Cinnamon and increased reflux?

[Anonymous]

I was just wondering if anybody else has increased reflux with cinnamon? For the past 4 days Kayleigh’s reflux has been out of this world bad! We’ve gone back to actually spitting it out with no control. Her reflux had been somewhat under control which is one of the reasons we stopped using Prevacid and continued Axid and a few tums here or there. She has no fever, no flu like symptoms, I can’t think of any different food other than getting cinnamon on her toast. Any ideas or thoughts are more than welcome! TIA

[Anonymous]

Hi,

All I can say is that food reactions can happen with anything, it seems. You’ve probably already taken the cinnamon toast out to see if she gets better, but that’s the best thing to do. The allergist and ped told me the best way to know with these little ones is to remove the offending food and then if hte symptoms go away, then later on reintroduce the food and if they reappear, then it’s a definite problem. I have always been too cautious to re-introduce anything that I thought really gave Lucas a horrible time but it’s as effective as testing according to my ped. I can’t remember when, but I suspected Lucas was having a hard time with cinnamon a long time ago and just stopped using it in whatever i was eating or fixing. I never fully determined that it was a definite problem, though. Could cinnamon be cross-contaminated with gluten? You know how facilities that process all the flours and fine particle things seem to do all those sorts of foods? Just a thought…

What kind of gluten free cinnamon bread are you having? It sounds yummy! Did you do allergy testing for gluten specifically? We just recently did the blood allergy test but only for the big 8-10 most common allergic foods to infants (dairy, soy peanuts, wheat, etc.) gluten wasn’t in the list. Then they tested Lucas for celiac and it came back negative, along with negative for all the blood allergy testing. Can you do an allergy test for gluten specifically?

[Anonymous]

Anne, I could be wrong, but I think the celiac test (and food elimination) is the only way to determine a problem with gluten. When they tested Lucas for celiac had he been eating gluten prior to the test? Our allergist said that they won’t test positive for celiac if gluten hasn’t been in their diet for a while.

[Anonymous]

Kim,

Yeah, that’s what I also thought, that celiac and elimination was the only way to tell with gluten…which is why I was so interested in Lynn’s sign out which says gluten allergy…

Lucas had been off gluten for approximately three months prior to the testing, which I clearly explained to the allergist and he said was fine. I think he said that if he had EVER had gluten it was fine (and he’d had a lot of wheat bread products until age 17 months). He even indicated that one of Lucas’ blood levels showed that he has a low probability of allergies to ANYthing, let alone all these different foods. I’m hoping he’s right, yet it’s always strange to hear that docs are contradicting each other. Did Kaelyn have the celiac test done? What did they say about how long beforehand that she should have had gluten products?

[Anonymous]

Hi Anne- Thanks it was a new brand of cinnamon maybe it is cross contaminated. Never thought about that! Thank you! She is doing somewhat better this week. We’ve increased her Axid to 1tsp 2x a day to see if it helps. Oh the joys of reflux!

Kayleigh did not have a celiac panel done nor am I aware of any specific gluten allergy test other than that. We had a RAST done when she was about 13 months and it came back saying highly allergic to wheat and so we eliminated it and I saw no difference after 3 weeks so her ped said to remove gluten and within a week I saw improvement. So she has been GF with 3 exceptions (oops!) since 4/05. I too was told by a lab tech and Dr that if they had not been ingesting those foods (to be tested) within a certain time frame then it could come up false neg which is another reason I’ve not had Kayleigh tested. I think they said she would have to ingest it for at least a month or so for it to be useful for testing purposes. No thanks! So we used the RAST and elimination to determine her allergy.

Remember though if Lucas is neg for allergies he can still have intolerances which can be just as bad as an allergy if not worse!

The bread that I was referring to is a zucchini bread. She loves it! She’s been eating zucchini for over a month and no problems so the only new ingredient was the cinnamon since I frequently make her breads with almost the same basic recipe. I use the Hagman’s flour recipe. Which is a mixture of white rice flour, tapioca flour and potato flours with xanatham gum. I just replace it cup for cup in all recipes that call for regular flour. If you’d like I’ll post the actual measurements for the flour mix.

[Anonymous]

Hi Anne, I notied that your sonhad the allergy test done, and it was negative, but you still have in your sig that he has intolerances. How did you find that out? My dd just had the same test done and everything came back neg. so I was wondering if it was “safe” to take her off the elimination diet.

[Anonymous]

Anne, we didn’t have the celiac test done because her issues cleared up when we cut the 4 allergens from her diet. So, I’m not sure. Sorry.

