Author Topic: Anyone else on an elimination diet (Fed up or RPAH?)  (Read 75596 times)

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Offline EloysH

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Re: Anyone else on an elimination diet (Fed up or RPAH?)
« Reply #75 on: August 24, 2010, 23:21:41 pm »
Hi Shannon, 

I would either start adding one at a time from the low lists of amines/glutamates/sals and completely elimiate the allergy foods lists as eggs/nuts/fish/dairy/soy/gluten  or just start eating everything from the low lists.  Depends how nervous you are.   You should expect a *few* weeks or worse symptoms fir the withdrawl phase. n I thnk for sanity sake I would just eat ALL lows. You will be able to eat all the non gluten grains and cook with gluten free flour.  Just remember the pears are peeled and ripe.  The chicken is no skin.   Citirc acid is your lemon juice and vinegar for dressings and sauces.  golden syrup and brown soft sugar (not the the hard raw stuff)  will be used alot.

I am sending the book today Shannon so its still 7-10 days off.  The book is pretty essential, but you could probably get by.  Just stick the recipes with *low chemical*    you'll have to pick up some egg replacer so you can make the baked goods.  Remember to freeze anty meats cook or raw on the day.  If you want to eat you thaw it that day adne at it.  Don't char any meats either you can roast them but don't eat the gravy juice or yummy burned bits.

I'm finally getting advice on the food challenges today... I got the go ahead at the appt yesterday!   Will talk more about the appt it was very informative!   

Just ask any questions if you need..... 

Offline EloysH

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Re: Anyone else on an elimination diet (Fed up or RPAH?)
« Reply #76 on: August 24, 2010, 23:30:12 pm »
Shanno with the meats you need to ask your butcher if it was freshly cut that morning, otherwise you can;t have it.  Meats can't be aged on the carcass more than a week before cutting.  Lamb is really safe, usually they cut it up straight away. Chicken has to be bought the same day or next day that it arrives at the butcher.  So no more supermarket meats, they are packaged too long.   Don't buy any of those 20 days aged steaks etc.  If you are buying mince it needs to be preservative free - ask your butxcher.  Everything must be frozen straight away if not eating that day.  Fish can only be eated same day when comes in off the boat.

Offline Katet

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Re: Anyone else on an elimination diet (Fed up or RPAH?)
« Reply #77 on: August 25, 2010, 02:05:53 am »
Lamb is really safe, usually they cut it up straight away.

I find this funny (for me personally only) as Lamb is pretty much the only food that I have a reaction (stomach cramps) from even if I only have a small amount & I know it is a safe meat... other things like dairy, yeast & citrus (my "problem" foods) I can eat in small to moderate amounts, but Lamb I notice, esp since I've only had it in my diet 3 times in 17 years (accidently once & "testing" twice) , all with the same issue of bent over double stomach cramps (from 1-2 mouthfuls) & horrid wind!
dc1 July 03, dc2 May 05

Offline Gypsymom

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Re: Anyone else on an elimination diet (Fed up or RPAH?)
« Reply #78 on: August 25, 2010, 03:37:47 am »
Citirc acid is your lemon juice and vinegar for dressings and sauces.  golden syrup and brown soft sugar (not the the hard raw stuff)  will be used alot.

Where do I buy citric acid? Just regular white vinegar is okay? When I had to do a cleanse I could only use apple cider vinegar. To me, golden syrup is corn syrup, but that can't be right. Is it the 'British' kind? I thought white sugar was better as more refining takes out more substances? According to this link, brown sugar is out: http://www.plantpoisonsandrottenstuff.info/content/elimination-diet.aspx

The rules regarding meat are daunting! I'm not willing to change shampoos etc, at least not right now.

I'm not sure whether I could handle going back to not knowing what is causing a problem but I know that I can't just eat this mini list even though he loves it. I'll see what the dietician says tomorrow, but maybe I should give myself a couple of days to work up towards starting a whole new diet on Monday (with all the foods). How long do you think I would be dealing with reactions/reflux? You'd think there shouldn't be any withdrawls though if I've already been eating so limited for so long (and as of Friday, don't have anymore high sals in my diet).

Great news about the challenges. Looking forward to your full report!


Offline EloysH

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Re: Anyone else on an elimination diet (Fed up or RPAH?)
« Reply #79 on: August 25, 2010, 04:05:22 am »
Sorry Shannon to be clear - citric acid is your replacement for anything sour, inclduing lemon jiuce and vinegar.  There is no safe vinegar in the low foods. Citric acid is a powder nia little tub bought at supermarkets in the baking goods section. just use 1/4 teaspoon at a time, its really sour.

as for sugar, I double checked - "raw" brown sugar is no allowed,   but the soft squashy brown sugar, & white sugar are low.  If in doubt just skip the sugar and go for pure maple syrup, caramel syrup or golden syrup, or rice syrup.  They are all low.

