Author Topic: allergy testing  (Read 4303 times)

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Offline *Jo*

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Re: allergy testing
« Reply #15 on: October 08, 2009, 04:16:43 am »
thanks ladies for all your words of wisdom, i will talk about it with DH later and discuss what you have all brought up with him :)





Offline Mashi

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Re: allergy testing
« Reply #16 on: October 08, 2009, 08:38:21 am »
Katet has given some really really sound advice, just wanted to add a couple things.

When you said that you usually don't give him dairy, my advice would be to go out of your way to make sure that he has no dairy at all, whatsoever.  No milk powder hidden in foods, nothing. Until he is at least 12 months old. At 12 months usually MPI babies have a "milk challenge" either by the doctors or at home, where you trial them on a bit of milk and watch them for a period of time to see if they have outgrown it, but attempting it before 12 months is usually not advised.

There are many foods, even fruits and veg, that are very hard for a baby's brand new digestive system to get used to breaking down.  Broccolli, cauliflower, beans, lentils, cabbage, and meats are some.  Although it is possible to be allergic to anything, a food like broccolli is pretty low on the allergen scale and it's less likely that he is allergic to it and being that the symptoms are wind and tummy pains, most likely just that he is too young to digest it - especially if he has had that first exposure to it in the early days of solids.  Most sources that I relied on for feeding say that foods like this should be left until closer to 10-12 months.  A really helpful website is wholesomebabyfoods.com and they list each food and a suggested age for introducing it. 

Also he's young and doesn't need a huge variety in his diet.  At 9 months the list of foods that I had given DS was stuck on the fridge and it wasn't that long!  I just made sure that I varied them up, not necessarily mixing them. So breakfast might be pears, lunch sweet potato and apple, dinner carrots and parsnips.  The next day would not be the same foods, but two or three days later he'd get the same menu, iykwim.  As long as you're giving him a rotation so that he doesn't get bored, that's great.  But you don't need to worry about mixing two foods together ALL of the time.  And, you can mix odd foods and babies don't think it is strange like we do -- zucchini and apple was a hit, as was sweet potato and pea, pumpkin and pear, and so on.

Another important thing with allergy testing is that it is not 100% accurate. So just because he gets a negative from something does NOT mean that he is not intolerant or allergic to it. 

Offline Katet

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Re: allergy testing
« Reply #17 on: November 05, 2009, 09:55:16 am »
Did you end up getting him tested? How is he going.

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Offline *Jo*

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Re: allergy testing
« Reply #18 on: November 05, 2009, 10:09:19 am »
yes, he came back negative for dairy, wheat, egg, cat. so the dr wanted me to start introducing soy formula gradually to his bottles, first 1ml, then 2.5ml, then 5ml, 10ml, 20mls and then start replacing scoops of his old formula. well we got to 10mls and hes a bit gassy, ive kept going and today we replaced 2 scoops of formula for soy (so that works out to be roughly 20mls of soy) and his cheeks and nose were quite red and hes been passing wind today, we were quite surprised as we dont usually hear him pass wind. plus we have been having night wakings but he has also had a tooth cutting through so Im not sure if that is a gut reaction or the teething, have rang them and waiting for them to call me back, not sure if i should stop the soy formula or continue it, i dont wanna stop it and have to start all over again if its nothing





Offline *Jo*

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Re: allergy testing
« Reply #19 on: November 05, 2009, 10:12:18 am »
Oh and also ive decided to do what mashi suggested anyways, no dairy at all! im baking him foods that are all gluten free, no soy, no egg, no wheat, no dairy, i figure even if he is ok whats the harm in waiting till he is a year old, theres no rush really, hes a happy thriving boy, my main concern is the formula, i just want to get at least get him onto soy if he can handle it. He handles soy yoghurt and soy milk in his oats so im hoping the formula is the next to jump to





Offline Katet

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Re: allergy testing
« Reply #20 on: November 06, 2009, 00:04:42 am »
Sounds like his food issues are more about a young "gut" & inability to cope with the foods than allergies which makes sense, it is actually very common for babies who have problems with milk reactions to be intolerant to some foods... I know my DS1 has been described by grandparents as a "fussy eater" & I was too as a child, but the thing is I think part of it is "self preservation" DS1 didn't cope with me eating certain foods when I BF him, & those same foods translated to ones he still at 6yo doesn't like to eat. So guessing he is a child whose gut hasn't matured as fast as others so a slow & steady approach with food is a good thing... always think if he grew up 50 years ago the variety would be about 20% of what he could get now, so if the same 4 veg & 3 fruit every day work for him, then there is nothing wrong from his perspective KWIM.
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Offline *Jo*

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Re: allergy testing
« Reply #21 on: November 06, 2009, 11:24:35 am »
yeah i think you are right, we stopped his soy formula today, he still had bright red cheeks (not the usual teething red cheeks) and he was surefire cranky and irritable, which is quite unlike him, so i figured oh well take the soy out and try again in a few months. How long till the soy is out of his system?