Food Additives Allergies?

DammitJanet

Well-Known Member
Well...stop referring to things as an allergy and start calling it something else instead. "He has hypoglycemia or he has a blood glucose problem" Then instead of saying he is allergic to dyes...say he reacts to artificial food coloring and preservatives in foods. Hell if you need a note for that from a doctor Im sure yours would give you one.
 

Steely

Active Member
I don't have any big ideas, other than to say, keep searching for answers. You know in your gut, and he has validated that by physical reactions, that he is very allergic to something - so do not stop the quest to find the answers. I know in the area where we live that there are some great "environmental centers" that helps identify in kids the allergens they react to in the environment. I would think food dye would be one of them. I know red dye #40 is a bigee for a lot of kids, but other than that, I am not sure. I would call around, and find a doctor that wants to dig a little deeper. There are many great ads in Child magazine for just this sort of thing.

Good luck............
 

Marguerite

Active Member
I'm with Janet here - especially when dealing with professionals - educators and health professionals - you have to be scrupulous about using correct terminology.

You are really struggling here, and frankly, you need an expert to guide you in this. We've been down this road first with my sisters' kids when I was a student teacher, and then with my own kids. And I found that ideas change a lot as medicine gets more formally involved.

A true elimination diet is far more involved than just eliminating additives. We eliminated all artificial additives from the diets of my sisters' kids, and then from easy child (and even from my own diet, because easy child was also being breast-fed). We did find a food colouring sensitivity - tartrazine caused this little baby to have rages - unbelievable! And it continued as she got older and occasionally had tartrazine, even in medicines.

But that was her main problem - that, and dairy. She's OK now, so they weren't true allergies.

We first tried a true elimination diet with difficult child 1. By that stage I had discovered that there are a lot of naturally-occurring chemicals in good food, which must also be eliminated in the quest to find what causes a problem. The elimination diet is NOT a permanent thing to prevent problems forever; it's simply a short-term (a few weeks) diet to wash out any of these food chemicals from the child's system. You then test these foods, one by one. Because we were doing this through an allergy clinic, we were to test these with capsules of distilled salicylate, or amine. We never got that far because we found t he cause before then - the failure of the elimination diet to have the slightest impact on difficult child 3's apparent GI problems showed that it was not food-related. If not for the clinic, we could still be searching for problem foods and frustrating difficult child 3 to the point of cheating on his diet. because he knew it was short-term and for good reason, he was cooperative, even to helping me read food labels.

While you're shooting in the dark like this, it increases his lack of cooperation and makes the picture even more confusing. Some of the foods suggested - home-made lemonade, for example) are a total disaster on an elimination diet, because lemons are a high source of salicylate. So is honey. We actually had to steer away from honey and TOWARDS refined white sugar. Sounds paradoxic, but it was coming from the dietician.

The basic elimination diet is horrible and shouldn't be followed except under strict medical supervision - lamb, chicken cooked at home with no seasoning, no spices and skin removed; fresh pears, peeled; potatoes, peeled and cooked without flavouring (salt permitted); sugar, water. If you're going dairy free - nothing else permitted in the diet. NOTHING. Herbal tea maybe - but only chamomile.
This is not a balanced diet, which is why you can't ask a child to put up with it for more than the necessary few weeks. It is purgatory. But once you can prove that the problem food isn't salicylate, for example, but maybe amine instead - it suddenly becomes a lot easier.
Gluten is another nasty to check out - it's amazing how much you have to remove.

But do not do this without a dietician/allergist's supervision and support - I consider myself a reasonably intelligent, educated person and I found myself ringing the dietician help line for advice, constantly. I thought I could work it out for myself and I still needed help.

I've known people to fuss around the issue of allergies & sensitivities for years. Doing it properly with professional supervision really speeds up the process and you KNOW, fairly quickly, where the problems (if any) lie.

I said before - you will benefit from getting yourself a serious education on this, otherwise you are shooting in the dark. You will save time and a lot of anxiety. And hopefully, you will be able to give your child more specific information about what he can have, and what he can't. As he gets a better understanding (as well as an increased sense of freedom in other areas) he will hopefully be more cooperative.

