How do you know if it is allergies

[jcsmom]

A bit of info. My DS is 15 months old and has always been a brutal napper/night sleeper. A few months ago I began to wonder if he had a wheat allergy so I dappled with removing wheat from his diet. I was not super diligent but tried to take out bread and pasta and other items and his sleep improved. I am not sure if the 2 were related or not but I have since added wheat back.
A few weeks ago he started to get eczema and we took him to the doctor and got some cream. I didn't want to give steroid cream so we got a homeopathic that seems to be helping. His sleep is terrible again and I want to really explore all of the possibilities. I am still BFing 2x a day. My son is a big boy, has had trouble with strange BMs in the past but never with reflux. Often exhibits very grumpy and irritable behaviour for no reason (well other than the fact that he never sleeps).
Sorry to ramble. I don't want to self diagnose but I was wondering if there is any information on the causes of eczema or symptoms of milk/wheat allergies anywhere?

[fifibobandmore]

In the past I have worked with children that have a wheat/dairy allergy and they all haev suffered with some form of skin initation and have found sleeping hard because of this. I would reacamend that you go back and see you doctor and ask them if you could try a wheat and dairy free diet just to see if you DS excema gets better.  I would also say it is hard to tell at a young age what is the trigger for excema as it could be anything from the change in weather right up to food intolerance. Also for reasurance my DD has bad excema and I have tried avoiding steroid creams but when it is really bad and even wearing wraps at night is not helping I do end up having to us the steroid cream. You are doing an amazing thing for you DS by not using a steroid cream and I hope his skin is not causing him to much aggrovastion

[Mydreamcametrue]

Have you looked into Celiac Disease?  You said you had strange bowel movements, in what way do you mean?

I know with my DS2, he cannot handle oats, but seems okay with wheat (even though he really has not had much with wheat in it).

With oats, he gets a really bad red hot to touch rash on his face and his KP gets worse.  KP is Keratosis Pilaris.  It looks like goose bumps all over there body and dairy and wheat can make it worse.

Personally if he was better off wheat, that would be good enough for me to remove it again.  I would not need my doctors opinion. 

Sometimes it takes us as the parent to play detective in order to figure out what is causing our children's problems. 

With celiac disease, it can cause a lot of problems.  You will not show up positive on an allergy test because it is an intolerance.  The only way to truly digonose it is doing and endoscopy with biospies.   The biospy will show flatten villa. 

Do a little research on it and see if he has any of the symptoms. 

Also another thought a lot of people remove wheat/ gluten and dairy from diets for many many reasons.  Intolerances, autism, adhd/add.  Not saying your lo has any of these, but just saying sometimes removing wheat and/or dairy can resolve so many health problems.

Let me know about the bowel movements. I have a book all about allergies and celiac disease and can look anything up for you.

Hugs, Wendy

[Jimbob]

That is great advice Wendy has given. I completely agree that if removing the wheat helped that would be enough evidence for me.

Kelly

[momtoandrewandthomas]

Wendy - thanks for mentioning the KP.  I had forgotten what a sign that can be for Thomas' milk and soy intolerance.  The doctors told me it is fine but his arms are covered with it and he scratches until he bleeds.  It is so frustrating sometimes,  but I continue to eliminate the offensive foods and supplement his diet as I can.  I was able to find a rice protein supplement in our stores and I plan to bake cookies with it.  Thomas is not a fan of smoothies since all my experimenting trying to get him to drink Nutramigen or Neocate.  He does not trust me at all; however, he can't resist homemade cookies!!!

[em_here]

Sorry to chip in here, just noticed you mentioned KP that describes my daughters rash to a T, we are on a non dairy challenge starting officially today, just wanted to say thanks cause now I look at the info you put it doesnt sound like my dd's skin is eczema - so thanks!

[jcsmom]

Thanks for all of the advice ladies! I did a search on KP and sure enough both myself and my DS have it. I have always had this on my arms and now he does too. I was wondering if it was genetic! We are in the process of food elimination right now and going off dairy for now. Does anyone know of a good milk alternative? Is goat's milk acceptable or does that contain lactose as well?

[em_here]

We are on dairy elimination (again), dd is 16 months and we have started using calcium fortified soya milk xxx

[fifibobandmore]

I have been told to put my DD on goats milk as it is better for children who have skin problems but goats milk makes my DD's excema worse so I would say use soya milk fortified with calcium or ask you doctor for calcium suppliments. There are a lot of dairy free products out there know including cheese and yoghurts so I would try these first before trying goats milk as this is also richer than cows milk too so your LO might not be able to stomach goats milk yet. Hope you LO's skin aggrovation imporves soon and you find what is causing this irritation

[Mydreamcametrue]

KP is genetic.  After being told that my son had it, I researched it and sure enough I do to.  I have always had what looked like goose bumps on the back of my arms and upper legs. 
It is not that bad though and poor DS is.
The allergist told me that he would eventually grow out of it or it would get better with age.

RE:  Goat's milk.  Personally I would NOT do that.  I have a list from the allergist that I am going to post, I don't have it in front of me, but I believe it is 95% of people with a milk allergy will react to goats milk also.

I would try Soy milk first.  Not sure where you are, but in the US, Silk soy milk makes a vanilla and a very vanilla flavor or you could even flavor it yourself if he refuses it.

If he reacts to soy milk, then you could try rice milk. 

How is his diet overall? 
With rice milk you are getting much less fat and protein.
You can get fortified rice milk, that has the same amount of calcium as whole milk.  See chart below
                      Cow Milk              Rice Dream
calories                  150                          120
protein (grams)    8                            1
carbohydrate g.    11                           30
fat g.                    8                            2
calcium mg.           291                            20

My son was not eating a well balanced diet at all and was also low weight.  What I did was to 8 oz. rice milk added:
- 2 oz. of coconut milk (adds the fat)
- 1 tablespoon of MLO brand rice protein (adds the protein)
- and strawberry nesquick to make it taste better.

He loved it from 14 to 18 mos. old.

FYI:  You need to have a complete protein in order for your body to get the fatty acids that you need.
A complete protein is:
- Animal product - Milk, cheese, etc.
- Soy milk is a complete protein
Soy beans are a high protein bean originally grown in China. Considered a complete protein, they contain all 8 essential amino acids.
- A grain (ex. wheat) and a legume in the same 24 hours is a complete protein.

So my question to the nutrients was, Does the rice protein contain all the essential amino acids our bodies need since it is just a grain.  I would think they would also need some form of a legume (beans, peanut butter), etc. to make it a complete protein. 

She contacted the company and it is considered a complete protein and contains all the fatty acids. 

Sorry I know, proably more info than you were looking for. Just something for you to think about and research.

Please keep us posted.

Wendy