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Best Way to do food elimination diet?


Bigal

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My wife and I are considering starting a food elimination diet with our 10 year old son. Up until about two weeks ago his tics were minor. They are now bothering him quite a bit. He also has mild ADHD and often complains about stomach aches and headaches. And has environmental allergies (cats, dogs, dust mites, feathers, grass, others). Recent scratch tests did not show any food allergies. RAST tests from a couple of years ago, also did not show food allergies.

 

I'm not sure if it makes more sense to start from scratch and build a diet or just subtract some likely offenders (he eats a lot of wheat) from his existing diet. I was thinking that we'd start by subtracting wheat products for 2-3 weeks and see what happens. Then perhaps dairy and see what happens, so on and so forth. But if there are say three foods giving him trouble and we subtract them one at a time, we may not see a benefit.

 

On the other hand, we could put him on a very restricted diet for a few weeks. If we don't see an improvement than maybe food isn't part of the problem. If we do see improvement than we would slowly add back items. This approach though will be much more difficult to implement. He will be much more resistant. I am trying to downplay his tics with him. I don't want him to know how concerned I am. But a dramatic change in his diet would send a clear message.

 

But my biggest question about starting from a restricted diet and building up is what do we in fact feed him and how do make sure he is getting proper nutrition?

 

Any suggestions appreciated

 

Thanks

Alan

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My son did not test allergic to any foods, but we have found numerous sensitivities since doing elimination diets.

We removed dairy and gluten first, then added each back in and found both caused exacerbation of his Crohn's symptoms

Similarly high fructose and high histamine foods

 

Interestingly, foods that he was not reactive to years ago are now so things can change.

 

here is Dr Weil's advice

http://www.drweil.co...ntolerance.html

 

Jordan Rubin's book The Maker's Diet" has been very helpful for us (tho we skip the hyping of his products and specific diet) and use the book just a s a guideline

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My wife and I are considering starting a food elimination diet with our 10 year old son. Up until about two weeks ago his tics were minor. They are now bothering him quite a bit. He also has mild ADHD and often complains about stomach aches and headaches. And has environmental allergies (cats, dogs, dust mites, feathers, grass, others). Recent scratch tests did not show any food allergies. RAST tests from a couple of years ago, also did not show food allergies.

 

I'm not sure if it makes more sense to start from scratch and build a diet or just subtract some likely offenders (he eats a lot of wheat) from his existing diet. I was thinking that we'd start by subtracting wheat products for 2-3 weeks and see what happens. Then perhaps dairy and see what happens, so on and so forth. But if there are say three foods giving him trouble and we subtract them one at a time, we may not see a benefit.

 

On the other hand, we could put him on a very restricted diet for a few weeks. If we don't see an improvement than maybe food isn't part of the problem. If we do see improvement than we would slowly add back items. This approach though will be much more difficult to implement. He will be much more resistant. I am trying to downplay his tics with him. I don't want him to know how concerned I am. But a dramatic change in his diet would send a clear message.

 

But my biggest question about starting from a restricted diet and building up is what do we in fact feed him and how do make sure he is getting proper nutrition?

 

Any suggestions appreciated

 

Thanks

Alan

 

 

Hey Alan,

 

I agree with Chemar; my son never tested positive for any allergens from a pediatric allergist, but when we went to a naturopathic doctor, they were able to detect food "sensitivities", so certain foods have been eliminated from his diet. We had already cut out gluten. After the naturopath, we eliminated soy dairy, and yeast. I think taking one particular reactive food out of the diet can help you figure out culprits. However, it's my understanding that it can take weeks to completely eliminate the residual effects of that food from the person's system. The naturopath also works with an MD who performs other tests to see what deficiencies are present as well. For my son, he was missing zinc and amino acids, so it addition to the eliminations, he takes supplements to resupply his body from what he's not properly "uptaking" from his body.

 

I think this process can be expensive and sort of like "a needle in a haystack", but I truly think there's a direct correlation between Tourette's and food/nutrition.

