Multiple Food Elimination Diet

mechanicmom

Has anyone ever tried this diet to find allergies? I am going to start it with my two year old boy next Monday. It's not going to be easy. I think food allergies are causing problems for my son. I'm pretty sure milk is one of the problems. Also I'm constantly tired even if I sleep well, and feel well, so I am hoping it will help me find the cause of it. I think it will help me get some of my cravings under control. by being off of them for a week. You eat most fruits (except citrus) and most veggies (except peas and anything to do with corn), and some meats, and a few other things like honey, maple syrup, anything rice, anything oats. You do that for seven days then on day 8 you add milk (which I won't be doing since I am intolerant), day 9 you add wheat, day 10 you add sugar etc. You add these foods back in excess amounts to see if you tolerate it or not. I was not sure I was going to do it until I felt dead tired yesterday for no reason and my son is relapsing from me adding milk back into his diet. I figure this is worth a shot, and if it doesn't help my son then I haven't lost much, except maybe a few pounds! :laugh: I'd start it today but we're going to a wedding this weekend and I know I won't be sticking to the diet! So Monday it is! Wish me luck!
Melissa

mechanicmom

Has anyone ever tried this diet to find allergies? I am going to start it with my two year old boy next Monday. It's not going to be easy. I think food allergies are causing problems for my son. I'm pretty sure milk is one of the problems. Also I'm constantly tired even if I sleep well, and feel well, so I am hoping it will help me find the cause of it. I think it will help me get some of my cravings under control. by being off of them for a week. You eat most fruits (except citrus) and most veggies (except peas and anything to do with corn), and some meats, and a few other things like honey, maple syrup, anything rice, anything oats. You do that for seven days then on day 8 you add milk (which I won't be doing since I am intolerant), day 9 you add wheat, day 10 you add sugar etc. You add these foods back in excess amounts to see if you tolerate it or not. I was not sure I was going to do it until I felt dead tired yesterday for no reason and my son is relapsing from me adding milk back into his diet. I figure this is worth a shot, and if it doesn't help my son then I haven't lost much, except maybe a few pounds! :laugh: I'd start it today but we're going to a wedding this weekend and I know I won't be sticking to the diet! So Monday it is! Wish me luck!
Melissa

MontanaGirl

I know people who have done it and discovered intolerances/allergies to foods. Short of being tested at a Dr. office, I don't know how else you find out. Good luck and I hope that it helps you find some helpful info. Those food allergies can really suck the energy right out of you. Good luck!!

yoginimary

Another way to find out is to eliminate a food from your diet for 2 weeks - just in case it gets too difficult. Eliminating corn and soy is very, very hard!

AJCM

I feel your pain, we've been through this with my son (now 3yrs) and daughter (1yr) as they battle allergies, from mild to severe, including anaphylactic alleriges to nuts and eggs (for my son).

We did elimination diets under the advice and supervision of an allergist/immunologist first, and most recently with a naturopathic doctor. It really helped us to change our eating habits. According to our ND children respond quickly to elimination diets, because their systems are so efficient, while ours more sluggish, and respond more slowly to the change.

Mary's got a good idea with doing a food at a time... from my experiences with allergy, I would say to get rid of all dairy, soy, and sugar right away, see how you repsond, and then get rid of the wheat and gluten for a 2 week period.

There is a movement underway that believes casein (in dairy), sugar, and wheat are responsible for many nuerological issues of young children (from Autism, to ADHD, to bedwetting, and on and on).

My whole family feels so much better without the dairy, soy, sugar, and processed foods. We found wheat to be no problem, so we do whole grains. Many of the fillers, additives, and preseratives in packaged foods can also cause "allergies" in adults, but particulary for kids. Apparently the two most common are carageenan and guar gum - both my kids are allergic. They are in SO much, and are a derivative of sea weed, and are highly allergenic. Also, you might want to avoid Kiwi and Mango - mango is in the cashew family, and highly allergenic, and I just read a medical journal out of Australia which reported many allergy issues with kiwis in young children.

