to ban DD from eating chicken

[GreatMintPeer]

I know this might sound extreme, but hear me out. My DD has been having some digestive issues lately. She's been complaining of stomach aches and feeling bloated after meals. After doing some research, I discovered that chicken can be a common trigger for digestive issues in some people.

I decided to do an experiment and cut chicken out of her diet for a week. Lo and behold, her stomach aches disappeared and she felt much better overall. I was thrilled that I had found a simple solution to her discomfort.

But now, DD is begging me to let her have chicken again. She misses her favorite meals and feels left out when her friends are eating chicken nuggets at school. I understand where she's coming from, but I can't ignore the fact that her health has improved since cutting out chicken.

I've tried to explain to her the reasons behind my decision, but she just doesn't seem to understand. She thinks I'm being unfair and depriving her of something she enjoys. I feel torn between wanting to make her happy and wanting to keep her healthy.

So, am I being unreasonable to ban my DD from eating chicken? I just want what's best for her, but I can't help feeling guilty for denying her something she loves. Any advice or similar experiences would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

GPs are pretty crap at diagnosing food allergies, even a dermatologist wasn't interested in testing my eczema covered DD. We had to go private.

Keep a food diary OP and see what happens.

I second what Wigtopia said. I had the other day Quorn mozarella pesto “escalopes” and they were very good. Again it depends in your DD’s age but if you don't say what it is you might get away with it. Saying that it’s best to get her on board as she needs to be aware what she eats outside at playdates or school in order not to make herself unwell.
Other than that what about turkey, duck or goose - does she react to other poultry?

I am not sure that you can stop her without getting her on board. There is an old saying "correlation is not causation" I don't think you have done enough to say "Its chicken, no more chicken for you!"

I would just let her eat it if she wants. It’s her who has to face the consequences if it doesn’t agree with her again.
How old is she?

You may be right? But there may be something else why she is not digesting the chicken. Did she have a bug before this? Have you seen a dr?

I had similar when DD1 was 2. In my mind it was dairy which I cut down as the drs didn’t have am answer for the problem.

I think she had a bug before and it took her awhile to get over it, fully recovered so she lost the enzyme to diggest it, I introduced milk and dairy later on and she was fine.

Are chicken nuggets not wrapped in breadcrumbs or batter which would not be gluten free? I've never had them but have seen them and they look that way.

Most people can take a bit of gluten unless they are particularly sensitive to it but not much. May the child's meals/snacks are generally processed like the nuggets, who knows?

OP, you don't give your daughter's age. After a certain age you cannot ban them from eating things and if you try, they'll do it anyway.

Way more likely to be dairy or gluten or eggs. Chicken is not a common allergy

What kind of chicken is it? How is it cooked? It seems like an easy solution to me to just cut it. But a quick google says to see a G.P and go from there. It sounds like she intolerant to me.

It is possible to survive without chicken, it’s the worst protein you can eat. The way it’s prepared for a start- 🤢

My previous (and current dog too) would suffer awful diarrhoea after eating chicken yet chicken and rice is the advice given for dog's tummy woes.

Why don’t you do something more scientific like FODMAP?

You need to speak to a qualified medical professional to find out whether your DD needs to stop eating chicken or anything else. Please don’t cut out her favourite foods without finding out what is causing the symptoms.

Keep a food diary - and maybe at quiet time re-introduce with plain chicken and see if there is an effect. Also see if something like turkey is fine.

I wouldn't rule out chicken being the issue - DD1 reacted to carrots though outgrew it - but number of people who insist not possible was just odd and we'd kept food diary and it was clearly the issue.

By all means try and get GP intertest - I don't know if we been spectacular unlucky with GP but I think many are poor with allergies and are disinclined to refer even for condition that have dragged on and clearly need it.

Depending on her age - explaining you think stomach issue are chicken - I'd expect her to want to find alternatives and avoid it.

You can't test for intolerance. The only test is remove suspected foods from the diet, see if symptoms go, and then see if they return when the food is reintroduced.

Why not just let her have them at school?

Perhaps suggest she only has them twice a week or something.

I would try her with turkey and quorn nuggets too and see if she likes the taste of them and they could be used as easy swaps.

scarmbled egg and rice is another one suggested for dogs with upset stomach, used to make my dog's tum worse

We had similar issues with my DD (at age 4 - 5) - frequent stomach ache. Took her to the GP and they requested a food diary for about 2 months to see if there are any patterns as to when the stomach ache occurred. For us, it seemed to be seeded bread, oranges and beans. I would imagine most GPs would request something similar before doing any tests, to identify whether there are specific foods causing the issue.

Similarly, my daughter sometimes likes to eat them regardless, particularly beans in her school lunch. If she has a stomach ache I ask if she has eaten beans, which helps her to understand the link. I'm still not 100% certain if it is these, or if it is one in particular of these items that was causing the issue, but we've had the problem far less recently.

Similarly to what others have said though - chicken seems an odd initial assumption - a food diary should be able to give some more specific evidence. I can only assume there are apps that would help to identify patterns if you don't want to do it manually (we did it manually, and it was rather difficult!).

I've never heard chicken causing bloating? Could it be the breading in the nuggets, something to do with wheat or gluten?
It's just not a common allergen. Try her on a little bit of organic chicken, just cooked with salt and pepper. If she's fine then it's almost certainly not chicken. But another ingredient.

It could be the coating rather than the chicken itself. Has she had the same issue with plain chicken or just chicken nuggets that have batter on them?

Get her to watch dominion

You can of course cut chicken out from a child’s diet! It’s not dangerous- vegetarians don’t have chicken!!

OP it may not be the chicken itself. Why not introduce plain unprocessed chicken back into her diet and see if the stomach problems return? If not, then move onto chicken nuggets and see what happens. Keep a food diary to show your GP but as long as you’re not cutting out major food groups without consultation a bit of experimenting with suspected triggers gives the GP something to go on at least.

Try giving her a plain bit of chicken breast and see if she reacts. If so you have your answer. If not then try chicken nuggets - maybe it’s something in the batter. I wonder if a private intolerance test would show anything?

It's very unlikely that it's the chicken. Maybe take her for an allergy test first?

What "research" did you do that showed chicken was a common cause of digestive upsets?