A tough choice ahead Shannon, you don't want to undo any of your hard work and suffering and get reactions, yet you want to eat a wider range of safe foods.

Even though you've been off high sals since friday, the dieticians said to me is stilll takes around two weeks to go through the withdrawls, and to allow 4 weeks to stabilise before challenging.  Here we are at the 6 going 7 week mark and just starting challenges.

Offline EloysH

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Re: Anyone else on an elimination diet (Fed up or RPAH?)
« Reply #80 on: August 25, 2010, 04:22:29 am »
So I explained to the paed allergist that since Kai has been on lactese drops he is like 99% comfortable, and poos yellow.  As for the one off coin sized mucus I am coming across in his nappy once a week coupled with  an unsettled day - they are saying the reflux and excess acid will cause excess mucus, and that mucus is normal but not in large quantities or stringy. If  coupled with unsettledness, pain, sore tummy, being off colour, etc, together with mucus it indicates gut irritation, highly probable food intolerance. If there is a small amount of mucus and they are fairly happy, then don't worry too much.

So we decided that I have reached the baseline, and this is as good as Kai gets given his reflux. Since his weight gain is good for two weeks in a row, I can start the challenges.

The challenges are going to take months - most go for 7 days eating large quantities of the offending foods, but specific types of food.  You stop as soon as you get a reaction, wait for them to recover, wait for 3 clear days then start the next challenge.  

The dairy challenge is ridiculous -
day 1 200 ml milk
day 2 400ml
day 3 600ml
day 4-7 add plain yoghurt + 600ml milk

I can't imagine his getting past day 1.  I don't know if I will bother with the dairy, the reaction will be so bad I don't want to start on a relly bad note, given his poor weight gains. I am pretty well convinced he is intolerant, even though I haven't challenged it.


For amines, it involves chocolate and pork, as they are PURE amines and don't have sals in them.

After each challenge, one must go back to the elimination diet, you can't take on board the new foods if they pass the challenge (except for dairy and gluten) until all challenges are finished.   This is because so many foods have more than one chemical in them, the results would be confounded.

Need to keep a meticulous food diary the whole time too.


As for putting weight onto Kai, the allergist suggested more frequent feeding, she guessed he is just not taking in enough - as a reflux thing - he dosen't want to feel "full"  I was impressed, I had not told her about his short feeds etc We didn't go there with formula she said she could tell I was not comfortable with it and said its not necessary. She also said solids won't do much for weight gain until he hits proteins. Even then solids are risky as any stuff ups for a food intolerant child means unhappy gut and discomfort, and then they eat less because they are uncomfortable, and don't gain as well. We are running some routine tests too, just to rule our urinary tract infection etc.

Got the go ahead to start solids if I wanted though, provided he only eats from the low lists and one new food per 5 days or so. Then when my challenges are over we can look at what foods we can add to his diet.
« Last Edit: August 25, 2010, 09:39:02 am by EloysH »

Offline Edesanja

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Re: Anyone else on an elimination diet (Fed up or RPAH?)
« Reply #81 on: August 25, 2010, 05:00:51 am »
So sounds like you found it helpful?

Interesting that your paed said something kind of similar to mine about mucous.

Ahhh!! To the dairy challenge! Are they really suggesting you DO that one first? Sounds like a bad idea to me! What are you going to do as your first challenge?
Jenny - mama to



Offline EloysH

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Re: Anyone else on an elimination diet (Fed up or RPAH?)
« Reply #82 on: August 25, 2010, 10:06:56 am »
Jenny,  I found it such a relief to talk to a doctor who is on the same page re food intolerances.

She didn't get a chance to look at his tongue as he was asleep - we didn't want to wake him, however we will get the other paed to do so in 3 weeks.   She said that if is tongue can reach the front of his teeth, he won't have speech problems, if it can reach outer edge of his lip he will able to do everything, lick an ice-cream etc. She said to tap the top of his tongue it should stick out.  So far, we think it can only reach the inner edge of his mouth.  :-\  We will keep trying though. She said a speech pathologist would help us make the decision on whether to snip, and assess it, and a paediatric surgeon would need to snip under general anesthetic.  :o Sounds a bit drastic!  If he doesn't have the 'full range' we are keen to snip before he is 1.

She said one of of other options for his refluxing was gaviscon before every feed, but I feel the thickener is doing the job well.  (Besides we have got so many things going on, I don't want to add another to the mix!).

 She was really keen for me to do the food challengesfor sanities sake and kept emphasising that it's the only way to determine how sensitive Kai is, how much of the problem is pure reflux, how much of it is true food intolerance.  She said that as time goes on each child builds up a tolerance, even the most sensitive kids can be exposed to small quanitities of the intolerant food so that over time they build up a tolerance.

