Food Allergies - What To Eat When You Can't Eat Anything

For the past several months, I've been struggling to figure out what's been ailing my youngest son, "A". A vibrant, active boy at 8 years old, and the healthiest eater out of all my kids, "A" suddenly started suffering severe abdominal pains and fatigue, and recently has been found to be allergic to at least 28 environmental/food categories. What caused this to happen all of a sudden? I have no idea. My best guess at this point is that the two bouts of antibiotics he was on last spring killed all the good bacteria in his gastrointestinal system, and bad bacteria grew in its place.  This imbalance has caused all sorts of havoc on his poor little body.

The gastroenterologist initially diagnosed him with acid reflux and prescribed an antacid (which I have since read can lead to bacteria overgrowth in the small intestine, leading to bloating, gas, abdominal pain and diarrhea).I was told it could take several weeks before the medication kicked in. I tried to be patient, but after weeks of watching my son suffer excruciating tummy aches, and numerous calls and visits to the doctor, I asked for a food allergy test. The test was simple, testing only for wheat, casein and eggs. I was told the results were negative. With no improvement in my son's condition, I requested a copy of the allergy report. To my shock and amazement, the test results actually showed he was allergic to wheat, casein and eggs! Apparently, the nurse only read the top page of the report without bothering to look any further. 

Meanwhile, "A" continued to experience horrible pains in his stomach, fatigue and strange symptoms like muscle aches in his legs. Several days, he had trouble walking and complained of joint pain. He underwent further testing for anemia, Lyme disease, muscle enzymes, and celiac, all of which he tested negative for. Still a puzzle, I was open to anything and anyone.

My next stop was to a nutritionist and a naturopathic doctor. The nutritionist immediately noted that my son appeared "yeasty," and that his "chicken skin" eczema indicated allergies of some sort. Further testing found my son was allergic to 28 out of 30 tested environmental/food item categories. What could have caused this sudden onset of allergies? I don't know and no one has been able to give me an answer yet.

However, as the nutritionist pointed out, this begs the question of what else "A" might be allergic to. If I test him for 100 items, will he be allergic to 98? I requested a more extensive allergy test from the naturopathic doctor and was told they didn't have such a test. Rather, if I told him what I wanted to test for, he could test for it. This was not the answer I was looking for.  

Frustrated, I contacted our pediatrician to see if he could run a more complete allergy test ("full panel IgE"). Thankfully, he can. In addition, we are testing for yeast, a possible culprit behind the stomach pain and bloating. Meanwhile, while we wait for the results of these tests, I have cut out gluten, dairy, eggs, tomatoes, yeast, grapes, apples, oranges, vinegar, soy sauce and almost all sugar from my son's diet.


Eliminating all these foods suddenly from my son's diet has been extremely challenging and stressful to say the least. For a bread and ice cream lover, this is a killer. "What can I eat??" my son begs. My heart aches because I have no idea. This is new territory for me. I love to cook and experiment, yet I am at a loss. My mind goes blank. No yogurt, fruit smoothies, oatmeal, or eggs for breakfast. No sandwiches for lunch. No milk or juice. "You can have water." That's about all I can think of. I stress and cringe every time he comes up to me and says "I'm hungry." He doesn't want just anything. He wants something tasty. He wants something appealing to his eye. I've searched up and down all the aisles at Whole Foods, reading label after label, looking for gluten/dairy/egg/yeast/sugar free foods. There are almost none to be found. There's gluten-free bread, but only one pale looking gluten/yeast free option. For now, my son has been satisfying his bread craving with corn tortillas, but I worry that he might become allergic to corn from eating too much of it.

I have been racking my brain for ideas. I have poured through cookbooks, contacted friends whose kids have allergies (thank you for sharing some of your recipes Anna!) and explored gluten/dairy/egg free recipes on the web (thank you Lexie for pointing me in the right direction!). My first attempt at making gluten-free pancakes using coconut flour, rice flour and potato starch, were not well received. They actually looked pretty much like regular pancakes, but as the four boys starting eating breakfast, one by one, the comments started, "What kind of pancakes are these? They have a strange texture. They just don't taste right." "Shhh," I motion. Slowly, I see my little boy's happy little face change suddenly to a frown...breakfast is ruined. "These do taste funny," he says, and puts his fork down. On my second attempt, I decide to try Lexie's Saturday Pancakes, which "A" absolutely loved! 

I am on a quest to find out what is making my son sick, and I believe that food and nutrition will play a major role in this journey to heal my son. How ironic, that I started this blog because of my interest in preventing disease through healthy foods, only to find that one of my very own kids is experiencing an onslaught of food allergies all of a sudden. 

I am being challenged beyond anything I have ever imagined. Although I have always empathized with parents who have children with allergies, I never fully appreciated how difficult and challenging it was. I have been spending countless hours researching and thinking about (and obsessing about!) foods that I can make for "A" that are healthy, healing, satisfying and appealing. "A" is a visual kid, and has picky taste buds, so I am being pushed to my limits. Since these allergies just surfaced, he knows what good food tastes like, and expects any "substitute" foods to taste just as good.

My blog's mission is to promote wellness through healthy, whole foods, and this mission remains unchanged. I will simply be expanding my content to include my adventures into allergy-free cooking, including the ups and downs of this journey. For those of you who have already been on a journey to an allergy-free life, or are going through it now, I would appreciate your insight as I am a complete novice in this area.  And for those of you who don't have any food allergies, but know others that do, I hope my stories will give you some insight into what really goes on.