In retrospect, had I known that my own family history showed a strong tendency towards dairy and egg allergies, and had I been more informed about food allergies in general, I would have avoided eating these foods while I was pregnant. My cousin and his father, my uncle, both had egg and dairy allergies when they were infants. My cousin even had to be hospitalized during his third month of life for lack of weight gain. My aunt told me that she had to feed him soy formula after that occasion. Now my cousin is in his late thirties and I am told by his sister that he still avoids milk but that it is not life threatening to him--only sickening.
If I were pregnant again, I’d eat what I eat now--a dairy and egg free diet. Nor do I eat peanuts or tree nuts--after seven years of not eating them, I noticed how sick they make me feel. I was shopping one day and bought a small container of mixed nuts for lunch--perhaps one half cup of peanuts, cashews, almonds mixed with cranberries and raisins. They laid in my stomach for several hours (certainly no allergic response, but a testament to how difficult they are to digest). I do eat potatoes, rice, meat, fish and lots of vegetables and fruit. I think that is a good diet for pregnancy, unless there is a history of a fish or shellfish allergy, at which point I’d avoid that as well. Normally food allergies develop for high protein foods because the body can have trouble properly digesting those foods. The big eight are: soy, wheat, egg, dairy, fish, shellfish, peanut and tree nuts.
Another thing that I would do would be to supplement myself with probiotics. Probiotics are good bacteria that can rebalance a person’s intestinal tract so that it can properly digest foods. If a person’s intestinal tract is damaged by overuse of antibiotics, then the food can go into the blood stream through little holes in the intestinal wall--a disorder known as ‘leaky gut syndrome.’ There have been some studies that show that pregnant women who supplement with probiotics have a lower incidence of having babies with food allergies, as detailed in my probiotics chapter. Even supplementing after the child is born, if the mother is breastfeeding, can help the baby avoid food allergies.
Recently, I read a book called “Hidden Food Allergies” by James Braley and Patrick Holford. It is the first time that I have seen a recommendation by a doctor along this line. The book states, “Pregnant women who suffer from allergies have been found to be more likely to have babies who develop allergies and asthma, according to a five-year study funded by the British Lung Foundation and Asthma U.K. The researchers, however, found that it is possible to minimize that risk by reducing a woman’s exposure to allergens while she is pregnant. Dr. Jill Warner…said…”Our research shows that mothers can influence whether their baby develops sensitization to allergies. Controlling the mothers’ reactions to allergens, especially during the second and third trimesters of pregnancy, may well be the treatment of the future…’”[1]
In summary, avoiding known family allergens and common allergens (like peanuts or the other big eight listed above) while supplementing with probiotics during pregnancy and breastfeeding months can help a mother ward off allergies in her baby, some think, such as myself. It is too early to have proof from studies and there are currently many conflicting viewpoints. Personally, we were told to wait to introduce peanuts to our boys until they outgrew their allergies. Once our younger son outgrew his dairy allergy, we tried one half of a raw, organic peanut several times over a few weeks (dry roasted peanuts can cause more allergies than boiled or raw peanuts). He had no reaction. But we still have not introduced peanuts to our older son who remains allergic to dairy and is now seven. Why would we do this? Why not give his digestive system a chance to fully heal itself before introducing this potentially dangerous food. The same goes for all tree nuts in our household. Better safe than sorry. I was pleased to see Dr. Braly make this recommendation as well, "We therefore generally recommend that parents refrain from giving their children peanut butter or other peanut or nut products until after they're two years old. If there is a family history of food allergies, parents should wait until the child is three. And many doctors recommend that their pregnant patients--especially those with food allergies--keep the lid on the peanut butter jar until after the baby is born and they've finished breast-feeding...at least until six months..."[2]
--End notes--
[1] Braley, M.D., James, Holford, Patrick, "Hidden Food Allergies," Basic Health Publications, Inc., Laguna Beach, CA, originally published by Piatkus Books, Ltd, Great Britain, London, England 2005, page 89.
[1] Braley, M.D., James, Holford, Patrick, "Hidden Food Allergies," Basic Health Publications, Inc., Laguna Beach, CA, originally published by Piatkus Books, Ltd, Great Britain, London, England 2005, page 69.
