[*mama moose*]

I'm hesitant to even post, because I know a lot of mamas on here are going through such rough times with food and their LOs.....
But my DD outgrew her soy allergy/intolerance.

I think I'm in shock still. We have been through hell with this. At 2 weeks I cut dairy, 3 days later (after a VERY obvious reaction) I cut soy, by the time she was 2 months I was top 8 free, by 4 months I cut out corn, I cut out citrus, I cut out honey, I cut out chocolate, I cut out nightshades, etc etc etc you get the idea. She had reactions. I saw them with my own eyes! I saw bleeding diaper rashes, red ring around the anus, green mucous stool, streaks of blood in the stool, eczema on her face until it scabbed over, and even hives at one point or two (to nuts, which I have not and will not trial at home obviously). I am not crazy. I feel like I need to repeat that though, that people might think I made this whole thing up....
When we went to the GI Dr at about 6 months, she asked us to do some food trials since there were some foods I was unsure of, but nothing in the top 8. I tried tomato, it failed. I waited about a month before I got courage, tried corn, and it passed. Which was huge, but I always wondered if corn WAS really an issue so that one could have been a mistake. But then we started trying more things and things started passing. I can have chocolate, I can have peppers, I can have potatoes, I can have avocado, etc etc. We try tomatoes again (since I've now passed all other nightshades) and they pass. When just 3 months earlier they failed? What is going on????
And when I say pass I mean not even an extra tear of cranky baby, not even a string of mucous, NOTHING changed from the day before.
So the GI tells us to try oats, to test gluten a little since she (in the past, 4-5 months old?) reacted to wheat and spelt. Well, they passed. She eats oatmeal every morning now too even. So I get this crazy thought around easter to try soy oil, to see if we can slip by little bits of it. And it passed. So I take another step on the branch so to speak and eat a piece of tofu. And it passed. So I give HER a piece of tofu. And she is totally 100% fine

:

So I'm of course jumping for joy, but wondering what the heck is going on! Am I seriously just crazy?? There is no way I could have made up this whole thing, other people saw her and saw how much she was suffering! And she has failed some things very recently, all forms of citrus have failed (eczema, diaper rash, green stool...this is with me eating it, not direct), and any bee product is a huge fail, I ate what I thought was a safe fruitsnack that had beeswax in it as the very last ingredient, I ate 2 of the tiny things out of my older DDs package, and DD2 had severe eczema by that night and was screaming all night, etc. Shes the same with honey, which I had about 2 months ago.
But why is she outgrowing some things now?? IS it outgrowing? Is it healing? If so, how the heck are we healing because I am a gut healing slacker! I hate to admit that, I was very good at probiotics and CLO in the early days, but I ran out, couldn't find the money, excuse excuse I know...but pretty much we just breastfeed, avoid vaccines and ABX, and stringently avoid foods she is intollerant to.
I feel like the answer is "luck" and so I feel guilty coming here and asking for your wise mama opinions since you all are working so hard on your allergies....but I just want to know if anyone has any ideas as to how or why we could outgrow such a serious allergy before 1, and with not much in the way of gut healing?
I just remember, when she was a month old, we went to this vegan restaurant and I ate soy, and the next morning how awful her rash was, and how she screamed and screamed all day, and how I just sat and cried with her....and now 9 months later, shes almost 10 months, and she can eat a piece of tofu like any other baby trying solids. It seriously makes me want to break down and cry again. I know we still have a LONG way to go and a lot of foods still on our "no" list, but this is huge. And gives me hope, like a light and the end of this stupid tunnel....
Thanks mamas, for reading this, and for being here for me for the past however many months....

 

[lil_miss_understood]

:
I don't have any answers for you, but I'm so glad to hear that things have improved so vastly!

 

[tanyalynn]

Sometimes you just have to take the good things on face value.

: Maybe someday the reasons will become clear, not knowing always nags at me at a low level, but rejoice in it!

:

 

[Theloose]

I *know* that my various elimination diets have resulted in more sensitivities, due to nutrient deficiencies. I've been wondering lately, if I had just cut out gluten at the beginning and not everything else, if that would have been it. That would have reduced stress on my adrenals, allowing me to heal. Combine that with a generally healthy diet and maybe things would be okay? I'm coming to the conclusion now that everything for us is due to a genetic tendency towards folate deficiency. Maybe you just have lucky genes with good use of nutrients, but pregnancy was a little too much of a drain? Maybe you were able to replenish your stores on the elimination diet?

 

[changingseasons]

That's amazing. I'm so glad she's doing better.

