How long to see improvements from going dairy free?

[Jean in Newcastle]

We're hoping that going dairy free (and maybe more depending on the results of an elimination diet) will help cure or manage ds16's acne and seasonal allergies. How long do you think before we can see if it is working?

[Bang!Zoom!]

Honestly, after actually DOING elimination diets, my experience says full healing "change" or whatever you are chasing after doesn't show up for a good six months as permanent. The immediate effects, much quicker and strange. But to *know* what it's going to mean long term, I'd look for the six month mark.

 

You could journal it day by day to see the changes right away easily. If I think back on elimination diets, I can easily recall two week "vanishing" problems though, just over a little two weeks is what I remember...the mark I most clearly remember is 16 days.

[mommymilkies]

It depends if it's an intolerance or allergy. For me, a couple days makes it somewhat better, a few weeks and I'm right as rain.

[Slartibartfast]

I think it is going to take at least a month before you see much improvement and it could take longer for some things.

[Jean in Newcastle]

Thank you. We are going to do a full elimination diet but can't start until we get back from being out of town. In the meantime we are eliminating dairy (and for me some other things) as a stop-gap measure.

[Alte Veste Academy]

I was already eating pretty clean before I took dairy out. It was the last thing to go because it was the hardest for me to eliminate. I had terrible "seasonal" allergies. The day after I quit, I saw slight improvement. Three days after I quit, I woke up clear as a bell for the first time in years. Whenever I cheat, I feel it within a few hours, and by the next morning I sound like I have a cold. When I am off dairy, I have zero symptoms of "seasonal allergies." I'm still pretty grumpy about my doctor, who actually chuckled when I asked for a referral to an allergist because, in his words, all central Texans develop seasonal allergies at some point.

[Anne in CA]

In less than three weeks without dairy my ds's acne went away.