I grew up with a mom and aunts who were allergic to all kinds of nuts. I married into a family that with lots of allergies and food sensitivities. Choosing to procreate is always a gamble. I rolled the dice and hoped for the best. Today I was forced to reconcile with reality. I have a child with food sensitivities.
Eileen was my little chunk-a-munk when she was a baby. The rolls of her thighs hid the knees beneath them. As she grew out of the chubby baby phase, her tummy remained. It wasn't like a regular tummy. It is hard and distended. It keeps her from fitting a lot of clothes properly.
In addition to tummy troubles, Eileen's ears always bothered her. After one too many ear infections, she got tubes around 18 months old. However, Eileen started to frequently drip goop from her ears. Eczema coats the inside of her ears, sometimes to the point of open sores. The excessive wax and eczema eventually causes hearing loss. Normal hearing loss gets restored when we have an ENT suction out her ears. Thick eczema will coat parts of her scalp at times. Over the past year, her ears have begun to emit a foul odor. I like the Puget Sound as much as the next person, but that doesn't mean I want my child's ears to smell like it. She also started snorting this spring. It's not cute like a piglet and actually slightly disconcerting.
We've used medicated shampoos for her scalp. Taken Eileen to two different ENTs. Our doctor advised using hydrocortisone for eczema flairs. Finally, this summer I had had enough. I didn't want to treat the symptoms any longer. I wanted to get to the root cause of all Eileen's troubles. I decided to see a pediatric naturopath who has a special interest in allergy testing.
Unlike dealing with a regular allergist, we were able to get in right away which was awesome. I felt like the doctor really listened to me and understood my concerns. She agreed that Eileen's large belly was not normal, and actually somewhat concerning. The doctor drew blood, gave us a bunch of supplements to help treat the symptoms, and told us results would take 2-3 weeks.
For the past two weeks, Eileen has been taking lots of supplements. I say if you are going to try something, you need to go all in. I can honestly say there has been improvement. Eileen actually likes taking fish oil every morning (key lime flavored). The magnesium citrate has significantly reduced her tummy. She is also using garlic drops in her ears, a probiotic, and d-hist jr.
Today we met with the doctor to discuss results. Verdict: Eileen is allergic to everything. Okay that might be a slight exaggeration. She has many significant food sensitivities. Luckily, it doesn't look like she has an allergy that will send her into anaphylaxis.
Eileen is sensitive to all dairy, eggs, pineapple, barley, soy, gluten,wheat, peanut, rye, and spelt. She tested "extremely high" to gluten, spelt, and wheat. In my heart, I had known dairy and wheat would not be her friends. The pineapple and peanut were a surprise. Needless to say, there will be some changes in our house.
Eileen and I already went to PCC to get a allergen-free food staples and a few Eileen-only treats. The doctor suggested not eliminating everything at once so as to not be so overwhelming. I appreciated that. Right now we are cutting out all the things she scored sensitive to except gluten/wheat. While we make adjustments to the rest of our diet, I plan to slowly introduced gluten free living. I am thinking the dairy is behind the snorting. We are doing dairy, egg free (and the other stuff) for two weeks (and maybe up to a month) before re-introducing dairy. After that we will try eliminating gluten.
I told Eileen she was not in this alone. We'll do this as a family. Some things we'll just buy Eileen safe for just her, like non-dairy frozen dessert and almond milk. Other things we will say good bye to for a while, like flour tortillas
Eileen's favorite foods are grilled cheese, cream cheese and jelly bagels, and Annie's white cheddar shells and cheese. It's going to be interesting. Right now Eileen is enjoying have things revolve around her for once. I think it might get old pretty quick. Linus is not a fan of the changes. He mentioned something about going hungry. Linus lost no time trying to taunt Eileen with an ice cream cone. I let him know that if I catch him again, he will be on the exact same diet as Eileen.
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