Food Allergies?

When my son was born I founed out he had an allergy to milk because he always would through up. since he was an baby he would through up no matter what kind of formula it was. Then when he became a 12month old the doctor put him on goat milk. Its bought in the stores in a little can, and very expensive but my son stoped vomiting. good luck.

Hi C.,

With food allergies, it's really hard to detect. A lot of it is trial and error, that's how we found out with our son. At around 9-10 months, we knew he had allergies to eggs because he was throwing up 1/2 hr. after eating them. We fed him eggs a couple more times and sure enough he kept vomiting it up. He also has a list of allergies to certain foods. The main foods that do cause the most common allergies are: milk, wheat, eggs, soy, nuts...try to keep those away from your daughters.

You may want to ask your peditrician to refer your daughters to an allergist. They can do a skin test, but that's not so accurate. A blood test may have to be done to know for sure.

Hi C. :)

My son had the same problem. It turned out that he was allergic to dairy. Testing them for food allergies is a good idea but you can also save the money and do this yourself by the elimination process. Cut all wheat/flour and milk/cheese out of their diets. Wait for them to improve, then try one item with them --like milk--and monitor them for 3-4 days. If all goes well, add a new item etc.
Also, see you if you can find some chewable acidophilus for them. When my son takes this he can eat dairy with no problems. Just don't over do it.
Keep in mind also that most flour and wheat products are over-processed and cut too soon out of the field causing invisible mold not to mention the preservatives they put in it. Lots of people can't eat "grocery store bread products" but have no problems whatsoever with fresh baked bread from bread stores for example. Watch your lables!

Good luck!
M.

Have you tried a differetn brand of juice or any food lately? My kids get the same way if they get a certain brand of apple juice. Your kids may be sensitive to something in that particualr brand of product. Check your cupboard before you go to the doctor so they don't say the kids are allergice to something if they're sensitive to a by-product.

My son was allergic to cow's milk as a baby, the allergy doctor said they usually outgrow it around 2 years old. He had a really bad diaper rash and crusty scalp, before I found out what it was, the rash even showed up on his chest, tummy and legs. Stopping all dairy products cleared it up. Your daughters may be allergic to dairy or something else. The doctor did a test on my son's back for the 24 most common allergies, it's just a tray with a dab of each allergin, not painful at all, they can tell in a few minutes if there is any reaction. I did have to go to an allergy doctor for this as my pediatrician just gave me a cream to put on the diaper rash. By the way, my son is 13 now and hasn't had any problems with dairy products since.

It COULD be something else, but it sound more like an allergy asthe doc suggested. The first thing that comes to mind beside allergy or illness is a bug- as in parasite! The are EXTREEMLY normal at this age and this time of year. Do you have pets and/or is there a sand box they like to play in? Both of these are pretty common sources of parasite infections. I would ask them to do a stool culture to rule this out as well.

As for allergy, take away the milk and wheat breads for now. Yogurt is actually better for kids (per my ped) than drinking a lot of milk, and usually okay for people with milk allergies. Also, most white breads are okay. Have they been eating more berries lately? These are also a high allergy food. Anything beyand this, try to think if there are ANY other "summer foods" they've been eating. Even if the did fine on the "Gerber" style of the food last year, fresh is a little different.

What happens next: the doctor will likely ask you to make an eatting and diaper log. This will help narrow the "villans" in her diet. They may also (either now or in a couple weeks) do a test that is called either a "brick test" or "prick test" on their backs. It basically is a block of needles that have small amounts of various known allergens in them. they press the brick against the back and make several TINY pricks in the back. They then check it at precise times after the pricks to evalualte any potential allergy.

I hope this helps~ J.

Some of my food allergies do cause direahha - but a lot of times I also get another symptom like chills, rashes, hives or a runny nose - itchy eyes...

My son had the same problem around your daughter's ages - after 2 months they finally tested him for roto-virus - he had the roto-virus!!!! I would get rid of their sippy cups - the new ones are impossible to clean all the bacteria out of - it gets caught in the grooves...

To relieve the direahha - try potty training - - - Rice - Bananas - don't give them milk - it aggrevates direhha no matter what the cause...

Hi C.,

If it's not a food allergy or sensitivity per se (like dairy, wheat, corn or soy, etc.) it can also be because of what another mom mentioned - too much of either juice or some kinds of fruit. Doctors generally suggest juice as a treatment for constipation in fact. My daughter loves berries especially blueberries and raspberries - and if she has very many blueberries, we can count on an extremely runny diaper next go round - major diarrhea! Ugh!! It's tough because we all love them and it's hard to know how many will give her "the runs" so we are still experimenting. :)

As far as the rashes - what have you tried to coat their skin with it when you change them? Something that we used when my daughter was younger and had to be on an antibiotic which caused diarrhea and a rash was this: Burt's Bees diaper cream and Lansinoh Breast Ointment (the sticky lanolin kind). Put one on and then layer the other one over it (I *think* I would put the Burt's Bees first and then the Lansinoh, but I don't think it matters that much which order you put them in as long as you get them on there). It's messy but it was very helpful for protection and soothing. We also actually had to deal with a bit of yeast rash at that time with my daughter (again from the antibiotic) so we also had to use Nystatin cream - in that case, the Nystatin cream would go on first, then the other two creams.

