atopic child seemingly allergic to everything!! - help!...please?!

[iris66]

DS(1yr) seems to be allergic to everything I give him whilst he rarely gets diahroea (except from soya) it seems as though, since I started weaning at 6 months (was fully bf), everything gives him really bad hives and/or eczema.He's had a rast & is positive for milk/wheat/sesame but also can't tolerate any fruit,onions,tomato,peppers,potato,soya or any meat/fish. He used to be fine with some of these but has got worse over time and every time he gets any kind of infection/temperature the allergies seem to increase. I stopped bf 2 months ago & he's on neocate - which he seems fine with.
Is there anyone out there who has any experience of this or could give me some idea as to how to get to the bottom of the problem? please?

bump?

really sorry to read your post. Must be very worrying for you.

Rice, lamb and pears are reported to be the least allergenic foods so have you tried those?

I use these a lot for DS who is 4 with multiple allergies.

Also it may sound stupid but we also have our windows open a lot, cool temparature in the house, plenty of fresh air for DS. We have found that warm, badly ventilated places also affect his reactions. It may be too thaty your DS is also sensitive to environments, as our DS is too, so we just try to lessen the load on his body so to speak.

there might be a clue in the infections. Perhaps the bacteria in his gut are getting knocked out each time. Try giving him a dairy free probiotic and if he can eat it carrot for the vitamin A content. But really you need to be talking to a professional, I'm afraid and there are few of those around. Have you seen a paediatrician?

karabiner - thanks so much for your post - I'm getting pretty desparate. I keep plugging away at giving him various foods whenever his skin is calm to see if he's outgrown the intolerances but to seemingly no avail. He's ok with rice but lamb and pear still give him awful reactions. Chicken on monday gave him whole body hives so badly that he's still not recovered from them - I daren't give him piriton either because of the colour additives in it (bad experience with disprol) . The ventilation/temperature tip is interesting and one I'll try though. Thanks

tatt - good point. He did have a course of probiotics at 3 months (prescribed by my homeopath) but she didn't seem to think he needed them again when I saw her recently. His immune system is clearly overreacting but I don't know how to strengthen/balance this. Maybe I ought to find a naturopath or something...would cranial osteopathy help?....

probiotics can only be a good thing.

I'm wondering whether there is a particular key thing he is allergic to, that is making him hypersensitive to everything else. If you could exclude that one thing, he might not react so much???

You can get other antihisthamine syrups, aside from piriton, and without the side effects that piriton has. Might be worth a try. It may mean you have to dose him up on antihisthamines daily in order to widen his diet, but, i suppose its your choice to weigh up the pro's and cons of that.

DD is atopic. It sucks, doesnt it?

My friends little boy has multiple allergies and she had a book which listed food groups. For example if he was allergic to strawberry then he was likely to be allergic to kiwi as it was from the same family. I have just made that up to illustrate what I mean. I will email her and ask what the book is called. I think also that some of his allergies only became apparent after a few exposures.

we had a similar problem with dd at the same age - she had confirmed milk/egg/soya allergies (through RAST) but at the time could not manage chicken, fish, peas, tomatoes...a whole host of stuff.

Once I knew what her real allergies were (through RAST) I completely cut all of it out of her diet (everything, even a trace) and went right back to the start of weaning and started with the least allergenic foods (like pear, lamb) and did weaning INCREDIBLY slowly.

I believe now that she had an underdeveloped digestive system that just couldn't cope with all the new food (she was on Nutramigen and had reflux too).

I don't know what to suggest other than starting weaning all over again and keeping everything v simple. I also know that when she was at nursery and they were giving her stuff with milk in (when they shouldn't have been ggrrr), her reactions to EVERYTHING got worse (so it would appear as though she was reacting to more things when actually it was just being more allergenic because of the milk iyswim) so perhaps there's another food group in there that's causing him problems?

He can have blood tests done to check what he is reacting to. They can be quite distressing for a young one, but, if its causing such a huge problem in day to day life it is worth doing.

Its how we found out DD's specific allergies.

DS is allergic to fish, wheat, dairy, eggs, nuts and peanuts, soya, bananas, etc but has outgrown the tomato, onions, potatoes, and beans allergies, so there's hope.

Neocate has been designed to provide complete nutrition, actually, if I am not mistaken, I think I read in the specs. that it even works as a sole source of nutrition. Which may allow you to relax a bit about his nutritional needs been satisfied even when you have to remove so many foods from his diet.

Probiotics may help, if you can find one that is free from soya, milk and fish (let me know if you find it, I have been looking for one for ages).

I have stoped trying to get to the bottom of the problem because it was driving me crazy, I think I have finally got to the point where I have accepted that his allergies are here to stay, that is not my fault (DRs have suggested he was born with an underdeveloped gut) and the best that I can do is keeping him safe by avoiding the foods that trigger the reactions, maintain his environment as allergen free as possible, delay the introduction of potentially problematic foods and... pray for him to outgrown some of his allergies. I'm sure this is not what you would like to hear but I have found some peace on accepting that.

