Food allergy Question

[Chemar]

basics on benefits of sulfur in detox and other biochemical processes

 

http://www.ehow.com/...etox-soaks.html

 

http://www.peacefulh...m/detoxbath.htm

 

there are many more articles, including research, plus info on the benefits people have derived for centuries from the Hot Sulfur Springs that occur naturally around the world

 

Kid's Calm is a multivitamin/multimineral

The Natural Calm is the one to use for additional magnesium benefit

[Cj60]

It was noted on this forum some time ago that Miralax was associated with instances of tic onset. You might want to do a search to pull up what the literature was.

 

I paid attention to it since my son also, years ago, had constipation issues which we addressed with Miralax.

 

- Chris

Edited October 16, 2012 by Cj60

[technodad]

I did read that about mirolax hear yesterday. Wish i would have known that. However he has not had it for over a year and the tics did not intensify until last couple months. Today they are really bad again. Trying to avoid milk for few days to see if that helps. If he stays this bad for long i will definitely make an apt with pandas doc. The only thing is since he mainly has slowly gotten worse combined with him having mainly the same symptoms as I (but much worse) and triggers it sure seems more like ts than pandas. How many days should I try milk free? Also how many days should i try magnesium to give fair shot to see if it will help? After a teaspoon on Sunday he seemed worse, but maybe he was worse for some other reason and not the magnesium. He is still bad two days later and I have not given him anymore magnesium since Sunday

Edited October 16, 2012 by technodad

[Cj60]

I did read that about mirolax hear yesterday. Wish i would have known that. However he has not had it for over a year and the tics did not intensify until last couple months. Today they are really bad again. Trying to avoid milk for few days to see if that helps. If he stays this bad for long i will definitely make an apt with pandas doc. The only thing is since he mainly has slowly gotten worse combined with him having mainly the same symptoms as I (but much worse) and triggers it sure seems more like ts than pandas. How many days should I try milk free? Also how many days should i try magnesium to give fair shot to see if it will help? After a teaspoon on Sunday he seemed worse, but maybe he was worse for some other reason and not the magnesium. He is still bad two days later and I have not given him anymore magnesium since Sunday

 

Once we had our son tested for food sensitivities, and dairy came up as one of them, we cut out all dairy (not just milk but all dairy). At the time we were also starting the magnesium and multivitamin supplementation, along with a couple others that I learned about here. While the mag and epsom salt soaks would definitely show signs of lessening tics when they were waxing (typically in the evenings), it wasn't until we had implemented the new diet (eliminating all identified sensitivities, preservatives, artificials, etc) and a regular supplement routine for a couple of months that we could say that we noticed a definite improvement. Even if some might find that eliminating offending foods has a quick and noticeable affect, addressing food sensitivities should probably be looked at as a long term adjustment, since many times improvement is associated with improved gut health, which may take a while.

 

Remember also that the magnesium is serving as a detoxifier and may result in some waxing. I recall noticing it with my son when I first started, but kept up with a regualr routine which has greatly benefitted.

 

Good luck!

 

Chris

 

p.s. Supplementing a good potent multivitamin is also something to consider.

[technodad]

I have another question again which I am not sure should be here or a new topic started.

 

When looking for food triggers how long after your child has the offending item do you ussually see the symptoms get worse. For example when someone notices something that is a food trigger say yellow frosting. How long after your child eats the yellow frosting do you notice his symptoms get worse. Does he get worse immediately or couple hours after? Also how long does it ussually effect them? If he eats a food trigger and it makes him worse how long do the worsened symptoms last? A day, couple days? A week?

[Cj60]

I have another question again which I am not sure should be here or a new topic started.

 

When looking for food triggers how long after your child has the offending item do you ussually see the symptoms get worse. For example when someone notices something that is a food trigger say yellow frosting. How long after your child eats the yellow frosting do you notice his symptoms get worse. Does he get worse immediately or couple hours after? Also how long does it ussually effect them? If he eats a food trigger and it makes him worse how long do the worsened symptoms last? A day, couple days? A week?

 

Here's a little about what we experienced with food sensitivities.

 

Before we changed diet, my son was experiencing a number of tics, which, in retrospect, I now attribute to a probable genetic predisposition that was exacerbated by poor gut health brought on by poor diet (even though we though we had a pretty healthy diet!). Since his tic condition problably caught our attention only after it was exacerbated by years of deteriorating gut health that went unnoticed, improvement has been associated, in my non-expert mind, with improved gut health, which has taken time. So some tic improvements may take time.

