My son, who is now seven, has had eczema since he was a tiny baby. You know how babies usually have soft, cuddly skin? He never had that. My other kids also had infant eczema, but outgrew it by the time they were one or two. This guy’s still dealing with it.
When he was three it was bad enough and puzzling enough that our family doctor sent us in two directions: dermatologist and allergist. The dermatologist calls him one of her moderate-severe child cases. The allergist discovered a peanut allergy, but since we were waiting until age four to introduce peanuts, we knew they weren’t the culprit. Still, we now follow a careful peanut-free diet.
We’ve tried all sorts of lotions and potions and other solutions. This fall, we started with an upper-cervical chiropractor, and we believe we’re making some sort of progress there, but the eczema still hasn’t gone away.
After consulting with an osteopath (a doctor who focuses more on whole-life and alternative cares than an M.D. usually does) my son underwent bloodwork for ALCAT food sensitivity testing. When we got the results, we found that he has intolerances to several foods. We will now be eliminating these foods from his diet for various periods of time, depending on the severity of the reactions, and then gradually adding them back in and watching for changes in symptoms.
Suddenly, the peanut allergy seems very, very easy to deal with.
These are the foods that my son will be avoiding, and the length of time before reintroduction of each.
Avoid for three weeks:
Avoid for three months:
Avoid for six months:
Always avoid:
This blog will be a journal in the adventure of finding things that he can, and will enjoy, eating. Countless other people have lifelong multiple food allergies; we are fortunate in that we hope to find one or two culprits and will successfully reintroduce most other foods. In the meantime, however, we will be experimenting with different types of flours and grains, and finding recipes that fit in my son’s acceptable list of ingredients. It will be an adventure.
