advice on seeing dietician please!

[dorleans]

My two year old boy is due to see a dietician soon,problem being he has started throwing up on all kinds of food stuffs he used to be fine with,and after over a month of this we are getting rather worried.
Hes fine on whole croissant,french cakes,couscous(we lived in france until spring this year!)meat(,when he will eat it),most fruit and veg,pasta,crisps,and bread and butter but not even finely chopped banana,satsuma,apple,grapes,toast and butter,porrige or breakfast cereal,and other stuff he eats more seldomly I cant think of right now.Yesterday he was sick on a lovely spanish manola orange thing he was desperate for,two hours after eating halved up segments of it.
He still insists on breast feeding as a supplement to meals,and almost definetly has an allergy to lactose,coming up in a rash whenever he has cereal with milk,then again no problem with croissant ect which surely contains milk!My mother saw him throw up after an apple the other day,given to him as he had apple a few days before no problem,but infront of grandma of course he had to have a spectacular puke down!She is now as much a problem as the problem,phoning me each day with suggestions hes not going to go for,and Im sure somewhere in her head she blames me for the problem,hes not getting enough variety,havent I tried this,did I see the new rie crispies advert,try him on that ect,think I need to leave an answer phone message slowly explaining just what he will and wont eat and ask her to take note and record it!She expects him to eat a three course meal infront oh her every time she sees him,and makes me feel very uncomfortable when he breastfeeds.Dp thinks he is adicted to breast feeding like someone is to fags,ie whenever hes bored he turns to his comforter,and he does hassle me for b feeds in the parts of the day when hes most bored,like four in the afternoon ect,anyway back to the main subject,which is to ask will the dietcian have any answers and what will they do,give him an allergy test ect(how accurate?)and if anyone has any of these food probs with their toddler any suggestions/experiences are very welcome,apart from the rice crispie trying ones please!

[clerkKent]

I can't see any common thread in what he wont eat. Expect the dietician will suggest an exclusion diet: reduce his intake to what he has no problems with, then slowly re-introduce other types of food. I presume your GP has excluded other possible problems.

[Pitchounette]

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[Sugarmagnolia]

My experience with a dietician was that she was less than useless. Went to one when DS was 1 with suspected lactose intolerance and she handed me a leaflet and left me to it. Two and a half years later he is still lactose intolerant and we are going to see a paediatrician just to check that everything is as it should be. I don't think a dietician will be able to do allergy tests - I gather all they can do is recommend what your DS should/shouldn't eat. If I were you I would skip the dietician and insist on seeing a specialist of some sort.

The only other thing I can think of is that if you think he has a dairy allergy or intolerance then try eliminating dairy from his diet COMPLETELY (ie no butter, no milk chocolate and no croissants!). It may be that the apples and oranges have nothing to do with his throwing up - they just appear to be the culprits because they are coming back up in semi-recognizable pieces.

[fuchsia0703]

Dietition was useless when I took DD - suspected dairy and soya allergy. Kept going on about lactose intolerance which I had already ruled out.

[Pitchounette]

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[mytime]

I took my ds to an homeopathic doctor who tests for allergies using a machine with a wand and a probe which he uses by touching the acupunture points on the toes. It is gentler than the skin testing as they identify the allergy with a meter reading rather than seeing if there is a physical reaction.I had a friend who's arm swelled up to twice the normal size after a skin test and she is very wary of having this done to her children. The doctor identified the foods my ds is allergic to and prescribed some homeopathic remedies. The friend I mentioned is allergic to fruit and nuts - it is not unusual - maybe your ds has something similar. The fruit she is allergic to has increased over time. Apparently the body can tolerate foods it is allergic to for so long and then starts to react, so maybe this is why these reactions are appearing now in your ds. Also we can crave the food that is bad for us. My ds loves eggs but is allergic to them!

I have a similar problem with my mother - she is obsessed with the fact that she thinks they're not getting enough calcium. What you want is support, not unhelpful suggestions and judgements.! (Hope I remember this when my kids are grown up!)

[mytime]

If you are going to eliminate dairy from the diet you should also eliminate all beef as this contains the same proteins. So no more rump steaks for my boy!

[dorleans]

Thanks to everyone who read through my early morning rant and came up with some suggestions ect!Hes been sick as usual,this time just before bed,think it was the chips he had at playcentre for lunch that caused it,but why I dont know.With the being sick on fruit,ie with bananas,he used be sick immediatley after eating them,like his body just has to expel the offending culprit,but now he has begun to be sick up to hours after eating.This whole problem started over a month ago when he was eating halved grapes(his fave food) in the car quite happily one minute,and then back up the next.This happened again at home,then with apples,then a wider variety of foods,until the vomiting was a daily occurance.Hes so used to it now its just puke and go,although hes obviously distressed beforehand.
Dont hold out much faith in the dietician now,but got to be better than the doctor who has twice examined him and said he seems fine,try him on soupy stuff(which he hates.)Not even a come back if it continues!Health visitor also clueless,asked if he might have bad associations with particular foods,but has at least suggested he sees a dietician...we shall see.

[debliz5]

Pitchounette, I didn't know it's ok to have foods that you're allergic to as long as you can cope with the reaction (I think that's what you meant?). Can't the reactions change for the worst? DS has mild reactions to milk and eggs, and I'm always afraid he could one day get a serious one.

[Chandra]

I have to say that in our case the appointment with the dietitian took such a long time to materialise that by the time we got it she couldn't add anything new.

I think keeping a diary is a good idea, there are allergies (immediate reaction) and intolerances (delayed one that builds up gradually) it may be that your child is intolerant to somehting but as the reaction doesn't show until hours (or days later) it may make other "innocent" foods apear "guilty".

As for avoiding things you are allergic too, that's the advice, but as my son is allergic to so many things we have been advices to avoid just the most troublesome, otherwise he would live in a diet of mushrooms and water.

[debliz5]

So, the mild reactions will always stay that way? Do the mild reactions indicate mild allergies? Sorry to sound so ignorant about it. I too saw a dietician for DS' allergies but couldn't get good answers for these questions.

[Pitchounette]

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[Pitchounette]

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[debliz5]

Thanks a lot for your answers, Pitchounette. I haven't been at the dietician for quite some time as I thought it was a waste of time (with her). She never told me anything I didn't know already and if I did have some questions I never got satifactory answers. So I just stpped going. But, I now I feel should see someone else. DS is getting older (15 months) and I want to make sure he gets a good diet inspite of not having dairy and eggs. I hope I find somebody useful this time