Good luck with pinpointing the problem - diarrhea and diaper rashes are both tough to deal with and I hope your girls are feeling much better soon!

S.

Dear C.,

No it could not have been caught earlier. Allergies are different than many other things. Your body has to develop a 'resistance' or something like that to the wheat or milk. My son was allergic to many many things, and it lasted all of his life. He had to be on a very strick diet when he was very young, and it helped wonderfully. So don't be dismayed if they have some things that they cannot eat or drink. It will work out especially well with both of them being allergic. They will cooperate because they will feel so much better without that allergen dragging them down.

C. N.

Allergies can occur at any time in life, and can have a variety of different symptoms. Milk is not meant for human consumption and is not as good for us as it is made out to be. I replaced my kids milk intake with Rice Milk 5 years ago.

When the body is constipated, the end result usually ends up being diahrea. Could be many things.

I would look more into the concept of keeping your body alkali as opposed to acidic. Also, if your child is constipated frequently try adding flax oil to their foods. Not only does it help them pass stool better, it also provides Omega 3, 6, and 9's.

Good luck!

Hi... I too am a full time mom to a three year old (who's going on 13) and a 2 and a half month baby... Both girls.

I'm currently breast feeding my youngest and I have noticed that breastfed babies tend to poop more than formula fed babies. Since she was going so much, I was changing her and wiping her more than ever... I have to purchased special wipes for her since she goes so much...

I know this isn't in regards to food allergies, but I thought you might want something to help ease the pain of diaper rash...

The wipes are made by lansinoh and can be found in the breastfeeding accessories aisle of target.

I hope your doctor visit with your kids goes smoothly.

My son has "toddler diarrhea." This means that we can't give him any fruit juices....anything that has apple, pear, grape juice in it. Even if it's a little bit. Something about an ingredient called "sorbitol" that causes the diarrhea. Their bodies, in order to deal with it (it's a sugar), releases too much water, hence causing the diarrhea. I've been told, and read, that it's usually outgrown by the time they're five, and that's why it's called "toddler diarrhea." It didn't show up in our son until he was almost 2, then he kept getting diarrhea and we weren't sure what was causing it. The same thing....it was giving him such bad rashes, and even though we'd change him right away, it had made his little bum raw. It started when he was sick with something, so the doctor assumed it was the acid in the apple juice. After it continued, I stopped giving him juice, and he stopped having the diarrhea. My son drinks a lot....and we always gave him juice and milk. Now I have to make sure there is no juice whatsoever in whatever we give him. We've tried different kinds, and a few are okay....like cranberry (preferrably a white kind), a white grape juice, but we still need to water it down to smooth out the effects.

Hi C.,
This could be food allergies, but don't feel bad for not catching it sooner. My nephew has them but his worst trigger is red dyes. It took forever (mostly trial and error) to find it. My daughter had diareeha for the longest time with no other symptoms. I finally attributed hers to teething. Only with her eye teeth and her 2nd and 3rd molars. She never seemed to feel bad or have other sypmtoms but soft squishy or explosive diapers got really old really fast (along with the rashes). If this seems to be the case just make sure they aren't dehydrated and try to get them to eat plenty of food (not just milk and soft things that don't hurt the teeth). Good luck with the allergies, my nephew calls his allergist the pokie doctor!!

Hi C.. With the rash being JUST on your daughters' diaper area... it seems more likely that it isn't a food allergy in the conventional sense (as this would more likely also give them a spotty rash on the face or etc). But a couple of other thoughts occur to me. First of course, a reaction to excess fruit, or a particular fruit, as already suggested.

The second thought I had was to ask whether the girls had a flu 3 or 4 weeks ago. Sometimes the healthy gut flora gets killed off and the result is as you describe, rash on the bottom, diarhea. Do they have a problem with gas right now as well? Should this prove to be the issue, ask your doctor about the chewable acidopholus tablets that you can buy over the counter. Works like a charm.

Has he already ruled out giardia?? Chronic diarhea is a typcial symptom. (Note that it is a parasite.) The rash could be simply from the diarhea itelf. All those caustic acids and etc.

Finally, lansinoh is probably good for the tender bottoms. But we love a product called "Bag Balm". It does not require a prescription, but you may have to ask your pharmacist for it as it may not be out on the regular shelves. Not only does it stay on as well as, if not better than, ANY diaper ointment... it has an analgesic quality. All my kids have said it makes them feel INSTANTLY more comfortable.

The reason for the funny name is that it was orginally developed for treating the chaffed udders of cows.

You can show it to your pediatrician if you have a doubts about it(because its not sold on the baby shelf), but all of ours gave it a stamp of approval.

It's also inexpensive and extremely economical. One can per kid was all it took. (Just make sure you don't dip germy fingers into it!)

I remember when summer started our family would start eating lots of melon and fruit. The watermelon especially would irritate my daughter's bottom and digestive system. We really LOVED melon. My duaghter especially even at 6 mos. We didn't have to quit altogether to make things better. We just started moderating how much she had and things got a lot better.

Maybe this is happening? It seems weird that all of a sudden your cuties would just start having allergies out of the blue so maybe it's a new introduction to the diet or a lot of seasonal fruit?