I'm curious though after reading your post- it kind of sounds like she was reacting to foods through you, but is fine with them when eating directly. Is that true? Or are you eating the same foods along with her and still BFing and getting no reactions??

I was actually thinking about this the other day- that fable they keep telling us about kids outgrowing food allergies- and whether in fact that had actually EVER happened...

So it's encouraging to know that it does!!

 

[chlobo]

That's fabulous!!!!

 

[*mama moose*]

I'm nak' with the wrong hand so...typos
CS im still nursing (thankfully, since a few months ago I was very very closse to quittuing) and we are trialing foods together, so im eating them too

the only thing I can think of is, dont babies guts close around 6 months? or something like that that I'm not recalling correctly? Everytime we pulled something it was before 6 months and since then things have gotten better and better. I wobdwer if that has anything to do qwith this?
its good, i mean its great, im thankful, but im so confused! part of me feels like "what if i imagined the whole thing?"

i KNOW thatts not true, but thats one of the emotions Im having with it. I didnt think I'd feel this way, I thought when I got foods back I'd just be happy and go on a food binge lol (which dont get me wrong, I'm thrilled)....but part of me still feels guilty and confused and wondering if this whole time it was nothing? I mean it couldnt have been nothing, right?

 

[tanyalynn]

It doesn't sound like nothing, but maybe from what you're saying, there's an unusual mis-match between your child and you, in that maybe your LO's gut is closing quite well (maybe more/faster than usual?) and your gut is quite leaky. And that may be something to work on before considering TTC (if you're considering it), or just for your own health. My 1st child is prone to quite different health problems than I am (she takes after DH quite a bit), so my health problems generally have manifested in her more mildly than would otherwise be the case. My 2nd child is much more typical (and looks more severe) in how he manifests our health problems, because his body works more like mine.

If you can swing it, you may, at this point, either consider something like an IgG test for yourself (to see if your gut is still leaky, and your LO just deals with it better than average), or look into _why_ your gut may have been quite leaky (maybe still is?) and think about appropriate ways of healing that.

 

[Catt75]

: I am so happy for you that you can add back some foods. This journey is so hard that each little success is a wonderful thing. Congrats

 

[waluso]

That's so awesome! And you are not crazy! I am afraid to say this for fear of jinxing myself but DD and I are actually going through the same thing. Since mid-January DD has passed almost everyting we've tried (I am trialing them for her and myself at the same time). She still has occasional reactions but they are MUCH milder. She used to have mucous in her poop (all the time), sometimes with blood, nightwaking, screaming/crying out in pain during her sleep, red ring, undereye circles, rash on her face, and ezcema behind her ears. Now her symptoms when she has a mild reaction are a red ring, maybe nightwaking (I never know if that is due to food, teething, or something else - she's never been a good sleeper), undereye circles, and mild face rash. She hasn't had mucous in her poop in months. Now I am trialing things I know failed before (such as broccoli and pork) and they are passing. I am so excited but am getting a little risky and trialing several things at once and worred I will screw it up somehow. I don't know if it was the gut healing, homeopathy, CST, detoxing, or just growing out of it, but whatever it is it's working. DD is almost 11 months old now. I just really hope it continues.

 

[earthmama4]

Us too. In fact I was just thinking to post a "there's hope!" type post and I read this one. My LO is doing so much better. I was on a very limited diet - pretty much the Sears TED plus a few fruits and veggies for December, Janurary and February. 3 months. Nothing passed and I felt like I was starving sometimes. Then things began to change and here's the main things that I think helped us:

1. I gave him some time at baseline to heal and didn't trial anything for a few weeks.
2. When I started adding foods, I was really concentrating on nutrition. I looked at the liver detox pathways and added foods that contained the nutrients I was lacking in certain areas. Adding semi-sweet organic chocolate chips (for the magnesium) improved him to my surprise.
3. I did not pull foods immediately, just backed off slightly, if I noticed a reaction and gave him more time to adjust. Corn is one example where I had to do this. Now he handles it fine.
4. I ate mainly a whole food organic diet. Nothing processed or with addititives. This seemed to help.
5. LOTS more water. I started wondering if the offenders in my milk get more concentrated with I don't drink enough. I have noticed a correlation. Kind of going back to the detox pathways - allowing my body plenty of urine to excrete toxins in rather than the breast milk?
6.I think there is something to him being older and his gut being less open. I don't know that the above would have been effective at 2 months for example.

Anyway, a combination of factors but it seems to have worked. No more mucousy poop. No more reflux, rash, fussiness, sleeplessness. He has his days where I wonder or start to worry...but I give it time and don't jump to conclusions and voila! It resolves itself without changes to my diet. I have discovered there are a myriad of other reasons for my 5 month old to be fussy that don't have me banging my head on the fridge door in despair. Like teething, boredom, needs a diaper change etc.

