Can you test for food intolerance with easy tests?

[Solo2]

As I've recently posted on Children's Health list, DS2 aged 8 has recurrent headaches/ sleepiness/ sore, puffy eyes in the morning and is currently having another episode of this.

The GP has recently suggested food intolerance leading to migraine, although he's not sure and has told us to stop cheese and chocolate and ideally anything with additives/ e numbers in it.

DS2 is incredibly upset as many of his standard foods contain choc and additives and in any case, my gut feeling is that IF he's intolerant, it's more likely to be of wheat/ gluten and milk.

Are we going to have to go though months and months of food exclusions and re-introductions to find out if he's intolerant or allergic to anything at all? Or is there a simple skin test to check allergies?

I know little about this as neither side of the family has a history of food intolerance or allergies. DS2 is red-haired, pale skinned and is one of twins born prematurely. He has v mild Asperger's traits.

Possibly connected is the fact that DS2 has frequent (x5 or x6/day often) small bowel movements, which has made me wonder if in the past he's had food intolerance to something. However, the headache thing comes and goes and between times, whilst eating all his usual stuff, he's absolutely fine.

Is anyone reading this going, "oh yes, that's exactly like my DC. It must be....."??

same as my DS2 who has ASD and multiple food intolerances - additives, milk, gluten, blackcurrant, soya

There is no simple test. You have to exclude to be sure. It seems mean butthe difference in DS2 when he doesn't eat shit is nothing short of life changing.

Have you read Marilyn Le Bretons book or looked at the AiA website. Both very good sources of help and advice

Unfortunately, with allergies and intolerences, there is rarely a "it has to be X" answer as different foods have similar reactions in different people and sometimes it's a range / combination of foods given over a period of time that causes a problem. Skin prick, IEG blood tests and food challenge testing available on the NHS are more effective for allergy testing and definetly recommended if this is what you suspect.

However, intolerences are much more difficult to pin down using conventional methods. There are some alternative testing methods that can be tried. My posts on this usually get short shrift from some quarters but they can be useful and my family have benefited hugely.

York test is a blood test that tests a wide range of foods and the results state which foods to avoid and which to have in moderation. Exclusion for a period ranging from 6-8 weeks to 6 months or more for more serious problems before retesting is usually recommended to see if the body can heal itself. Rather then excluding and reintroducing to see the symptoms reoccur, this can allow the body to desensitise more quickly. There is also a system based on biodynamics used by some nutritionists (called Asyra) which is good and can also identify vitamin and mineral deficiencies.

Being told what is stressing your body out, and that excluding it could make it better and allow you to eat "chocolate" happliy rather than what might be causing a problem, is easier to deal with. Definetly was in my case as I felt that I was on the right track rather than fishing around in the dark and better for DS too as he understood the reasons for excluding food.

notes from NHS website on different types of testing here

Good Luck!!

if the problem is mainly headaches, my son had terrible mirgraines, we got him reffered to a pead. who told us to cut out foods with caffine and citrus, so thats chocolate, cola/fizzy drinks/and oranges etc.

and less x-box, etc. and less tv!

btw , we did this for 4 weeks, things improved dramatically.

That's all very helpful everyone. Thanks you DS2 is hoping to start eating his usual foods after we see the GP next Tuesday but it sounds like it'll be some time before he can.

He's had 2 days without chocolate or cheese but I've seen no noticeable difference in him really and even if I did, can't be sure it's due to this. As he's still eating bread/ gluten/ soya sauce/ some addtitives in various things, I don't really feel clear about what he might or might not be intolerant of.

Hopefully, the GP will tell us more on Tuesday and the hospital appointment won't be long away, although it could be up to 6 months wait for this, I think.

Ironically, since he's been off sick from school, he's watched even more TV/ used his PC as I'm working from home (I run my own f/t business) upstairs, whilst he's downstairs. But again, I can't really see a clear connection yet between anything and these headaches.

He had some over 10 days last August and then another lot over 2 days in Sept. and again in Oct but nothing at all since Oct till now.

On the other hand, he's recently had more eczema, spots on his nose and puffy eyes in the build up to this lot of headaches and regularly looks to me quite pale and puffy eyed and rubs his eyes a lot.

Thanks again and for the info. on testing too.