rotation diet for son's allergies?

[jessi]

My son is now almost four and is beginning to have allergic(?) reactions to foods again after over a year of being pretty much able to tolerate everything. Our doctor is worried that he may be allergic to all legumes (including soy and peanuts) . He is definitely allegric to almonds, walnuts, and cashews , and peanuts. And possibly other nuts. He's never had a life-threatening reaction, just itchy skin.He had eczema for almost 1 1/2 years starting at 10 mos. which we treated homeopathically which helped. I've started rotating enriched rice and soy milks so he doesn't get the same foods every day, keeping a list of what he eats/how his skin is. The problem is, he is an extremely picky eater...no guessing what he'll even try. Has anyone else had to use a rotation diet for allergies? I'm not convinced he's allergic to all legumes. It's also hard to tell if he's really allergic to what he's eating or to "shared equipment" contamination. I'm going to start him on the dairy free probiotic (natren) powder as I think this may also be related to antibiotics I took last summer (he's still nursing....which helps with his nutrition,but keeps me thinking about everything i eat too.). Just looking for any suggestions. I just saw that someone mentioned (in the soy post?) that quinoa is a complete protein. Can anyone tell me more? I want to have all the info in case the doctor continues to say that he can't be vegan because of his particular allergies. I've been vegan most of my life and my parents and grandparents are vegetarian so this is of epic proportions for me! Thank you so much. This is my first post here (we just got an internet account so I can research this...).
best wishes,
jessi

[Erin Pavlina]

Hi Jessi and welcome. I don't have experience with the rotation diet you speak of but did want to ask a question.

Has he been tested for allergies by an allergist? The reason I ask is because I recently went to an allergist because for years I've suspected I was allergic to certain foods because of reactions I'd gotten. The allergist did the tests and I was NOT allergic to the foods I thought I was. I was, however allergic to dust mites, cock roaches, bermuda grass, and sage. But no foods.

The allergist can also tell how allergic he is to a certain food and can give you the cross allergies as well. I might give that a shot.

[jessi]

Hi Erin!
Thank you for responding. I feel like I know you because I have your wonderful book and I think I saw an interview of yours in Veggie Baby magazine before it merged into vegnews. (I wrote a train travel article in the first merged issue...my son and husband and i have our photo there...now you can know me too!)
In response, my son did have a RAST blood test when he was about 11 months old. He tested fairly allergic to peanuts, slightly allergic to soy and wheat, and barely allergic to eggs. (These results seemed a little weird because he had never been exposed to eggs or wheat during my pregnancy or after.) His overall immune response to allergens was below the threshold for causing dermatitis...so the doc felt it was somewhat inconclusive, but suggested we avoid peanuts. I also cut all soy products for several weeks from both of our diets and had no change in his symptoms, so i just cut back on his consumption of those foods and we sought help from a homeopath.Now she wants to do another RAST (fairly traumatic) and I was going to do it, but then it sounded like that would be used to prove that he "can't be vegan" so I hesitated and i'm trying to do some other things (probiotic, rotating suspect foods). Also trying to desensitize with homeopathics...Probably do a rast if nothing is making a difference in a month. I am interested in learning of any good protein sources that don't rely on soy, and other legumes. He does tolerate sesame which is a relief! But i have to get the seeds and prepare them myself because most of the jarred tahini is made on shared equipment.
After five days of rotating foods, I have noticed that raisins might be a culprit...or too much sugar of any kind. I've read that sugar can mess with the body's immune response.) My son also seems to be doing a little better - the red skin is staying only on his chin/cheeks and hasn't gotten worse and actually looks better for the most part. So i'm less panicked now than I was a few days ago....it's awful having someone suggest that your child just won't be able to eat the way you feel is best for them.
Is your allergist veg-friendly? In so. calif.? I would be interested in getting more info about a good allergist in that area.
Thanks again! (And thank you, Erin, for doing what you do here. I love this website..so glad i finally motivated myself to get online.)

[Fiona]

Hi Jessi. Does your son have any reactions other than eczema? If not, could there be factors apart from diet making the eczema worse?

I posted a while back about my daughter's eczema - some of the responses might be helpful:

http://www.vegfamily.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=500&highlight=eczema

Welcome to the boards!

Fiona

[vegma]

Hi Jessi, I just wanted to chime in to say I'm nursing my 4yo too:) We know ds is allergic to dairy based on "blood in stool" from the time he was about a month old (this is what started our path to veganism). When he started eating solids, I kept a food diary on him for at least two years. The reading I've done on allergy testing is that there can be a lot of false positives/negatives, but this was over a year ago, so I apologize for not being able to quote my sources. Definitely try cutting out sugar - we always notice symptoms after I've baked anything (with any type of sweetener). I'm sorry I can't offer any suggestions for how to substitute for legumes, nuts and soy; I'm afraid we rely pretty heavily on all of them. The internet will open so many doors to you though! Good luck!

