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I am the mother of three lovely daughters and I live in Tasmania, Australia. During this year we have found that two of our daughters are quite strongly food intolerant. The problems began when my oldest daughter, now 9, started school at 5 years old. Coming home from school she was excessively tired. She didn't want to sleep, but she lay lethargically on the couch. She also disliked school and it was very hard to get her there in the mornings. She was very pale, often with dark rings under her eyes, and it was always hard to get her outdoors or participating in any physical activity. She was also prone to fainting and tended to be an anxious child. This lethargy came and went, it wasn't constant. We noticed a pattern develop where she would often have several weeks of tiredness after an illness, but sometimes there were bad periods for no apparent reason. We did everything we could to make sure school was OK for her, but over the years she continued to experience problems of fatigue and lethargy, extreme difficulty getting going in the morning (I had to dress her myself almost each day until this year), dislike of school, pallor, and lack of enthusiasm for things. In hindsight I realise she was probably suffering from some degree of depression. She is a highly intelligent, kind and sensitive child and has always excelled at school, but she seemed to have difficulty organising and motivating herself to do even the simplest jobs around the home. We took her to the paediatrician several times and she had 2 rounds of blood tests, but nothing showed up abnormal. Earlier this year she became much worse. After a weekend away at Easter time, she took to bed ill and was not well enough for school for 3 weeks. She was dizzy all the time, extremely lethargic, and irritable in the extreme. In the early days of this illness her face and ears burned hot and red, even though she did not have a temperature. She eventually struggled back to school but could not shake all the symptoms. By this stage my daughter had also developed a real phobia of medical procedures (she had to be sedated just to have blood taken), so I really didn't want to subject her to any more invasive tests. A friend had a book about the "failsafe" elimination diet (low in additives, salicylates, amines and flavour enhancers), so I decided to give it a go, not because I thought it would work, but because it was something to try which would not terrify my daughter. The whole family embarked on the diet together. Five days in my daughter hit withdrawals - she had episodes of irrational crying, hysteria, appetite disturbances, nausea, and general mood disturbance. Within a few days she started to improve. She stopped feeling constantly irritable, her energy levels went up, she stopped saying she hated school, a week or so later she stopped feeling dizzy, and soon she was a very well and happy little girl. We were very surprised and very encouraged. There were also quite significant effects for myself, my husband and my youngest daughter, while the lucky middle one noticed no differences. The next stage of the elimination diet was challenges. We followed the book recommendation to challenge with large amounts of salicylates, amines etc. We tried salicylates first - 4 days in she became grumpy, irritable, teary, and eventually highly distressed. It took around a week to get over these feelings and it was a very difficult time for her. Next we challenged amines. Again the reaction took 4 days, and it was a devastating depression combined with dreadful lethargy and pallor. At least once a day she became totally irrational, feeling so miserable that she wanted to die, feeling that everyone hated her, that we were all against her, just totally beside herself with misery. These were the hardest times in my life as a parent. After about 9 days of this the major depression and the fatigue eased, but there was still lingering depression for a full month. Eventually we managed to get her out of the depression by supplementing with fish oils. Even though fish oils do contain amines (meaning that she can only tolerate a reduced dose), deficiency in certain Omega 3 fatty acids has been linked with depression. In my daughter's case fish oils are an essential tool in keeping her happy - she becomes somewhat depressed within less than a week of taking her off them. Our next challenge was green peas, which contain low levels of natural msg. These made her dizzy. So between salicylates, amines and msg, we had all her symptoms covered. We don't ever want to do this type of challenge again due to the trauma it caused. Stabilising and getting well again after challenges has taken quite a while. However my daughter is now extremely well, full of energy, rosy in colour, well motivated and enjoying life. We can't deviate very much at all from our basic low-salicylate, low-amine food list. Just one apple two days in a row, or a small piece of banana, can cause a reaction. About one teaspoon of raspberry jam caused three days of illness. We try to keep her as well as possible by sticking strictly to the diet, as reactions always cause a great deal of distress. I have found it very hard to come to terms with the prospect of this maybe being permanent for two of my kids. Food was a great source of pleasure for our family and we grew most of our own fruit. We have a large berry patch and summer for the kids consisted of daily grazing among the raspberries, blueberries and brambles. We all enjoyed eating out. Everything has had to change. We have just had to totally change our way of cooking and eating, and our expectations of social events. I am constantly cooking as we can't eat processed foods. We take our own food everywhere the children go. At birthday parties there is often nothing they can eat, except what we have brought. My husband (who has realised he has been badly affected by foods all his life) is happy to accept the restrictions and feels we should be grateful we have found an answer to her problems so early in life. Certainly I am very grateful to have got this far; I am sure without finding out about her food intolerances, my daughter would have been heading towards a major mental health problem down the track. But I am not yet ready to accept that there is nothing else we can do. For now I need to keep looking, to see if there is anything we can do which will increase my kids' food tolerance. The two things which have helped me cope and succeed are having two friends going through the process at the same time with their families, and being part of an on line discussion group. The support of people in similar circumstances has been worth much more than any help we have had from the medical profession. |