We’ve finally determined that Jed has Fructose Malabsorption, Salicylate Sensitivity, a milk/soy protein intolerance, and an IgE to egg and peanut. Since most foods are safe for him to eat, I’m keeping track of his problem foods here, and the fructose foods he CAN eat. Most of his fructose problem foods are high in fructans/oligos; he tolerates the other sugars far better.
UNSAFE FOODS
Dairy (intolerance)
Egg (IgE Allergic)
CORN in any form, even derivatives
FRUCTOSE IRRITANTS TO DATE
Garlic Powder
Coconut Shreds
Coconut Milk
Evaporated Cane Syrup
Evaporated Cane Sugar
Cherries
Onion (in large doses)
Sorghum Flour
Cane Sugar (in large doses)
Maple Syrup
Almond Flour
Wheat
FRUCTOSE SAFE FOODS
Asparagus (10-12 spears/serving, not every day)
Onion (in small doses)
Cane Sugar (in small doses)
Maple syrup (small doses) discovered he cannot tolerate November 2015
Sweet Peas (occasionally)
Cooked tomatos (in small doses)
Spelt (in small doses – weird, right?)
Pinto Beans
SALICYLATE IRRITANTS
Cocoa Powder
UNSURE FOODS
Strawberries
Hi Carrie. Thanks for your posts, I find it so leveling to read someone elses experiences with all this stuff. I have 3 boys and a daughter aged 6yrs and under and they all have ‘food issues’. My question is, how do you tell the difference? As in, how do you know its a salicylate issue over a fructose issue etc? I sometimes just cant figure it out and would love to hear how you make sence of it!
Hi Sarah! I’m glad our story is helping you!
Geez…4 kiddos with food issues? That’s rough. You’re amazing!
Okay, well, how can I tell the difference? Total guesswork. Up to this point, we’ve kept detailed food journals on both boys, so we know what they eat, when they eat it, what their poops look like, what their behavior is (and when that bad behavior happens), and we use that information to make educated guesses as to what issue is rearing its ugly little head. So far Jed hasn’t been able to verbalize any minor differences in how he feels when he’s been fructosed versus when he’s got a sals issue. So we guess. Is the food high in sals? or is is high in fructose? Does it have fructans in it? Has he been sleeping well? Is the lack of sleep from food issues or from normal kid stuff (overexcited one day, growth spurt, etc.)? What COULD be the explanation is what we look for first, then we draw conclusions from our data to narrow down the field. Sometimes we can only eliminate one or two options, and are left with 4 potential explanations!
Then we decide whether it is worth it to investigate further. Is the food something we eat normally? Is it something we would LIKE to eat normally? If it is, then we get him to baseline, drop his diet down to as safe as we can make it, make sure he’s gotten enough sleep for a couple of nights, and feed him the first suspicious food. No reaction? Repeat for the next suspicious food.
What’s worst is when we do that for all the suspicious foods, and then he has no reactions at all during our “scientific trials”! Those times I have to assume that either it was a normal kid “bad behavior” day the first time around, or a matter of the combination of foods he ate on that day that caused the problem.
Usually at that point I say “good enough” and move on, honestly. Our lives are complicated enough without trying to create a complicated spreadsheet of “Jed can eat x amount of ___ on the same day as x amount of ____, but if he eats y amount of either, it’s bad”.
It’s enough, at that point, for me to make a note of “these are suspicious foods” and move on with our lives, because then, if it happens again, I can compare the food journals from the first time to the next time and see what commonalities exist. For some people, they’ve noticed that when certain weather patterns are occurring they have more sensitivity to things than normal. My brain wants to explode when I consider factoring that in to my equation! LOL
Some of this is likely to remain a mystery, to some degree or another. It is frustrating, but as long as his reactions aren’t too bad and don’t last too long, I have to weigh the importance of figuring that one small reaction out with the effort involved in all the other issues we juggle. Sometimes, winnowing out the truth just isn’t as vital at that moment.
But I always make notes of my suspicions, in case of future re-occurrences. Does that help? Hugs, mama!!