Did you/Would you take a 5 year old off wheat and dairy without medical guidance?

[suiledonne]

My dd1 has asthma, eczema and allergies.

We see a GP and paediatirican.

Both have told me at various times not to remove wheat or dairy from her diet.

However so many people have suggested it that I somtimes wonder if I should consider it.

We are waiting on a referral to an allergy specialist and I think I should wait til then but DH thinks we should try it.

She is having a major skin reaction at the moment - is covered all over in a dry itchy rash and her eczema has flared up.

DH went to get her medications and asked the pharmacist and she has told him to take her off all wheat and dairy. I don't think so.
She has a small appetite and is fussy as it is. I don't know what I would feed her.

What I meant above btw is not that I wouldn't, but just that I wouldn't without medical supervision IYSWIM?

If you are going to see an allergy specialist, they need to be consuming the allergen for it to be tested - as slim jim says.
As far as taking out gluten/wheat and dairy, i have been advised this by a paediatric gastroenterologist for 2 of my DS and have been given no support whatsoever. All research and advice i have found from internet sources - allergyuk, ibs societies etc.
Gluten is the harder of the 2 to eliminate, but i found that even reducing the amount has helped. There are dairy and gluten free cereals, yoghurts etc. Although more expensive than standard products, you can buy gluten and dairy free alternatives to so many products on-line, that substituting foods that she does like should not be too much of a problem.

I agree with InAStateOfReflux. Sometimes you have to tell them there's a problem. I did this with the ezcema clinic my daughter attended when DD was 12 months. They checked for allergy to eggs, dairy, tomatoes and wheat I think. They found she was allergic to dairy and egg yolk. I had been on special diets and knew where to look for alternatives. DD was checked again when she was 3 yrs. She had grown out of dairy allergy, but I think she may still have been slightly intolerant. By then she wouldn't eat dairy things as she had lost the taste for them. Then she went off the only milk alternative she would take. We managed to get her to eat a good quality ice-cream and I bake things so could add milk. We've found that she can tolerate egg yolk in baking and cooking too. Her eczema is more or less under control now though we're trying to find a suncream she can cope with. I think she's growing out of allergies and eczema.

Hope things go well for you whatever you decide.

Gluten isn;t normally an allergy its an auto immune (coeliac DS here) so will not show up on prick tests. Egg and the others will.

He was allergic to egg but grew out of that by 7 ....

Most coeliacs are Lactose intolerant when diag. but they do tend to grow out of this as the Villi repair themselves. To have the gluten tests you need to be eating about the equivilant of 2 -3 slices of bread a day. If you take this out you will just have to put it back in for 6 weeks prior to the tests (and sometimes they react more)

I wouldn;t, but I would be phoning his sec. and asking for a cancellation. (weekly if needed !!!)

Thanks everyone. Lots to think about.

Poor dd's eczema is dreadful at the moment. She's never had a full body flare up like this. I am wracking my brains to think of something that could have triggered it.

Does anyone know if a few drops of pink food colouring could have caused it? I made a homemade cake for her birthday and made pink icing for it. She isn't a cake fan and ate very little but it is the only thing I can think of.

YES!!!! - that stuff would have my DD in a massive skin flare up too -

you might want to google AZO dyes & Benzoate preservatives - in a lot of stuff you might not expect - sounds like your DDs cause may well be the same as ours :( - not so bad actually, as its just about knowing what to look out for, & what brands to avoid - its a lot easier than it used to be :)

PS for future reference - you can now buy natural food colouring for cakes in Morrisons & the likes :)

Thank you so much rockinhippy. I have googled the sodium benzoate (it is an ingredient in the colouring I used) and it says atopic people are more prone to reacting to it. It is the only deviation from her normal diet recently so that could definitely be the trigger this time. I'll be avoiding it like the plague from now on.

Glad to help :) I hope she's better real soon

I was thinking on this last night & as its looking likely she has similar problems to my own DD, at least in part - you might want to prepare in advance incase she's ill at all in future -

kids medicines have been a real problem for us & TBH not one we've really solved 100%, which has been awful as there have been times when I'm already dealing with a very sick DD, yet have had no choice but to give her medicines that we know cause other problems for her, because of the preservatives, colourants & sweeteners :(

We did for years have a great old fashioned chemist who knew her problems & automatically mixed up special preparations for her - until he retired I had no idea that, that isn't the norm & most chemist can't do that, many don't know how, turns out, even the ones who can need a specialist licence, which is expensive, so most don't bother -

there is a central place they can be sent off to & come back over night, but it needs a very specific prescription - which is where I've hit a big problem - my GP didn't know what to write on the script & we had hoped the Hospital dietician would be the one to help with instructing her - Dietician did try, but so far just been passed from pillar to post & still not sorted it out

Your best bet is to try & find an older local chemist who CAN mix his own scripts, or post here in your local section & see if you can find one that way, & mention it to the Dietician when you see them, you might have better luck where you are - our Dietician was great in that she understood all the problems caused by these food chemicals, but still couldn't solve that particular problem :(

Now DD is a bit older, under instructions from one great chemist - we can give her normal paracetamol broken up & mixed with honey, but not ibruprofen because of the way the drug is dispersed in the pills might mean an overdose if we break them up - we've also got round some antibiotic needs by the GP prescribing her with adult lower dose capsules, emptying them onto a spoon & again mixing the powder with honey - neat ribena is good to mix with too if your DD wont take honey - it was first developed for medicines apparently.

Also - I'm curious - did you notice your DDs problems start after any antibiotic treatment??? - mine did & I've seen others on here, with this problem say the same -

IF that is the case, you might want to keep an eye on it escalating to other chemical additives & possibly lactose too & causing stomach problems - every time my own DD needed anti B's she developed another intolerance - starting at 10 wks old with certain colourants via my BM aftecting her skin & now includes all chemical additives, MSG, Sweeteners, Benzoate Preservatives, & Chemical colourants - both in food, or soaps etc & affects skin & stomach

thankfully its easily managed once you know - bar medicines & she rarely has skin/stomach flare ups at all, & most supermarkets now are good, Aldi's in particular have versions of most snacks that are additive fee - Azda was pretty good too.

Hope thats of some help - good luck to you & your DD :)

Yes I would - made a huge difference to my DD, Oatley great with cereal, Manchego is nice sheeps cheese. My DD has whole grain just not refined wheat - so wholegrain rice, wholemeal bread, noodles & pasta. I put oats in a tight foot in the bath which really helps her skin and never use soap on her body. Oh and I only use Green People toiletries on her.

I took her off dairy and refined wheat when she was 3 - she had eczema on her face, legs, back. It cleared up in less than 3 weeks. I'd suggest getting her some homoepathic supplements, like Viola tricola and a good acidopholus too.