I Need Your Help :)

[shezatrip]

Moms, I need your advice~!

My sons symptoms: 9 ear infections in 15 months- Attention problems, dark circles under eyes, allergies,

and OCD getting worse.

(I have autoimmune-fibromyalgia) Dad has tested pos. for celiac.

Testing: tested a 3 on a celiac panel with referance range of 6 being positive.

Low vitamin D, lower iron.

How do I find out if it is Guten, or Dairy that is causing health problems?

We do not drink soda in our home, no dyes, Msg, etc...

we splurge with sweets and sodas on weekends (limited) I have tried fish oil, kefir, vitamins, juicing...

and have went on and off both gluten and dairy..but, i can't seem to figure it out??

How do I rotate with not knowing if it is dairy problems or gluten?

It is hard enough as it is, but not knowing which one is driving me bonkerz!

I am at the end of my rope, trying everything...PLEASE help! 6 weeks until he starts school again

What type of rotation diet do you suggest and for what period of time....

My son has regular allergy testing tomm. (tree's plants, etc..with limited food panel)

I need your help!!

[GlutenFreeManna]

Why don't you just cut out BOTH gluten and dairy for a few months then test him by trying one or the other for one week? He may end up having trouble with both.

And when you say he had a celiac panel, did you get the test results and read them for yourself to see which test the dr did? There should have been more than one number with reference ranges. Sometimes they only order one test out of the panel. Sometimes the dr only reads one result out of a list of several and misses something that should have been read as positive. Best to get the records and see for yourself just to be sure he had the right tests done and they were really all negative.

[T.H.]

I'd second GlutenFreeMama's advice about finding out the test results. One test is actually a good way to test for celiac disease, even though many doctors still do that instead of the entire blood panel (multiple tests).

And yeah...it could be both things.

My celiac daughter, by the way, has problems with OCD when glutened, and had huge dark circles for YEARS that went away on the gluten free diet, finally. So those symptoms can definitely track with this condition.

On testing it out, if you are pretty sure it's gluten or dairy rather than another food, I would cut out both, VERY strictly, including avoiding cross-contamination. And then stay off of them for at least three months.

One of the reasons for this is because there is a connection between dairy issues and gluten that can make it hard to distinguish. If your little one has severe gluten intolerance or celiac disease that is blunting the villi in the intestines, this actually damages the part of the villi that produces lactase, so most celiacs have dairy issues. But off of gluten, once the villi can heal, and many celiacs can have dairy again.

So it could be that he's gluten intolerant, and temporarily dairy intolerant, but might be able to have dairy after a few months of healing, if that makes sense?

If you haven't been keeping a food journal, that helped us immensely. We actually dropped all 8 major allergens (eggs, dairy, wheat, peanuts, tree nuts, shellfish, fish, and soy) and did a food journal. I knew about wheat, suspected dairy, and thought the rest would be fine, but figured I'd check it out just in case. Eggs turned out to be an issue, as well, and that really floored me!

I tried to keep everything out for I think three weeks (probably should have done longer), to let things calm down, and see if there was any difference. My kids has a HUGE improvement when we cut these foods out, so I figured something in the old diet was a problem. When reintroducing a food, we would give a few bites of something and see if there was an issue. If not, then a few hours later, we'd let them pig out on the new food and track their reactions/behavior for the next 48 hours or so. If there was a reaction, we would wait until 48 hours after the reaction was gone before we tried a new food.

That did pretty well...except when the problem was behavioral, sometimes my own sanity needed a longer wait between tests, LOL.

Also, if you are concerned about food allergies, you might want to see if you can find a food allergy knowledgeable allergist. In my experience, most allergists focus a lot more on environmental allergies and are a lot more dismissive/ignorant of food allergies. I had a horrible time until I found an allergist who knew about food allergies, but when I finally did, it was totally worth it! A lot of times, if there are any local allergy groups, they will know a good allergist in your area. :-)

shauna

[shezatrip]

Thank-you both for your great advice! I still have a couple of questions if you don't mind-

If my sons symptoms are; motor tics, attention problems, repetitive thoughts....will it be a delayed effect?

How long before your son/who has OCD felt the difference? Does it go away in One day, and if he eats a reactive

food..will I notice a difference right away? Hope that makes sense.

(It's not the typical (hives, diarreah, etc...)

Did you both get diagnosed via tests, or elimination diet?

"Thanks again!!!

[mommida]

Keep a food journal.

Some reactions can react up to 12 days with no further stimuli (eosinophils).

You should eliminate all possible allergens and then reintroduce one at a time. This should be the allergen in purest form for 3 days and wating out possible reaction of 12 days.