[lakimnafite]

The orphanage told us that Allie was allergic to sugar, citrus, dairy, and all things red. So,I have wanted to get her tested since we got home - and I also thought it would be good to get Tayton retested since it's been 5 years since the last test for him.

So, the three of us went to the Naturopath yesterday.

First, Tayton. The first time he was tested, he showed reactions to Wheat, Dairy, Oats, Eggs, Plums, Parsley, refined sugar and Tylenol.

Well, as of yesterday, he is without reactions to Oats, Eggs, Plums and Parsley! He was so thrilled to find that Oats were okay, the first thing he wanted to do was come home and have some cereal with oats in them! The Naturopath and I warned him that we need to reintroduce foods slowly so that he doesn't end up re-reacting to them! But, today at the store, I bought some Vanilla Almond crisp cereal with OAT CLUSTERS just for him! He is going to be so thrilled when he gets home from school

He still has a strong reaction to Wheat. Really not a problem as we are so used to living wheat free it's second nature around here! He also still reacts to dairy, tho she said of the two, wheat is worse. He is, however, showing no reaction to goat (which is different from the last test) so FETA cheese is OKAY! Yahoo and yummy!!

The odd finding was a new reaction to corn.... We have relied heavily on corn over the years, grits, polenta, popcorn, corn pastas... as a substitute for wheat. I asked if this could be the cause of the reaction. She confirmed, and we are going to back off of corn for a while and likely it will take care of itself. Poor Tayton, the popcorn kid, will have to avoid it for a while....

Alas... he shows a reaction to beer... He may not be his father's son after all...

Allie has it a bit worse than Tayton - tho not nearly as bad as Tayton at her age! She also had a reaction to wheat - but not to dairy. Now the orphanage said she was allergic to dairy, so we have had her dairy free since we got her. I will slowly introduce some dairy into her diet, but since we already do so little at home, she will likely remain mostly dairy free. I did get some baby yogurt (dairy) today. It wont hurt Tayton's feelings to not have to share his (soy) yogurt with his sister!

Unlike Tayton, Allie has a number of fruit allergies. Like Tayton at her age, she showed a reaction to Plums.. I asked if this was common and told no, not at all. So I found it interesting that they shared this allergy. They also share an allergy to Tylenol!

In addition, Allie shows a reaction to canteloupe, grapefruit, red currant, tangerine, orange, lemon and strawberry. Poor kid! Thank GOD she had no reaction to bananas! This, being her first English word (or one of them anyway!) and also her favorite thing to eat. She eats one a day!

Allie also reacted to NW grasses. Oddly, Tayton did not show a reaction to grasses (did to molds...) but he has severe Spring/Early Summer allergies to grasses. His prior testing showed positive for allergies. I hope this means that he is growing out of this particular allergy as it causes him such misery.. But, I do anticipate both kids having some problems around April...

So, I found it interesting that:

- the orphanage was actually pretty right on with what they told us about her allergies

- Tayton and Allie have similar allergies, tho they are not related by blood

Guess that's all I have to say about it. Just wanted to share. Have a great day!

[emjay]

Wow, that's so interesting -especially that the orphange was right on. Sorry both kids have food allergies, but sounds like you're used to it.

Our Danny reacts to wheat and dairy, but either the orphanage didn't know or didn't mention it. Erin's allergic to peanuts. So we've gotten used to alternatives. And candy sorting after trick-or-treating left a pile of peanut or "processed on same equipment as peanuts" candy - hmmmmm, someone's going to have to eat it!!!

[lakimnafite]

Oh, that is very funny! We didn't let Tayton eat any of his candy tonight (simply too late and school tomorrow...) but I have already had two pieces.

Have you tried soy nut butter for Erin? It's really yummy! Can she do other nuts, like Almond nut butter? It just doesn't seem like childhood without pb&j?!?!

[kretzklan]

That is interesting - all the alergies on our kids reports were false. Per our IA doc, we allowed those foods slowly and checked for reactions - found none. I found it fishy that they said allergic to sugar, but couldn't explain what kind.

[kimber413]

Just an FYI, Feta cheese is often made with sheep's milk instead of goat milk, so you might want to check the labels before you buy just to make sure...

[LilyMoon]

We have been doing the wheat and dairy free for quite a while now and things have been going well. However, we eliminated it by recommendation from our Naturopath and did not have formal testing done. Was it a blood test that you did to determine what foods your children were allergic too? Did the Naturopath do it or did you have a Dr. do it?

[Annabell]

Very interesting. Thank you for sharing. Luckily, DD seems to be allergic only to molds. Late autumn can be tough for her due to leaf mold. (I really miss having my little raking helper, leaf cruncher and leaf pile jumper, but it's just not worth it!)

[susan1326]

We found out that Leo was allergic to fish and shellfish when he just held them and fed them to the stingrays and sea lions at Sea World! Good thing we hadn't fed him any yet! So I now have one son allergic to ant bites and one son allergic to all things seafood and TWO EPI-PENS!

[Pinkie]

Too funny ladies. The chocolate police need to visit my house and take me away for eating Antonina's choccies!!! Truth is, she doesn't like brown chocolate so its fair game in my eyes.

Kim, how very interesting about the allergies both children have.

I have been tested (just over a year ago) for both wheat and dairy. I've been told that I am absolutely NOT allergic to anything which is fair comment and makes life easier for me. The only thing I can tell you is that I am so much better when I put myself on a non wheat diet.

Lilymoon my testing did involve blood tests.

[lakimnafite]

We did not do the blood tests. The naturopath we saw does a test with electrodes. We did it for our son when he was two, and just retested him again to see any changes.

We did finally get blood testing done on our son this summer. He had to have blood drawn for another reason anyway, so it wasn't an extra stick just for allergies. His Western Med doctor was finally pleased - as I had refused for years. The results were pretty much the same, except the naturopath tested for so much more than the regular doctor did!

I have never tested myself - but I have also been basically wheat and dairy free for about 10 years and I so much feel better for it!!