Michi8

I knew chromium was in vitamins, but didn't know it could be a potential allergen. And cobalt and nickel? Yikes, I already know I'm severely allergic to nickel at least skinwise. What kinds of foods is it in?

I should clarify...cobalt is in a lot of products, but I don't know about it in foods (except in vitamin B12 supplements.) Nickel is found in multi-vitamins just as chromium is. Nickel naturally occurs in many foods and water (tap water especially), and at natural levels is supposedly harmless. Canned foods have higher amounts of nickel, and nickel can leach out of cooking utensils into foods (so can chromium.) I have a list of foods to avoid, but it is rather long to type out here. You can do a google search, though, for more info. Like I said, I am still wrapping my brain around it, trying to figure out what amount of exposure is safe for me...I've just found this info out after struggling with many years of skin sensitivity and food allergies.

Michelle

I can only answer from my own experience but for me hives were part of the skin effects I would get. Pressure from my clothes or just running a fingernail across my skin would raise big itchy welts. This did go away after I was gluten free, unless I get a good glutening. I don't know if it was gluten specifically that was causing it though. My skin testing showed me to react to everything tested for except beech trees. He put me on an elimination diet that day, he later said my exteme sensitivity clued him in as to the possiblity of celiac but he didn't mention it at the time. The diet confirmed his suspisions. My allergies calmed down quickly after I had been gluten-free a few months and eliminated it from toiletries and bath products. I shudder now when I think of how many oatmeal and wheat germ oil soaks I did prediagnosis to relieve my DH and the itching from the hives.

I like to hear that gluten-free can calm allergies! I'm hoping that I will experience the same...I'm so tired of being sensitive to so many things! Right now, I'm trying to wrap my brain around my nickel, chromium & cobalt allergies...they're in so many everyday products (including vitamins & foods!) that I'm not sure how to eliminate exposure...and wonder if when I do get a handle on it, if I will see a dramatic improvement?! Next step will be gluten-free (after my biopsy.)

Michelle

My problem was that I didn't know what AFAIK means. Sorry about that. And as I mentioned I was trying to be cocky...(funny). Yes the letter from the FDA, that's why I posted the link to Dr. Mercola's video. You should listen to the video. It will explain the evilness...

I'm on the same page with you there...government regulatory bodies are not there to protect the public so much as to further the interests of business. I take the claims of both modern medical organizations and traditional/natural medical organizations with big grains of salt (they both have products to sell.) However, I do think that the best medicine combines all types of health care whether they are modern or traditional/natural.

BTW, the Cold-FX product I mentioned is a popular product made with Ginseng. Apparently it has had good results in studies (for both preventing and treating colds & flu), and a lot of people swear buy it. Check it out here: Open Original Shared Link Be sure to look at both the American and Canadian pages, they may present info differently due to FDA vs. Health Canada regulations. And here is the link to the clinial trial info: Open Original Shared Link

Alas, I do not know if it is gluten free, as it does not say on their website or on the bottle.

Michelle

If you are interested in using a spray, but are concerned about CC with Pam, you can get a non-aerosol spray bottle for spraying any cooking oil:

Open Original Shared Link .com/Oil-Sprayer-Stainles...k/dp/B0000VLMU6

This particular one is pricey, but you can get cheaper versions. I have one that is plastic.

Michelle

Yes it did look like you were referencing my post Michi8, since you posted right after I said elderberry kills the cold, flu and pneumonia virus and I felt you were being rude to me, but I didn't mention that in my post. I have a dry sense of humor that sometimes gets misunderstood.

It's time for people to understand that drug companies are manipulating doctors all the way to the FDA and here is a video clip by Dr. Mercola that I found that explains it.

Open Original Shared Link

I'm sorry you thought that, but I did say that "AFAIK" (as far as I know) there wasn't a cure. I did not say you were wrong at all, so I fail to see how what I said could be rude.

