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

[Buntybear]

Eeek it is all a bit double dutch to me so can't advise SORRY

Totally know where you are coming from elsewhere though. Finally getting his windiness under control (not sure how but he is on pro biotics now - haven't made any changes to diet (except for me to be a more lenient for my own sanity) so think it must be these) and he is now also teething. So yes, NWs for this now  . Also had colds for 2 weeks now so this hasn't helped. He has also been off his food but is slowly getting his appetite back but this has meant night feeds. DH not been around much so I am just shattered.

Olly is 11 months today and so I am becoming increasing concerned about his health when he gets his nutrients through food in only 1 month  . It is all such a headache!

*HUGS*

[Buntybear]

Ah yes eggs - now I gave this a go the other day - only had 2 in the house - 1st night he slept better than in ages, 2nd night had 2 x 2hr NWs! I *think* they were down to teething but it is blumming typical isn't it! Still it gives me hope. Weather here awful so not going out to buy anymore to trial.

[huntersmummyinoz]

hi lizzy, sorry for late reply. k's sals reactions include: hot red cheeks, rash on cheeks and body, reflux behaviours (and thus nw) and sometimes mucousy poos. (all of which are far too similar to teething reactions for my liking ) can i ask what cake recipe you used? gotta find something edible for k's birthday which is creeping up WAY too quickly.

update on us, 5tsp mod sals is great. we are getting symptoms atm tho but am not sure if it is because he didnt have it for 2 days whilst driving back from holidays...can their threshold really regress so much after just two days he is pooing like you wouldnt believe tho, it is also a nudge mucousy but it's so hard to not suspect teeth too... as has a low grade temperature too, ugh if only they could talk!

he's doing well with fish, eggs which has made life a bit more interesting. mini pikelettes are his new fav. have added apple which he is fine on. have just tried peas and carrots and not sure if they are the culprit for his symptoms atm as have tried both for two days each before (just before xmas) with no reaction but maybe he has reached his threshold now.

myself, at long last i can tolerate most dairy again, can only drink 2% milk tho, full fat i react too, and ice-cream still an issue in large amounts. seem to fine with preservatives and proprionates again now tho, but am still getting occasional asthma again which i am pretty sure is from these... tho i'm happy to just take medication for it rather than go without

he is doing well but i feel his foods are still so limited and do worry that he is nearly 1 now and still not eating a wide range.  having issues getting him to drink enuf neocate during the day for his calcium requirements too as we are starting to reduce his df but he isnt taking more during the day. will have to do custard powder as the next trial i think so that i can give him custard and creamy fruit rice (neocate, rice cereal and fruit) for desserts to up his intake. also having dramas as he is starting to have tantrums when he sees us eating something different and wants some

[EloysH]

Hey Girls,

glad to hear that K is still doing well on the sals!  Keep it up I say!  Theres little time to waste, as you say he'll be 1 soon!

So I just got back from a weeks beach holiday today adn pleased to report that Kai is tolerating eggs now!! I thought that it would be successful so wasn't too worried about doing a food trial once on holidays.

I am persisted with all the supplements - he is taking
Glycine 1.5 teaspoons for immune system support
Activated Vitamin B6 (1/2 cap) and 2 drops of zinc - to help him detoxify his liver and get ready for the sals
1/4 teaspoon probiotic - gut healing and growth of good bacteria for digestion
Transfer factor ( a constitute of colustrum) - 3 caps daily for immune system support


Even if they are doing nothing for him I feel that I have done everything I can before I put him on sals, and it will allow me to approach it full steam ahead, starting one teaspoon a day after one more week.

Another pleasing  thing is that I accentially ate half a white bread roll and drum roll.... no reactions!!!  We don't have much time for the wheat challenge, as the salicylates will take us through for the next 5 weeks at least...  oh well.   I am happy he is getting enoguh grains and things though, the wheat can wait.