 

Nonetheless, once we decided to take long term steps (diet modification and supplements) and really focus on food triggers, we found ourselves picking up on foods that were offenders pretty easily. That is, his normal or "baseline" ticcing got noticeably worse fairly shortly after consuming a trigger food. This would tell us what to eliminate from his diet, and would also quite often land him in a bath of epsom salt, which has always been pretty effective at bringing tics back down to his baseline level.

 

Slowly but sureley, his tics have become less and less, due, again in my non-expert opinion, to gut health which has improved slowly but surely, and a few key supplements. Now, when we allow him (ocassionally) to have foods that were once triggers, he tolerates them with no noticeable tic increase. But we are still vigilant and still restrict what he eats.

 

One anecdote I have concerns one of the last truly noticeable differences in his level of ticcing. After a good year or so of the new diet, we were all at a comfortable spot with the improvements we had noticed. But we were still working. One day, I noticed my son's tics increase after eating an orange. Should have picked up on that before, I guess. It just so happened that I was giving him his multivitamin (one of the most notieceably beneficial supplements we use) in orange juice every morning. Stopped that the very next day, and within a week we saw a very noticeable decrease in tics.

 

Hope this info helps answer your question.

 

- Chris

[mar]

I have another question again which I am not sure should be here or a new topic started.

 

When looking for food triggers how long after your child has the offending item do you ussually see the symptoms get worse. For example when someone notices something that is a food trigger say yellow frosting. How long after your child eats the yellow frosting do you notice his symptoms get worse. Does he get worse immediately or couple hours after? Also how long does it ussually effect them? If he eats a food trigger and it makes him worse hoLw long do the worsened symptoms last? A day, couple days? A week?

 

Here's a little about what we experienced with food sensitivities.

 

Before we changed diet, my son was experiencing a number of tics, which, in retrospect, I now attribute to a probable genetic predisposition that was exacerbated by poor gut health brought on by poor diet (even though we though we had a pretty healthy diet!). Since his tic condition problably caught our attention only after it was exacerbated by years of deteriorating gut health that went unnoticed, improvement has been associated, in my non-expert mind, with improved gut health, which has taken time. So some tic improvements may take time.

 

Nonetheless, once we decided to take long term steps (diet modification and supplements) and really focus on food triggers, we found ourselves picking up on foods that were offenders pretty easily. That is, his normal or "baseline" ticcing got noticeably worse fairly shortly after consuming a trigger food. This would tell us what to eliminate from his diet, and would also quite often land him in a bath of epsom salt, which has always been pretty effective at bringing tics back down to his baseline level.

 

Slowly but sureley, his tics have become less and less, due, again in my non-expert opinion, to gut health which has improved slowly but surely, and a few key supplements. Now, when we allow him (ocassionally) to have foods that were once triggers, he tolerates them with no noticeable tic increase. But we are still vigilant and still restrict what he eats.

 

One anecdote I have concerns one of the last truly noticeable differences in his level of ticcing. After a good year or so of the new diet, we were all at a comfortable spot with the improvements we had noticed. But we were still working. One day, I noticed my son's tics increase after eating an orange. Should have picked up on that before, I guess. It just so happened that I was giving him his multivitamin (one of the most notieceably beneficial supplements we use) in orange juice every morning. Stopped that the very next day, and within a week we saw a very noticeable decrease in tics.

 

Hope this info helps answer your question.

 

- Chris

this is very interesting! Just 4 days ago it hit me bc ds Was all of a sudden having the lip tic with red lips that were causing pain and he was having mangerins alot which he does not typically have. I wasn't sure if it was due to cold weather but then two days ago I tell DH that he stopped having them and lips are better! The weather is still cold but he has not had the fruit so am assuming it might have something to do with that. Yes sensitivities can be tricky and do play a role on several occasions if too much are given. I have and do find a correlation with foods and tics. It's kind of hit or miss. I mean he knows what he is sensitive to but if he goes overboard then we see the effects.

Mar

[technodad]

Thanks to those who have responded. Just to update we are trying removing milk from his diet first and see how it goes. We also have an appointment this week with a Neurologists? I talked to the nurse and she said they have treated a couple kids in their practice for PANDAS with antibiotics and other meds. I asked on the phone how do they determine whether kids have PANDAS or TS and she said mostly doctor will ask questions about symptoms and maybe do lab work. Are Neurologist's good doctors to make the PANDAS diagnosis? What kind of questions should I bring to the appointment?

[Chemar]

Hmmmm I would be very careful as to whether this neuro doc is actually PANDAS literate...and also cautious of the "other meds"

 

You may want to post on our PANDAS forum here and also look at their "helpful threads" summary pinned to the top of the board...the parents there are very clued up on doctors and what to ask and testing etc

http://www.latitudes...hp?showforum=17

[technodad]

Hmmmm I would be very careful as to whether this neuro doc is actually PANDAS literate...and also cautious of the "other meds"

 

You may want to post on our PANDAS forum here and also look at their "helpful threads" summary pinned to the top of the board...the parents there are very clued up on doctors and what to ask and testing etc

http://www.latitudes...hp?showforum=17

 

I started a topic in the PANDAS forum. This neurologist we have an appointment with is a Pediatric Neurologist at a Children's Hospital and an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at a nearby University.