Marg
 

AllStressedOut

New Member
I'm thinking if I do an elimination diet it needs to be over the summer. My youngest difficult child is a PRO at sneaking food and if I were to go this strict at home, while he was going to school, I'd never get it right. He'd find something to sneak every day. Maybe during Christmas Break. That gives me time to research it better. I'm going to have husband put the books on hold at the library. Thanks ya'll!
 

skeeter

New Member
I'm going through my chemical inventory system:

Artificial cherry (FD&C Green #3)
Erioglaucine (Blue #1 or 9)
1-Naphthalenesulfonic Acid, 3-[(2,4-Dimethyl-5-Sulfophenyl)Azo]-4-Hydroxy-, Disodium Salt (Red #4)
Curry Red (Red #40)
1-p-Sulfophenylazo-2-hydroxynaphthalene-6-sulfonate, disodium salt (Yellow #6)
6-Hydroxy-5-((p-sulfophenyl)azo)-2-naphthalenesulfonic acid, disodium salt (Yellow #6)
Indigo Carmine (Blue #74)
Quinoline yellow (Yellow #10)
3-Carboxy-5-hydroxy-1-p-sulfophenyl-4-p-sulfophenylazopyrazole trisodium salt (Yellow #5)
Aluminium, 4,5-dihydro-5-oxo-1-(4-sulfophenyl)-4-[(4-sulfophenyl)azo]-1H-pyrazole-3-carboxylic acid complex (Yellow #5)
Tartrazine (Yellow #5)

just from a quick search.......
 

Marguerite

Active Member
Depending on where the food comes from, the labels may be a little different - we have a different numbering code in Australia, I think it's similar to Europe. For us, tartrazine is 102, brilliant scarlet is 124 and indigo carmine is 132 - there are OUR family allergies, anyway. And I do mean allergies!

But seriously, there should be a comprehensive list somewhere - FDA, perhaps? A consumers organisation? But you really do need more medical involvement in this, to make it easier on you and speed up the process. Christmas is NOT a good time to do it - too much yummy food which you won't let him eat. I had to relax difficult child 3's diet in time for Christmas, with the dietician's blessing. They knew from experience that the most compliant kid will sneak food over Christmas if you try to be too rigid then.

It can be done during school term, but not easily. We did it then. Holidays were easier, though.

In the meantime - Google "additive code breaker" and you should get an Aussie one, at the very least. if nothing else it will give you a list to track down the US label for, if it doesn't already give that to you.

Marg
 

AllStressedOut

New Member
Marg, I didn't even think about treats at Christmas! Derrr..I'm so blonde sometimes. See, this is why I come here, because when my brain isn't functioning, ya'lls is. The only other break between now and then is Thanksgiving and this is just as treat filled.
 

Marguerite

Active Member
Think about it - how many non-difficult child adults break diets at holiday times? Especially those associated with large amounts of non-healthy food... although what saved us, in terms of sweet treats permitted when difficult child 3 was on the full elimination diet, was honeycomb. Not from a beehive, but the sort made with sugar, glucose and bicarb soda. Large yellow blocks of it, he could eat as much as he wanted on this diet because it was low in the natural chemicals most likely to cause a reaction.

We forget that everything is a chemical. Every food contains a huge amount of chemicals. The most naturally grown vegetables are still loaded with chemicals - natural ones, but just as bad as if they were toxic, to someone who has a problem with them.

husband can't eat eggplant (aka aubergine). It's a sensitivity, not an allergy - he throws up, violently, if he gets anything with eggplant. Also, corn. Can't eat popcorn, can't eat corn on the cob, can eat SOME corn chips if they're made form white maize. Ya know how we found out? He ate corn and threw up. he ate eggplant and threw up. Then at a later stage (not knowing for sure what was causing it) he innocently ate corn/eggplant again and we knew for sure. No tests (at least, no skin tests or blood tests) - just observation.

I remember a woman asking my advice on allergies, but after we'd talked for a while I don't think she wanted my advice, as much as she wanted to 'brag' about how her allergies were much worse than anybody else's - because she was even allergic to water! Once I heard that statement I mentally switched off my sympathy button. I tried probing a little - "you mean, you react to water that isn't completely pure? It could be a problem with tap water impurities, such as fluoride, or trace metals." (I react to trace metals, in large enough quantity - like husband and eggplant). She insisted no, she couldn't drink ANY water, not even purified water.
I never did find out how she survived, what she drank. I did begin to say, "You do realise the human body is 70% water, who told you it was specifically H2O you were allergic to?" but I realised I would not get a sensible answer. She was enjoying too much the sensation of having a very rare allergy, because some quack had earnestly told her so.

