Report from doctors visit

[mblack]

Hello everyone, as I promised here is the result of my sons recent visit to Dr. Brown in Gadsden, AL. We spent 2 whole days with Ryan being tested for environmental as well as food allergies. The results were environmentally he is allergic to CLD - cotton linter's dust, Trees - all kinds, Grass - all kinds, Weeds - all kinds, Histamine, House Dust Mites and PTMS, Mold, Household Insects, Privet, Fescue Grass, Goldenrod, Cat, Dog. His worst being Grass, Fescue Grass, & House Dust Mites & PTMS. He will now take 1 desensitization shot per week for 1 year.

 

Food allergies, he is allergic to Corn, Soybean, Tea, Beef, Potato, Tomato, Black Pepper, Fresh Water Fish. He is Questionable on Wheat, Malt, Egg, Chocolate, Milk, Chicken, Lettece, Cane Sugar, Cottonseed, Bakers Yeast, Onion, Salt Water Fish, Oat, Mozzorella Cheese & Coconut. We are now to start a rotational diet, and challenge the foods in which he is questionable. Foods that you can not challenge because they are all but impossible to avoid meaning they are in everything are Wheat, Corn, Malt, Soybean, Egg, Milk, Cottonseed, Bakers Yeast, Peanut. He is to get 2 shots per week for at least 1 year with these. We will be giving him his shots at home. But, I am so confused because if you are challenging a particular food and you have environmental allergies as well how do you know which may be causing the problem. Or if these things that are in everything might be causing the problem and not the challenged item.

 

Also I am asking if anyone has any information such as cook books that I may purchase, recipes that I may get, or anything that will help me with decisions on what to feed my child. At this point I don't know what to feed my kid. Starving him is not an option. We have a two fold problem, one is our life style does not work well with a roational type diet plan and two the local supermarket where we trade does not cater to allergic type people. I have read every label, looked at every package and whatever I can find and there is just not anything that does not contain any of his allergic foods or questionable or the foods that are in everything. Plus all of the artifical flaovrs, colors and dyes and perservitives. It is really almost a joke at what the foods people eat today have in them. No wonder there are so many problems going on with people. I also have got to look at cost as well. We just can't afford everything that we are suppose to get and if you can find organic thing they are so much more expensive.

 

Anyway that is what we found out and we are delighted to say that he seems to be much better even after only 1 shot of his serum, and seems to be much happier. I do appreciate and would like to thank everyone that reads these forums and even more for those who respond and give their opinion, expert advice or just pass on informfrom someone or somewhere else. All the information is needed and welcomed. Thank you!!!!!!!!!

[bmom]

I am sorry, but I can not help with that. I was wondering what test was given to determine his allergies though. Thank you and good luck. At least you have a direction to go. I do remember reading in one of the posts that if you can go without feeding him an allergy food for 6 months and then start challenging it does help his system. Although with so many allergies you are back to what can I feed him? For awhile I was giving my son the same meals almost daily. Non wheat waffles for breakfast, sliced turkey and fruit for lunch and chicken and veggies for dinner. Boring, but safe.

[mblack]

Hi bmom thanks for your reply. The test given were IgE or IgG not RAST but something like that. The thing that is so hard is with an elimination diet is he can't have any of what he showed to be allergic, and for us that doesn't leave anything that he will eat. On the rotation diet then you have to rotate food and not eat the same things over and over, for the more you eat a food in succession the more apt your are to gain a sensitivity for that food. We are suppose to choose from each food group protein, fruit, vegitables, grains, oils, sweetning agents, beverages something different each of 4 days in a row before repeating a given food we have already had that week.

[bmom]

True, when we had a phone consult with Sheila she did say the rotation would be better as you wouldnt over load his system with one thing.

[Caryn]

Hi!

How bad is your son's symptoms?

I am in the middle of doing an elimination diet with my ds 4. His list of allergies wasn't as long as yours was, but we did eliminate his top reactive foods 100% (That being Corn and Wheat). We also initially eliminated the long list of things he was moderately allergic to. I kept pretty much to this method for two months. We then began reintroduction of foods he was moderately allergic to one at a time, one every four days, to see if there was a reaction. If not, we kept the food in the rotation-- but got out of the habit of allowing it every day.

you said: "Food allergies, he is allergic to Corn, Soybean, Tea, Beef, Potato, Tomato, Black Pepper, Fresh Water Fish. He is Questionable on Wheat, Malt, Egg, Chocolate, Milk, Chicken, Lettuce, Cane Sugar, Cottonseed, Bakers Yeast, Onion, Salt Water Fish, Oat, Mozzorella Cheese & Coconut. We are now to start a rotational diet, and challenge the foods in which he is questionable. Foods that you can not challenge because they are all but impossible to avoid meaning they are in everything are Wheat, Corn, Malt, Soybean, Egg, Milk, Cottonseed, Bakers Yeast, Peanut."