Elderberry sounds promising, but it still doesn't sound like a cure (and, yes, I did do some reading and searching on it...the studies sound interesting, but were of a pretty small scale.) I also had a hard time finding anything come up that wasn't from a homeopathic perspective, although there was some interesting stuff on Medline, including information on the allergy potential of elderberries. I also found a Warning letter from the FDA to a company selling elderberry products with claims that were beyond the scope of herbals.

Michelle

No hair dye or highlighting yet! Thanks for the bits of info....maybe it is a combination of several things. She had chicken pox last year - 3 years after the Varceilla vacination and she's a little Scotch-Irish. Throw in juvenile diabetes, celiac and stress. I took her to a General Practitioner who prescribed the antihistimine and steriod. Not sure if I should take her back or who I should see. Again thanks, we'll keep reading labels and writing down when she breaks out.

You may want to take her to see a dermatologist and/or allergist who is experienced in treating children. Hives are typically a reaction to something...whether it's something that has touched the skin or has been ingested. It may be worth doing allergy testing to try to narrow down the culprit(s).

Michelle

Yes there is. Come up to the millenium... Or did you not read my post?

I said don't take my word for it. Try it yourself before you start saying "there is no cure for the cold"

Hmm, I wasn't replying to you or referencing your post. So why would you respond to me so rudely?

Michelle

AFAIK, there isn't anything that cures a cold (though some people swear by Cold FX.) However, you can try to ease the symptoms. Pretty much every cold med on the shelf has Pseudoephedrine hydrochloride in it, which can help dry up secretions, but it can also cause insomnia (too much of it gives me the shakes too). Personally, I find that every cold I have turns into a sinus cold with horrible sinus pain/headaches. My treatment of choice includes pain relief just to get through it.

Michelle

Thanks shai76

That is a lot cheaper! Mine is a Twin EpiPen, maybe that is why it is so expensive?

It could be. I've never seen a "Twin EpiPen"...is it a double injection kit? My son's epipen is the standard adult dose, single injection. Because he has a penicillin allergy I only buy and carry one epipen at a time...it expires before it's needed, because it's pretty hard to get penicillin accidentally (although I really need to advocate for my son with doctors, because they prescribe penicillin without thinking.) I really need to get my son a medic alert bracelet instead, as I think it would be way more helpful if he ever needed medical attention in an accident away from home and family.

Michelle

really? thats very exciting. im starting to get sick of my boring breakfasts. do you have a particular favorite yogurt? i hear most of the flavored ones contain gluten.

I don't have a particular favourite, and am not gluten-free yet (have to wait until after my gastroscopy in November) so I can't recommend a particular brand...though, as Autumn mentioned, Yoplait is supposed to be a good brand for gluten free diets.

Michelle

It has been 5 or 6 days since my last post here, and I just wanted to tell you that I have made an appointment with a gastroenterologist to be tested, but here's what's interesting: Ursula mentioned that amenorrhea is a sign of malnutrition. I hadn't considered that, for some reason. I didn't want to experiment with a gluten-free diet because I want accurate lab results, but I wanted to counter the possible effects of malnutrition, so I started taking twice the normal dose of my prenatal vitamins (I take prenatals because up till last month I was breastfeeding, and because I don't use protection there's always the off chance I could get pregnant) and about 24 hours later, I had no more diarrhea. And I haven't had any in several days, since Friday, in fact. The fact that the prenatals appear to have curbed my diarrhea makes me believe even further that I have at the least some sort of malabsorption problem. I am just antsy now to be tested and find out for sure how to change my diet.

I still haven't ovulated, though.

Caryn

Do your prenatals have iron in them? Iron can be very constipating, and could make the difference with diarrhea...and you don't necessarily want to trade one issue for the other. Also, be careful with taking a double dose of vitamins, as some vitamins can be harmful in larger doses.

Michelle

I know they say never to put the baby on his tummy, but putting the baby on his tummy on top of me was the only way we got ANY sleep.

Sometimes the rules gotta change when you're dealing with a reflux baby.

I would think tummy sleeping on mom would be a fine exeption to the rule, because you're right there to help if baby has issues. Besides, sleeping with mom helps to regulate baby's breathing and heart rate...makes a big difference for preventing SIDS.