Good luck and I hope you find some answers soon!
:flowerforyou:

AJCM

Oh- I meant to mention, another thing you could do is a simple blood test to test for IgG and IgE responsivness to most common foods (we do both yearly). You can ask your doctor for this test, and call your insurance to see if it is covered.
:flowerforyou:

AJCM

Oh- I meant to mention, another thing you could do is a simple blood test to test for IgG and IgE responsivness to most common foods (we do both yearly). You can ask your doctor for this test, and call your insurance to see if it is covered.
:flowerforyou:

GIGINATOR

Just curious about your childrens' food allergies. I have an 18mo old son who they have diagnosed allergies to milk, soy and rice. It's very hard to feed him and honestly I don't see any improvement. His symptoms were chronic diarrhea. He also had a scope and biopsy to rule out celiac disease (eat gluten free). That came back negative. I don't know what else to do or suggest that the doctors do. Any advice?

mechanicmom

Giginator,
I just got done reading a book by Doris Rapp called Is This Your Child? This is where I have gotten the elimination diet from. They talk a lot in there about children who have chronic diarrhea. I think it was mainly due to milk. You could try to feed him almond milk. I think it's pretty good. I have not taken my son to the doctor because we can't afford it, so that is why I am trying the diet to see if I can find the problems on my own. Check out that book, you can find it at the library. It has a lot of helpful info in it. There are lots of books out there for childrens' allergies.
My son had the opposite problem as your son...he wouldn't go for DAYS! He's better now as long as he eats his prunes! There are lots of stories in that book about children with behavior problems, diarrhea, constipation, tantrums, and other allergy symptoms that went on the diet and got some kind of allergy treatment and got better. I hope this helps!

Eve23

Just curious about your childrens' food allergies. I have an 18mo old son who they have diagnosed allergies to milk, soy and rice. It's very hard to feed him and honestly I don't see any improvement. His symptoms were chronic diarrhea. He also had a scope and biopsy to rule out celiac disease (eat gluten free). That came back negative. I don't know what else to do or suggest that the doctors do. Any advice?

When my daughter was young she had chronic diareah and a horrendous diaper rash from 3 months on. I went to the doctors all the time and finally had one tell me to put her on a banana, apple and rice cereal diet for a few days. It cleared it up and she was 10 months at the time. I don't know if that will help you but it might. She is now 15 and chooses not to eat any bread products because of the way it makes her feel. She doesn't have a full blown allergy but is sensitive to it.

Mechanicmom, I am not sure if this will help you but my family has been dealing with allergies for quite some time. We have found that one particular family of foods tend to give us problems in our case the beladonna family. This incudes peppers, potatoes, tomatoes, egg plants and things in that realm. Then we also have issues with milk, corn and for some wheat. I guess what I am thinking is that if you have other close relatives that have food sensitivities or allergies that they may belong to a family of plants or foods and are interrelated to a group of foods. It may give you a jumping of point to find things.

mechanicmom

Thanks Eve23,
My MIL is allergic to nearly everything! I'm not kidding! She gets migraines a lot. My hubby was allergic to a lot of things as a kid including red food coloring. That's one of the things to be tested on this diet. I also have a sensitivity to wheat I think. If I eat too much for a day or two in a row I get really depressed and tired and I cry for no reason. I think this diet is going to give us some answers. I hope!

AJCM

Yes - Eve points out a group of foods that have been proven to be inflammatory; they are also known as "Nightshade" veggies - avoiding them might also be helpful (however you might find that there is nothing left to eat!)

littleredwagon

I had terrible digestive problems all my life until I discovered I was gluten intolerant, but even after I gave up all wheat/barley/etc. products I was still getting indigestion and skin rashes--I used an elimination diet to figure out that corn and soy were giving me problems. Milk seems to be a pretty common one, but I digest milk products just fine (and in fact that's a major part of my diet: yogurt, cottage cheese, kefir) If you do discover that corn is a problem food, it is VERY hard to eliminate it. Corn syrup and starch are in almost everything. You must be vigilant about ingredient list reading!

Eve23

You are so right littleredwagon. Corn is in literally everything these days. Although I am seeing more and more things without it. One thing you might want to watch for is how you are reacting to malitol. I cannot use that at all.

My sister is very allergic to corn.