The Allergy Diet

Let me share with you some things that I dislike:

Country music, homeowners associations, speed bumps, wet socks, drippiness, cooked fruit, swearing, the entire American medical system.

You read that right.

That's only a partial list, of course.

I know modern medicine must do some good. I suppose I never got polio as a child and I can thank my vaccinations for that. I've never had a doctor tell me something that wasn't common sense in the first place and the part I hate most is that it is SO EXPENSIVE. How on earth can everything be so expensive?? Insurance is a player (one that I also loathe), but that can't be all of it.  I had a friend who had her baby in the hospital and it's a good thing she did- she developed preeclampsia and the labor was risky. Her insurance ended up paying roughly a quarter of a MILLION dollars to the hospital for that baby. She was only in there for about three days. There was no surgery required. Do you know her HOUSE didn't cost that much? That's partly why, if I can help it, I don't want to see a doctor unless there's a very good chance they could save me from dying. It's also partly why I try to have my babies at home.

Diana's doctors have been moderately helpful when it comes to her eczema. Her pediatrician recommended using scentless laundry detergent without softener and her dermatologist recommended diluted bleach baths once a week to keep the inflammation down. But the rest was two long years of trial and error: trying countless soaps and lotions on her and having to throw them out every time they gave her a new rash, trying antihistamines, experimenting with all my cosmetics to find brands that wouldn't affect her skin, introducing new foods while watching for allergic reactions, keeping her constantly clothed so she couldn't reach her "hot spots." And you know something else I hate? Watching my child in agony. It's annoying that she can't wear cool, fun shorts and dresses in the summer, but it kills me when she sits down and scratches (tears, really. It's vicious.) at her skin until it bleeds, crying the whole time because she can't stop. I hate having to try to get her to stop something as natural as scratching an itch. (Once she starts, the scratching just makes her itch more.) She begs me to let her scratch sometimes and I feel so bad for her. Her pediatrician and dermatologist prescribed antihistamines, but none seem to be more effective than just keeping her skin covered up. They gave her 2.5% hydrocortisone (ineffective), then a "moderate" steroid (also ineffective), then a "stronger" steroid (effective for a short time, but made her rash appear more strongly in new places). Because we were just treating symptoms, I wanted to get to the bottom of things and tried to make an appointment with an allergist. I talked to our insurance provider and the allergist's office. For an initial consultation, it was going to be somewhere between $200-$700.

Is this normal? When people say they took their kids to a specialist, do they routinely pay hundreds of dollars per visit? If I felt like I had no other options and an allergist could most likely help my kids, we'd definitely do that. But as our pediatrician verified, a blood test is most effective in kids older than Diana. Instead we decided we'd go back to basics and look at what the pediatrician and dermatologist both told us was the most likely cause of children's allergies: food.

My family is blessed to not have any real food allergies. And though I love Joseph's family, they collectively have allergies to everything under (and possibly including) the sun. A lot of Joseph's siblings grew out of their allergies. However, Diana has aunts and cousins with allergies to dairy, peanuts and artificial dyes. Whenever Diana eats uncooked or undercooked eggs (like runny scrambled eggs or cookie dough) she throws up, so we suspected an egg allergy. She also has a peanut sensitivity (not allergy, thankfully), so we never give her anything with any tree nuts, just to be safe. After running it by her pediatrician, we decided to put her on a diet that excluded major and known allergens. For Diana, that meant no nuts, dairy, wheat or oatmeal. During that time, we kept a detailed record of what she ate, her skin condition, and how itchy she was. We also took pictures of her trouble spots (ankles, backs of her knees, insides of her thighs, and hands) every morning and evening so we could record changes in her skin. Since Liam has some eczema problems on his cheeks, I went on the diet with her. Eating the same foods also gave me an accurate gauge of how hungry she actually was. (It turns out you can eat rice cakes forever, but they'll never be as satisfying as some cheese and crackers.) We stayed on the diet for a little over a week, and for those of you dying to know, I'll post the daily logs HERE!