um, yeah, the elimination diet is mainly for my DS. He's pretty hyperactive and can be defiant, doesn't sleep, and had lots of reflux and wind troubles when younger.A lot of his health/sleep/behaviour issues could be attributed to salicylates, or intolerance to them. Or so I've been told by our herbalist/homeopath/nurse. Doctors, MCHN, paediatricians and sleep disorder specialists all told me to try medication like phenurgan (sp?) -of which the side effects are hyperactivity!!- to get him to sleep. Sleep deprivation in infants can lead to diagnoses of ADD/ADHD when older. I'm trying to reduce the chances of DS being a wild child, or at least get some sleep so I can handle it!! The reason I'm trying to start on this low-salicylate diet too is that DS is still breastfed, and apparently there's some transfer thru BM. It's complex... but I'm so glad I might have found a cause to some of our troubles and therefore improve things now.
There's lots of info available, but I just haven't had the time to do much research into it until now because I've been so exhausted and busy. Turbo-baby! He's never slept well, and even though I thought I was doing the right thing by giving him lots of fruit and vegetables, it could be that he has a sensitivity to some of them or is intolerant. It's not an allergy, and therefore allergy testing is pointless.
Salicylates are found in most natural foods but also synthetically produced for food, medication and skincare products. Aspirin is a salicylate. It's also found in Nurofen, which I had used briefly for DS when teething because it doesn't contain sorbitol like infants panadol does, and sorbitol tends to stain DS's cloth nappies.
The things that are high in natural salicylates are all the things I love, like broccoli, tomatoes, spinach, lemons, berries, sweet potato and spices.