Michelle

Hi,

I have a daughter going through the same thing, she is 11 weeks tomorrow...and she too is on prevacid, but is on 7.5mg 3x a day...she needed it upped after a few weeks of 7.5mg 2x/day (the 15mg solutab cut in half) she has been on it since 2.5 weeks old (zantac did nothing) mylicon drops actually made it worse for her, but I have heard that works wonders for other kids.-she is also on nutramigen as she was 3 weeks early and a c-section so I had supply issues from the start (my milk didnt come in till day 6 and she was already down over 15% of her body weight) Her issues started from day one...if you were holding her she was fine, the minute she was laying flat, screaming non-stop....only this week has she been able to "play on her back for a few minutes"

I agree with the babywearing--it saved my sanity, and still does....also she only sleeps in a her carseat, in her swing or on me...the wedges dont seem to elevate her enough...she has slept on her tummy, but only short bits, she sleeps best in her carseat....sad I know, but hey if it works.

THe other thing is the timinig of prevacid...its best on an empty stomach and then followed by eating a half an hour later...total pain in the a@@ but when I do that it seems to help the most...

good luck!

Shannon

Noah 2yr old celiac

Audrey 11 weeks reflux/GERD

Do be careful with sleeping too often in the carseat or swing, it is not good for a developing body/spine to be in the same position all the time (plus babies get so used to sleeping in a seat that they have difficulty sleeping anywhere else.) Sleeping in a sling is better as it mimicks the position in the womb. But just like adults, babies do need some freedom to move in their sleep too.

Michelle

Oh yes, hyperactive letdown, now that is fun stuff right there! Another trick for this is to nurse your baby with the baby up from the breast or laying on top of the breast with you in a reclined position. This causes the forceful letdown to have to fight gravity and also if the baby is on top of a reclined breast the extra milk will "pool" around the breast inside the baby's mouth and they can drink as needed. I used this method, I also would detach Michael at the moment of letdown, let it spray into a burp cloth and once the pressure reduced and it wasn't spraying anymore I would latch him back on. This prevented Michael from gulping and getting to much air on top of everything else.

Also Mylanta Cherry Supreme is a wonderful thing. I would give Michael 1-2 teaspoons of Mylanta (per directions from the ped gi) when he was refluxing and it would calm him immediately!

There is another website www.marcikids.com or the Midwest Acid Reflux Childrens Institue. They have the proper mathmatical equations for medicine dosing based on weight. I highly recommend this site as well.

Feel free to PM me if you would like to hear more about Michael and how we got through the last 20 months!

Yes, hyperactive letdown is a challenge. I always seemed to produce way too much all at once. Took my kids a while to figure out how to deal with it...turns out they had to adjust their latch to control the flow. The lacation consultant commented on the "poor latch" when my daughter was born, but it was obvious it was a way of coping with the milk...made nursing uncomfortable for the first couple of weeks (ouch!) but all worked out fine over time.

Laying down in bed to breastfeed seems to help too. My kids had much less trouble with spitting up when we breastfed that way. I could get a nap in at that time too.

Michelle

Thanks for all the suggestions everyone!

We have an exercise bike but that leaves my knee in pain (I think the doc said my knee cap goes slightly off track when i bend my leg so i'm starting to build up the inner muscle which keeps it in place with the special exercises). I've very keen on the swimming idea so i'll see if theres any deep indoor pools nearby....otherwise i might have to brave our pool *gasp!*

The pilates thing sounds good too, is there any chance of replicating the exercise without the machine?

You can do mat pilates (on the floor) and also on an exercise ball. There are all sorts of videos available, but I highly recommend taking a mat class to get the basics down. Pilates is excellent for working on your core strength...and strenthening your stomach muscles to properly align and support your body.

Michelle

Thanks for the recipe. It's good to know I'll be able to make gluten-free lefse when I finally need it! Do you happen to know if you can make gluten-free klub too? If I can make both of these items gluten-free, then maybe my husband won't be so resistant to trying the diet along with me!