My long term bf'ing goal will rely on me sticking to some sort of restrictive diet, these challenges will show how restricted that it will need to be.  She said every family is different, some want a child with no symptoms, some choose to medicate heavily and eat unrestriced, some go to formula, some find a happy medium.  I am thinking that if I can get a bit more range in my foods I could do it till he is a year old, without having to supplement. I am happy if he stays as is now.  She said it would be good to get him on the bottle and used to the tast of the formula, so if I can't stand the diet anymore, I have a fall back,  however I just can't get my head around it! I feel that he will become radically less sensitive to foods and relfux better with age, hindsight with Ds1  is helping alot here.

As far as the challenges go, (with the dietician) its a set program - one size fits all type thing.  We discussed dairy and she said the only reason to do it is if you really are missing the dairy and want to prove to yourself that he is intolerant.  However I just know in my bones he is and I don't want to put him through anything unecessarily.

If he starts failing challenge after challenge, then he will be one unsettled guy, so I won't do gluten again. However if we are going well, then I will do it again to re-confirm, she said the reaction to gluten usually happens very quickly i.e. Day 1 or 2 anyway.

The only one I think he will pass 100% is the additive group - synthetic antioxidants - you eat 1 serve of McDonalds (maccas) large chips 3 days in a row.  I have been eating these over the last 6 weeks, no problem!!  I am pretty keen to get all the preservatives and additives out of the way, as that is annoying me.   

The food colour challenge is fun - eat a hundreds and thousands sandwich every day for 3 days - 2 teaspoons on bread.

Anyway, thanks for listening!

Will get back once I start the first food challenge next week!  BTW I am thinking of doing amines or sals.

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Re: Anyone else on an elimination diet (Fed up or RPAH?)
« Reply #83 on: August 25, 2010, 18:10:18 pm »
Just a thought to add that we did not have any withdrawl symptoms when we went low salicylate.  We started to have a sleeping toddler (2 yr old) without meds.  :-)

Did I miss anything other than eating from the restricted end for the elimination? 

Offline sherry lynn

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Re: Anyone else on an elimination diet (Fed up or RPAH?)
« Reply #84 on: August 26, 2010, 01:47:46 am »
What is this?  eat a hundreds and thousands sandwich ?

thanks for typing all that out Eloys, very good info.
« Last Edit: August 26, 2010, 01:51:59 am by sherry lynn »
DS#1: 30 Oct 2007
DS#2 19 Feb 2010

Offline Edesanja

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Re: Anyone else on an elimination diet (Fed up or RPAH?)
« Reply #85 on: August 26, 2010, 03:56:20 am »
Hundreds and thousands are little bead like sugar balls in different colours used to sprinkle on cakes, ice ream etc. And kids love them in sandwiches!
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Offline Gypsymom

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Re: Anyone else on an elimination diet (Fed up or RPAH?)
« Reply #86 on: August 26, 2010, 05:11:04 am »
I saw the GP and the dietician today. The first said 'time to refer you to a paed' and the second said 'you're a better woman than I'. Both are impressed with how much homework I've done and the commitment to the ED, but neither of them know enough to help me.

Elo, do you think I could do the RPAH without any support? These folks are recommending I just add one new food at a time (and pretty much seemed glazed over when I started talking about sals!).


Offline EloysH

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Re: Anyone else on an elimination diet (Fed up or RPAH?)
« Reply #87 on: August 26, 2010, 05:52:00 am »
Shannon, you are an amazing woman, I agree!
 Yes I think that YOU could. I think the main problems come when starting out in the first few weeks. 1. learning all the rules,
2.  locating the right products. 

It is really hard to get it sorted quickly without either a dietician or info from others.  I would suggest joining the Canadian support group  on the Fed up website - its an email group and yahoo group I think. Lets hope its active.   Would you like help locating the link?    They would also point you to dieticians that are experienced with this particular diet.   I have been using the support group for my city and was so helpful figuring everything out at the start.   

I am here to help of coruse.  :D

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Re: Anyone else on an elimination diet (Fed up or RPAH?)
« Reply #88 on: August 26, 2010, 14:09:08 pm »
We also dropped to all low food categories.  Then we added one new fruit/veg per week.  I rechecked that anything new that we were adding was non existant for salicylates or very low. 

Offline Gypsymom

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Re: Anyone else on an elimination diet (Fed up or RPAH?)
« Reply #89 on: August 26, 2010, 15:44:14 pm »
Yes I think that YOU could. I think the main problems come when starting out in the first few weeks. 1. learning all the rules,
2.  locating the right products.

*blush* Thanks for the vote of confidence.

http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/failsafeCanada/ looks to be inactive. Only 1 msg this year!

Last night was our worst in quite some time. I had the bison for dinner for the first time. I guess I'll eat it again today and watch for other symptoms.  :-\

Jean, it sounds like you were pretty confident that salicyclates was your big issue. For us, I think the MSPI is huge, but there is obviously a lot more going on too.

I am still losing weight. Anyone else? Luckily I have enough junk in the trunk to spare, but I thought it would even out by now.