Here we are, almost exactly one month later since my last entry, and I thought I would do an update. We totally revamped Jane's diet starting October 4th, 2013, approximately 6 weeks ago. And what I can tell you is that it has been life-changing. I can't stress that enough. I'd say within the past year it has been one constant battle with Jane and her eczema and skin infections. The eczema flares up, the scratching intensifies, and BOOM, infection, which subsequently makes her skin itch like you can't imagine and the scratching at that point is absolutely uncontrollable. Trust me, it's not normal to actually google search "child straight jacket". She was doing so much harm to herself and we couldn't leave her anywhere or with anyone without her absolutely attacking her body. All day long, my husband and I found ourselves repeating, "Jane, stop scratching...". If I needed to shower and wouldn't be able to keep an eye on her, there was a good change she would be bleeding by the time I returned. Ointments, bandages, gauze, cotton gloves, missing school, missing church class, blood on fabrics and bedding and even sometimes the furniture! It was absolutely out of control. Out. Of. Control. The last skin infection is what sent me over the edge. When absolutely everything just goes haywire, you know there's an infection. It also has a distinct odor, but that's a whole 'nother weird topic for another day. She scratched up the back of her leg so badly that it was weeping and then the skin scabbed over and she couldn't bend her knee joint. Just thinking back to it is enough to make me emotional. Her skin problems and discomfort was consuming our lives. And suddenly I thought the only way we could really identify what was going on was to start over again. Blame it on the fact we have a baby that was just starting out with her first baby solid food: rice cereal. The light bulb went off - "let's start over!".
So this whole elimination diet has been just like introducing foods to a baby. You start with simple, bland foods. Then you wait 2-3 days to be sure there's no negative reaction. It has been slow and tedious and it must have been divine intervention that we were even able to successfully navigate Halloween with a 6 year old who can't even think about eating candy in any shape or form. But we have made it! And the results are phenomenal.
Does Jane still have eczema? Sure. And it's manageable. I don't think that's really going anywhere. Are some days better than others? Yes. Are there still environmental allergens and factors we can't avoid and thus, sometimes have flare-ups? Yes.
But...
Does she still wear gloves to bed? Does her teacher still tell me at pick up each day that "it was a rough day"? Does she have random scratching fits around her mouth right after she eats? Are we taking benadryl every day for random reactions? Am I getting calls from the school to inform me that she is miserable and feels uncontrollably itchy? Am I scooping goop out of the tear-ducts of her eyes every morning?
NO!!!!
Are allergy tests 100% accurate?
NO!!!!
So this blog post is to help anyone out there who is looking for guidance. If you or your child have strange syptoms that you even think might be food-related or food allergies, try an elimination diet. Wipe the slate clean and start all over again. And keep a detailed journal as you go! You must keep the food journal. It's not easy, especially with small children. Those first few weeks of literally just boiled rice and meats was hard and frustrating for everyone involved. But we made it over that hump and we are seeing some results and getting answers. Not eating out was a life-changer but we have saved gobs of money by not doing so, so that's a major plus. If there are social gatherings or we must travel, we take special foods for Jane. As I mentioned previously, we are using the elimination diet guidelines from Wholistic Pediatrics and I like their details and explanation.
Here's a current list of what her elimination diet consists of:
Rice (brown and white)
Rice noodles (made of rice and water)
Beef (boiled or grilled without oil)
Chicken (boiled or grilled without oil)
Pears
Apples
Apple Juice (Martinelli's pure apple juice with no additional ingredients)
Honey
Peaches (mostly frozen)
Beans (Pintos and Black)
Blueberries (fresh and frozen)
Strawberries
Squash/Zucchini
Spinach (typically pureed and in fruit leather)
Olive oil (yay!!!)
Rice Crackers (consisting of rice, safflower oil, salt)
Unsweetened Applesauce (apples and ascorbic acid)
Onions
Cheese (yay!!!)
