Anyone else on an elimination diet (Fed up or RPAH?)

[Edesanja]

Shannon, I assume rice is one of your 5 foods right? Is he usually symptom free on those 5? As crazy as it sounds I've heard of a couple of los who can't tolerate rice (though actually nothing surprises me these days - los can react to anything!!).

Yay for adding meat Eloise! We are still just on pears and potato. We were doing pumpkin and kumara too but took them out when he got a rash. Still think it's just teething but I've decided to see if  I can eat eggs while still bfing once a day so that's the current challenge. I made a pie-thing yesterday that I put 2 eggs into to bind (probably needed 4 cos it didn't really bind that well ) How should I do this challenge do you think? Eat an egg every day? Every couple of days? He does still have teething signs at the moment (woke briefly at 930pm last night which NEVER happens, and then at 5am when I gave him some pamol). But there's ALWAYS something going on.

[EloysH]

Jenny, hugs for his teething

Just so you know, pumpkin and kumera are moderate salicylate. I spoke with the dietician re egg.  She said to have one egg a day for 7 days.  Try not to have anything else "going on".  Hope the weaning is going ok.

So Kais rash has nearly disppeared by morning.  I think he has really sensitive skin.  I am only wiping his face with the softest of dabs and the softest of cloths to see if it makes a difference.  It give me hope to repeat the pears introduction again.  What I thought was a contact rash due to pear is this same rash he gets when any foods touch his face and then I wipe off with a face washer.

[Edesanja]

That's why I stopped pumpkin and kumara. We did lots of salicylate trials with DD so I know to watch for those. I still do think it's just a dribble rash but it still hasn't cleared.He's had bonjela a number of times and the main ingredient is chlorine salicylate and he's ok with that. I think he'd be having a reaction to that if salicylates were a problem.

Nothing else going on.... Ha!! I'm getting impatient I guess. I either want to expand my diet or his. We've always got this tummy problem and he's miserable about his mouth a lot too. Being stuck is hard.

[hrk]

Question: Has anyone tried the spaghetti sauce in the book?  I think it has lentils as the base.  Is it good?  I was thinking it maybe could be a substitute it for a pizza sauce.  BUT that would probably be a huge stretch, lol.  I guess I could try a homemade cream sauce instead.  :-(

Eloys, I am hopeful that the pears will be fine.  Everything crossed! 

[EloysH]

I feel so silly!  DH and I heard a "chink" on the cup when Kai was trying to drink yesterday.  After investigating we found a whole edge of a tooth through and another tip coming!!!    hmmmmm....  the pears reaction could very well have been teething, especially now that the rash has been coming and going too.  He was relfuxing though but... well worth testing again 


Poor little man - we were calling him "the grump" this week and saying how demanding he had become all of a sudden...

[hrk]

H's reflux would flare up with teething, too.  So blame the teeth until you can rule out the pears.  ;-) 

[huntersmummyinoz]

i already wrote this on fb, buy yay for the tooth! let's hope pears are actually ok then. did j's reflux flare up with teething? h's was always much much worse when teething despite the high meds.

had a few days off sweet potato and are successfully on 1tsp a day (i think...) time will tell of course!

[EloysH]

not sure was to when the teeth cut... but there was two days of bad refluxing and sleep coinciding with the pears..

[Gypsymom]

I'm really behind on BW. DH thinks we need to move and it's consuming every spare moment to consider the whole thing. We are so nerdy that even though J is only two, we're worrying about the quality of schools, etc!!

Shannon, what was in the salted stock? - any bought stock is not allowed on this diet due to being high in everything. I wonder if you could make some stock out of boiling a chicken carcass, leek & parsley stalks.

That's the thing. I MADE the stock myself, using nothing but water, bones, and salt (skin removed).

However my dear friend, if your journey will be anything like mine, the reality of adding new foods will dawn quickly as he approaches 6 months.