[evemac]

I wanted to address to food allergy issue. We had a pediatric allergist test our son a few years ago, and he reacted to only 1 (yes 1) grass which blooms in the fall. However, when we went to a DO and had the blood testing done for food sensitivities, he was incredibly reactive to a huge amount of foods, which we now avoid as much as we can (the worst without a doubt is gluten). I still feel that when it's humid and the mold level is up, his tics increase, no matter what that allergist says! Most importantly, I think that those with TS have incredibly sensitive "systems", so see what you can tease out in the way of food reactivity.

[mar]

I agree with evemac mom. My ds had sensitivities to 28 out of 80 foods. It started with some outdoor allergies to full blown diet bc I was not satisfied with the out door allergies. Got him tested for sensitivities and life for him took a different course. I now I have said this many a times but he was miserable, congested, sneezing like crazy and pale with bags under eyes! He is better with allergies bc of food diet and has not taken Any allergy meds in three years bc of his food diet. He was bad in the beginning with recommendations of ashma outdoor allergies year long.

Mar

[technodad]

Well we had our appointment and I am a little disappointed. I have waited a couple weeks to post about it to see how things were going. About 2 weeks before the appointment his tics were really bad so we decided to try to eliminate milk from his diet. So we started giving him soy milk in it's place. On the 5th day we noticed a big improvement, probably 60-70% better. The next week was his appointment with the Pediatric Neurologist. We discussed his symptoms and even showed her a recording I made when he was really bad. She diagnosed him with TS. I asked what about Pandas and she said since his symptoms did not have a rapid onset and since we have a family history of TS (me) that it prolly is TS. I asked what about testing for it and said she could order a throat swab strep test if I wanted but would need to have a baseline to show if the strep titers were rising. I declined because it was obvious she was just agreeing to the test to appease me, also about a month ago my local doc gave him throat swab strep test and he was negative for strep. So I thought paying for it again was a waste. She seemed somewhere in the middle about PANDAS. She explained that some people dismiss it completely and some think everything is PANDAS. She did say that they have treated about 30 kids for Pandas with antibiotic. However I asked about trying an antibiotic for my son and said that since TS syptoms wax and wane that how would you know that the antibiotic is helping or just the symptoms waxing and waning and that you can not leave him on an antibiotic forever.

 

Another thing she said was about the milk. I said we removed milk and think it helped alot and she cautioned that how do you know it is the decreased milk and that it is not just the symptoms waxing and waning. She said we may want to consult a nutritionist because not drinking milk he may not be getting some of the micro nutrients he needs. She did say to stick with the no milk and see if it continues to help. Just warned about the micro nutrient thing. Which leads us to hollowean candy. He was really doing well with no milk for about 1 week, then he went trick or treating and first day had alot of candy and he starting ticcing alot (mainly vocal) again. So we put his candy away and only gave him 1 small piece per day the last week. Some days he forgets about the candy and has none, however he ticcing is still alot more than it was. Which makes me wonder if removing the milk actually was helping or if he was just waxing and waning like the doc said it could be.

 

For those who have removed milk, have you ever worried about the micro nutrients in milk that your son/daughter is missing?

Edited November 7, 2012 by technodad

[Chemar]

sounds like dud doctors IMHO

Also, TS and PANDAS are not mutually exclusive!

 

Candy contains so many tic triggers that I am not surprised he started ticcing!! The artificial dyes and the HFC (high frustose corn syrup) alone are bad enough but then add all the other garbage and you have a tic time bomb!!!

 

If he was doing better without milk it would fit a profile many have discovered here. Why not try giving him goats milk (very very few people are allergic to it') or one of the milk substitutes (as long as he tolerates rice or almond or soy)

[technodad]

sounds like dud doctors IMHO

Also, TS and PANDAS are not mutually exclusive!

 

Candy contains so many tic triggers that I am not surprised he started ticcing!! The artificial dyes and the HFC (high frustose corn syrup) alone are bad enough but then add all the other garbage and you have a tic time bomb!!!

 

If he was doing better without milk it would fit a profile many have discovered here. Why not try giving him goats milk (very very few people are allergic to it') or one of the milk substitutes (as long as he tolerates rice or almond or soy)

 

We have been giving him soy milk. He did not like it at first but is getting used to it. Ironically since we swithced him to soy milk it seems his constipation has gotten better as well