New with lots of questions...

[Guest guest]

Hi, I'm Melisa, mom to 27 month old Dylan. A dear friend of mine told

me about this group and has encouraged me to join, which I did a

couple weeks ago now, although this is my first post.

Dylan has severe food allergies, and has since birth. Milk,

obviously, was the first and most apparent. His allergies include:

milk, soy, egg, nuts, tomato, neocate 1+, apple, pear, quinoa,

strawberry, cherry, citrus, avocado, penicillin, benadryl, multiple

EA's, and asthma. He is a Neocate baby, and that is still his main

source of nutrition.

Recently diagnosed with a speech delay, some other symptoms, and a

gut feeling, I began looking more into the autistic spectrum. His

hearing test turned out normal, but his speech was significantly

behind. The positive was that his comprehension was with-in normal

limits. He will begin therapy in the upcoming weeks, along with an

assessment for EI.

My questions right now deal mainly with the diet. I have never

allowed him to have whole wheat, out of principle, but I was not

eliminating wheat all together. Approx 10 days ago, he had his first

taste of whole wheat. Within the hour, he broke out in hives. Out of

pure stupidity, I gave him wheat containing products 2 more times

that day, before pulling him off of it all together.

Over the next couple days, he became a terror. I thought I had read

that they can go through symptoms of withdrawl once wheat is removed

from their diet- but of course I have not been able to find this

information again anywhere. Can anyone confirm or deny this for me?

This had finally subsided, roughly 5 days later. Next, his speech

began coming together like you would not believe. How quickly

are 'corrections' seen once begining the GFCF diet? Is it something

that takes weeks, or can an improvement be seen almost imeadiately?

Next, now that he has been off wheat for this long, a

miscommunication with my sister who was babysitting today, she gave

him cheerios and pasta. Tonight, he of course was wound up, bouncing

off the walls, rubbing his head on the floor, spinning, refusing to

sleep, etc. But the thing I noticed the most is that his speech was

gone. All of it. He had worked his way up so quickly, going from 2-3

words to about 10-12 (not clear, but clear enough to understand the

communication). Now he has dropped back to only the single word of

maaama, that was everything tonight. He also had his first potty

training 'accident' and didn't even seem to realize it. I could see

the frustration though, when he would try to speak and the words just

didn't come out. In looking at what he ate, the wheat was minimal, as

he had maybe 5 cheerios, and no more than 4 bites of pasta. Is it

possible that such a seemingly small amt can cause this type of

reaction? I know with his milk and soy allergies that even trace amts-

such as being run on shared equipment- can cause a reaction. Do I

look at this the same way? I am completely lost as to what to feed

him anymore. Wheat was the 'saving grace' giving me the option of a

2/3 day rotation on starches (rice, wheat, and potato) with the

elimination of wheat, we run the risk of developing an allergy to

rice or potato. As for other forms of gluten, he does not care for

them (oatmeal inparticular) and since this could be a sign of an

impending allergy, he rarely consumes any others.

Any ideas or shared experiences will be greatly appreciated.

Thank you so much,

Melisa, mom to Dylan, 27 months.