What people ask me about: Food Allergies

November 29, 2007: Preliminary Bloodwork on Alyssa came back looking like she had celiac disease.
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Alyssa was going through a time of having urinary tract infections. She was on her 5th round of antibiotics and kept complaining about her stomach hurting. At first, I thought it wsa just from all those antibiotics, but at a diabetes check-up, I made the endocrinologist (diabetes doctor) test her for celiac (auto-immune disease common in diabetics where the patient is allergic to gluten... gluten is a bi-product of wheat, oats, rye, and barley... so if they have celiac, they can't eat any of these things or anything that has those things in it.).
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Because of the bloodwork results, the endocrinologist wanted to send me on to the gastroenterologist to see if Alyssa had celiac. That doctor would put her to sleep, scope her, and biopsy her to see if she had celiac. That would be after we could set up an appointment that would occur hopefully within a month or two, but meanwhile, her stomach would still be hurting.
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I had already set up an appointment with a nutritionist for that Monday, December 3rd because of all those urinary tract infections -- I wanted to see if there was anything I could change in her diet to stop the uti's. The nutritionist recommended taking her off all allergenic foods to see if it would help. So, it would be possible immediate relief, but the only way to test for celiac would be to have her start eating gluten again and be in pain. Both Jason & I decided that the label wasn't worth it. We chose to take her off gluten.
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We immediately saw her feel better and her diabetic numbers shooting low. Within 1 day, we knocked her insulin down by 60%. By the end of 3 days, it leveled out at 85% of the previous amount. Most likely, that was because her body was not having to work so hard since she was not eating foods she was allergic to.
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The other part of this was that I did not think we could take Alyssa off of all those foods (gluten, dairy, peanuts, nuts, even beef for a while) by herself, so we took the family off of everything, too. We all started feeling better:
Jason & I lost at least 5 inches off of our waistlines and felt healthier.
Kate started only getting her recurrent urinary tract infections (that she had started having in kindergarten, but really had her first one at 2 months old) when she went to friend's houses and ate whatever food.
Grant started only getting sick 48 hours after being at friend's houses and eating their food. This happened about 3 times, so it was kinda weird. He also stopped sounding so nasal-y all the time.
Alyssa made comments like, "My tummy never hurts anymore, Mommy."
Clark only got a runny nose after eating snacks at school.
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February 4, 2008: Gradually, though, Alyssa's stomach started hurting at random times. I finally took her to a wholistic doctor who checked her blood levels for anything weird and for food allergies. It turned out that she was highly allergic to gluten, & yeast. But, she was mildly allergic to all grains, all dairy, onions, turkey, eggs, and a few other small things. She was put on supplements to help her body fight back against the food allergies and to balance any areas where her bloodwork showed that she was off.
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February 29, 2008: I started going crazy trying to guess what the others should or shouldn't eat, so I took the other 3 kids and myself back to that wholistic doctor to check allergies. Here's what we found:
Clark: mildly allergic to quite a few things, so I just limit him at home, but eats whatever when he is out.
Grant: highly allergic to celery, grapes, grapefruit, oranges, eggs, lettuce, avocado, cabbage. He also had mild allergies to quite a few other things... like tomatoes seem to stop up his nose. All I know is that if he stays off these things, he does not sound so congested. So, he was fine to have gluten and dairy, but needed to lay off these other foods.
Kate: only mildly allergic to several foods but very sensitive to the ones she is allergic to. Eggs make her stomach hurt. Gluten gives her urinary tract infections. Same thing for too much fruit of any kind. Pineapple sends her to the pot.
Me: Mildly allergic to a ton of foods. Highly allergic to buckwheat (What's up with that?! I don't eat buckwheat). I also have high allergies to lettuce, spinach, corn, celery, grapefruit, cheddar cheese, beef, pecans, sesame, and potatoes. I noticed small things in the beginning like soy made my nose run, corn syrup gave me a caffeine-feeling headache, potatoes made me grouchy.
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What does all this mean?! For us, we all went on acidophillus & glutamine & supplements to heal our guts. None of us are anaphylactic when it comes to these allergies, but it was really messing up our insides. The doctor told me that changing my life now really is the same as stopping cancer, blood problems, and all sorts of other issues. I'd felt slightly off balance for a couple of years anyways, so I was listening!
Do I think everyone has food allergies? Probably. How many of us drink a drink or eat a food and then get a headache afterwards, but ignore it. Your body is talking to you, it's just whether you want to listen to it or not. I do think it was easier to figure out for us because we started rotating our allergenic foods so that we didn't eat the same thing more often than once every four days.
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Food allergies change over time and we are about due to get checked again. Some of it, we are just figuring out by how we feel. Like, Kate, who is the most sensitive one of all of us has noticed that bananas really don't seem to bother her, but pees send her to the pot and white fish hurts her stomach. Those are all new things, but she is listening to her body, so I think she'll be super healthy. Most of the rest of us should be dropping food allergies as our guts get stronger.
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I've started picking my battles with food. When we are at home, we eat either non-allergenically or we rotate our low allergenic foods. When we are away, I keep to the following:
Me: I eat whatever, but still try to limit potatoes because I don't like feeling grouchy and it really made me grouchy at the beginning. I also lay low on wheat because it makes my back hurt, my face break, and makes me kinda stinky! :)
Kate: Stays off gluten & eggs
Grant: Stays off eggs & grapes (celery, oranges, and grapefruit don't come up that much)
Alyssa: Stays off gluten and yeast
Clark: Eats whatever
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How has this changed us? Beyond the obvious of what we eat, we are all healthy and aware of what goes into our bodies. I've been blessed by wonderful friends who have helped me figure out what to eat and have been able to help others. I was able to help out at VBS to make sure all the kids with food allergies felt special and their parents got to take a break from worrying about it. I was able to repay Shannon Farrier for helping teach me how to cook this way by helping cook for her son when their house burnt down. (We both wish that I wouldn't have had to help, but what a blessing that I was able to help!!)
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Do I think it will last forever? I hope not, but I think that at least gluten and eggs will continue to be out. For now, we typically stay off gluten, dairy, eggs, & yeast at the house all the time.
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We'll see how it goes. I'm just glad that we all feel better for now!