Michelle

I know this isn't totally about celiac, but I know alot of you have had reflux babies. So I'm hoping to get some help!

Right now Lucy has been on reflux meds since she was two weeks old (born 7/18/06). We are now on Prevacid, which has helped some. I am breastfeeding, and I am gluten free and dairy free, but not casein free. I have tried giving her formula, since breastfeeding is still a challenge for us, but she can't tolerate anything we've tried so far. She can't tolerate milk or soy, so we are now trying Nutramigen. But she won't drink it! She detests the taste of it. Today, I diluted it with 1 oz Nutr. and 3 oz of breastmilk. She still wouldn't drink it.

I am willing to keep up pumping since bm is the only thing she seems to tolerate, but I need something to give her if I don't have enough milk stored. My supply has never been the greatest, so I don't have alot of extra milk to spare. I have never heard of a baby refusing this formula....I know it smells pretty bad, but I figured if she was hungry enough she would drink it.

I'm just at my wits end here. She is 10 weeks old now, and I was really hoping to be on some sort of schedule by now. She only catnaps, she still has screaming bouts, and at night she screams non stop for an hour or two. How did you all cope??? Any tips for dealing with reflux babies, other that leaving the room and letting her scream?? Lol.....dh thinks I'm terrible for doing this, but he doesn't understand that it is the only way I can regain some sanity! Thanks in advance for any advice you may have!

Keep it up with the breastfeeding...it takes a baby about 3 months for Mom & baby to really get into the groove of breastfeeding, and it takes baby that long to settle into life "on the outside." I know its a long haul, but the benefits are worth it.

In terms of the reflux, I'd recommend also eliminating casein, caffeine, potential allergens (such as peanut) and any gassy foods from your diet. Drinking fennel seed tea (just steep some fennel seed...you can steep it along with an herbal tea if you like) can help settle baby's tummy as well as your own. I liked to steep the fennel seeds with camomile, and keep a jug of it cold in the fridge. You can try boosting your breastmilk production with herbs...there are breastfeeding teas available if you are interested. Otherwise something like blessed thistle, marshmallow root and also fennel seed! will help with production. Stay away from sage and parsley as it will diminish your supply and encourage the milk to dry up. Garlic in your diet may help boost production as well, and the taste may encourage baby to nurse more.

Otherwise, hang in there. I know that dealing with constant spit up/reflux is stressful, as is a baby who is uncomfortable. Try a variety of holds to ease the tummy. Also try using a sling for carrying baby (try carrying through a nap, or to start a nap and then set her down)...the movement and position can be very soothing. I would not worry about a schedule for such a young baby. Every baby is different...my youngest, as long as she was breastfeeding (for 2 years!), never slept through the night...she'd nurse every two hours...but she slept with me so it disturbed my sleep as little as possible. It was tough on me, but I know that she benefitted greatly.

Finally, I found that all three of my kids outgrew the projectile spit up eventually...seemed to coincide with reaching the 20lb mark. My eldest stopped spitting up when he was 6 months, my middle child when he was 9-10 months, and my daughter when she was around 6-7 months.

Michelle

They say spice mix is allspice, cinnamon, colves, ginger, and nutmeg.

Marcia, thanks for your reply. Does your daughter know for sure what causes her reactions? This is all very confusing for me as I am not 100% sure what caused the reaction. I wish my epipen were free, I had to pay $140! And I don't have insurance! Ah!

I had a skin prick test and they tested for a lot of different foods. I'm not too concerned about the foods I'm allergic to since most of them are easy to avoid except potatoes. I'm not really sure what peanuts do to me since I eat peanut butter all the time! And peanut allergy was very high on the test

Carrie,

That price for the Epipen was very high. I bought my sons at the Walmart pharmacy (in Alberta) for around $95-99. Fortunately, for us, the price is covered by insurance. I recommend shopping around for a better price the next time you have to buy one (the shelf life isn't very long unfortunately.)