[Anonymous]

Lynn:

Yes I would love the recipe! I’ve been using a lot of mixes but they are expensive and I think I’m ready to mix my own stuff….maybe–haha.

And, yes, the allergist told us that Lucas has multiple protein intolerances which have caused all his reactions to foods and the severe night wakings that went away with the final removal of gluten. I’m just confused that so many docs are contradicting themselves. Did you find anything on the web or anything WRITTEN that states they have to have the foods close in time to the test in order to test positive? Lucas had MOST of the offending foods in his blood allergy test OUT of his diet for a minimum of 3 months (Gluten) and haden’t had dairy in his system for over a YEAR at the time of testing. I guess eggs and peanut butter have been in my system and I have been nursing, so that one has been going through his system the whole time (we did our own elim diet and eggs and peanut butter came out clear), but the others haden’t. What do you think?

Also, do you think that the celiac test sort of legitimizes a negative for wheat allergy, since a celiac test would catch the wheat? Or I guess you can be allergic to wheat and not have celiac, like it sounds Kim’s daughter is??? This is so confusing!!

Kim: No worries, you seem to be so knowledgeable about this I thought I would ask!

Julia: Intolerances cannot be “tested” for unless through the elimination method, where you remove the food, and if the baby improves you note that, then you reintroduce the food, and if they react poorly again, you have positively identified the intolerance. Our ped and allergist explained this to me, and the web link below will also explain it to you.

I would definitely NOT just start giving your child things that have bothered them previously without reading this below and I would carefully trial each food that you think gave a reaction. Remember that dairy proteins can also build up in the system, so they can be okay for a period of time and then WHAMMO, symptoms reappear again due to a dairy intolerance. If you are bfeeding, (like me) then you can introduce hidden dairy into your own diet, then yogurt, then cheese and finally milk, and then do the same process with giving foods directly to her. Or you can just do hidden dairy for her, yogurt, cheese and milk for her directly. It’s so hard bfeeding, cause I feel like it delays the reaction and isn’t as direct as them just having the food themselves. At the same time, I want to eat normally again, so it’s tempting to eat the stuff myself and have it go into their systems that way. I’ve not been told a “best practice” in this regard, bfeeding mom eating the foods, vs. giving it straight to baby for a baby who is over a year. Under a year, definitely no milk, but still, I’m not sure best practices in this regard.

The link below is a GREAT explanation of protein intolerances:

http://72.14.203.104/search?q=cache:z7C1J8hLZY0J:www.disa.co m.au/Food%2520Intolerant%2520and%2520Allergic2520Baby.htm+fo od+intolerant+allergic+baby+disa+au&hl=en&lr=&st rip=0

[Anonymous]

Unfortunately I’ve never found any written info on how long offending foods should be ingested for anything to be neg or pos on a test. Sorry. I was very confused myself and still am when it comes to the differences of opinion within DR’s. Kayleigh’s nuerolgist says there’s should be no connection between gluten and her seizures but I’ve seen a huge difference when it happens. Her ped agreed with me and the allergist said “hmm maybe we should run more tests” so I’m still confused. Sorry. I will tell you that I was told that gluten can take as long as 3 mo to leave the body but I don’t know how much you would have to ingest for this to happen. When we’ve had our “oops” it was a very trivial amount and it appeared to take about 3 days for life to return to normal.

I have to tell you I’m very impressed with you! Still BF and on an elim diet, way to go! That’s fantastic!

Ok the Hagmans’ GF flour mix! 2 parts white rice flour, 2/3 part potato starch flour, 1/3 part tapioca flour with 1 tsp xanthan gum per cup of flour mix. I generally make it with cups (ie 2C, 2/3C etc) and store it mixed in the frig. I use it flour for flour any of my recipes. I will also add more xanthan gum when mixing it gives it more texture that way. If you want any more help with recipes or need baking advice just email me. j anes 27 @ msn.com (no spaces) I’ll be glad to pass along any knowledge I’ve learned. Happy baking!

[Anonymous]

Lynn,

Thanks so much for the recipe and advice on using it, etc. I also have to admit, we are actively trying to wean for good….it’s just time to bring this wonderful chapter to a close….and the elimination diet to an end for me!! Anyway, thanks for the positive thoughts.

I’m terrified of reintroducing foods, which we are supposed to begin around age two. I just tried beef recently (I wrote about it on one of these forums) and it was a disaster. I also noticed that it seemed teh gluten didn’t clear his system for about three months or so. Hmmmm. Makes me relutant to reintroduce….

[Author]

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