Updated in Post 1:How to start an elimination diet?

[Mandylubug]

So, I have always had sensitivities to certain foods and now my children are having more progressive symptoms as well. As infants they all had to use goats milk because they couldn't handle any of the commercially produced formulas. We tried them all. I have always thought it was soy that was the culprit of my issues but I have found I can consume soy some times with no issues. Other times I consume something that typically doesn't bother me like pancakes made with bisquick that has soy listed in the ingredients and I am sick as a dog. Now, it may not be the soy but soy just seemed to always be present. I know I can't handle lotions or makeups with soy, i get a rash on the skin, etc. as well.

 

Now my kids are having symptoms including cramping, bloating, nausea while eating. Increased headaches as well. I had changed our milk from skim to whole because the dr wanted my kids; especially my son, to gain more. I have now went back to skim and only giving my oldest son the whole milk. I was thinking maybe the increase of milk was the culprit. I can get sick from eating really rich ice creams, etc like Bruesters, etc. I've never noticed shredded cheese bothering me, though.

 

Sometimes I think the headaches are from them being hungry and blood sugar dropping low. Other times, like this weekend, my daughter was sick after eating cheese dip and tortillas soft and the chips. Now, most soft tortillas use soybean oil, many restaurants use soy to fry in a well, etc... so it could still be soy, or it could be the cheese. or it could be gluten. This same daughter ate an entire bowl of cheese dip from one restaurant and then ralphed all over Best Buy another time months ago. She felt fine afterwards. Same daughter, I knew we would be eating garlic cheese bread, so I gave her a lactaid tablet and she still had a bad belly ache. So, is it cheese or is it soy in their breads, gluten etc? Other days this same daughter will eat a pb and j sandwich with white bread with no issues. Then other days she will have a headache. Our bread does include soy as well. She tells me atleast 3 times a week that she has a headache.

 

Anyway, I am concerned about the constant headaches. I had them growing up as well but I really want to figure it out. I am concerned about the cramping, bloating, nausea, etc. I am baffled though because sometimes soy can be present and give no issues. So, now I am wondering if I am missing something. Maybe it wasn't soy or wasn't JUST soy and there is something else that is bothering them/us as well.

 

I'm considering starting an elimination diet because I know that is what the Dr. is going to tell us to do. I'm considering eliminating dairy, soy, and milk...maybe gluten?! Anyway, looking for opinions, diet recommendations, books to read, etc.... I do feel like it needs to be addressed because I am finding I have at least one child crying while we eat in restaurants. This morning I had one crying with a headache after eating a pancake and syrup. It could have been her blood sugar dropped. She ate chicken pot pie (made from scratch so no soy) and has been fine afterwards. So that is when I think if it was gluten or something similar wouldn't it pain her still after eating that? It has flour in the homemade cream of chicken soup and crust. Other children have bad belly aches after random meals at various restaurants, after gorging on candies, especially chocolate candies or marshmallow candies.....

 

Sorry that was so long, really my mind is just rambling trying to figure it all out. I think I am going to start a journal as well.

 

UPDATE: So, We did/are doing the elimination diet. We had positive results almost immediately with bellyaches and headaches going away within 48 hours. Right at the one week mark, due to poor planning on my behalf and being at a family members home, we "broke" the diet. I picked the best possible option that only had the additional ingredient of dairy and BOOM bellyaches for me and the girls. Since we had the belly ache fairly quickly after consuming the dairy; I allowed us to consume some dairy for dinner as well, in a different form and mid meal one girl was really sick. The other girl didn't eat any of the dairy off her plate and therefore got to miss out on dinner's belly ache. This past week we have slowly added back some ingredients. The girls and I had reactions to peanuts as well in the form of cramping, nausea and headaches. Well, by the end of this week I have been fairly relaxed and not really paying attention to foods consumed by the kids since most in the house was ok. There were a few things like peanut butter here for my DH to consume, etc...

 

Well, this morning one of my daughters decided she was too hungry to wait on me to cook breakfast and made her "old faithful" breakfast of peanut butter toast. I didn't know this and about an hour later she was complaining of being dizzy, crampy all over and achy... DH finally got it out of one of the kids that she had peanut butter. I am just shocked at the extreme reaction. We were close to taking her to the ER. I didn't know what was going on. I did call her pediatrician and he said to give her some benadryl. It has helped and she is back to normal now.

 

Is it normal to have a huge reaction to a food that was a constant previously in her system?