K's Nw'ing have been horrendous, we had 3 weeks of hard core teething with the top two teeth and he decided to NW for 2 hours every night for about 3 weeks    Then he stopped teething and is still doing it every few nights, ugh!    Having said that he has been boobed to sleep since teething so DH and I are sleep training this week and we'll see wyhat happens to the NW'ing.

Kirry:  if you are doing 5 teaspoons of sals, you have wheat and eggs, it sounds as though K has a pretty rounded diet now,  its just the dairy/soy that you are missing right?

On the milk issue at 12 months what did you ladies decide??? 
Both my dietician and naturopath have recommended a dairy challenge when K is 11 months to see if he can tolerate, otherwise I will be putting him on Elecare amino acid based formula.   I won't do soy due to the bad press. 

Clare: what did you do with milk past 12 months?
Is Olly sttn yet?  Hows his NWing   DOes he sleep independently??




 

[Buntybear]

Hi Welcome home - have missed seeing you about! What good news about the eggs! They are so healthy for them esp as they are on restricted diets. I am eating them now but haven't tried them on Olly. He may well be fine with them but we haven't had a reprieve really in the NWs to trial them. Plus we have appts with the Paed Allergy nurse next week and dietician in feb so thought I would wait.

We have had some success over christmas with me totally taking wheat out of my diet. Def helped with the 2 hr screaming sessions ending in one little fart! No more of them , in fact we are wondering if he actually has a wheat allergy as the only time he had bread he came out in hives and vomited. Why he only shows it as an GI intolerance when through BM I don't know. We are also still testing soy through BM but just cannot tell. Keep trialling it and then coming back off it again.

Olly is now teething his top left tooth so although night before last he STTN till 5am last night he was tossing and turning so ended up in with me. This is becoming too regular an occurance now but we are so tired it is anything for an easy life really 

Well done on sleep training. We just DO NOT have it in us mentally or physically at the mo to attempt it. Plus I just can't risk it when there is so much else going on. I think he is having a GS too!

Plus the cold that I mentioned above is still with us! 6 weeks on. Olly still finding it hard to breathe at night and DH and I have alternating sinus and throat infections. Haven;t been to GP as I guess anti biotics are our only option but think we may just have to go for it and take lots of pro biotics along side to stop an upset in Olly's sensitive tummy.

[Buntybear]

RE milk, I haven't pushed the Nutramigen. Think I will just stick with oat milk. As I say going to see dietician beg of Feb and will ask her advice then. Olly still waking in the night for feeds (fairly sure it is a GS at the mo but I also feed during the long NWs) and am feeling a bit trapped by it TBH. Trying to feed him as much as I can in the day to increase calories and giving oat milk as a drink at snack time.

Re inde sleep We are also going through SA at the mo so Olly needs me to hold his hand at nap and BT. Goes down easily though. Had a mare over chrsitmas as APOP'd naps in the buggy every day for a week as we were at parents. Then when we got back he wouldn't nap in his cot! A few days back in his routine sorted it but was awful at the time esp with long NWs! We were all a wreck!

[Buntybear]

Me again!

Elosie, what is Kai's diet like?? Would you mind giving some examples of what meals he is getting? What grains you use instead of wheat? Really I give him jarred purees (tried him on my foods yesterday and refused them still) followed by loads of finger foods. Fruit, avocado, GF toast and pasta, peas, rice cakes etc. But still seems restricted. Really need to get to grips with all the alternatives out there.

TIA x

[Edesanja]

Good news on the eggs Eloise!! How did you do it - in pikelets for 3 days then did you go to straight egg for 3 days? It's less than a year since I did it with DD so I think that's how I did it but can't quite remember the timings!

I'm going to give it a go with J too. When I started him on GF bread I had to hunt a bit to find one that was egg and soy free but I found one. Then somehow when I went to get another loaf recently I switched brands without realising (and I could swear that I checked the ingredients AGAIN when I did because I always double check when buying J's food because I know companies change recipes without changing packaging) and the brand I chose and egg and soy flour, but he's been doing fine on it! (he was eating it for a week or two before I realised!).

