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.

Intolerance testing is a scam. See PP.

To be fair she could just have had a stomach bug, or something like gastritis. She really needs to see a GP to rule out all gastric/digestive issues.

Christ I can't imagine cutting out chicken..sorry to hear it's been causing her problems

I would try reintroducing chicken, but just whole/roasted chicken for a week, not nuggets etc to discount the other ingredients in nuggets and other pre-prepped chicken.

Half an hour on google, the same that every other self diagnosed allergy sufferer does.

And yes. I have allergies. Haven't died of anaphylaxia yet, but have had pretty much every allergic reaction that a body can summons. This gives me a very low tolerance of 'allergies' in self-diagnosed people.

My dog is allergic to poultry but I don't think it's that common in humans. I have raging IBS so have a little bit of insight into triggers for bloating/gastro discomfort and it tends to be high FODMAP foods, e.g. (certain types of) fruit, dairy, wheat, onion, garlic, beans, lentils.

I'd be very surprised if plain chicken was causing your DD such issues, unless she has a full-on allergy, which should be looked into by a specialist. As PPs have said, it's more likely an additive or the coating on processed things like nuggets. I bloody love a chicken nugget, though - she has my sympathies!

Both my DC have multiple food allergies and carry epipens.

Chicken is one of the least allergenic foods out there. It's not one that comes up ever on the allergy forums.

After doing some research, I discovered that chicken can be a common trigger for digestive issues in some people.

Are you sure you're not picking up a lot of irrelevant data due to the far more common association between chicken, poor kitchen practices, and food poisoning?

Agree with others that it could be a fluke, one week isn’t really enough time to call it for certain. Reintroduce chicken and see if the issues start up again. Should probably seek medical advice though to be honest.

My DH had the same problem and no longer eats chicken. He did try it again and his symptoms recurred. He hasn’t been tested for anything officially.

We are not in the 18th century, people who are not biomed scientists do not have to 'do research' and forego medical tests for stomach issues. Take your dd to a gastroenterologist, they will do q-fit-schmit or whatever, coeliac screen, colon transit marker, or whatever they do these days. After all, she may well be able to consume her chicken and the culprit may be a different type of food?

Think it's going to depend how old she is tbh.

If she's old enough to make decisions for herself (my kids are really young so I don't have any experience....not going to put a firm age on here, think it depends on your flavour kid!!) then you give her all the facts and she ultimately can decide what to do for her body. However if the symptoms come back and you can say with certainty it's the chicken, then personally my sympathy for any consequences of her choices would be very low. If she chooses to eat the thing causing her discomfort, then she doesn't get to shirk responsibilities or school or whatever because her stomach hurts.

Veggie fake chicken nuggets aren't bad. But yeah, depending on her age let her experiment. Eat chicken, see if it upsets her tummy.

As someone with stomach issues, chicken is certainly not a common trigger
( if it turns out she does in fact have something like ibs, celiac then gluten will infact be a trigger).
Take her to the gp, you have no idea what she is reacting too.
it could be anything, it may not even be food.

I have IBS and gluten doesn't trigger it for me. Its one of the problems with IBS is that its diagnosed by ruling out everything else, its basically a bunch of symptoms (syndrome) that can have different causes for different people and can be caused by different stuff.

The OP just said "chicken" which is GF. She didn't say they'd cut out cereals or bread which are not GF.

I often have to cater for a coeliac. Gluten is hiding everywhere.

It might actually be something else like gluten. For example to gluten (wheat) in chicken nugget coating. Chicken would be quite unusual to react to.

Get her some southern fried Quorn nuggets and other veggie nugget options.

Yeah, ban her.
More stuff you "ban", more sneaky ways, dishonesty and hiding will be invented.
😁

Chicken isn't a common cause of stomach issues at all!! Look at fodmaps lots of common foods can trigger issues. What else is she eating with the chicken eg. Breadcrumbs, onions?

Chicken is so rarely an allergen. This is partly why I don’t agree with a vegan diet for children.

If her idea of "chicken" is deep fried chicken nuggets I would look at gluten intolerance and digestive problems relating to eating too much fatty over-processed food (low or high stomach acid, gallbladder problems, gastritis, pancreatic problems etc). I doubt eating steamed chicken breast would create any problems for anyone.

You have to trial the food again to test it. It also takes more than a week to do an elimination diet and reintroduction.

also if she is eating chicken nuggets, it could be the breading or another ingredient and not chicken itself.

"It's not the chicken it's gluten coating the nuggets"
Do all these PP not realise how idiotic this sounds? Cutting out nuggets isn't going to remove any significant amount of gluten from the average diet. It wouldn't show a difference unless all other sources of gluten were also being removed - bread, pasta, biscuits, cake, etc.

It's amusing that because your child eats chicken nuggets which are UPF and gets a bad stomach you assume it's the chicken... Try making some home made ones where you know what's in them.

I'd bet my bottom dollar it's more than likely gluten or egg.