[Dandelion]

Here's a great article that provides a clear "how to" overview: http://www.precisionnutrition.com/elimination-diet

[Mandylubug]

Here's a great article that provides a clear "how to" overview: http://www.precision...limination-diet

 

 

thank you! That seems like a crazy amount of foods to eliminate but I know it needs to be done. I can't imagine what to eat for breakfast?!

[Plateau Mama]

Protien smoothies. Almond,rice or coconut milk with fruit of your choice and a vegan protien powder.

 

For a temporary elimination I wouldn't venture into gluten free baking. I would do the protein shakes or a lot of Chex cereal is safe. Fruit. There is almond or coconut yogurt (readily available at Whole Foods).

 

I would recommend doing the total elimination adding foods back in. That is the best way to know what things are causing trouble. If more than one thing is causing issues up you won't figure it out by eliminating one thing at a time.

[StephanieZ]

For a true, serious elimination diet . . . what I had to do . . . prescribed by an allergist (life threatening food allergies) . . .

 

I think it was 6 or 7 foods I could eat. THAT WAS ALL. For two weeks.

 

Then, every 48 hours, I could add one new food.

 

Rinse, repeat.

 

It was VERY obvious when I ate a bad food.

 

The allowed foods, for me, were:

 

white rice

oils

lamb

sweet potato

non-iodized salt

 

I think normal people were also allowed chicken, but I was testing for poultry allergies with chicken being the worst, so I couldn't have chicken either.

 

The above sounds awful, but it wasn't really bad, lol. I mean I lost weight, my milk supply crashed, but it was survivable. (I wouldn't recommend it if you are nursing, though.)

 

The good thing about this is that it is VERY obvious what you are allergic to. You get totally 'clear' of symptoms with the two weeks, so when you try something, BOOM, you know it. I was able to definitively identify my allergens.

 

The trick to surviving it is to add in useful foods first. You want to save suspect foods for a few weeks into the trial, so you can get your dietary variety up to a reasonable variety ASAP, then worry about identifying triggers. The whole thing should only take a month or two if you only have a few suspects. If you, like me, have severe allergies, just being symptom free is SO NICE that it really does take the sting out of the severe dietary limitations.

 

HTH

[StephanieZ]

ps. There are a LOT of ways to fix sweet potatoes, lol.

 

Fries

Baked

Chips

Mashed

Whipped

 

. . . LOL

[Plateau Mama]

The trick to surviving it is to add in useful foods first. You want to save suspect foods for a few weeks into the trial, so you can get your dietary variety up to a reasonable variety ASAP, then worry about identifying triggers. The whole thing should only take a month or two if you only have a few suspects. If you, like me, have severe allergies, just being symptom free is SO NICE that it really does take the sting out of the severe dietary limitations.

 

HTH

 

My son has a long list of foods he must limit right now. Yesterday we challenged corn, because then we could have added a lot of stuff back in(cereals, some chips, some of his favorites from the GF bakery.). He got relly, really sick at night and said "that was so not worth it. I don't care if I can't eat anything." (We are only challenging one thing per month.)

[Mandylubug]

My son has a long list of foods he must limit right now. Yesterday we challenged corn, because then we could have added a lot of stuff back in(cereals, some chips, some of his favorites from the GF bakery.). He got relly, really sick at night and said "that was so not worth it. I don't care if I can't eat anything." (We are only challenging one thing per month.)

 

 

awe, poor baby. So are you limiting the entire family or just your son? I'm considering limiting everyone but DH. My oldest has ADHD but has skin rash issues too.. All four have some weird symptom that I can't put my finger on it.

[Mandylubug]

Also, I know I myself am sensitive to sesame seeds, walnuts and bananas. Not severely allergic or anything but mouth on fire due to consuming it... Sesame seeds my body doesn't digest and they typically cause me to vomit in the middle of the night no matter when I ate them during the day. I am also very sensitive to certain chemicals in tooth pastes or my mouth will sloth off.

 

I also keep low iron, fatigue and mouth ulcers. My kids also have the mouth ulcers. Iron wise, they haven't been checked since they were really young. We all will occasionally get cracked, raw places on our ears (near the top in the fold) and was told that is an allergy to something but the dr. didn't seem too worried about it. One daughter even has a toe that will crack open underneath that we were told it was an allergy or sensitivity to something but the DR was never interested in going forward with any testing. He actually thought all our issues were always milk allergies and being that he was involved in milk allergy research, every illness was diagnosed as a milk allergy and we were instructed to remove milk from our diets. We would, wouldn't see any improvement typically but the ear infection, etc. would stay away for a good year, etc... We have changed dr.s I like this dr but he seems to think we should identify the allergens and then slowly reintroduce them daily in small doses to get our bodies accustomed to them... I don't agree and I think we should identify them and then REMOVE them.

