Author Topic: What food to avoid? f/history of asthma, eczema...you name it!!!  (Read 1626 times)

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Offline catherineoti

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Hi, Sorry if this has already been addressed - I could not find it.  My 7 month old son has just begun getting into solids (although he has just started refusing to eat anything for the last week!).  Anyway, I have bad asthma, hayfever, rhinitis, a little eczema, and others in my family have a combination of these too.  I am restricting his diet in the hope to avoid these, but would value any tips.  For example should I avoid diary until he is one year old.  I have avoided wheat, but are oats okay?  Does any of this make a difference…this is so difficult. Poor darling comes up in eczema in the typical crease places and this seems to be related to some foods, although I have also recently stopped using soap and started using aqueous cream which might explain the improvement. 

Many thanks
Catherine

Offline arclarc

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Re: What food to avoid? f/history of asthma, eczema...you name it!!!
« Reply #1 on: March 08, 2006, 02:13:36 am »
you are a very thoughtful mother.  i can't tell you what to feed or not to feed your son, each child will have their own triggers.  My son has lots of food allergies, his reactions are all GI related (any dairy, wheat, barley, beef, chicken).  we were advised to give him soy milk not cow milk when he turned one year old.  however we were just diagnosed with asthma and i think soy is a trigger for him.  so what might trigger one thing might be ok for another.  I was able to discover what his allergies were by keeping a food log.

What time he eats.  What he eats.  How much he eats.  Any problems (gas, crying, not sleeping, skin issues, coughing, anything you can think of) and what time they started.  If you are breastfeeding, you have to track all the above for yourself too.  You should be able to see patterns after a few days.  If you do notice anything you can link to food, you might have to wait 5 or more days for it to clear his system before you start again.

In the US we are advised to avoid milk as formula until 1.  if you have a problem with dairy (sinus issues) you should probably wait until for a year to introduce any dairy.  If you are really concerned about grains, I would get gluten free steel cut oats.  You can use white rice (easier to digest than brown rice).  The biggies to avoid are dairy, wheat, soy, chamomile, and eggs

good luck and try not to worry too much.

Offline catherineoti

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Re: What food to avoid? f/history of asthma, eczema...you name it!!!
« Reply #2 on: March 08, 2006, 21:52:57 pm »
Thank you very, very much. I will get the food log going!! 
Many thanks
Catherine

s_olano00

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Re: What food to avoid? f/history of asthma, eczema...you name it!!!
« Reply #3 on: March 09, 2006, 10:56:47 am »
Catherine,

I am no expert, but in my family we have quite an extensive history of allergies and respiratory problems (I have asthma) and I won't give the following foods to my DD until she's one because they are well-known allergy triggers

-Eggs
-Chocolate
-Citrics
-Berries
-Diary
-Nuts
-Pineapple

Anyway, it will pretty much depend on your LO's organism, and eating or avoiding a food will depend on how your LO reacts to it. I just read that the foods I mention above can increase the potential risk of your LO developing an allergy of some sort in the future, so for me, for the time being, I am avoiding them.

Take Care

Offline catherineoti

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Re: What food to avoid? f/history of asthma, eczema...you name it!!!
« Reply #4 on: March 09, 2006, 16:15:34 pm »
Thank you very much.  It makes sense to avoid those too.  Is your littel one alright with wheat products?
Catherine

Offline arclarc

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Re: What food to avoid? f/history of asthma, eczema...you name it!!!
« Reply #5 on: March 10, 2006, 00:12:53 am »
Oh yes, i forgot about citrus, nuts, seeds, tomatoes.  really the list could go on and on.  good luck.

s_olano00

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Re: What food to avoid? f/history of asthma, eczema...you name it!!!
« Reply #6 on: March 10, 2006, 07:20:12 am »
Oh yes, i forgot about citrus, nuts, seeds, tomatoes. really the list could go on and on. good luck.

tomatoes too........

I haven't offered too many foods that contain wheat either.... only a puree, cheerios (she didn't like them) and from time to time pasta.

Occasionally, I give her baby cookies that are gluten and egg free and her baby cereal is hypoallergenic, as well as her formula.

Offline arclarc

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Re: What food to avoid? f/history of asthma, eczema...you name it!!!
« Reply #7 on: March 12, 2006, 15:41:07 pm »
just so you know, cheerios contain wheat.  you would be better going with puffed rice, plain not sugar coated (arrowhead mills makes a good one).  you can find it in your health food store probably.  be sure to read the ingredients carefully.  keep in mind that if you want to avoid wheat that means bread, corn tortillas (most have flour in them), most cereals, pasta (deboles makes a rice pasta), cookies, anything with flour.  you will have to learn what to look for on labels.

you can start introducing lots of fruits and veggies though.  by the time you get through most of them your lo should be old enough to start trying dairy, soy, wheat, and the rest.  here are a few things that we steamed and pureed.  sweet potato, spinace, potato, kale, beet greens, carrots, turnip, watercress, rutabaga, all squashes one at a time, papaya, mango, all berries except strawberries, apples, avacado, aprocit (his fave!).  you can check out ruth yarows book "supper baby foods".  she has a page that breaks down what age they can have what foods.  she also lists a good variety of foods.  look in your library first so you can decide if you like it enough to buy it.

if you get jar food you must read the label every time you buy a jar.  i didn't and one company changed the formula of our favorite and he start to get sick again before i figured it out. (they added barley!)

with his skin you can try cediphil wash and lotion.  it is really good for eczema!