help with sals sensitivity, depending on his age.

And mostly just to record my thoughts, here's a list of the foods that I've been specifically avoiding, and for how long:
Dairy- 4 weeks
eggs- 2 weeks
peanuts- 2 weeks
Soy- 2 weeks (major soy), 1 week (soy lec, soy in vitamins)
wheat/gluten - 2 weeks/ 1.5 weeks
corn - 1.5 weeks
nightshades- 1.5 weeks
tree nuts- 1 week
apples- 1 week

guessing on these:
legumes other than lentils- 1 week
citrus- 1 week
Coffee- a few days
chocolate- a few days

fish- probably a few weeks
shellfish- not since ds has been alive, iirc.

Is that all???

You gained two good pieces of info - one, that sals is likely an issue, and second, that you see a skin reaction within 24 hours.

In theory, you should keep everything else the same and take out sals. However, I sooooo remember that desperate for something to eat feeling... What I did once I figured out sals was the issue is added in quite a few foods that were low sals - I kept out dairy/gluten/soy/corn, but I added back in nuts, eggs, lots of veggies, fish, lentils and some other legumes, and a bunch of gluten free grains. That got me to a wider base of things to eat. Then I trialed dairy and gluten, both of which failed for us initially (and I wouldn't trial dairy until you are supping lots of mag - the calcium in dairy runs down mag, and makes sals tolerance worse). Corn still fails for us, and is fairly high sals, and soy uses up the same pathway as sals, so I'd leave those out a while if you can.

The supps that will help with sals tolerance - mag, molybdenum, and B6/P5P (P5P is the active form of b6). Since your guy is little, first, I'd try magnesium via Epsom salts baths (2c in a warm water bath for 20 minutes, every night). Then YOU take P5P, it passes really well through breastmilk. You should also take lots of mag, it can help if you're deficient (normally the level of minerals passed in breastmilk stays pretty steady). For molybdenum, eat lots of beans/legumes or supplement with drops from Allergy Research Group/Nutricology. If you ate lots of beans before, my guess would be it is either mag or b6 that is in low supply. Also, some people need to eat lots of sulfur foods to help with sals (and some can't handle sulfur foods at all - you'll likely find out when you reintroduce eggs!). My guy needs lots of sulfur, so he eats eggs every day.

And yeah, you need to give up grapes - I live in Oregon and we have raspberry bushes in our front yard - trust me, I know how much the no berries/grapes/apples thing stinks! But even now, when his sals tolerance is much higher, fruit is still tricky for DS.

Oh, one other thing - try adding fish back in if you can, and consider supping omega 3s. What we found is that balancing omega 3s and 6s really helped with sals tolerance (there is research to back this up). That really means eating more fish and omega 3s, but more importantly, avoiding omega 6s as best as you can. We eat nuts, but I avoid nut/seed oils (especially sunflower/safflower, they are really really high in omega 6s). Canola is better, low sals and good omega 3:6 balance. And you might trial butter fairly soon as well. Fats are really important on an ED, but tricky if you're trying to avoid both sals and omega 6s.