]]>Our older son remains allergic to dairy and egg now at age seven. I could see the line cooks slapping cheese on every hamburger in site. Who knew what was in the hot dogs? So I ventured up to the front of the line to see what I could do. I asked if I might be able to see the package for the hot dogs as we’ve found that milk is in many brands of hot dogs. The young girl said she didn’t know where the package was, then she turned to ask the “guy in charge” who shouted back to me, “Hey lady, they’re just regular hot dogs!” Ugh. I gave up and went back to stand with my family in line.
Earlier, at home, I had tried to think this whole thing through and packed a few dairy-free organic hot dogs. They’d been on ice in my backpack for about five hours now--not something I felt good about. So now, I ventured up to the front of the line and asked a kind, older gentlemen if he could warm these up on the grill for me and keep them in the tin foil. He obliged me and about ten minutes later I picked up the hot dogs. But they were not even cooked. They were just the other side of cold, kind of almost warm. My son took a bite or two, but we decided to just make him a hamburger when we would be home. So for now, we gave him a pile of pickles which contented him for the moment.
This was probably one of the more difficult situations that I’ve encountered with the dairy allergy--one where everyone is eating the same thing and my son cannot participate. At smaller, family BBQs, it is easier to check a label or ask for special consideration. Even storing a hot dog or hamburger from home in a refrigerator is a convenience that can make all the difference--then popping it in a microwave for one minute or so. But these options weren’t available to us at this amusement park BBQ.
At times I like these I realize that people just have no idea. It is weird-- I too have trouble believing that a common food can be so harmful to some people, like my beautiful son. I know many people, especially those who don’t have children with food allergies, have strong feelings of disbelief about others’ food allergies. I’ve even seen stories on TV and on the Internet saying that many, if not most, food allergy tests produce false positives. While there is clearly a lot of doubt, ignorance and skepticism about food allergies, I must admit that I still, at times, struggle with the “disbelief” grief stage that my husband discusses in his chapter in my book.
My own disbelief got the better of me this past spring. After my sons had eaten egg baked in bread a few times over the years, I convinced myself they were outgrowing their egg allergy. So I let them try a small bit of hard boiled egg white not long after Easter. My younger son spit it out saying it was disgusting. My older son said he liked it. Within ten minutes he wanted to vomit and started sneezing uncontrollably. Then within twenty minutes his eyes got itchy, he developed a lot of mucus, became extremely tired and then said his chest hurt. After giving him two doses of antihistamine and talking with our allergist over the phone, I was instructed to give him the Epi-Pen and go to the ER. I am somewhere between ashamed of my actions and dumbfounded by my own disbelief. But the lesson taught us that disbelief is real and dangerous. It also helps me to understand why others feel this way.
Over the next ten, twenty or more years, more and more people will probably develop food allergies. That cook who shouted at me, “Hey lady, they’re just regular hot dogs!” may one day have a child with a food allergy and then maybe he’ll think back to all the times he brushed off questions about food that to him may have seemed silly or bizarre. Or news reporters, anchors, talk show hosts who report on food allergy disbelief stories with an air of superiority and insinuation that those who think they have allergies are just a little crazy, may one day understand, when their own children, grandchildren, nieces, nephews or even themselves develop a serious allergy. Maybe when more scientists or government officials’ family members develop food allergies then more funding, research and answers will be created. Until then, our virtual food allergy community around the world needs to continue to support one another.
]]>Mr. Dwyer interviewed Ms. Anderson on the topic of food allergies on June 2, 2010. This 40 minute interview can be listened to on the Internet at: Episode #26. The interview covers topics such as: toxic load theory, antibiotics, probiotics, herbal remedies, camels' milk, husbands' perpsectives and the grief cycle.
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During our session, my friend walked over to me from her line of kids and she commented, “I can’t believe the number of kids who are dealing with issues! What is going on?” She was referring to the kids that probably have ADHD, ADD or autism and who didn’t want to be touched, didn’t want to smile or needed one-on-one care by a teacher. I agreed with her but I had done this before so wasn’t quite as surprised as she was this photograph day.
Why is it, then, that there appear to be so many more kids with issues requiring special care and/or medication than there were twenty or more years ago, when we parents were kids? What has changed? Based upon my researching and reading as a parent and writer, I can list the following things that have changed significantly over the past twenty or so years that can all contribute and impact a child’s body and immune system:
- 100 years ago, children received 1 vaccine;
- 40 years ago, children received 5 to 8 vaccines by age two; and
- Today children receive 52 vaccines, in the form of 15 shots, by age six months.[1]
I believe that the net effect of all of these relatively new issues can impact a child’s small body in different ways. Each child has a different body--with a different genetic make up. So each child’s body probably handles the onslaught of these impacts differently. Specifically, while one child may develop autism from their body creating a chemical that affects their brain, another child may create IgE antibodies that cause anaphylactic food allergies or a delayed (less obvious but equally devastating) IgG antibody that can cause internal organs to swell like the lungs causing asthma.
