Food Allergies and reflux 19mo old

[Anonymous]

Our 19 mo old son has been tested for food allergies. I was convinced he had a dairy allergy, but come to find out it’s egg whites, oatmeal, coconut and soy.

His symptoms are irritability, not sleeping at night, low weight gain, coughing fits, etc. Our ped tried him on Zantec for reflux. Reacted terribly. We since then have moved on to Prilosec. He used to be a terrific eater, which was hard to figure out why he wasn’t gaining more. Since he started the Prilosec he is very picky about what he will eat. Mood can be very irritable and demanding at times.

Could these be side effects of the Prilosec? Does anyone have experience with managing food allergy induced reflux??? TIA

[Anonymous]

What types of foods is he wanting to eat? Between the ages of 1 and 2 our son Ben started to self limit his diet to pretty much only dairy and breads. He would have a major freak out session over pretty much anything else. A few months ago, we discovered he is highly intolerant to gluten (from most grains) and casein (in dairy) – the exact 2 types of foods he ONLY wanted to eat! It seems odd, but many kids with food intolerances crave the exact foods that they are reacting to. In many kids, this can result in reflux/GERD since food intolerances can be a significant cause of GERD. Food intolerances can also contribute greatly to sleep problems and behaviour problems. Some kids that are eating a lot of foods they are intolerant to can have poor weight gain due to severe GI irritation/inflammation reducing the ability to properly absorb and integrate nutrients.

What type of testing did you have done for the allergies/intolerances? Many of these types of intolerances are due to the body’s IgG immune response, not necessarily IgE. Traditional allergy skin prick testing only tests IgE immune response. We found IgG testing to be extremely helpful in determining our son’s food issues. We had it done through the Great Plain Laboratory. http://www.greatplainslaboratory.com/home/eng/home.asp

Ben didn’t seem to have issues with GERD past the age of 10-11 months. However, I have talked with MANY moms on another message board who are amazed at how their child’s reflux stopped once they removed all of the foods they were reacting to. Many of these kids were preschool/kindergarten age and still battling GERD until those foods were removed. Many start to gain weight as well (this was never an issue with Ben).

It is possible that your son is reacting to the Prilosec. Ben reacts horribly to any artificial flavourings, colorings, etc. Giving him medicines has proven to be very difficult! When he reacts to something in a med, he becomes so irritable, he bites, he doesn’t sleep well, and everything becomes a huge fight! Remove the med/supplement, and within 48 hours he’s my sweet boy once again. Perhaps you could get it compounded without any artificial colors, flavours, etc? But perhaps if you eliminate EVERYTHING he’s reacting to, the reflux might get a lot better.

MFPIx22008-04-29 19:27:34

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