BTW - he is 5 months old. Our journey started at birth with reflux of the colostrum. We are still dairy and gluten free and I am carefully considering a wheat trial cause I am missing me some bread. But I am in no hurry. It is wonderful to have a healthy babe.

 

[kjbrown92]

I don't want to be a naysayer, but just tread carefully and keep your food journal going, and keep an eye on everything. My DS (8yo now) "outgrew" his soy/dairy intolerances at 13 months (that's when the GI trialed them) without any "gut healing". He got them both back at 18 months old after a bad stomach bug. And it's been a downhill battle since. So it could be that there's been great healing, and if so, that is absolutely AWESOME. Just keep one eye open, that's all.

 

[lil_miss_understood]

Where'd you go, Pollyanna?

 

[waluso]

Quote:

Originally Posted by kjbrown92 I don't want to be a naysayer, but just tread carefully and keep your food journal going, and keep an eye on everything. My DS (8yo now) "outgrew" his soy/dairy intolerances at 13 months (that's when the GI trialed them) without any "gut healing". He got them both back at 18 months old after a bad stomach bug. And it's been a downhill battle since. So it could be that there's been great healing, and if so, that is absolutely AWESOME. Just keep one eye open, that's all.

This is a good reminder. I also worry that the symptoms have just changed. I used to be able to look at DD's poop to determine definitively if she was reacting. Since her poop has had no mucous or blood, and her ezcema has gone away, it's really hard for me to tell if there is a reaction. So I agree to keep an eye out for symptoms.

 

[kjbrown92]

Quote:

Originally Posted by JacquelineR Where'd you go, Pollyanna?

You talkin' to me?
Most of the time I'm Pollyanna, but with our track record of changing symptoms, I err on the side of caution with "outgrowin".

 

[lil_miss_understood]

Quote:

Originally Posted by kjbrown92 You talkin' to me? Most of the time I'm Pollyanna, but with our track record of changing symptoms, I err on the side of caution with "outgrowin".

I know and agree. I was just teasing you since you call yourself Pollyanna so much.

I realize that you're capable of being very realistic when need be.

 

[earthmama4]

Quote:

Originally Posted by TanyaLopez It doesn't sound like nothing, but maybe from what you're saying, there's an unusual mis-match between your child and you, in that maybe your LO's gut is closing quite well (maybe more/faster than usual?) and your gut is quite leaky. And that may be something to work on before considering TTC (if you're considering it), or just for your own health. My 1st child is prone to quite different health problems than I am (she takes after DH quite a bit), so my health problems generally have manifested in her more mildly than would otherwise be the case. My 2nd child is much more typical (and looks more severe) in how he manifests our health problems, because his body works more like mine. If you can swing it, you may, at this point, either consider something like an IgG test for yourself (to see if your gut is still leaky, and your LO just deals with it better than average), or look into _why_ your gut may have been quite leaky (maybe still is?) and think about appropriate ways of healing that.

I thought about this alot yesterday and I think there is something to it. My LO's dad has no allergies and I have a ton. Hmmm. Interesting idea to consider. Motivates me to continue good healing practices despite LO vast improvements. Thanks!

 

[AquariusHome]

Quote:

Originally Posted by kjbrown92 I don't want to be a naysayer, but just tread carefully and keep your food journal going, and keep an eye on everything. My DS (8yo now) "outgrew" his soy/dairy intolerances at 13 months (that's when the GI trialed them) without any "gut healing". He got them both back at 18 months old after a bad stomach bug. And it's been a downhill battle since. So it could be that there's been great healing, and if so, that is absolutely AWESOME. Just keep one eye open, that's all.

:

I really hope you are right and she has outgrown it! That would be awesome! But be on the lookout for new symptoms. My DS2 "outgrew" his intolerances (we never figured out what they were) at around 6 months, as evidenced by elimination of the bloody mucousy stools. I didn't figure out until recently his sleep issues and several other things were probably just his intolerances in a new form. And DD did the same thing - we went from Top 8 free to just milk and soy free in a matter of a few weeks with no obvious GI reactions at all. But 7 months later I'm looking at going Top 8 + some again.

I hope that isn't the case for you.

 

[*mama moose*]

thanks everyone, we are absolutely keeping our eyes open about it, I'm still sort of in shock about it all, but I've read WAY too much here to ever ignore anything that could be an allergy symptom! Seriously, I tend to OVER-react rather than under-react