It’s too early for scientists to prove these ideas. We are in the stage where the reaction has been made, but the cause is not yet discovered. Further, with different bodies and different external factors (the bulleted list above) it is extremely complex to prove: One child can react, but so much differently from the next child.
What is a parent left to do? Not give vaccinations? Not give antibiotics? Not breathe the air or eat our foods? Consider these every day solutions:
Be sure to discuss the antibiotic, vaccination and heavy metal treatments with your doctors. If you find your doctor is not receptive to a discussion, seek out a second opinion. It is important that a parent feel he or she is listened to and has a similar strategy or goal for treating one's child. It may seem like a big step to find a new or different doctor, but it can make a big difference in your child's health and your peace of mind.
[1] Personal Stories of Vaccine Damage and Death , http://www.shirleys-wellness-cafe.com/vaccines.htm, 2010
[2] Emed Expert, 16 Interesting Facts About Antibiotics, http://www.emedexpert.com/tips/antibiotics-facts.shtml#ref3, 2010
[3] Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chelation_therapy
[4] The Poor Man's Chelation Therapy, http://home.earthlink.net/~jedcline/cilantro.html
Sounds like a lot of work? Perhaps. But consider the impact of food allergies on your life and your child’s life. Eliminating a single food from your child’s or family’s diet can be a lot more work and for a much longer time. It can also contribute to stress in your life and in your child’s life because it affects both social life and school life. When food allergy testing normally comes around every year or two, it isn’t unreasonable to make sure the results are really accurate since you'll have to live with them for a long time.
The following is a summary of food allergy tests that you can seek out for your child. Due to the inaccuaracy rates of single tests, combining results can give you a clearer picture of your child’s situation. Further because different labs and doctors can produce different results from the same tests, don’t be shy about getting a second opinion. Call your insurance company about coverage for additional tests. Share the test results with all the doctors involved to they can learn as well. Any doctor who gets annoyed that you have asked for a second opinion does not have your child's health concerns first.
In summary, take your child to an allergist for allergy testing. Ask for more than one kind of test and consider getting a second opinion. Share results among the doctors and labs. Understand that immediate allergies are different from delayed allergies, but both can affect a child's life drastically.
[1] Beck, Melinda, The Wall Street Journal, 1/26/2010, http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703808904575025013194645130.html
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“About 9 percent of children will outgrow tree nut allergies,” according to a study led by Robert A. Wood at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, “58% of children with tree nut specific IgE levels of less than 5 kilounits per liter passed an oral challenge. Based on these findings, researchers recommend that children with a current tree nut allergy be re-evaluated periodically by their allergist/immunologist to assess whether they have developed a tolerance and whether an oral challenge should be given. While an ideal cut-off has not been established, researchers suggest that oral challenges should be considered in children four years and older, and who have less than five kilounits per liter of tree-nut specific IgE in their blood…[But] children who are allergic to multiple types of tree nuts are unlikely to outgrow their allergy.”[1]
That begs the question, "What is there to do for the remaining ninety percent of children who do not naturally outgrow a tree nut allergy or have multiple types of tree nut allergies?" It can be stressful for parents and children who have allergies to these nuts which may be found as ingredient in everything from health food bars, bouillon, Worcestershire sauce to non-food items like hackysacks, beanbags, draft dodgers or bird feed. Aside from avoiding tree nuts, there is more hope for a cure. In 2010 FAAN awarded Dr. Staciei Jones of Arkansas Children’s Hospital to receive grant money for the purpose of developing, “tree nut-specific immunotherapy for people who have multiple tree nut allergies. Considerable progress has been made using oral immunotherapy approaches for other food allergens, but this will be the first study to focus on the treatment of multiple tree nut allergies.”
For more details on tree nut allergens, probiotics and stories from mothers who have successfully handled tree nut allergies in their children, see chapters 9-22, 38, 40,42 in Flourishing with Food Allergies.
