intolerences - avoid or limit - opinions please

[firsttimemummy]

I don't want to start any arguments and know everyone has different views on this, but I would like to know what you think, and (most imprortantly) why!

As most of you know I have been totally dairy and soya free since Oliver was a few weeks old.  I can tolerate any dairy apart from cold cows milk.  Last week I was on holiday and inevitably had dairy (not ice cream, etc but lots of butter and other items that contained dairy).  I found over the week that my stomach was a bit unsettled etc due to adding dairy again.  In the past such foods would not have affected me at all.

his got me thinking .... is it better to completely avoid dairy (for intolerence, not allergy) and then have symptoms if you accidentally eat dairy ... or should you have a little bit in your system all the time so your body is used to it? 

Thanks for your views. 

[Shiv52]

I know there are lots of schools of thought on it. 

When I worked with kids with ASD and they did gluten or casein free diets, they ALWAYS had a reaction when they tried foods they had been avoiding.  And then parents would panic and take them off it again.  Parents though who persisted for a few weeks with trialling did find the symptoms settled down and their children were able to manage some casein or  gluten without ill effect.   Symptoms were worse when they were on strict elimination and then had a diet slip up.  One doctor likened it to not having caffeine for an age and then having two cups of coffee.  Of course your body wil react to something it isn't used to having.   

I think the decider for me would be how severe symtoms are with dairy in your diet. 

Rosa has MPI.  I decided to go the elimation route to rest her gut (although the doctor told me to not do that but keep exposing her and she'd grow out of it) and then I did start her on very small bits of dairy and some more in my diet and at first she did get a bit constipated and skin flared.  But going very slowly she is now managing dairy in her diet well.  I still limit it and haven't done milk as a drink but so far she is going ok.  When we saw the paed and dietician a few months back they both insisted that the best form  of control for intolerance was limited exposure and said they only recommended complete elimination for actual alleriges. 

Its tough.  I know had R's symptoms kept up I'd have kept on eliminating but I did base symptoms over a period of time  rather than initial symptoms to see if her body was managing it ok.  So for me the fact  her symptoms have gotten much better with limited dairy and the fact an ED is hard going for anyone is reason we went the exposure route rather than the elimination. 

HTH x

[firsttimemummy]

Thanks - that is interesting to hear and along the lines of what I was thinking. 

[deb]

If you have what would be considered an intolerance, it's still basically an immune response in most cases. It can be caused or exacerbated by damage to the gut lining, and many foods - casein, soy, and gluten are among THE worst offenders! - will damage the gut lining further if not completely eliminated. Once the gut has healed, sometimes limited quantities can be tolerated from time to time, but even if it's not a gut issue (and not sure how you'd tell for sure), I'd say it's really best to avoid those foods entirely.

[EloysH]

I tried the exposure route with Ds2, it has not worked.  This was within the maninstream medical practcioners and dieticians.

Now I realise food intolerance has many pathways, as does reflux and for him, his gut is damaged and sick and needs time to heal before he can tolerate foods. His Dr's are now outside mainstream practicioners too.

I had his gut anaerobes and aerobes analysed by laboratory and he has undergrowths of the good guys and overgrowths of the bad guys.  It means that foods cannot be digested properly and they putrefy and ferment.  It means he has gut dysbiosis.  It would contributeto his reflux too. I have the view that we need to fix his bacterial imbalances before we can put him on small doses of the intolerant foods.

I also had him tested for zinc, copper, histamine and pyroluria.  He has copper/zinc imbalances. Zinc is required for the body to prodcue over 200 enzymes including disgestive enzymes, so this might explain why he can't tolerate many foods or digest well.  So we are going to fix the imbalance first.   Also, his copper needs to be brought done so the zinc can come up.   Henalso has pyroluria whih eliminated b6 and zinc from his body both or which are requried to detoxify food chemicals and digest food properly amoung literllay hunfreds of thoer imnportant bodily biochemical processes.   So no wonder he has issues 

[MasynSpencerElliotte]

I'm a bit on the fence with this tbh!  We are doing total elimination of dairy, eggs & gluten...dairy & eggs because of reactions we have seen, gluten by choice because of ASD and we have kept that up because eliminating that has finally led to normal bm's for Spencer.  I'm honestly afraid to rock the boat too much...I gave her a bit of yogurt last week and she was horribly constipated (actually still is!) and her behaviour was just downright awful.  She has be totally GFCF for 9 months now, so one would think her gut is healed.

I found over the week that my stomach was a bit unsettled etc due to adding dairy again.  In the past such foods would not have affected me at all.

From what I understand, if you are off dairy for awhile it is possible to have temporary lactose intolerance as you adjust to it again.  I get this too as I don't do alot of dairy, but if I over indulge I notice it for sure!

[Katet]

I have a mild allergy to dairy, citrus & yeast. I can tolerate some dairy if processed/low fat (a full fat flat white is too much milk, but a skim flat white is ok), I don't generally eat lots of bread or citrus & do ok.

I have recently had much worse hay fever than in past years & i noticed that when we were away at the beach DH & Ds2's hayfever was much better, but mine was far worse... so I looked at what I'd been eating & noticed that while we were on Holidays I'd had bread 2-3 times/day + pizza = lots of yeast. So I basically cut out all yeast apart from the occasional glass of wine (yeast is in wine) & the odd meal that has breadcrumbs in it... I haven't needed antihistamines for a few weeks EXCEPT last Thursday when in a rush to get to a meeting & missed dinner, so I grabbed the left over "pizzas" made on English muffins to eat in the car... that night I suffered.
For me bottom line is I'm probably better off with no dairy, yeast & citrus, but regular small amounts are ok, but if I have a large amount after having none, I suffer...I am still going no yeast because it cuts out lots of carbs & helping with losing a few pesky Kg's, but I when I go back on it will be limited to 1 slice of bread/day.

[Buntybear]

I would have thought it better to eliminate all offenders if they upset your system.

I wonder if people with IBS have undiagnosed intolerances. 

[MasynSpencerElliotte]

I wonder if people with IBS have undiagnosed intolerances.

Yeah, I've wondered that too...my dog's vet has lumped him under IBS, but really thinks he has either allergies or intolerances (and it is way too much $$$ to figure that out anyways)

[Katet]

I wonder if people with IBS have undiagnosed intolerances. 

most probably & there is a school of thought that foods you crave are the ones that you shouldn't eat - Alcoholics would be a good example of that.

[EloysH]

I would say that is it likely, since food intolerance put crudley is an inability to digest food, IBS means that the gut is having trouble with digestion too.    Both are linked. But there can be sooo many underlying causes of IBS. 

I feel that some food intolerances are easily fixed and some are longer lasting depending on the pathways and root causes.  I have been reading up about parasitic infections of the gut which are pretty easy to come by for example, blastocystis.  An infection alone can cause IBS type symptoms and food intolerances, but once the parasite has been eliminated, presto - digestion improves and food intolerances go away or lessen.

Hence I am getting Ds2 stools analysed this week for parasites - just so we can rule it out.