I'm well aware! I finally heard from the allergist's office today - not sure what they are planning to do but they told me not to give him any meds, antihistamines, etc for 4 days beforehand. Basic blood testing for IgE stuff, probably? I finally see the ped in early Nov. So just when I was thinking I should try some stuff, now I'm wondering... do I just hold the fort until after I see the allergist? I was toying with maybe bringing tea back as it's high sals to see if I get a quick reaction to that? I guess the intolerance stuff is irrelevant for that appointment anyways.

Shannon, I assume rice is one of your 5 foods right? Is he usually symptom free on those 5? As crazy as it sounds I've heard of a couple of los who can't tolerate rice (though actually nothing surprises me these days - los can react to anything!!).

Yeah, Jenny, I'd heard of that from Tari. But, he is symptom free more or less (I think a wee bit of skin stuff from non-food sources, and he's very gassy as he now only goes twice a week!). Are you doing contact tests on J's skin with each solid? I'm sorry, I don't know much about it!!

Elo, have you re-trialled the pears yet or is the teething still bothering him?

Good luck for the sweet potato, Kirry.

[EloysH]

Shannon,  great news you got an appointment!  I am thinking Nov is pretty far off and enough time to recover from any reactions, I would allow a safe buffer before the appointment of 7 days  if you don't want him reacting to foods when you are seeing them.   K has recovered within 72 hours with even his worst of reactions not sure what your situation is with that.

If you wanted to test salicylates for some concrete info, then be sure to eat enough of them in one day 6 x 100g serves, tea included, spices. Tea alone may not be enough to get a reaction. Of course you could try the tea if nothing then up the anti.   If you prefer to just the one food, maybe do something that is easy to control the dose of like a vege with sals.  You are supposed to eat HIGH sals foods in the the 6 x 100g serves.





As for K, the teeth are still bothering him but I am more confident with what his teething symptoms are as opposed to "other".  Also, the bought of reflux that came at the same time as the pears has now gone!

I am on day 2 of the pears and so far so good.    He did do one spew today but my neice had him in a crunched position for ages after his solids so I am not counting that    He also was a tiny but fluxing toward bedtime, but really it was nothing.   SO one more day of pears beforeI give the green light to the pears in a jar! 

The best news of all is that I had my dietician appointment and I have an 8 week plan for mine and K's food's introductions.  I am going to be eating eggs for 3 days!!    If all goes well then eggs for another 3 days but in more pure form like boiled and fried.  Then eggs gets to stay in my diet.  There are all sorts of things planned after that.  I will be re-doing the full wheat challenge at some point apparantly they can grow out of that problem fairly quickly.  There are no plans for dairy except maybe to add butter along the line if I  feel comfortable.

I cannot beleive after all these food challenges etc I am STILL one the baseline diet and not allowed to stray.

K's next foods will be
green beans,
lamb,
kidney beans, (just a couple in teh meal)
& beef at the increased rate of everty 2 days since he has done so well with the "lows".

Also got the go ahead for
oil
gluten free grains like quinoa and millet
nuttelex (dairy free marg) &
homemade stock!

Only thing I forgot to ask was does that include gluten free flour like rice flour etc? That means I could bake stuff too!  Like homeade rusks and all sorts of tasty things!

Very excited about what I can make for my prince with stock & nuttelex, just think of the taste with poaching things and also little fried patties etc.   (He only wants to feed himself so finger foods are a must  )

Unfortunately it will be while yet before he can have a bananna, that's ok we have alot to work with.

[Buntybear]

Eloise, I just don't know how you can be on such a strict diet. I am a real foodie and although I haven't found dairy free that tough I don't think I could do what you have! I keep toying with the idea of going wheat/soy/egg free as well but just cannot face it!