Whenever you're investigating allergies and sensitivities, the first step is to become a GENUINE expert, otherwise you will risk making silly mistakes like this woman did, due to lack of informed experimentation. Because you DO have to experiment, to sort this one out. And doing it in an informed way is safer, more accurate and hopefully more informative.

I mentioned I'm sensitive to trace metals in the water I drink - I discovered it when drinking out of pipes where the water hadn't been flowing for a while. Pipes that had just been repaired, or pipes that were rarely used - I learned to let the water flow for a while. About this time I discovered I'm sensitive to elemental iron and even iron in some ionic form - it stays down a matter of seconds. So it stands to reason that iron contamination of my drinking water isn't going to be good.
A colleague at work was desperate for a cup of coffee, he wanted the jug to boil faster so he filled it from the hot tap. He made coffee for both of us and I drank mine quickly, then suddenly found myself hurling in the sink - the pipes in our building were old and corroding. No taste in the water, but a later talk to the plumber gave me the advice to not drink ANY water that had been in the hot water pipes of our building especially (one of Sydney's oldest buildings).
I've since discovered problems with copper, tin and other metals. I can't hold nails in my mouth when working with tools. I have to keep our black iron cookware and cutlery cleaned before each use, and wiped dry after each use. Immediately.

But I've never been tested. I found out by experience, and then discussed my experiences with my doctor who confirmed it all.

And that's important - to have a medico to discuss it with, to 'nail it in place' officially, so you get a solid understanding of exactly what the problem is and what to look out for.

Good luck with this one. Sounds like you may have to wait a while. In the meantime you could test for, say, dairy products, or gluten. Or artificial additives. But not all at once - too many variables, especially a kid who is likely to cheat if you cut back too much at a time without good reason.

Teach him to help you read labels, and find allowable treats as a reward for sticking to his diet!

Marg
 

Josie

Active Member
You will just have to make him his own treats. I bake a lot more now than I used to, just to make sure my girls have treats.

You might consider having your other children try his diet, too, especially at home. It will prevent cheating and you never know if some of them, especially the other difficult child's, are reacting, too.

I tried the gluten free diet thinking I would just do it in front of my kids and eat whatever I wanted when they weren't there. I didn't think I had a gluten intolerance problem at all. Within 2 days, I could tell such a difference in the way I felt that I am never even tempted to eat gluten.
 

Marguerite

Active Member
That's a good point. A diet works best when the whole family is on it. If you are restricting child A's sugar and fat intake, and you still eat chocolate biscuits in front of her, it's not fair. If one child has to do without, all should. The really problem foods should be banned from the house.

easy child seems to have outgrown her tartrazine sensitivity. difficult child 3 reacts to one red colour, I react to another purple colour. It's fairly easy to buy sweets which don't have either colour in them, but as a matter of principle (sending a message to manufacturers) we tend to buy lollies with NO artificial colour at all. They're just not in the house. We can get tiny fruit-favoured jelly beans with no artificial flavours or colours. Jelly snakes, jelly lollies of all shapes and flavours, chocolate (loaded with amines, by the way), marshmallows, honeycomb - whatever we want, with no artificial flavours & colours. They actually taste even better so the kids now choose them. We don't keep the other stuff around. So no chance of sneaking anything.

And sometimes not only is it tastier to make your own, it's also cheaper. difficult child 1 asked me to buy a gourmet strawberry sauce which we could get cheap from a factory outlet. It's very nice, but we've decided that we like my home-made one much better. And I priced it out - even using fresh strawberries, it's still cheaper. About half the price. And I can bottle it hot from the microwave into pop-top jars, and know that if the lid pops down, my sauce is still fresh in the cupboard six months later (assuming it survives being eaten that long). And when I'm making it, the whole house smells of strawberries.

It works the same for any fruit. And you could also use it to make fruit lollipops if you wanted. (strawberries - loaded with salicylate).

Good luck with whatever you try to do. But it's a good idea for you ALL to try it - it cuts back on the sneaking, and it does away with, "mum, you don't know how I feel being on this stupid diet!"

Marg
 
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