So that will take care of the egg in baked goods part of the trial, although I might still give him pikelets today made with egg since it will have more egg in them than the bread will and then I'll move on to the next stage.

Soy I'm not to sure about because one day we were eating steak and I'd put soy in the marinade. I thought I'd give him a wee bit and he was grumpy and had diarrhoea a little bit the next day. I don't know for sure if it was related though because I freaked out and gave up but that's stupid really since if it WAS a reaction I now just have to put him through an extra day anyway.

I'll do GF trial afterwards as we should be nearing the end of our GF loaf by then anyway so hopefully I won't have to buy another one!

We still only have 2 fruits but I guess it doesn't matter much. He eats plenty of vegetables. The convenience factor would be nice though!!

I am very wary still of doing a dairy trial. I'll decide after we've done egg/ soy / gluten. We'll switch to Neocate Advance though if I don't do it yet/ or if he fails.

BB, just so you know we do:
rice puffs, millet puffs, chickpeas, blueberries, banana, avocado, carrots, peas, corn, pumpkin, kumara (sweet potato), potato, rice, chicken, lamb, beef, gf bread

so not a lot of foods really but enough to give variety and I can usually adapt something from what we're eating or whip ups something else quickly. He eats a lot of patties made with meat mixed with different veggies, pieces of meat, roasted or steamed veggies. We don't really do purees here - he'd much rather do it himself! (though he loves rice and avocado so sometimes we spoon feed him those to save on the mess!

[huntersmummyinoz]

well all the planned challenges for this month (proprionates, nitrates, msg, sulphites) have gone out the window as he is still reacting to something. horribly mucousy poos and several in a day and he is waking during the night or early in the morning because of it too which makes for a fun time resettling after a nappy change. have dropped to 3 tsp sals on dietician's advice but still no improvement after 4 days. gp has ordered a stool test to look for a virus, but is also looking at his red/white blood cell count to see if it points toward a food reaction.

he cut a tooth a few days ago which could be part of the problem but this should have cleared by now that it is out and he also didnt have anything this bad with his last 5 teeth if i didnt know better i would swear someone was slipping him milk as it's like his newborn issues before i cut all dairy and soy.

and now his gp is on holidays for the week so am in the dark even if the test does show something, and paed is away til the 20th. i just want to cry, i cant believe i was even considering a cheese trial this month

elo, we were meant to be doing soy and dairy trials at 12mths but no idea where to now. so there will be a switch to neocate advanced, and i will be pushing to keep him on that if he fails dairy (as dont want him on soy either) BUT dont know if will be allowed to keep getting scripts for neocate if he passes the soy challenge...

[hrk]

Kirry, I think it looks like you can buy it otc here, but it is spendy.  At least I think you should be able to buy it (but pay a high price tag) even if the dr doesn't agree (but you want to continue for a bit longer until you have a good plan in place.  There is neocate nutra, but that is more like a cereal.  It looks like it would help with nutrition, though (but maybe not enough?).  

H didn't even try dairy until 15 mo from what I remember.  The pedi didn't even push it, and she was totally fine with him being on alimentum longer.  ;-)  I was way too afraid of what the change may bring.  And with K having mucousy poos, why in the world would they want to force it?  I think they should be fine with writing a script at least until he is feeling much better!

[huntersmummyinoz]

thanks jean, yeah they'll be fine giving scripts until he does a dairy and soy challenge, whenever that may be now i'd actually been stockpiling as i thought i may run into this problem if he does pass soy and not dairy, or if he just simply doesnt like the taste of cows milk which happens all too often, but didnt realise he had to switch to neocate advanced at 12mths. and OMG it is pricey isnt it! a 3 week supply costs $900 tho we get it for $30 as it's a government authority script, but cant get it OTC here.

how's h going with sals? and have you had any luck finding moisturisers/soaps for him yet? was thinking of you today as there is a brand of body wash we have been using on k that he is finally okay with http://www.makingasplash.com.au/product_item.php?id_categ=1&id_product=22 and they have a new range of moisturisers etc now too that i'll trial him on soon. have you seen this range over there? i'm trialling the stelaprotect body milk and stelatopia moisturising cream as havent found any creams i can use on him yet, so much for baby massage poor bubba

[hrk]

Let me check on some prices here for that...

