A few different things have led me to this point. Most importantly, my daughter Gwen. She is 2.5 years old and as of yesterday we found out is allergic to Dairy, Eggs, Soy, Wheat, Grains, and Legumes. Luckily, they are not life threatening allergies but the wrong foods drastically affect her mood and the outcome of her diapers.
Gwen
Little things led us to her current doctor that we love and who helped us find this out. From her having bad acid reflux as a baby and trying all types of formula to no avail, her re-occurring bouts of diarrhea that would have her missing out on daycare and me missing out on work, and finally her rash on her left arm that has been there for 2 years. The pediatrician ordered a regular food allergy blood test which came back with nothing. Their only instruction was to make sure she stayed hydrated and referred us to a dermatologist. The dermatologist only delved skin deep into the issue (hehe) and never did any type of follow up research. We went 4 times over the last 2 years wondering when that rash was ever going to go away. Every single time the doctor said it looked like Linear Epidermal Nevi or Lichen Striatus. One should go away in a year, the other may never go away at all. That's it. They didn't continue to research anything or want to take a biopsy. Each visit they prescribed a different level of steroid creme until the last visit, they said the steroid would thin out her skin too much in case we wanted to actually do a biopsy later. So they gave us an ointment and sent us on our way once again to wait and see if it would go away this year. At this point as a mother I was livid. My daughter wasn't born with this rash on her arm so I refuse to accept the possibility of it remaining there for the rest of her life because one doctor wouldn't do anything or look into it any further.
Meanwhile over the last year, my oldest sister went through the process of finding out the allergies of her whole family and removing those things from their diets resulting in the clearing of my nephew's severe all-over rash and the increase of their overall health and happiness. She packs her kids' lunches every day and takes their own muffins/cupcakes to birthday parties and never complains because she knows the benefits of keeping foods that are toxic to their bodies out. It almost fully eradicated the terrible twos from my niece and will probably prevent them from my nephew. She herself lost a ton of weight and is in the best shape and health of her life.
When I decided to stop going to the dermatologist and find somewhere else to turn, I went to her Naturopath. He had cleared my nephews rash and is extremely knowledgeable about how food can affect the body so it seemed like the best next choice.
Helping herself to breakfast at Grandmas: pre-alergy test results
Boy was I right! With just the first visit, Gwen was sent for an extensive blood panel for non-life threatening food allergies, taken off dairy and he said he would be doing more research into the rash and her previous diagnosis! An answer! A suggestion! A "next step" has finally been offered!
Within 2 days of having zero dairy in her diet, Gwen's mood was already better. Daycare said she was playing much nicer with her friends. Even with her cousins she stopped being aggressive and was sharing better. She stopped fighting with me as much (She's still 2, it would to take a whole lot more to stop her fighting completely than just eliminating dairy!) and she stopped snoring completely. She used to snore so badly that I recorded it with the intent of bringing her to an ENT doctor some day. It sounded like sleep apnea or just plain choking. Now it's completely vanished.
3 Weeks went by and she started having some pretty bad days. Bad diapers and bad moods. Finally the results came in and we found out why. Her reactions to Dairy, Eggs, Wheat, Grain, Soy and Legumes were almost off the chart. She'd had exceptionally bad moods the previous day and I realized she had a bunch of eggs for breakfast that morning. It's amazing how everything started making sense. No changes in her rash yet, but the doctor said that will take more time and he is still doing research into it. (Still a great answer!)
Now, we begin our lifelong journey of what we CAN eat. My husband and I decided we will make this a family effort, keeping the foods out of the house that affect her (and probably us too, we haven't gotten our own blood tested yet and the doctor said her reactions could be genetic) and exploring all the ways to substitute the foods we will crave and miss. Luckily she is young enough that she shouldn't miss too much. I am 6.5 months pregnant with our 2nd girl, so she wont be missing anything either :)
(old photo) Our Family
My hope is to fill this blog with great ideas, recipes, links, research etc. to help anyone who wants it. I am so very lucky to have my sisters and my parents to help me along, hopefully this can be as helpful to people who don't have living resources in the next town over. So please keep reading if you or your loved ones have food allergies or if you just want to eat healthier! This is not a diet, this is a complete lifestyle makeover and we are in this together.
Thanks for reading my first blog post ever!
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