Stomach flu before each bout with strep?

[smartyjones]

My dr. was at a loss and had said I could try eliminating dairy or wheat (whichever one first) to see if that was it but really that to me is a wild goose chase

 

Last fall, when then 4-yr old started with pandas behaviors, some friends had suggested yeast infection and others suggested eliminating dairy and gluten. At the time, that was a lot of what he ate. I wasn't sure about it and couldn't see such restrictions if that was not correct. He was also about 30 lbs - around 5-10 percentile. He's little in nature - little wrists, delicate face - but was starting to look scrawny.

 

Around same time ped was testing strep, we also went to a naturopathic dr. She ran a blood igg test for food allergies. He came back off the chart for all dairy, eggs and most grains. Naturopath was quite shocked to see it and she runs that test often. Seeing the chart gave me something concrete to change his diet that I never could have done previously.

 

Two traditional allergists that we've consulted do not believe in that test. They agree his body produces an antibody to those foods but don't believe it matters b/c we don't see any manifestation of rash etc. They say if you randomly test anyone, they will also show as producing antibodies to various foods. They only care about an ige food reaction - rash, anapyhlax, etc. I disagree. I think common sense tells me that he shouldn't produce any antibody to the food that he eats. Also, there is a school of thought that asks if an inappropriate engagement of the immune system spells trouble for the body in general. It makes sense to me that it's at least a possiblity. JHU dr says that is a school of thought, but no science to back it up. But who can answer why kids get diabetes or other conditions?

 

After that visit in the naturopath's office - Feb 3 (day after older bros birthday)- we took him off all dairy, eggs and gluten. He is unbelievably amazing about it (maybe good effects of OCD ? ). He doesn't eat anything he's not supposed to and asks if something is okay. It felt impossible at the time b/c everything most people are used to eating has those ingredients. Both boys ate a ridiculous amount of Rice Chex the first few weeks. I kept a close check on his weight and he actually gained something like 4 lbs in the first 6 weeks. We bake rice flour muffins, cookies and pancakes. Dinner is easy - with rice, potatoes or rice pasta. Although older son hates no bread at dinner. We bring him special food to birthday parties or going out and there are a number of places we can go out. Most restaurants are aware of gluten and dairy allergies and can do plain chicken. He was in heaven last month - Uno has a gluten-free pizza crust and he had sauce and chicken pizza. My dad took them to McDonalds last week (which I hate anyway) but he brought his own sausage and french fries and was happy to get an apple juice and toy. It certainly is not ideal, but it is much easier than I ever dreamed back in the beginning of Feb. If your kid likes veggies and fruit, it would be easier also.

 

That said - I don't know what effect the food changes have had. Unfortunately, we changed the food and tried Keflex for a month at the same time. He was 100% back to normal - I think due to keflex. The naturopath thought he may be celiac and that was the root of all problems and if he wasn't celiac those food reactions were the root of all. Our ped wasn't helpful so I didn't get the celiac test b/f stopping gluten. I think strep is the root of all the problems. I think it is in his gut and that's why he has trouble with those foods. He did gain weight with the changes. He also had a pandas relapse in the spring with a cold (3 weeks off abx after 35 days on) while still eliminating those foods - 10 weeks into food changes.

 

We now see a different naturopath and the homeopathic protocol we are using suggests gut mucosa plays a major part in healing other immune issues and suggests no dairy and hen's eggs. I've kept him on his diet b/c he's mentally okay with it and I just don't know what role it plays. I'd say he's now about 90% pre-pandas. I never would have been able to eliminate those foods if I didn't see the chart of totally over the top results (again - not something most traditional drs agree with). I would like him to be able to be more free to eat but think it's okay for now.

 

If I had to pick for someone to try, I think I'd suggest eliminating milk products b/c I think dairy is more tied to immune issues for non-celiac people. We went cold-turkey and I think it was easier than trying slowly but that may just be latent OCD all or nothing in me! Again, I don't see concrete effects from him not eating those foods, I do it b/c I think it overloads his immune system and I don't want to do that. When I see him at 100% for a while, I believe we'll test again or introduce those foods and see what happens.

[ajcire]

Interesting! My pandas ds who currently just finished antibiotics yesterday for strep and is now on it to hopefully finish getting this out of him has that on his cheeks.... a rash that almost seems like acne.. it's not something that stands out at all, it is raised but not icky looking if that makes sense... just looks like he has sensitive skin which he doesn't usually have.. I now recall one other time that my mom questioned his cheeks but can't remember if it was also a time he was not acting right or that I knew he had strep. I am going to start marking everything on calendars... cause if it correlates I could use all the help I can get to let me know he does indeed have strep since he never gets the sore throat.

 

Do any kids with pandas get typical strep? sore throat and fever? Is it that pandas kids are more susceptible to getting strep? I mean, I know kids who never get it no matter how exposed. I only had it once and it was as an adult which was the first time my ds and dd also had it at the same time (ds with no symptoms but me wanting him tested not even knowing about pandas.. just figuring if we all had it maybe he did, and he did)

[ajcire]

The dr. I first saw last year regarding pandas did allergy testing via bloodwork and said it all came back fine on my pandas ds. We have not had anything done on my non pandas tummyache prone dd.

