[fraya]

My daughter is 3 m.o. and definitely very allergic. She had the signs in-utero (which I discovered just recently). She is congested, has mucousy poop, has the red ring around her bottom, drooling and that's mostly it.

I'm trying to figure out how quickly she reacts to things in my diet so that I can figure out to what she's allergic. For instance, today she had very mucousy poop. Clear sign that she's reacting to something I ate -- but what, when? I ate quinoa pasta with bolognese sauce for supper last night and a raspberry-almond butter sandwich on spelt bread this morning for breakfast. I also had some Juice Plus red gummies (fruit). How quickly does what I eat show up in my milk and then in her poop (or congestion or gas or drooling) to indicate a reaction?

Here's what I've done so far:
--Picked up Is This Your Child
--had myself tested and then cut out all of those things [allegedly if I'm sensitive, I'm not properly digesting them and then sending them out in my milk like that, though my son, who's 4 y.o. never reacted]
--cut out eggs, b/c I eat them every day
--added an air purifier but it's a cheap one

Here's what I haven't done:
--cut out wheat entirely
--cut out corn
--cut out soy
--cut out butter

The one thing of those that I eat daily is butter, to which I showed as not being sensitive (and which I love). The person who tested me for sensitivities said that it takes 6 weeks to get out of the system; is that true? My naturopath said I should notice a difference in 7-10 days. In that time, cutting out just those to which I was sensitive, she had a decrease in her symptoms but not an elimination. Cutting out eggs seemed to help. A week later, I had cookies one day and then pancakes the next that had egg in them, and her allergies seemed to get worse the next few nights. So I've cut those out completely.

It's so hard for me to find good, healthy, organic food with lots of protein in it when I'm taking care of two children, eating incredible amounts of food, exhausted, and not eating eggs or dairy! Still, I really need to figure out to what she's reacting because this just is not good for her.

As an aside, she also seems to be dealing with reflux and thrush, which I know cause some of the same symptoms but not all of them. We're treating the thrush but thus far have been unable to convince any of our doctors to give us help with the reflux, which they say will pass with time.

I'm also looking for recommendations for a good air purifier and for an ozonator/ozone machine.

Thanks so much!

 

[JaneS]

In our case it was thrush... yeast that was causing the "allergies" by interfering with the mucus lining of the intestine. DS had eczema, the red ring around anus, gas and mucousy poop and was colicky.

What are the in utero signs?

 

[fraya]

nak--

You give me hope! How did you successfully treat the thrush????

 

[JaneS]

Our elimination diet cured it but I didn't know that was really what I was fighting then. Basically cut out all sugar, dairy and grains. Only ate low sugar fruits. I think above all the cornerstone is homemade yogurt or kefir when in recovery. They contain trillions of fully alive probiotics, freshly born and strong, and are much better than capsules you buy at the store.

It's been a long battle though, we still haven't been able to go back to eating "normally" but we are getting there.

See this thread for the looooooong version

http://mothering.com/discussions/sho...d.php?t=260393

 

[jee'smom]

the pp said her baby had thrush. how did you know this? can a baby have thrush and me nor him show signs of it? i have no nipple pain, he has no white things in his mouth... but he has eczema, congestion (like a post nasal drip, which gurgles in his throat) and green sometimes mucousy poops since birth (well, the eczema started at 4 mo). he's now 5 months old.
tia!

 

[fraya]

The congestion, mucousy or green poop are signs of allergies or food sensitivities. You could try keeping a journal of what you eat & what his poop is like to figure out to what he might be sensitive in your diet.

Congestion is kind of the telltale sign of allergies, though I think it can be a sign of silent reflux or even of other problems in the belly (that's just my opinion). For us the congestion seems to be associated with environmental allergies or the regurgitation of milk into her sinuses. The mucousy or green poop can be signs of either thrush or that he's getting too much foremilk (and lactose is hitting his system all at once, creating the appearance of a lactose intolerance).

You could treat for thrush to see if the symptoms improve. Here's the protocol I'm using:
http://www.breastfeedingonline.com/candidaprotocol.html

Jen, allergies in utero usually are marked by very strong movements, sometimes to the point of bruising the mother.

I'm moving forward with a longer gentian violet treatment of the thrush b/c it seemed to help my daughter. I'm going to try to find some gentian violet in glycerine rather than alcohol so that I can put it in her mouth without making her throw up.

 

[bell bottom blues]

The way I was able to figure out what my son was reacting to was by following a rotation diet. I used a 4-day diet I found on the web. I noticed a definite pattern in the 4-day cycles. For instance, on day 2 he would break out in horrible eczema, be better on day 3, better still on day 4, and almost gone on day 1, and then boom- back again with a vengeance on day 2.

It usually took about a day between when I ate a food and he reacted to it from my breastmilk. But then again - it depended on the food! Harder-to-digest foods took longer for him to show a reaction, such as to gluten and nuts.

However, when I took out dairy, he improved drastically within 24 hours.

Also, I can't stress major probiotics enough. My son had blisters around his rectum that looked so bad I nearly cried everytime I saw them. After starting probiotics, they were gone in a week. When I stopped probiotics, it came back in about 5 days.

Also, the same brand of probiotics became less effective over time, so I had to rotate probiotics. By far the best one was Theralac, although we also used Culturelle and Pro Bio Gold.

One of the best doctors we saw, a holistic pediatrician, told me to stop thinkint about specific allergens, and to think in terms of digestion. He gave me some suggestions for easy-to-digest foods, like lamb & veggie stew, and chicken & veggie stew. We also ate lots of squash.

My guess is that you're going to need to cut out all the foods on the top couple tiers of hard-to-digest foods. Dairy and gluten are the top tier. Corn, nuts, soy, eggs, and citrus are the second, I think.

I would stock up on lamb, venison, chicken (if you/she can handle it - use cornish hens of either of you can't), organic turkey, and fish (make sure you choose varieties that are low in mercury).

In place of dairy I would try the product called Ultra Care for Kids, which is made just for kids with allergies.

Also, grains are a great source of energy and help you to feel full. Stock up on millet, buckwheat, quinoa and amaranth, and buy a variety of good quality oils (organic and unrefined, like pumpkin, canola, olive, sesame and coconut).

You can eat these in bulk and feel full. Be sure to rotate because if you eat anything day after day, your daughter (and you) will sensitize to it!

HTH