Best way to get checked for food intolerances?

[Catsdontcare]

Ds has the bowels from hell (always has) we have been to the dr's many times but as he is healthy and growing fine they see no need to address it further. I don't want to start excluding foods without knowing for certain what he may or may not be intolerant to but not sure who to contact tat is reputable etc?

[Chundle]

bumping for you as we have same issues with both dds

[Dev9aug]

We are seeing a nutritionist on Monday, I can ask this question to him if you want?

[Chundle]

oohh yes thank you dev

[Catsdontcare]

Thanks dev that would be appreciated. I've been scouring online and a dietician called Zoe Connor seems to crop up alot and she also seems to write slot about diet and autism. Wondered if anyone's heard of her?

[WillowinGloves]

Hi - haven't been on MN for ages but reading threads this morning, saw your post and wanted to contribute. My dd is dairy intolerant and it took me two years to get a simple blood test confirming this, because she too was healthy and growing fine. Every time we went to the hospital, she'd be bouncing around looking tall and glowing! In retrospect, wish I'd gone with my instincts and just done the exclusion thing. If you have any idea of what might be causing it, excluding for a fortnight won't hurt and might give you confidence in seeing your GP? Intolerance is always harder to pin down than allergy as it's all about keeping things in balance. Good luck.

[Chundle]

Dd1 has always had ridiculous bowels and has always been plagued with very large recurring mouth ulcers that are very deep and painful doc and dentist can't find a cause and I wonder if they're linked. No tests ever done for her.Dd2 since weaning has had the most foul bottom ever!! Cealic test came back negative. Back to square 1

[Dev9aug]

well, I asked the nutritionist and I will try to summarise what he told me.

1. pay for a very expensive test about £275 which we didn't want to do as it seemed like a waste as his diet is already very limited.
   
   The other two options revolved around cutting out food groups. basically he said you can put food into a number of categories, such as Dairy, Gluten, Acidic stuff etc and in order to identify which food group is the culript do one of the following.
   
   
2. cut out the food in question such as potato, egg etc one by one and log the behaviour before and after. can be very long.
   
   
3. The other option is to cut out whole food groups and introduce one food at a time and log the behaviour before and after.
   
   He has written a book on the subject as well. Here is a link to his website.. www.foodintolerancebible.com/
   
   sorry that was all I could remember. If somebody has any more specific questions, then I will be happy to ask him on our next appointment.

[Catsdontcare]

Thanks for getting back with the info dev. Ds has a really limited diet too so maybe cutting out food groups won't be so hard although the though of restricting his already limited diet is a bit daunting.

[Ilovecake1]

Hi chundle, my daughter had awful mouth ulcers and has awful bowels...do you know these can be symptoms of Crohn's disease. Has your LO been tested for this? Blood tests?

[moleskin]

Ilove ive namechanged no I didn't know that thank you. Don't they lose weight with crohns though? Is it diagnosable through blood test? Many thanks

[Ilovecake1]

Hi, I have a link here for allergy testing. My daughter had it done a couple of years ago...after finding over 50 foods intolerance, cutting them out we have seen a huge difference. This lady is in South Wales, unsure if there are any other clinics thought the UK.

www.wellbeinghealth.co.uk/asyra.html

[Ilovecake1]

Hi, no not necessary-my LO is a healthy weight. They are not able to diagnose through blood test but my daughters first bloods showed abnormalities with the white blood cells and low iron! She had very loose bowels from birth but doc were not concerned and was not diagnosed until 3yo. They were able to diagnose through endoscopy.

[moleskin]

Fab thank you very helpful much appreciated.

[marjproops]

Mines been through basic trial and error. she can eat most things but anything new I keep a keen eye on her and have the Piriton and E45 cream ready. I can catch an allergy straight away, usually a tepid bath, E45 and a piriton takes it away and then I add to the list. I like her to have a good and varied diet but obv it's not nice when she starts getting red and rashy.

one of her allergies are hard-coated things like smarties, m&ms etc, and at school once someone had a birthday and put a small box of smarties in her bag. Thankfully Ive taught her not to eat anything she's given like that until she's home and shows it to me. did have a word with teacher tho.

[creamteas]

When looking into help with these issues remember anyone can call themselves a nutritionist, it is not a protected term. Some are ok, some are people who have bought qualifications over the internet.

One of my colleagues was seeing a 'nutritionist' , who carried out lots of 'intolerance tests' and basically recommended a diet that actually made her really ill. She is a gullible person who should have had the sense to think through what was said, but she was taken in by the white coat, nice consulting rooms and framed certificates were evidence of real knowledge.

[auntevil]

Different food intolerances have different tests - some are easier than others to detect, some you might struggle to ever work out.
Myself and 3 DS have IBS, various food intolerances.
Fructose, sucrose dx through hydrogen breath tests, lactose and CMP via a combo of endoscopy, fluoroscopy, blood tests (IGE). A couple of specific food items by bloods as well. Gluten by a food challenge. Stool samples have been checked for clotting agents and bacteria etc
I don't think there is a 1 size fits all test for everything. We had a gastroenterologist working on their cases. A private nutritionalist didn't want to get involved as they said that the gastroenterologist would have to finish his dx before she could get to grips with what to do.