Elimination diet - Questions

[onthefly]

Can someone run me through the challenging process? I sold my family on 2 weeks, plus a bit. But is this going to take months?!!!?!

[~me~]

Depends on what you are trying to work out?

My DS2 is on an elimination diet and we are now on 5 months. He is on the removing 6 foods from his diet. So it is, dairy, gluten, soy, corn (maize), nuts and egg. It took a month for him to get better and we had to continue the diet until we saw the allergist again. I had an appointment with a Dietitian that lasted over an hour to show me foods he could eat and which foods have the things I need to avoid that were hidden in the ingredients. Maize shows up alot as does milk powder and also all those preservative numbers usually related to one of the foods he had to avoid. So we were virtually preservative free as well.
It was initially daunting and difficult for us and my DS2.
I have managed to substitute pretty much everything to accommodate his diet, including icecream This I substituted with a coconut icecream.
Gluten Free shops are fantastic, we are lucky to have an excellent one not far from here.

So on the time line, we then have to re-introduce the foods one at a time one month at a time. We have just done dairy, it triggered his intolerance again, so we have taken that out, wait for him to improve then introduce one of the other foods. This process is going to take at least 12mths here. We are back to the specialist next week.

It all depends what you are trying to eliminate and what reactions they are having and also what your specialist recommends.

If you suspect it is one thing and only want to eliminate that one product, then I still think you need to allow at least a month to see an improvement. IMO

[onthefly]

thanks for that!

it's very hard to substitute things because of what we're cutting out (it's in my blog link).

bah, kids are going to kill me!

[Butterfly Dawn]

Uhhhhhhh i am still doing elimination because almost everything i swap too turns out to have some form of egg, dairy, mold/ fungus.
Its something that really needs some studying Im discovering
Study, organizing and time to find replacements.
I'll check your blog when i can get in my comp
time on diet till you see results- varies for each person as it depends how sick you are. It seems the sicker you are the more you are allergic too. 1 of the ladies I was tested with was allergic to 35 things-they test for 36. she can eat apples. Damn lol

Sent from my Galaxy with the barefoot princess covering me in kisses, so please forgive the mistakes

[onthefly]

double trouble, can you consult with a dietician?
I have spoken with Joy Anderson - she does phone, skype and email consults also - and she's guiding us through this.

I'm hopeful that once we start challenging things it'll get easier (as, presumably, they don't react to EVERYTHING)

[HotI]

Thanks for blogging. I have been thinking about having an appt with Joy, but not sure if i am ready to act on her advice. Hope you get some good results.

[Tegam]

Thanks for blogging. I have been thinking about having an appt with Joy, but not sure if i am ready to act on her advice. Hope you get some good results.

Totally agree. I feel very guilty because I know I should but I haven't. Seeing its only sleep issues. When I'm tired these seem easier to deal with than changing our whole diet. If it was behavioural then I think I would have tried it by now. But I'm just use to no sleep

[onthefly]

It's up to you how you do it, HotI. Joy suggested doing it all, and I agreed, but you could just do one at a time and see how you go, as Heather suggested. Particularly if there's something you suspect.

[~me~]

Just had a read of your blog

I get gluten, egg and dairy free muffins they also have crumpets from Coles. The brand is called LivWell and my Coles stock it next to the normal muffins. They are expensive. I have taken to not worrying about cost of products as it would really stress me out if I did. I also think that since he can't have so many things that he can whatever he wants in the things he can have.
I struggled with the baking as well.
In the end I used a Basco cupcake mix that was gluten free and you adjust the ingredients you add to make it dairy and egg free. It worked well.
The place I shop at also delivers. It's called absolutely gluten free (in werribee victoria). Worth having a look at their website even if you don't purchase as the product range is huge and you can reduce your search by diet.
The brand of icecream I get is called Cocoluscious, he absolutely loves it and it does taste nice!
The pasta I get looks exactly like normal pasta and it tastes ok as well. DS2 doesn't really know the difference and my others kids eat is as well.

[onthefly]

lol. I don't think the blog is useful for others, really, just a space for my complaints!
We are not egg free, thankfully!

I'll have a look next time I'm in Coles.

I'm making tomato sauce today....without tomatoes.

[Butterfly Dawn]

??? How?
I always pitied egg allergy people haha the yolks on me now! always known to be careful with them but its a bugger. Think peanuts would be the worst! everything you get has the warning "may contain traces if peanuts" on it.
I knew a lady who's child was so allergic to stuff (alot of stuff) that if you had eaten something the girl was allergic too, and you touched her, she would have reactions. This was 10years ago too so there was little around. Today we are much luckier

Sorry if it doesn't make sense, the barefoot princess is covering me with kisses

[Abigail]

We're another lot who have done elimination diets. You could get lucky with 2 weeks, you might not though.

We took out each group one at a time with our dietitian. Our first group was wheat (through known positive SPT) the results of that were noticable in days, but we had to stay off it for weeks before we could challenge it. The results were very convincing. We also went through fruit (it came under a special heading that I cant remember for the life of me) so not all fruit but particular ones, dairy, soy, wheat... some others too Im sure. We now live wheat, all nuts & soy free and allow small amounts of well cooked egg in there. Through being diligent and persistant my son is almost unmedicated now.

[onthefly]

That's great abigail! Glad it's worked well for you.

I am now questioning the wisdom of doing everything at once.... hopefully it'll work out ok.

I'm fine with dairy free - we don't eat a lot anyway. Gluten I could also live without. (though grudgingly!) It's the slaycilates/amines/glutamates that are the killers, though! we can basically have3 kinds of fruit and a handful of veg.

I found the No-tomato sauce here - http://www.cookingforoscar.com/2012/...ur-cream-cake/
I thought it was ok, but no one else would eat it

[Butterfly Dawn]

It takes time for the taste buds to change. And i found something changed flavour several times.

Sorry if it doesn't make sense, the barefoot princess is covering me with kisses