 

 

 

 

My dr. was at a loss and had said I could try eliminating dairy or wheat (whichever one first) to see if that was it but really that to me is a wild goose chase

 

Last fall, when then 4-yr old started with pandas behaviors, some friends had suggested yeast infection and others suggested eliminating dairy and gluten. At the time, that was a lot of what he ate. I wasn't sure about it and couldn't see such restrictions if that was not correct. He was also about 30 lbs - around 5-10 percentile. He's little in nature - little wrists, delicate face - but was starting to look scrawny.

 

Around same time ped was testing strep, we also went to a naturopathic dr. She ran a blood igg test for food allergies. He came back off the chart for all dairy, eggs and most grains. Naturopath was quite shocked to see it and she runs that test often. Seeing the chart gave me something concrete to change his diet that I never could have done previously.

 

Two traditional allergists that we've consulted do not believe in that test. They agree his body produces an antibody to those foods but don't believe it matters b/c we don't see any manifestation of rash etc. They say if you randomly test anyone, they will also show as producing antibodies to various foods. They only care about an ige food reaction - rash, anapyhlax, etc. I disagree. I think common sense tells me that he shouldn't produce any antibody to the food that he eats. Also, there is a school of thought that asks if an inappropriate engagement of the immune system spells trouble for the body in general. It makes sense to me that it's at least a possiblity. JHU dr says that is a school of thought, but no science to back it up. But who can answer why kids get diabetes or other conditions?

 

After that visit in the naturopath's office - Feb 3 (day after older bros birthday)- we took him off all dairy, eggs and gluten. He is unbelievably amazing about it (maybe good effects of OCD ? ). He doesn't eat anything he's not supposed to and asks if something is okay. It felt impossible at the time b/c everything most people are used to eating has those ingredients. Both boys ate a ridiculous amount of Rice Chex the first few weeks. I kept a close check on his weight and he actually gained something like 4 lbs in the first 6 weeks. We bake rice flour muffins, cookies and pancakes. Dinner is easy - with rice, potatoes or rice pasta. Although older son hates no bread at dinner. We bring him special food to birthday parties or going out and there are a number of places we can go out. Most restaurants are aware of gluten and dairy allergies and can do plain chicken. He was in heaven last month - Uno has a gluten-free pizza crust and he had sauce and chicken pizza. My dad took them to McDonalds last week (which I hate anyway) but he brought his own sausage and french fries and was happy to get an apple juice and toy. It certainly is not ideal, but it is much easier than I ever dreamed back in the beginning of Feb. If your kid likes veggies and fruit, it would be easier also.

 

That said - I don't know what effect the food changes have had. Unfortunately, we changed the food and tried Keflex for a month at the same time. He was 100% back to normal - I think due to keflex. The naturopath thought he may be celiac and that was the root of all problems and if he wasn't celiac those food reactions were the root of all. Our ped wasn't helpful so I didn't get the celiac test b/f stopping gluten. I think strep is the root of all the problems. I think it is in his gut and that's why he has trouble with those foods. He did gain weight with the changes. He also had a pandas relapse in the spring with a cold (3 weeks off abx after 35 days on) while still eliminating those foods - 10 weeks into food changes.

 

We now see a different naturopath and the homeopathic protocol we are using suggests gut mucosa plays a major part in healing other immune issues and suggests no dairy and hen's eggs. I've kept him on his diet b/c he's mentally okay with it and I just don't know what role it plays. I'd say he's now about 90% pre-pandas. I never would have been able to eliminate those foods if I didn't see the chart of totally over the top results (again - not something most traditional drs agree with). I would like him to be able to be more free to eat but think it's okay for now.

 

If I had to pick for someone to try, I think I'd suggest eliminating milk products b/c I think dairy is more tied to immune issues for non-celiac people. We went cold-turkey and I think it was easier than trying slowly but that may just be latent OCD all or nothing in me! Again, I don't see concrete effects from him not eating those foods, I do it b/c I think it overloads his immune system and I don't want to do that. When I see him at 100% for a while, I believe we'll test again or introduce those foods and see what happens.

[Stephanie2]

smartyjones, I could have written that entire post (we even started the elimination in Feb.!).

 

We hired a DAN (Defeat Autism Now) doctor in March and we eliminated dairy and gluten first. We then had the igg food sensitivity test done and he was also very sensitive to eggs, wheat, soy, etc... So we have eliminated all of this.

 

When we eliminated dairy, his allergies and severe croup/asthma went away completely! We have not used the nebulizer, steroids, etc... since Jan. Amazing!

 

When we eliminated wheat, we noticed that his chronic hives drastically reduced and his daily stomach aches went away (however they come back during acute pandas). We also noticed his constipation reduced dramatically (later eliminated by very high dose and specific probiotics).

 

With all this said, there is a chance that he has celiac (my 19 month old is also off wheat and many of his autistic-like characteristics disappeared), but we can't test for it unless we put him back on wheat.

 

We also added many supplements which helped his immune system (you can see the list on my blog: http://thelight-stephanie.blogspot.com). We finally got the pandas dx recently and that has been our last battle to fight. My son's DAN really really wants me to fight it with Biocidin, a natural botanical broad-spectrum antimicrobial product. I tried and it did work at first, but then his symptoms came back (I believe that someone in the house is a carrier and I really believe it is me! we are all going to be cultured next week) so I caved and went to the antibiotics (which is now creating a yeast issue...ugh!).

 

I think I am going to copy and paste this into a new thread. I have noticed that many women on here have children with allergy/asthma issues. Smaryjones, maybe you could copy and paste your previous response, too...

 

Stephanie