Wheat Allergy - Newbury Park,CA

It's referred to as a "hidden" food allergy. Just because there are no visible symptoms, does not mean his immune system and other functions are compromised. Does he have trouble with constipation and bowel movements, weight gain, anemia, focusing, sleeping, energy? If not, his reactions can be internal. He could have a leaky gut, which you obviously can't see. When you do an elimination diet of these foods and try to introduce them back in, is when you will see obvious physical reactions.

Follow up with an allergist and try an elimination diet if they suggest it. They will be able to determine what is a sensitivity and if he should eat these things sparingly, or at all.

I would talk to an allergist also. If you try to take all three out of his diet it will be very hard. My daughter was allergic to corn, she has since out grown it, and it is everywhere. I have Celiac and with all the gluten free products I find wheat is easier to eliminate from the diet. Soy is also in many products. I really feel with the amount of food that you would have to exclude it would be best to talk to an allergist and dietitian. Best of luck. Food allergies can be hard at first but it does get easier.

You need to be very careful with vaccines now as many of these food allergans are in them. Same thing happened with my daughter and son. There is a great site to get on board with changing his food and diet, www.tacanow.org Doesn't mean your son has autism, it just means the kids and families have all been through this and have led the way in changing the foods that their kids eat, with success.

You are so lucky that this wasn't 10 years ago as there is SO much out there as alternatives. You can contact me anytime to talk about this as we had to do it cold turkey.

Get Dr. Robert Sears, The Vaccine Book, as he lists the ingredients and you can go to www.nvic.org and to the CDC website to see the ingredients. The best place, get to the doctor's office before your well-kid visit and READ the whole package insert for each shot. Then you will be informed and will be able to make a decision of what is best for YOUR child. It is not one size, fits all.

I agree to ask the allergist his/her opinion, but would also ask whether your son is sickly, short statured, or whether he has focus issues? If you see any of that you may want to try a gluten free trial (wheat is one form of gluten, along with barley and rye) to see if you notice any improvement.

My son is almost 6 feet tall now but he stopped growing for a long time (nobody believes this when they look at him). We pulled gluten from his diet 3 years ago and he started growing again, and really thrived with his health (previously sick constantly) and his focus.

Here is an interesting article about gluten and its potential impact on the brain, written by an MD: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-david-perlmutter-md/glut... .

Yes, eating gluten free is a major pain at first. But it does get easier once you know what you're doing. There are many more choices today than there used to be.

Good luck and good health . . .

I agree with Bug: Deal with the hidden allergies now to prevent long term issues. After a lifetime of food allergies, I developed all sorts of hormonal issues, fibroids in my uterus, and a chronic pain disease called Fibromyalgia. I went to my regular allergist to get re-tested and NONE of my already known allergies showed up. Then I got a full allergy test (IgE, IgA, and IgG) test done through my integrative health specialist (MD trained in Holistic Medicine). It showed all of my already known allergies plus some new ones...wheat, dairy, and eggs. I had already been on a mostly gluten free diet for over 2 years. But once I eliminated dairy and eggs, my Fibro pain dramatically decreased.

Also is doing a lot of research on thyroid, adrenal gland, hormone, and chronic pain diseases....you always find a strong link between them and food allergies.

Another thing is that the tests given by the allergist don't always detect everything. The most complete test is the IgE, IgA, and IgG test plus the food elimination and then reintroduction to see how the body reacts. For me once I eliminated wheat, my digestive issues went away (I was tested for Celiac and it was negative).

Because of my Fibromyalgia, I also have to stay away from nuts and soy.

Here is what I can no longer eat due to food allergies or because it aggravates my Fibro pain:
wheat, wheat gluten, dairy, casein (the dairy protein), eggs, nuts, peanuts, soy, onions, tomatoes, salmon, apricots, oranges of any kind, shellfish, chocolate, and eggplant.

There are foods out there that he can eat. It will just take some research on your part. And yes, it is way more expensive than regular food. I get a lot of my packaged foods from Amazon.com, Sprouts Marketplace, and Henry's Marketplace. Occasionally I get some stuff from Trader Joe's or Wholefoods.

Brands I like that are allergen free are:

Namaste
Nana's
Enjoy Life

Plus there are TONS of allergy friendly recipes that you can find for free online.

Good Luck!

S.

This is something that you will want to follow-up with, with the allergist or immunologist. They can tell you whether he needs to limit or avoid those things. Different things can cause a reaction to be more severe or not, and each exposure is a unique situation (that is what we learned regarding our son's peanut allergy--not every exposure to peanuts is life-threatening, but since there's no way to know, we need to treat it as such--I'm sure you're familiar with that scenario).

It is possible that more exposure might sensitize him to it, or not--definitely check with the allergist.

I used to see an immunologist for my allergies. He explained that our immune systems can cope with many of the things that we are allergic to without having a physical reaction, but that there eventually will be the "straw that breaks the camel's back." He said that if you are allergic to 10 things, and you expose yourself to 9, you will stress your immune system, but maybe not have a reaction. When you expose yourself to the 10th thing, you might have a reaction. He said it is best to just avoid all of the known allergens that affect you so that you don't stress the immune system any more than necessary. Then it is more able to cope with allergens and other attacks on it (cold viruses, bacteria, etc.) without being overly taxed. Even though your son doesn't have a reaction to many of the things he's allergic to, it probably would be best to avoid them so as not to weaken his immune system.