[1] Medical News Today, http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/33312.php
]]>Specifically, the same equipment can be used to create a peanut containing granola bar as some peanut-free cookies. But the question remains, was that equipment properly cleaned between manufacturing the granola bars and the peanut-free cookies? For legal and liability reasons, manufacturers will conclude that the equipment may not have been properly cleaned and rightly so include this allergen warning on the label. A few months ago a friend of mine’s daughter did take a cookie from another friend’s house. The cookie did not outright contain peanuts, but this little girl did have a reaction from the cookie, which was manufactured on equipment shared with peanut-containing products.
Although laws have been put into place for the United States, specifically The Food Allergen Labeling and Consumer Protection Act of 2004 requires that by January 1, 2006 manufacturers identify clearly on their food labels if a food product has any ingredients that contain protein derived from any of the eight major allergy foods and food groups: Dairy, soy, eggs, wheat, peanuts, tree nuts, fish and shellfish. But what of food manufactured outside the United States? For instance another friend of mine called Mexico to learn if peanuts ever touched manufacturing equipment that was used to create candy sold here in the United States. Her findings where less than satisfactory--she received mixed messages and felt no confidence that the response was accurate.
So no one argues that stress parents have from dealing with their child’s peanut allergy is easy or light, but parents can find a bit of solace in several ways. First, read about other parent’s experiences and how they have successfully dealt with the peanut allergy in their own children. Many parents interviewed between pages 73 and 147 in Flourishing with Food Allergies, have successfully dealt with the peanut allergy.
Secondly, don’t give in when selecting foods for your child--continue to select foods that are not manufactured in a facility where peanuts are used. Research what products have peanuts in them and under what names peanut-ingredients hide. See pages 242 and 243 in Flourishing with Food Allergies for this detailed information. Then take it a step further and email the manufacturers asking them to move their peanut containing products to a separate facility. It may not happen right away, but eventually manufacturers will get the message and may reorganized their facilities in the hope of selling more products.
Third, consider the advancement made on the peanut allergy front. Reuters recently reports, “In one study, teams at Duke University in North Carolina and the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences gave fifteen children tiny, but increasing, doses of peanut powder and compared them with eight children who got a placebo. At the end of the year-long study, children given the treatment were on average able to tolerate fifteen peanuts before having an allergic reaction. ‘We started out literally at about a one-thousandth of a peanut and built that up over time,’ Dr. Wesley Burks of Duke, who helped lead the study, said in a telephone interview. ‘When you take the daily dose it changes your immune system in a certain way and it raises the threshold of how much food it takes to cause a reaction,’ he said.”[1]
Fourth consider other ways to protect your child. For instance, learn your rights by law using a 504 plan or allergy action plan for school safety. Consider contacting your child’s teacher to ask if you can give students a presentation on your child’s peanut allergy. Take proactive steps when traveling on planes, trains or to other countries to determine the standards and guidelines that can best serve you and your child. This topics are discussed in Chapters 46 through 51.
[1] Reuters, Maggie Fox and Cynthia Osterman, http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE62056B20100301, March 1, 2010
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I have two boys in school at this time: one is in kindergarten and the other is in first grade. Both boys have had allergies to dairy and egg pretty much since birth and we’ve avoided giving them any peanuts or tree nuts in a hope to fend off developing an allergy. (We will try those foods when they are older and hopefully outgrow the first two.)
My younger son outgrew his dairy allergy in the beginning of his kindergarten year. His egg allergy appears to be mild enough to allow him to eat cooked eggs in baked goods. So over the past five months, after discussion and letter from his allergist, his teacher and I allowed him to participate in eating the party food prepared by other mothers. His classroom is peanut and tree nut free, so there was no risk of those allergens being included in the baked treats. Thankfully, he has been able to eat the foods and only vomited once after eating a cupcake. I think he had a little stomach bug as well on that day, so afterward, his teacher and I decided it was probably the combination of the richness of the cupcake mixed with an already upset tummy to cause this problem.
But what if your child has full blown allergies? Well my older son remains allergic to dairy and egg and we avoid all peanut and tree nuts. Anyone who has baked a cookie or a cake knows that butter and eggs are almost always called for in these treats. I know from first hand experience that it can be difficult to make a cake rise without eggs and make a cookie stay together without eggs. What about taste? Butter is yummy and makes everything so tasty.
Here’s what has worked for me: Last year, when he was in kindergarten, I made a stash of cupcakes, frosted and put them in the freezer. Then when the teacher sent home the list of birthdates, I carefully marked each day on my calendar to remind myself to put a cupcake into his snack bag so that he did not feel left out. Now that he is in first grade, I volunteered to be “room parent” because I have a little more freedom now that my younger son is in school too. Room parents have the responsibilities of planning the parties.