In terms of the peanut allergy, it is possible that you will never have an anaphylactic reaction (given you eat peanut butter regularly.) I never did, I only ever reacted with itchy tongue, throat, ears and lips. The allergist had me carry an Epipen for a while (I think a lot of allergist are being very cautious nowadays), but I think it was overkill (I had lived with my peanut allergy for 26 years at that point!)...there was never a sign of anaphylaxis for me.

I "outgrew" that peanut allergy after I had my first baby. I've since develped new foods allergies in its place. From what I understand, completely avoiding peanuts was what helped my body "outgrow" the allergy...now I ingest them on a regular basis to keep my allergy at bay.

Michelle

Are there no indoor pools where you are? We swim all winter here, but most of our pools are indoor due to our climate...it gets awfully cold in the winter, and we only have two months of weather good enough for outdoor swimming in the summer.

Michelle

Swimming! Excellent for overall fitness, and gentle on your joints.

Michelle

I found this article on Medscape about the validity of electrodermal skin testing: Open Original Shared Link

HTH!

Michelle

I've never heard of an trained Allergist testing that way, and would be suspicious of those results. Plus, is she saying you are allergic or intolerant? It's an important disctinction, since they involve different immune responses. Traditional allergy tests do not show intolerances, just allergies. Also, if I recall correctly, testing for formaldehyde sensitivity/allergy isn't part of traditional allergy tests...you would need to do a 48 hour patch test for that.

In terms of traditional allergy testing, I've never had blood tests done, just the skin prick tests. My son had the injection test in addition to skin prick test to confirm how sensitive he is to penicillin...the results showed that he needed to carry an epipen.

Michelle

Laura -

My family doc is actually sending me to an allergist to see what kinds of allergies, food issues I might have (or if there are even any in addition to the Celiac immune issue).

How did you figure out you had other intolerance; did you doc test you or was it trial and error?

Just so you know, having an allergy panel done will not show you what you are intolerant to, just what you are allergic to.

You can have an intolerance test for lactose, but I'm not sure if an allergist does that type of testing...it's probably a test that a GI would do. I've never done an intolerance test myself as I already know that lactose is a problem for me, and I'm not up to ingesting a large amount of lactose just to see what my reaction would be...or worse, so some doctor can see what my reaction would be.

Michelle

Hey Autumn,

I too am lactose intolerant and I absolutely love cheese. I was afraid I might have been casein intolerant but after doing some talking with a nutritionist I found out that if I was casein intolerant I would not be able to tolerate any sort of milk product. I decided to do an elimination diet and cut out all of the "unsafe" lactose containing dairy and eat the allowed cheeses such as cheddar, swiss, montarey, muenster, guoda, and a few others (i love chedder so that's really all i eat). And I am absolutely fine with them!! While this may not be the case for you it might be worth trying. I had iced cream on saturday night and had horrible stomach issues, including indigestion all day on Sunday. Everyone will react differently so its hard to compare symptoms. As some also have suggested you may want to get tested for an intolerance to casein. I was thinking about that in the begining also however it is expensive and if you can figure it out on your own it might be worth the money saved. As you may also know many of us can have other food intolerances. Maybe it was the corn in the nachos or soy? Corn doesn't always agree with me and I cannot tolerate soy at all. Sticking to whole foods (like fruits, veggies, and protein) while slowing experimenting with other gluten-free foods and added them back in have helped me to figure out what I can and cannot eat. When I do eat non safe dairy I always get sick. I am hoping this is temporary since I love yogurt and cottage cheese. I have also heard that cold dairy is the worst for those who are lactose intolerant (I am okay with drinking a cappuccino because the milk is heated and steamed). I hope you feel better soon!

Marissa, have you tried yogurt? It is supposed to have similar or lower lactose levels than hard cheeses, because the bacteria consumes the lactose. I have a horrible time with milk (including steamed milk!) and ice cream, but can tolerate yogurt with no problems at all.

Michelle

Wow, am I the shortest one??? I'm 5'2-3/4"

Angie, I was always 5'2-3/4" until one day (about a year ago) I got measured at the doctor's office and they gave me that extra quarter inch...I'm now officially 5'3" and I'm sticking with it! LOL!

Michelle