 

Anyway, are there any other "allowed foods" you would remove? I think definitely bananas, all nuts and seeds including almonds, etc. I'm also considering going fragrance and dye free, finding some natural products for toothpaste, soaps, etc.

 

I am also diabetic and one son is diagnosed ADHD. I had considered trying the fiengold diet as well but perhaps the elimination diet would remove more and give us a bigger picture

[Mandylubug]

You know, the more I type it out, the more I feel like a bad parent. I should have done an elimination diet on my own years ago and not made the kids or myself deal with these symptoms :(

[Plateau Mama]

awe, poor baby. So are you limiting the entire family or just your son? I'm considering limiting everyone but DH. My oldest has ADHD but has skin rash issues too.. All four have some weird symptom that I can't put my finger on it.

 

 

His restrictions are so severe that it wouldnt be healthy for the entire family. (For example, the only meat he can eat are chicken & turkey). So the house is pretty much gluten, soy, corn & dairy free. The other things he is allergic to are pretty obvious (beef, pork, lamb & eggs) so I allow those in the house but, for example, GF baked goods are always made with egg substitute. I don't want him accidentally eating something and I don't want to be constsntly asked if it is safe. I also don't want him to feel left out. So if I cook it, and its something he will eat, I always make it safe.

 

My daughter has issues too, but nothing like his. When it was just her I didn't limit anything, but he is younger and sees the injustice to things much more than she does, so I do my best to easy the pain for him.

You know, the more I type it out, the more I feel like a bad parent. I should have done an elimination diet on my own years ago and not made the kids or myself deal with these symptoms :(

 

 

Don't feel bad. We do the best we can. My son had issues for years. We thought it was migraines, the neurologist even agreed. It want until he started vomiting a couple times a week we had him tested. Even then we waited probably a year.

[xixstar]

You know, the more I type it out, the more I feel like a bad parent. I should have done an elimination diet on my own years ago and not made the kids or myself deal with these symptoms :(

 

 

Please don't be hard on yourself. Food issues are a challenge and it's a challenge to change things too. I feel I'm very aware and informed about food and recently suspected that one child may have a dairy issue. I am still working towards being able to challenge it by elimination but it has been a bigger challenge than I expected. I beat myself up too, but have instead just said that it will do us more good to start at a place where we're all feeling capable versus trying under high stress moments instead.

 

 

I'm curious on the full elimination diets as mentioned above versus just removing one item for a few weeks and then bringing it back in later to test. We were planning to start testing just dairy at first but have been slow to start because it is a big part of our diet and I haven't ironed out the menu plan and snacks and such to have on hand instead.

 

I am a bit curious if it might be easier to do a larger elimination diet because that could test more things at once instead of us just doing dairy and then doing gluten, etc. But maybe that feels too challenging too.

 

We would be doing it as a family as well, it simplifies my thinking and I believe we all have food issues that are subtle and undetected.

[Mandylubug]

 

Please don't be hard on yourself. Food issues are a challenge and it's a challenge to change things too. I feel I'm very aware and informed about food and recently suspected that one child may have a dairy issue. I am still working towards being able to challenge it by elimination but it has been a bigger challenge than I expected. I beat myself up too, but have instead just said that it will do us more good to start at a place where we're all feeling capable versus trying under high stress moments instead.

 

 

I'm curious on the full elimination diets as mentioned above versus just removing one item for a few weeks and then bringing it back in later to test. We were planning to start testing just dairy at first but have been slow to start because it is a big part of our diet and I haven't ironed out the menu plan and snacks and such to have on hand instead.

 

I am a bit curious if it might be easier to do a larger elimination diet because that could test more things at once instead of us just doing dairy and then doing gluten, etc. But maybe that feels too challenging too.

 

We would be doing it as a family as well, it simplifies my thinking and I believe we all have food issues that are subtle and undetected.

 

 

I think I will be menu planning and trying to cook ahead as much as possible. Even on my diabetic diet, if I get hungry I break all the rules... So I want to have snacks on hand that are allowed.I will probably make DH some he can grab by himself and have it placed strategically in the fridge. He eats when he gets home at midnight and only eats breakfast and lunch with us. So, I can sneak him a non limiting meal without the kids suffering watching someone else eat it.

[Plateau Mama]

 

I am a bit curious if it might be easier to do a larger elimination diet because that could test more things at once instead of us just doing dairy and then doing gluten, etc. But maybe that feels too challenging too.

