Re: red ears -- for Debbie (long)

[Guest guest]

At 01:46 AM 11/5/01 +0000, Debbie Langham wrote:

>We've been gfcf for 7 weeks now.

Congratulations!

>Every now and then I've noticed my son's ears looking redder than normal,

>doesn't happen all the time and usually it's just one ear.

We used to notice red ears and esp. cheeks. Haven't seen this (short of

healthy rosy cheeks) in months.

My son went CF on Thanksgiving Day and GF around 12/15. I remember very

clearly my wife taking our two daughters to Mass on Christmas Eve and my

staying home with our son because he was acting so badly. Threw a horrible

fit and I locked myself in the bathroom with him until he would pee since

he was overdue... he could control his peeing back then but didn't always

choose to.

Anyway his ears, cheeks, knees, and tops of his feet were all bright cherry

red. And his behavior was off the wall. Spent over 1/2 hour in there until

he calmed down. The redness went away finally and he calmed down and went

to sleep after doing his bathroom stuff. What a night though!

>I've dismissed it before but tonight I noticed both ears red and he was

>very irritable (wouldn't eat

>supper, ran from me, very disagreeable about the slightest thing, then

>wanted to just go to bed). I remember reading about allergies and

>intolerances and red ears being a sign of something.

Back then we also confirmed with his ABA pre-school that they noticed red

cheeks and ears at times. What follows Debbie is strictly my opinion and

speculation.

Could this be withdrawal from the gluten in particular since it takes

longer to leave the system then the casein? Sounds plausible but who knows?

Nobody I'll bet, because this isn't a well travelled area of scientific

research. Asking a doctor why your son has red ears may be like asking them

why our kids walk on their toes at times (I still notice my son doing this

on some rare occasions).

Here's another one for you. My son was dx'd with asthma about 4 1/2 months

into the diet when during spring break he had a number of infractions. The

wheezing was bad enough that first time that the doctor gave him a shot in

the office and made him stay until she could check his breathing was ok.

Saw him the next day and expressed amazement at how quickly the asthma

improved itself. Then she prescribed albuterol to use as needed. We still

have much of that original prescription left.

The attacks have occurred less and less severely and very occasionally,

within a few days of infractions. Now that we use papaya enzyme after an

infraction and also since our son is keeping to the diet largely on his own

things are changing... thank God.

It'll be interesting for us when we take our son for a checkup and his 5 yr

old shots in a couple of weeks. The doctor says none of their vaccines in

the office contain thimerasol. We're going to limit the number of shots too

per visit. And ask for a note to the school for next year allowing them to

give him papaya enzyme after an infraction, telling the Dr. this prevents

an asthma attack.

If she goes for it, it will probably be on the logic of an allergy although

I believe it's an intolerance as described in the GFCF literature.

This is a mess, and really ticks me off. On the bright side it sounds to me

like the diet is probably doing your son a lot of good. If you keep it up

till after New Years I bet he starts doing noticeably better if he isn't

already.

Best,

Marty

Gluten & Casein Free Recipes and Resources

http://www.newdiets.com