Clif Bar Fruit Twists (for splurges)
YummyEarth Suckers (for splurges)
Plain Almonds (peanut-free) -- I realize I'm walking the line with this one b/c of the other tree nut allergies and they say they "may contain" other tree nuts but I wanted to see if there would be any reaction.
It's pretty wild to be able to tell you exactly what foods and substances have gone into my daughter's body for the past six weeks. Crazy. It's an extremely simplified diet but if you compare to my last entry, you can see we've been able to add some good things!
I hope to test milk and GF oats in the next few days to really gets some more options for holiday cooking. It's killing me, not being able to bake fun things. Milk will be a huge deal that will open up a lot more options. I don't foresee any problem with milk and I think a lot of her reactions were results of cross contamination with wheat in other grains, such as corn, and in cereals. But....time will tell. :)
And hopefully I'll be back to recipe posting in the next few weeks. Whew.
So this whole elimination diet has been just like introducing foods to a baby. You start with simple, bland foods. Then you wait 2-3 days to be sure there's no negative reaction. It has been slow and tedious and it must have been divine intervention that we were even able to successfully navigate Halloween with a 6 year old who can't even think about eating candy in any shape or form. But we have made it! And the results are phenomenal.
Does Jane still have eczema? Sure. And it's manageable. I don't think that's really going anywhere. Are some days better than others? Yes. Are there still environmental allergens and factors we can't avoid and thus, sometimes have flare-ups? Yes.
But...
Does she still wear gloves to bed? Does her teacher still tell me at pick up each day that "it was a rough day"? Does she have random scratching fits around her mouth right after she eats? Are we taking benadryl every day for random reactions? Am I getting calls from the school to inform me that she is miserable and feels uncontrollably itchy? Am I scooping goop out of the tear-ducts of her eyes every morning?
NO!!!!
Are allergy tests 100% accurate?
NO!!!!
So this blog post is to help anyone out there who is looking for guidance. If you or your child have strange syptoms that you even think might be food-related or food allergies, try an elimination diet. Wipe the slate clean and start all over again. And keep a detailed journal as you go! You must keep the food journal. It's not easy, especially with small children. Those first few weeks of literally just boiled rice and meats was hard and frustrating for everyone involved. But we made it over that hump and we are seeing some results and getting answers. Not eating out was a life-changer but we have saved gobs of money by not doing so, so that's a major plus. If there are social gatherings or we must travel, we take special foods for Jane. As I mentioned previously, we are using the elimination diet guidelines from Wholistic Pediatrics and I like their details and explanation.
Here's a current list of what her elimination diet consists of:
Rice (brown and white)
Rice noodles (made of rice and water)
Beef (boiled or grilled without oil)
Chicken (boiled or grilled without oil)
Pears
Apples
Apple Juice (Martinelli's pure apple juice with no additional ingredients)
Honey
Peaches (mostly frozen)
Beans (Pintos and Black)
Blueberries (fresh and frozen)
Strawberries
Squash/Zucchini
Spinach (typically pureed and in fruit leather)
Olive oil (yay!!!)
Rice Crackers (consisting of rice, safflower oil, salt)
Unsweetened Applesauce (apples and ascorbic acid)
Onions
Cheese (yay!!!)
Clif Bar Fruit Twists (for splurges)
YummyEarth Suckers (for splurges)
Plain Almonds (peanut-free) -- I realize I'm walking the line with this one b/c of the other tree nut allergies and they say they "may contain" other tree nuts but I wanted to see if there would be any reaction.
It's pretty wild to be able to tell you exactly what foods and substances have gone into my daughter's body for the past six weeks. Crazy. It's an extremely simplified diet but if you compare to my last entry, you can see we've been able to add some good things!
I hope to test milk and GF oats in the next few days to really gets some more options for holiday cooking. It's killing me, not being able to bake fun things. Milk will be a huge deal that will open up a lot more options. I don't foresee any problem with milk and I think a lot of her reactions were results of cross contamination with wheat in other grains, such as corn, and in cereals. But....time will tell. :)
And hopefully I'll be back to recipe posting in the next few weeks. Whew.