The other room parent and I discuss and arrive at the party plan a couple of weeks beforehand. I normally take over the communication of food items to the other parents, with special care to those who have food-allergic children. If I am to make the cupcakes for the entire class, I will email the recipe to the parents of food allergic children and assure them that no peanuts or tree nuts come near the counter top, in fact we really don’t even have them in our house. If a candy item is planned, I will ask the parent to communicate in email the ingredients and any allergen warnings. I often ask the allergy-parents to do the purchasing, since they are more aware of checking the labels. We always cc the teacher on the email so that she knows which children can have what. Even with a lot of planning and care, I learned the that sometimes I need to pick up the phone and call the other parents...
Last month it was my son’s seventh birthday. So I made cupcakes for the class and emailed the recipe to those mothers whose child has food allergies. One mother said, “Great, my daughter can eat it.” Another mother said, “No, it contains soy.” But there was no response from a third mother. So the day of the party, the daughter of that third mother came up to me and said, “Can I have a cupcake?” I said, “Well it has no peanut or egg, so it might be okay, but your mommy never wrote back to my email so perhaps you shouldn’t have it.” The teacher agreed through a nod of her head. We tried to praise the little girl for being so grown up about asking.
I felt so terrible for that little girl. The other kids loved the cupcakes. One boy said it was the best cupcake he’d ever had in his whole life. After the cupcakes were gone, the little girl came back over to me and said, “I bet those cupcakes were really good.” Ugh! I felt even worse. While I wanted to be angry with her mother for not getting back to me, I realized that really doesn’t help the little girl. So I tried to think about what I could do to prevent this from happening again. I decided that I would call the mother in the future to make sure she got the email and decided one way or the other if her daughter could eat the cupcake.
So now it will be Valentine’s Day in a few days and the big party at school is tomorrow. As I promised myself, I followed up with that mother of the little girl carefully and this time she responded. She agreed to allow her daughter to eat the dairy-egg-peanut-tree nut free cupcake I am making and I forwarded that email to the teacher. I feel so much better about the whole thing. I still feel a bit bad for the girl because I know she has dealt with a lot of disappointment and will in the future, because her mother doesn’t put a priority on this issue, but at least in my own little way, I am making a tiny little difference in that girl’s day tomorrow.
Making cupcakes, cookies and cakes isn’t hard. It might take a few practice attempts, but don’t despair, once you find one recipe that works, that’s all you need. There are a lot of great recipe books out there and it is worth ordering one or two. Here are the basic rules I use:
It is extra work, but work well worth the effort. You will become a better cook, you will feel better about you child's situation and your child will really appreciate it.
]]>I’ve heard friends talking about the oozing red rash behind their child’s elbow or knee. Or they talk of the variety of creams they’ve tried. One of the mothers interviewed in my book was so adamant about finding the cause of the eczema or rash on her infant that kept him and her up at night for weeks from the probable burning and itching feelings that she asked herself and her doctor over and over until she found the solution herself. She found her son was allergic to dairy by removing it from her own diet and seeing his eczema “clear up by ninety percent,” in her words. Sometimes the discovery can take place by accident. In Robyn O’Brien’s book, The Unhealthy Truth, she discovered her son’s eczema cleared up when they went on vacation and he didn’t drink the many cups of milk that he normally consumed. Upon returning home and to his old habits, the eczema returned, as well as his cough and earaches. Eventually Robyn weaned him from milk, yogurt, cheese and other dairy products, which healed him.[1]
Over the years, I read a lot about itchy, red, bumpy rashes to try to understand why eczema and food allergies are created. I developed the following layperson’s understanding: Eczema is caused by the inability of the infant’s immature digestive system (or a child's or adult's digestive system) to digest certain proteins, such as the dairy proteins, which can be hard to break down. These hard-to-digest proteins travel through the digestive system and go into the blood stream undigested. The liver then tries to cleanse the blood stream of this undigested protein. This works for a while, but then the liver becomes overloaded and cannot clean the bloodstream sufficiently. As a result, the immune system comes to the rescue and builds antibodies to attack the foreign proteins. Once the immune system creates antibodies, the allergic reaction is in place. The immune system’s antibodies tell the body to attack that foreign substance as if it were a virus or disease, which can cause the body to go into overdrive, possibly resulting in anaphylactic shock, or less severe yet equally devastating delayed allergic responses that can contribute to asthma, ADHD or autism. In the meantime, this foreign substance still needs to be excreted from the infant’s body, so the skin is used for excretion rather then the digestive system. Thus the skin becomes the cleanser of the body and shows a rash as the foreign substance comes out.[2]
I am sure that other things can irritate the skin. Environmental factors such as pets, dust mites, pollen can all contribute and make eczema worse, not to mention that there are other unrelated rashes caused by things like poison ivy─my worst nightmare. But I think people often overlook the fact that much of eczema can be caused by the food allergies to dairy, eggs, wheat, soy, peanuts, tree nuts, fish and shellfish. No matter how old you are or your child is, it can be a worthwhile experience to try to eliminate on of these foods for a week and see what happens. If nothing seems to change, try eliminating a different food for the next week. You may be pleasantly surprised at what problems you can solve without any medication or cost.