 

Hope that's helpful!

 

Eve

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My wife and I are considering starting a food elimination diet with our 10 year old son. Up until about two weeks ago his tics were minor. They are now bothering him quite a bit. He also has mild ADHD and often complains about stomach aches and headaches. And has environmental allergies (cats, dogs, dust mites, feathers, grass, others). Recent scratch tests did not show any food allergies. RAST tests from a couple of years ago, also did not show food allergies.

 

I'm not sure if it makes more sense to start from scratch and build a diet or just subtract some likely offenders (he eats a lot of wheat) from his existing diet. I was thinking that we'd start by subtracting wheat products for 2-3 weeks and see what happens. Then perhaps dairy and see what happens, so on and so forth. But if there are say three foods giving him trouble and we subtract them one at a time, we may not see a benefit.

 

On the other hand, we could put him on a very restricted diet for a few weeks. If we don't see an improvement than maybe food isn't part of the problem. If we do see improvement than we would slowly add back items. This approach though will be much more difficult to implement. He will be much more resistant. I am trying to downplay his tics with him. I don't want him to know how concerned I am. But a dramatic change in his diet would send a clear message.

 

But my biggest question about starting from a restricted diet and building up is what do we in fact feed him and how do make sure he is getting proper nutrition?

 

Any suggestions appreciated

 

Thanks

Alan

 

 

Hey Alan,

 

I agree with Chemar; my son never tested positive for any allergens from a pediatric allergist, but when we went to a naturopathic doctor, they were able to detect food "sensitivities", so certain foods have been eliminated from his diet. We had already cut out gluten. After the naturopath, we eliminated soy dairy, and yeast. I think taking one particular reactive food out of the diet can help you figure out culprits. However, it's my understanding that it can take weeks to completely eliminate the residual effects of that food from the person's system. The naturopath also works with an MD who performs other tests to see what deficiencies are present as well. For my son, he was missing zinc and amino acids, so it addition to the eliminations, he takes supplements to resupply his body from what he's not properly "uptaking" from his body.

 

I think this process can be expensive and sort of like "a needle in a haystack", but I truly think there's a direct correlation between Tourette's and food/nutrition.

 

Hope that's helpful!

 

Eve

 

Thank you Eve and Chemar, that's helpful

 

Eve, do you know how the Naturepath diagnosed the sensitivities?

 

Alan

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And does anyone know which foods are LEAST likely to cause problems, if you were going to start with a few things and introduce others one by one? It's more difficult for me because I'm vegetarian. I once read something about starting with just lamb and pears, but you can't live on nothing but pears and anyway I think he was just talking about standard allergies. I haven't been able to work out which foods are a problem, if any - my symptoms don't vary detectably from day to day, more like week to week. I did cut out gluten and casein for months a while ago, but it didn't help. Trouble is, that doesn't really mean gluten and casein are safe, does it? I could have still been eating something else that was a problem.

(Sorry to hijack your thread, Alan.)

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We have been fortunate enough not to have to do a true elimination diet. We eliminated some things on our own, starting with dairy, which is a common offender, and one which we were already suspicious of due to stomach aches after ice cream, etc. Thanks to this forum we learned how offensive artificail flavors and colors and other chemical additives can be, so we took them right out. Then we went to the environmental practice which identified several other food sensitivities. Armed with the information, we eliminated a couple of more things and put together a rotation diet to manage the foods that were not an issue.

 

No sugar coating it: it's bloody tough to do at the beginning. It's a serious life change for all involved. And a child might complain about it (ours has done so only minimally) but it's those who purchase the food and prepare the meals that bear the brunt of the burden. (My wife is truly amazing in this regard.) But @ 1.5 yrs. after we started, it's now just part of what we do. And there's no going back. I'm convinced that the number one factor in helping manage my son's tics has been diet, coupled with a couple of supplements (the principal one being a potent, comprehensive, hypoallergenic multivitamin).

 

Chris

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