P.S. Foxinsocks' suggestion to start weaning again and doing it very slowly is a very good idea.

thank you so much for your posts - they make so much sense. When you're in the middle of it all it's just so hideous & you can't see the wood for the trees. I'm sitting here just wanting to cry with frustration. Trying to feed him something approaching a balanced diet, and manage his itchiness, is just such hard work.
Chandra - feel for you so much. I now have hope though and will look for a probiotic (if I find one I'll post! )
foxinsocks - the "back to weaning" thing seems to be my only option now - good advice thanks.
lucy5 - if you could find the title of the book that would be so useful - thanks in avdance.
venividivickiQV - he's had RAST & none of the chemists around here are able to dispense colour/flavour free paracetamol let alone piriton but I'll keep on plugging away

Chandra- not sure if this is going to be of use to you. My dd2 is atopic, and takes a probiotic that is milk free- not sure about the other ones you need to avoid. The only other ingredient it lists is maltodextrin. here it is, but in an american store.

HTH, sorry if you've heard of it before.

Iris, you may already know this but this was what helped to control DS's eczema:

• Eucerin 10% Urea, available from Boots and in prescription. With any other emollient I had to apply it 5-8 times a day, with Eucerin only 3, so it has worked well.

-Aveeno Lotion (without mentol) For DS was almost as good as Eucerin, but has the added bonus that it doesn't sting on broken skin.

-For the bath, oats or Oilatum Plus

-For the itching..... keeping the skin well hidrated. I used to buy the cheapest babygros in ASDA (they are 100% cotton, very soft, not too hot, and cheap enough to ditch them after they get stained with the creams). The idea is to cover child with plenty of emollient, put the babygro on (you can buy a bigger size and sew the end of the sleeves close to prevent them from using their nails), DS managed to wake up with a reasonable hidrated skin). Having said that, one of the most important pieces of advice I was given by the dermatologist was not to make a fuss about it, as stress also make the skin flare, and if covering the hands was causing the baby more stress, well... short nails and to remove covering.

As for nutrition. The important thing is for him to have a portion of protein, and two vegetables/fruits and a portion of carbohidrates per meal. DS lives in pastas and risotos, we change the sauces and ingredients every day to ensure he has enough variety. We also cook the same for all the family which prevent DS having a "water down" version of what we are having, but had the positive effect of enabling us to get to a better diet faster. It seems daunting at the beginning, but once you get the idea of it, and start finding the right replacers, it's actually quite easy.

We are 3 but cook for 5 every night, the extras go into small containers and frozen, ready to be sent to school, nursery or to take with us on days out.

Hope that helps

vwvic, I have noticed that, sometimes, health food shops are not exhaustive with their ingredients descriptions, but all the info can be found in the label. Do you have a bottle of it? if you do, could you please check if the other ingredients are mentioned on the label on the bottle?

Thanks in advance, and finger crossed to be OK

Hi Chandra. Yeah, I always have a bottle of this stuff to hand. Well, in the fridge at least!

Reading directly from the label, it says "Solaray guareantees that no ingredients other than those listed on this label have been added to this product".
Other ingredients: Maltodextrin.

Hope this is suitable for your boy. We looked for ages to find one- it's a PITA isn't it? I found this one in our local health shop but it is quite expensive, about £20 I think. It's sold for babies or nursing mothers, so it doesn't list the quantity you need for an older child- our practitioner suggested two measures in a glass of DD2's milk, or we could just sprinkle it on her tongue. She wasn't desperately impressed when we tried that though ....

Many apologies for the dreadful spelling!

Vwvic, that for posting that link, it look interesting. I will have to think about giving that a go with ds2

Iriss66, although I can't really add anything to what has already been suggested, I have to say I feel for you. Ds2 is allergic (by RAST) to dairy, eggs, nuts, wheat and we know that he is not good with soya. Add to the list, a phobia of food and it makes for a very frustrating and food limited life

don't know if this probiotic would help anyone - it's vegan so should be dairy free but soya would need to be checked www.rosemaryshealthfoods.co.uk/acatalog/Catalogue_Probiotics__Acidophilus_etc___113.html

Thanks tatt (and everyone else) I'm going to get more probiotics from my homeopath - I'll post the details & ingredients once it arrives (and progress - obviously!) Thanks again for all the support. I've felt pants for so long that it's not even worthy of joking about anymore - but I guess you've all been there too (which is a huge comfort).
FWIW DS has been much better today - legs still very lumpy & face a "goose bumped" red mess but significantly less itchy. Minimal clothing/open windows/2 long walks in the pram ...hoping that has had some effect. I'll press on.

thanks

Thanks vwvic I think it will be OK!