[1] Robyn O’Brien, The Unhealthy Truth, Broadway Books, NY, 2009, p 147-150.
[2] A. Anderson, Flourishing with Food Allergies, Papoose Publishing LLC, CT, 2008, p. 35.
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Many of us try to make New Year’s resolutions. Consider this one if you are dealing with food allergies for your child: Stop feeling guilty. Stop assuming any blame for your child’s allergies. If you fed them the peanut butter cracker or the almond when they were “too young” stop thinking that you made some sort of mistake. There isn’t enough conclusive evidence in the world of food allergies to know for sure what the right thing is to do. Specifically, do you avoid peanuts or dairy while you are pregnant to avoid creating food allergies in your child? Or do you eat those foods with the hope that those foods will desensitize your baby to a possible food allergy?
In addition to not feeling guilty about what has happened in the past, consider an additional New Year’s resolution of accepting what is. I.e. accept the reality of your situation and recognize that it could be worse. Specifically, once you accept the food allergy in your child you can (1) learn all the names and ingredients that are made from that food allergen (e.g. casein is made from milk protein or arachis is made from peanut); then (2) take the next step and clean cupboards of all foods containing any ingredient to which your child is allergic. Toss out garbage foods that contain more than five or ten ingredients including corn syrup. To that point, did you hear that most corn syrup contains mercury─a heavy metal that can lead to various disorders such as ADHD and autism?
According to Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, “Mercury was found in nearly 50% of tested samples of commercial high fructose corn syrup. Ben Lilliston of The Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP) reports that in a follow up study they detected mercury in ‘nearly one-third of 55 popular brand-name food and beverage products where HFCS is the first or second highest labeled ingredient─including products by Quaker, Hershey’s, Kraft and Smucker. In his report Lilliston claims that the average American consumes about 12 teaspoons per day of HFCS and some kids and teens can be consuming up to nearly 80% more than that. Many parents of children suffering from neurological disorders have found that the removal of high fructose corn syrup from their child’s diet has been beneficial. These alarming studies prove that perhaps the reason moves beyond the argument that fructose sugar is bad for your metabolism or that a corn allergy is present in all kids who benefit from removing high fructose corn syrup from their diets. Perhaps the real underlying problem for some is a metal toxicity issue. We all want what is best for our children, and the recent spike in cases of children suffering from multiple allergies, autism, ADHD, and chronic multifocal tic disorders really proves that there is something rotten in our food chain.”[i]
In short, for the New Year, if you are dealing with food allergies, autism, ADHD or asthma stop feeling guilty and start helping your child by clearing out your cupboards of foods that contain the thing he or she is allergic to, as well as high fructose corn syrup. If you think your child who has ADHD, autism or asthmatic doesn’t have food allergies, consider the information in the blog entry titled, Delayed Food Allergies: Autism, ADHD, Asthma. In that blog entry there are references to resources that explain how and which foods tend to aggravate these disorders making symptoms worse. Remember, it takes about three weeks to clear out the body of these foods. In some cases, the food allergies can be mitigated to the point where the disorders are not apparent. That is truly something to celebrate in the New Year!
[i]Caryn Talty, Editor of Healthy-family.org, “Dangerous Levels of Mercury found in Products Made with High Fructose Corn Syrup,” http://healthy-family.org/caryn/1186/dangerous-levels-of-mercury-found-in-brand-name-products-made-with-high-fructose-corn-syrup, January 2009.
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