[lizzyr]

Glad to hear all is going so well!!!
Your plan is becoming our plan! I have done 5 days of lamb with my LO (did not start with chicken as you have)- he seems fine, if a bit gassy. He seems to be also cutting his FOUR front teeth one after the other, which does not help things - his nappies are disgusting, lots of dribble and he is VERY snotty - I am presuming this is all teeth, not a reaction though, as he has just cut one, and now another is coming through. Hope I'm right.
It is so helpful for you to share your plan.
Can I ask - how did the chicken and oats go?
Also - with adding egg back into your diet, in what form will you be eating egg for the first 3 days (if not plain boiled / fried). I'd like to have a go at adding egg back in to my diet. Funnily though, I am so used to this diet now, I don't crave any 'normal foods' anymore 9apart from a nice glass of Sauvignon Blanc!!!). I can't imagine eating a normal diet - it seems weird now!!!

Anyway - great to hear your next steps. Sorry to be dipping in and out of this thread - life is hectic as I am back at work 2 days a week and also childminding 1 day - so not so much time anymore!!!

[EloysH]

Lizzy, hugs again for the teething!!  So hard to tell if he is reacting with such hard core teething symptoms, go with your gut! I tend to think he's not reacting, just form what you said. Tummy doesn't seem to be sore, reflux not particularly flaring, not too spewy etc

As for the egg, for the first 3 days I will eat eggs in pancakes, rissoles & cakes.  If he tolerates that ok then I will move to 1-2 eggs per day such as boiled and fried eggs, scrambled with rice milk for a further 3 days. If all is fine then keep eggs in. If all is not fine then move back a step.  If that means moving back to the baseline diet then so be it, if that means just having cooked eggs in panacakes and rissoles so be it.

I forgot to add that we will be trying split red lentils too.  And our hemoade stock recipe is strictly following the failsafe stock recipe.

The dietician said that from now on for me and Kai, we will just be going back a step if we fail any of the challenges or liberalisations, we will not be going back to square one anymore.

He was fine with chicken.  Didn't do  any oats yet.  When I do oats, it will be for my diet.


Lizzy I agree, I don't crave foods either, I am really really used to it.  More so I just get down and out about the weight of the whole thing, all the cooking and constant food shopping, and the lack of variety in general and not being able to eat interesting and inspiring foods from my favourite cookbooks and cooking shows or go out to a restaurant. Whilst I don't want a glass of wine now, I would just fall asleep and worry about it being bad for this reflux - I absolutely can't wait till I can hget back on the grog.   I am so happy to be just introducing eggs, I'll take anything new right now 

Buntyear: I am a foodie too!  Life before kids, me and DH used to eat out at nice restaurants all the time and follow our local food critics write ups  With kids we switched to lunches and breakfasts out, but now, I can't eat ANYTHING out and about. 

[lizzyr]

Thanks for that!
The thing I find hard, is anything social, and yep - not eating out. I have always been a keen cook and used to have freinds over for lots of meals. The only thing I can do now that anyone elso would want to eat is roast lamb and veggies - but gets a bit tedious. It's amazing how you realise how entwined food and leisure/ socialising are. I suppose I'm just so happy that my days are no longer spent holding a miserable baby! I think it will just take a long time for me to stop fearing the effects of food...I do love my millet and quinoa porridge...never thought I'd say that...!!!

Another thing that's been a bit of a knightmare is the fact that I'm a teacher (part time now) and our topic this 1/2 term is...you guessed it ...'Food'!!! Lots of cooking in class - eg last week we made fruit salads - they were desperate for me to try them, but I couldn't. It's funny how life goes...

I am just about to try and make some rusks (1 cup pear puree, 1 cup rice flour, water. Cook at 150 until hard). So we'll see how they turn out. Tying to give him a mix of textures, even if its the same old ingredients!

I was considering introducing lentils - any reason for 'red split'? I was considering using brown lentils (as that's what we have in the cupboard!). Also with the stick - has your dietician said this is ok, even though things such as celery have not been trialled in his diet? I'd love to be able to use stick to make Finn a little stew or something - just a bit more FLAVOUR for him really.

Anyway...off to make rusks...wish me luck..!

[Edesanja]

Yay for trying eggs!

The dietician said that from now on for me and Kai, we will just be going back a step if we fail any of the challenges or liberalisations, we will not be going back to square one anymore.

I thought this is what you were doing already now?