We’ve been battling eczema and rashes and itching with our son for several months now. We knew it was food related because it would clear up and then come back, over and over again.
We finally got him into an allergist, who told us he wasn’t allergic to egg whites, gluten, nuts, almonds, soy, dogs, or dust mites. Yet he was continually breaking out.
So I really started to rack my brain to figure out what it could possibly be. I mean, I only eat so many things, which means he only eats so many things. I am also still nursing so if we both eat it, he’s getting a double dose of it.
It was so frustrating to be told he’s not allergic to the main culprits, but then told in the same sentence he may still be reacting to it. How much fun is that for a toddler who can’t tell us how miserable he is? You know, other than not sleeping through the night and scratching himself to the point of bleeding.
A recent conversation with my mom revealed both my brother and his son are allergic to eggs. So I messaged my brother about his symptoms to see if they were similar to Gabriel’s. While they don’t break out in rashes, they get severe stomach pains. And I started to wonder if a lot of Gabriel’s sleeping issues are due to stomach pains.
So I thought back to when I was pregnant and immediately after he was born, when he wasn’t breaking out in rashes. Very early on in my pregnancy, I became very averse to eating eggs. It made my stomach turn just thinking about them, which followed for several months following his birth. Thus, I wasn’t eating eggs.
And when I added them back in, it wasn’t very often. And Gabriel would break out in a little rash, but nothing serious. It would be gone before we really had to worry about it.
It wasn’t until I started eating them daily plus feeding them to Gabriel that we noticed a drastic increase in the welts and hives on his body. The red bumps, the itching, all over his face, arms, back, legs. It made me want to cry seeing it all.
So I made the decision to take eggs out of our diet. To experiment. Even though the tests said he wasn’t allergic.
Three days of no eggs and he was clearing up. That’s it. Three days. And even better, he started sleeping longer hours overnight!
It really is astonishing what our bodies are trying to tell us on a daily basis about what we’re feeding it. The food we eat can either be healing and helpful to fuel you in your day, or it can be harmful, both on the outside and inside.
The problem is we are told that food doesn’t have that sort of affect on us. If the doctors say it, it must be true, right?
But seeing my own results from changing how I eat to my husband’s to now my son’s, I know that is not true. You have to experiment for yourself and find what works best for you and your body. And even more so, what you will stick to! Because let’s be real, if you don’t like what you’re eating, you won’t eat it… duh.
Need some help figuring it out? Message us. We’d love to help you! It really is a simple as cutting certain things out, eating whole foods for 21-30 days, then adding one thing back in at a time. You may be surprised at what is affecting you and your body.
Have an amazing week! And be more mindful of what you’re eating from now on 🙂
Whitney