Thanks for the tip on the skin care!  I will look at the link.  Nothing is as good as water, but my homemade soap is doing pretty well so far.  He has a homemade bar soap and homemade liquid hand soap.  I have also made him some lip balm.  I now make my own hair rinse, too.  I am having a bit of fun with it, lol.  It's low in chemicals, and with H not tolerating the "processed" version of foods, I think some of the issue could be food/topical chemicals (in addition to sals and histamines/amines).

About a month or so after turning three he stopped getting the red bottom.  So that is terrific news.  I don't know if the unpredictable pattern of the rashy bottom in relation to food was meaning that he was in fact starting to outgrow an intollerance??  Sometimes something would be fine, sometimes a rash would show up.  But we haven't changed his diet significantly (we actually started using organic olive oil instead of sunflower), and he hasn't had a red bottom in ages.  But we did change soap, as I mentioned.  (It isn't low sals, but the bar soap is only made of olive oil, lye, and water.)  We did try the cleure soap that was a low sals brand, but that didn't improve his skin as much.

We have had a two nights of reflux because of a late dinner or a holiday food he tried.  He has had some more nwings, but it is hard to say what is the cause with the new sleeping arrangement.   And that was probably worsened by the new bbb being unelevated.  But he took some mylanta both times and then sttn.  With the other wakings, I ask if he hurts anywhere, and he says no.  I think I may google to see if there are reflux wedges for twin mattresses.

I will let you know what I find on prices...

[hrk]

http://www.neocate.com/aaa_neocate/259-products-reimbursement.html

I did a little looking, and I don't see neocate advanced (which looks like a formula).  The neocate here for 1+ looks like it is a "medical food".  I would imagine something like a cereal.  The link has the otc options here; it will also give a price if you click for it.  Send me a note if anything pops out at you. 

[hrk]

I did peek at the cleanser.  I have seen that available here.    It appears to be water based (which I think is good), but it can be hard to tell sometimes.  I don't know what all the chemicals are. 

I do know that most soap books say that real soap is much less drying than commercial detergent based soap (things with sls or say anionic soap).  Handmade soaps are usually superfatted with extra oils or have jojoba/shea (which I think is actually low sals) and they feel really moisturizing.  Anyone looking for a super site to buy oils/herbs/things to make your own products may really like Moutain Rose Herbs.  I think it is the most recommended/reputable/high quality place that I am aware of.  http://www.mountainroseherbs.com/

Tao has a good link on soap vs detergent somewhere.  For anyone with skin issues, these links may be worth a read.  Most soaps on the market are detergent rather than soap.  It is hard to know if it is the chemicals or if it is the sals, etc causing skin issues sometimes, I think.
http://www.solveeczema.org/
http://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=184073.0

[Edesanja]

r $30 as it's a government authority script

Oh my!!! I only pay $6 a tin with an authority script here. It varies by District Health Board but I don't think anywhere in NZ pays more than $10 a tin.

I need help. What do I do? I did egg with him today. Instead of making pikelets like I was going to do I mixed an egg with leftovers from yesterday (pumpkin risotto) and some rice flour and baked it in mini muffin tins. It made 6 mini muffins and he had 3 for lunch (though lots got dropped). When he woke from his PM nap he was quite hot and grizzly. I gave him some pamol. I *think* it's teeth because his cheek was a bit red and he was biting on his thumb which he sometimes does and I think it's related to his teeth being sore. Surely egg wouldn't cause a temperature would it? I HATE FOOD CHALLENGES!!! This is why I've kind of been avoiding them lately. Sigh.

Do I keep going?