We would be doing it as a family as well, it simplifies my thinking and I believe we all have food issues that are subtle and undetected.

 

If more than one thing is an issue eliminating one thing at a time you potentially not see improvement. For example, my son cannot have corn or soy. Soy gives him a horrible headache, corn gives him a headache and vomiting. If we had eliminated only soy he would still have symptoms. So you add it back in. Then you eliminate corn. Maybe the vomiting is gone but the headache is still there. Ok it's not corn, remove something else. See how I missed two intollerances by eliminating only ne at a time. By eliminating everything you can easily see if something causes a reaction. This is what appended with soy. We haven't formally challenged it, but he accidentally had a small amount and got a headache. So we know not to bother challenging it.

 

My daughter on the other hand has a different reaction with each food on her list. Cranberries = headache, wheat= eczema & bloody nose etc.

[ElizabethB]

The other thing you can do is try a rotation diet with strange new foods you have never eaten or rarely eat. For example, you should not be allergic to buffalo, venison, duck, or quail. A good grain to try is teff flour. Other possible starches that are usually not that allergenic are sweet potatoes and rice. You can also use squash as a starch. I use taro root as a starch, you can find it in Asian markets, you must cook before eating. Families that eat rice often should not try rice, however. The more often you eat something and the more allergenic it is, the more likely you are to become allergic to it. Lettuce is not highly allergenic, and I have never heard of anyone who is allergic to salt.

 

With a rotation diet, you eat a different food each day with at least 4 different days of food so that the food eaten on day 1 is totally out of your system. It is then fairly easy to track down things which might be causing you a problem.

 

My current rotation diet:

 

D1 wheat, sheep cheese, tomatoes

D2 chicken, rice, bananas

D3 venison, teff flour, avacadoes, mangoes

D4 quail, squash, potatoes, melons (melons and squash are in the same food family and should be eaten on the same day)

D5 pork, taro root, lettuce

 

Sheep milk is more different than regular milk than goat milk is, and its yogurt and cheese are much sweeter than goat cheese and goat milk yogurt. While I did not try sheep milk during my elimination diet, I found I could tolerate it when added in on a rotation basis. I can also have a bit of allergy free chocolate daily, enjoy life chocolate chips, they are free of the top 8 allergens. You should avoid chocolate when on an elimination diet, however.

[marbel]

You might look into the FODMAPS diet, developed for IBS sufferers. My son has been trying it to see if it would help with some ongoing GI issues. It removes fermentable carbohydrates from the diet. It's a bit complicated so I will just give you this site, which the nutritionist we are working with gave us. It is recommended to work with an RD but I think you can get the basics at least from here:

 

http://blog.katescarlata.com/fodmaps-basics/

[Mandylubug]

updated in post 1

[Jean in Newcastle]

The intensity of reactions after having been off of them for even a little bit is normal. But I would make both dairy and peanuts completely off limits now. Esp. the peanuts.

[ElizabethB]

Yes, it is normal to have a much stronger reaction once it is cleared from your system. Be ready with epi pens and liquid Benadryl.

[ElizabethB]

I keep a peanut free house, sunbutter is a yummy substitute:

 

http://www.amazon.com/SunButter-Creamy-Sunflower-16-Ounce-Plastic/dp/B002OK6E6I/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1370628935&sr=8-1&keywords=Sunbutter

 

This is the brand I like, it may be cheaper locally and I would buy 1 to make sure you like it first befor buying in bulk.

[Mandylubug]

I keep a peanut free house, sunbutter is a yummy substitute:

 

http://www.amazon.co...words=Sunbutter

 

This is the brand I like, it may be cheaper locally and I would buy 1 to make sure you like it first befor buying in bulk.

 

ooh neato! Thanks. I will look into that.

[xixstar]

Yes, the stronger reaction is normal. Just think of it as you body has been in constant levels of inflammation when consuming these foods all the time. It led to the subtle (and some not so subtle) issues you noticed and decided to eliminate for. But as you remove it, your body finally gets a break and set back it's defenses a little bit, it's not in constant alert mode. But that then means when you eat an offending item now, you're body is having a stronger reaction.

 

 

I'm curious what elimination method you went with.

[Eagle]

If peanut is presenting as an allergy in any form you should get an epi-pen to have just in case. Also, read up on anaphylaxis so you are aware of the symptoms. Many people mistakenly think it is just to do with breathing but there are other symptoms, including a drop in blood pressure (causing dizziness and light-headedness), that can lead to a fatal outcome if not stopped with epinephrine.