Food Issues Vent

justcat206

Really frustrated and need to vent. Have suspected for a long time that my oldest son might have food sensitivities. Autoimmune disorders and food issues run in my side of the family. My mom, sister, aunt and I all have several foods to which we're intolerant and all have drastic physical reactions which when we consume them. My son has a laundry list of problems (insomnia, emotional issues, digestive problems, chronic nasal inflammation, etc) all of which "can" be symptoms of food intolerance. However, my son's primary physician insists that children are too young to have food issues and only adults get food sensitivities (with a tone of "and even they are probably just hypochondriacs"). my sister-in-law is also a pediatrician and she says the same thing. "Research shows that children are too young for food issues." However, I have a host of friends whose childrens' sleep/emotional/digestive/etc difficulties have cleared up the moment they discovered and then removed food sensitivities - so forgive me if I don't buy the BS that children are too young.

That said, I FINALLY found a pediatrician for my son who believes in functional medicine and treating underlying causes of conditions instead of just medicating the crap out of kids. He did put my son on antihistamines first and they had little effect so he now wants to investigate possible food related causes for my son's nasal inflammation. So that we didn't have to subject a 6 year old to a blood draw he suggested putting him on a 3 month elimination diet - no gluten, dairy, peanuts or soy. Given that I myself and sensitive to gluten, dairy and peanuts (as is my mom) it makes sense to me.

My biggest problem is that my husband's side of the family all think I'm a total hypochondriac freak. They tolerate my weird food issues to some extent because I take care of feeding myself and it doesn't effect them. But my MIL buys everything SIL says about medicine and they both believe that all health issues should be medicated because that's what research indicates. So my son doesn't need to give up food, he just needs to become a Zyrtec zombie. Wouldn't be a problem except that we live next door to Grandma and eat several meals at her house every week and the kids go over there for snacks frequently. Believe me when I say that I feel awful about depriving my son of the foods he loves best, and I'm trying very hard to find suitable substitutes for him - but this is SO much harder when I know that the people we spend the most time with disapprove and think I'm harming him by taking away his grilled cheese and cookies for three months (no, he can't drink milk for calcium, but he doesn't drink it even now, and I'm making sure to feed him plenty of other non-dairy calcium-rich foods).

Sorry, just needed to vent for a minute. It's so hard to live the lifestyle that I truly believe is healthiest for my family when I have junk food pedalling relatives scowling down at me all the time (these being relatives with weight problems, terrible arthritis and blood pressure issues who pretty much live on bread and cheese and rich baked goods). Is it that hard to smile and nod and go along with the crazy lady for just three months? If I'm wrong and nothing changes, I'm happy to let him eat his cheese again. But if it helps - then isn't it worth it?

Robin1117

Wow, such a tough situation. I have a child (9 1/2) with some issues too: highly allergic to peanuts, to a few TNs, and just recently we learned because he has been getting a few stomachaches after eating loads of edamame, soy. So we are going to go in an do a challenge on that in a few months, where it wasn't even on the radar, as an issue, ever. He also has major seasonal allergies. I have had to battle with my family for awhile about how important food is to health--we do everything homemade. No processed, weird foods, and they mostly think I'm crazy, but they have learned to live with it. I think it makes a huge difference. And my son doesn't feel deprived. He feels loved because we take the time to figure out what it is that might give him distress. Kids most certainly have digestive issues, more than anyone I'm sure even acknowledges. My son does take zyrtec daily and he is not a zombie by any means. It doesn't make him sleepy. I live in farm country and can you believe, Timothy Grass (hay!) came up on his skin prick test as big as peanut did! He's pretty miserable without it. If he had to take benadryl, or something like that all the time, or use steroid inhalers every day, that would bother me--but zyrtec has only helped. Anyway, if you want to keep in touch and add me as a friend please do, I definitely feel for you!