[jessi]

Thanks for the responses, Vegma and Fiona! After today, I really think sugar IS affecting how my son handles what he eats. I also realized that he started eating popsicles with my mom about the same time the allergies flared up...sort of got hooked on this one treat . (They're fruit sweetened, but apples and raisins both seem to bother him now. Also they're not organic and just about everything else he eats is....hmm.)
Any good suggestions for no-sugar veggie baking cookbooks? Muffins are the one way I slip extra veggies into my son's life!
This probably sounds strange, but my very picky eater just fell in love with Amy's refried beans with green chiles yesterday! And they didn't make his face break out! I'm so excited. Maybe he's going to be able to eat pinto beans!!! And they were spicy too!
Fiona, apart from the red dry flaky skin around my son's mouth, the only other symptom which seems to go along with his "allergies" is wetting the bed at night and having accidents during the day. (He's been pretty much accident free for the last year so it seems related, somehow.) Did you notice symptoms other than skin stuff with your little one?
Thanks again for the suggestions. I'm feeling a whole lot better about all of this now.

[sophie]

Hi Jessi! Welcome to the boards. I noticed you mentioned your son is bothered by apples and raisins- that's the same with my daughter. She is 4.5 and at the age of 2 we got her allergy tested. She tested intolerant to a lot of stuff- soy, dairy (though she'd never had it), eggs (ditto), sugar, honey, and salicylates. Salicylates is a pretty big category because it includes loads of fruit. Some of the worst ones for Lily included banana, raisins/grapes, citrus, kiwi (that actually made her break out in hives) and even apple. She is now able to tolerate apple, and even oranges but not every day. She eats a lot of pears because they are very low allergy. Anyway, just wondered if you had considered salicylate intolerance. My son (7) also gets "itchy skin" which is not so bad if he doesn't consume soy, so we pretty much took it out if the kids' diet except for now and then.
Quinoa is an excellent grain, we feed it to our 8 month old. It is gluten free as far as I know, and is really really high in iron and calcium. It has a strong taste though, so I don't know if your son would like it if he is a picky eater. Good luck anyway, and keep us posted!

[jessi]

What a coincidence! I was just thinking last night that maybe bananas (another of his staples) might be a problem for him. Then this morning he had some organic concord grape juice (so I could mix bifido probiotics with it) and he broke out in hives immediately. I guess raisins/grapes are out....although I wonder about maybe a yeast/mold connection there too...hmmmm. I'll look into salicylates. Thank you for the suggestion, Sophie. Do your children have trouble with any other legumes or just soy?

[sophie]

Jessi- they can eat other legumes with no probs, luckily for them. It sounds like salicylates may be an issue for your son. It was interesting when Lily got tested, as some foods high in salicylates, such as tomatoes and avocado, she was fine with. She used to get a rash on her face when she reacted to foods, and I remember giving her lots of kiwifruit, thinking the Vit C would be good, when the whole time it was making her worse! There is some info on the net about salicylate intolerance also. Good luck.

[jessi]

Thanks for the info! I did find some more stuff on the web regarding salicylates...sounds complicated, but it looks like we might be getting somewhere - a lot of it matched up. Does anyone know if I have to be careful of eating foods high in salicylates since my son is still nursing?

[sophie]

Jessi- I did eliminate the foods that caused a reaction when nursing my daughter. Now nursing my son I have been very careful about what I eat in case he has the same sensitivities. I actually ate a kiwifruit the other day and noted no reaction, which is promising. You might have to do a gradual elimination / rotation in your own diet until you find out the foods that are causing the problems.

[jessi]

We just arrived home from a long car trip and we have a new clue to son's allergy flare-up...we got a new booster seat for him just before his allergies went crazy. Hadn't thought of it til this trip when he was breaking out like crazy. It looked so much like contact dermatitis and my mom asked when we got the new seat and it all added up. It sounds like if you're allergic to formaldyhyde/fabric treatments (which the seat probably has) , exposure can bother your immune system to the point where your sensitivity to everything increases. I've also noticed that rice is a problem for him. So we washed the seat very thoroughly and covered it in a thick towel for the rest of the trip...he's improving so much! I don't think we would have figured this out if it hadn't been for the trip. I think we were using our car just enough to keep him borderline prior to this.
I am going to post a new question for allergist recommendations now. Thanks everyone for all the help here.
jessi

[vegma]

Good detective work, jessi!

[annie7]

Wouldn't an allergy to formaldehyde be a great Dr. approved reason to NOT be vaccinated? Or could previous vaccinations have spurred this on?

[jessi]

More food for thought! We actually did only the vax's our ped strongly suggested and we waited until he was older than recomended for some too....hmmmm. I really do need to find a friendly allergist.