Elimination Diet

bosquez01

I'm pretty new here and I have just started the elimination diet to see if it helps my DS.  Has anyone else been on this diet? Any words of wisdom or good food ideas?  I am only a few days in and spent all day yesterday being sick- not sure if just a coincidence or if related to the elimination diet.  Any help is greatly appreciated.  Thanks!

CHS2005

If I had to guess, I think getting sick was a coincidence. Know that you are doing this for your LO, b/c for me, it got real old real fast. I dont do wheat or dairy and it has been a steep learning curve for me.. ALso,  it takes about10 days to 2 weeks to get things all the way out of your system, so be patient. My best advice is to eliminate one or two things at a time, and move on to another item if it doesn't help. I found it WAY too hard to do soy, milk, eggs, nuts, wheat, dairy, etc all at once.  You will get better at finding things to eat, just be patient with yourself!

magdusia

getting sick is probably more of a coincidence than the diet.  PP said it perfectly.

Just stay focused on the possibility of finally knowing what is bothering your baby.  There is nothing better than knowing. It sucks when you find out about the allergies, but knowledge is so good. 

Miller238

What have you eliminated from your diet?  Eliminating so many foods at once can be a real shock to your body.

My elimination diet was the top 8 (dairy, soy, wheat, peanuts, tree nuts, eggs, fish, shellfish), all beans, pork, beef, and tomatoes.  I did it for about 7 months.  My only side effect was losing way too much weight.  It got to an unhealthy point for me and I decided I needed to quit once we found a prescription formula that worked for my daughter.

 

Fuzzy8252

I wouldn't contribute getting sick to diet. I had to cut everything out ASAP and did fine, if not a bit crabby because my diet became very limited very fast.

g_belle

also- why are you doing the elmination diet (sorry if you posted it already and I missed it).  Elmination diets are really challenging without any direction.  Doable- but difficult.  I did several with my first son and still never got the right combination of foods out of my diet (should have elminated the top 8 but never did- now I know better).  If you can see an allergist for testing that would be super helpful so that you don't drive yourself crazy trying to figure out what foods are the trigger. 

I think getting sick is mostly a coincidence.  However- I did (and do) get sick more easily while on an elmination diet.  It's extra important to watch your calorie and vitamin intake and I'm not always so good about that.  Add in the stress of a sick kiddo with allergies and navigating ingredient labels and your immune system is probably not up to it's best. 

bosquez01

Thank you all for your replies.  Here's our history.  LO was put on Zantac for 3 weeks for reflux and showed some improvement until he outgrew the dose.  When we increased the dose we saw no improvement. We then switched to Prevacid and seem to do well as long as increase the dose about every three weeks.  All during this time LO has had horrible/painful gas, mucusy stool and still lots of spit up.  We have never had green or bloody stool.  My lactation consultant/PA suggested we try going dairy free for three weeks.  I tried my best but I know a few things got in that I later found out shouldn't have.  I did have a dairy intolerance until I was about 3 which is were this idea came from.  The dairy trial didn't really show us any improvement in LO so now the LA suggested doing the elimination diet.  I am going full out- which is trying.  I can eat- turkey, rice, rice milk, yellow and green sqush, pears and pear juice and regular and sweet potatoes.  I seem to be doing ok with this but I do notice that LO is still VERY gassy, maybe more than normal. I also notice a lot more gut noises and gurgling then before.  I have tried to reach my LA but it turns out she is out of the office this week........I guess we'll see if there is any improvement over the weekend.