 

I highlighted the things our son's have in common allergically, just to wrap my head around your situation and compare it to our own. We did not have as many air born allergies to deal with as you do with your son.

I would say that you have to definitely eliminate corn and soybean and all their derivative by products as a start. A lot of people can't tolerate tomatoes-- understandable for avoidance. Beef is vital for B12, so elimination may require a supplement. Fish is vital for the omegas, but lots of kids can't tolerate fish oil and take flax seed. Black pepper he can do without, as the potatoes. Sweet potatoes are in a different family, so prob. could be a subsitute.

You could try to eliminate these for two weeks to see if there is a substantial improvement. (It takes a couple weeks.) As far as moderate allergies, you could hold off on completely eliminating chicken, lettuce, cane sugar, onions. Our son did not test allergic to milk, thankfully. You do have options, though. Almond milk is a possibility, I don't know how old your son is, but you need to make sure he's getting enough fat, and almond milk would have fat. Rice milk is good too, but low in fat. According to Sheila Roger's book the four main neurological allergies are wheat, milk, corn, and egg. You could focus on those only and see if that makes a difference. Also, sometimes these allergy tests are not 100% accurate. You may find that even though a food is allergic your son can tolerate small doses without a neurological effect. (May be histamine related instead.) We found that our son could tolerate egg yolk without ticcing after two months of elimination.

Substitute foods that may work for you:

rice as staple, can buy it as noodles, etc...

Namaste bread mix products

Wellshire Farms sells hotdogs that have no fillers and are all natural. They have Turkey.

non-sweetened rice crisp cereals (bought at Whole Foods)

Buckwheat cereal (does not taste bad and is not wheat)

spinach instead of lettuce

carrots

almond butter instead of peanut butter

carob chips instead of chocolate

You can get a non-corn baking powder for gluten free soda breads. Feather something....

applesauce

yogurt?-- I have heard that some people with milk allergy can tolerate yogurt.

peas

goat milk (not tasty if you are not used to it) Can be used in baking, though.

All kinds of fruit-- apples, oranges, peaches, blueberries, bananas, etc... I know others have said bananas, raisins and grapes are not good because of salytcites, but we never omitted them due to our large elimination list and it never served as a problem for us.

Also, we did acupuncture to help him recover from multiple allergies and to calm his liver, spleen and kidneys. I think it helped.

Write back if you have any more questions. The first steps can be overwhelming, I know. Once you get a handle on this you will feel so much better. It is possible to balance the diet, for me it meant getting creative and using foods I normally never would: eggplant, squash, etc...

In looking at you son's list, it looks like he is allergic to just about every protein there is except turkey. You may want to do turkey two maybe three times a week and then only allow the moderate allergies once every four or five days each. (Chicken, milk based protein, cheese, salt-water fish) If you have to serve something make sure it is fresh, not processed. That may help, too. You will figure this out. Wheat can be eliminated successfully. We are doing great eliminating wheat and corn. Four months ago I felt like someone had pulled the rug out from under us, but now we have gone beyond coping-- we are in a groove and are not missing the allergic foods.

Good luck and let me know if you have anymore questions. I would be glad to answer.

Caryn

[Chemar]

hi mblack

 

yes, I can see why you feel overwhelmed as that is quite a list of allergies!!!!

 

the good news tho is that many kids do seem to "outgrow" some of their sensitivities, and, as the body begins to heal and have an allergen reduction, so often the extreme sensitivity to so much also diminishes

 

Do you have a Whole Foods Supermarket anywhere near you? They carry a wide range of products to substitute for those allergies

 

 

I know there are a lot of threads here and in the read only archives on rotation/elimination diets etc so maybe also do some searches here for those

 

This really is one of those things where you will need to take it one day at a time and slowly make your readjustments to his and the family diet. It is hard at first, especially with very young kids, but will be oh so worth it to get your child's body free of things that irritate it

[Caryn]

yes,

and I remembered two things that may be good as substitutes:

legumes for protein and maple syrup

[mblack]

Hi caryn and chemar, thank you for your comments and information. Caryn to answer your question our son was at the point where he could not stop the very heavy eye blinking and eye rolling and stretching his chin to his chest with his mouth open. He also has very bad sensations in the calves of his legs when he gets ready to go to bed. He discribes these feelings like there is something inside his legs trying to scatch its way out. He say it does it all the time but bothers him the greatest at bed time. He playes alot of baseball and the tics would absolutely run him and us crazy, we did not know what was going on. He is 10 yrs old by the way. After his first maintainance shot from Dr. Brown we immediately started to see improvements.