Oh mama! We took Ronin (my 3 1/2 year old) to the Naturopath a couple weeks ago to look into his anxiety. Yes, I know, he’s only 3 but he’s been an exceedingly shy, cautious and anxious kid almost from birth. He has terrible sleep, including night terrors, tosses and turns like crazy, and sweats up a storm. So we’re about desperate.
A friend of mine had taken her son (also Ronin’s age) to the naturopath and this doctor’s dietary advice has practically cured him of recurrent sinus infections. So I figure it can’t hurt. And I’m very open minded about “alternative” medicine & therapies.
The doctor sent Ronin’s blood to a lab to do a general food sensitivity panel. This is different from a traditional allergy test. Ronin’s had a traditional test and it came up allergic to peanuts and dust mites. We carry an Epi Pen with us at all times. Fun stuff.
The food sensitivity test can hopefully tell us what may be causing some of his other symptoms like his eczema or sleep disturbance or anxiety. Or Atleast that’s the hope.
So the results are in, and again I say Oh Mama, this is going to be tough. He came back extremely sensitive to dairy and wheat, and moderately sensitive to eggs. Actually the results were a lot more specific than that. It tested about 100 things. Thankfully fruits, veggies, tree nuts and meats were all fine.
BUT this kid is a milk, cheese and bread-aholic. He also loves eggs. The doctor wants us to completely remove dairy, wheat and eggs from his diet for four to six months, as she said “to let his gut heal.” Then we may be able to re-introduce some of it little by little and see how it goes.
John has actually been gluten free for a while and it’s helped his stress and anxiety level tremendously. He did not test positive for a true gluten allergy, but like Ronin has an intolerance. And now, if he even has a small taste of wheat, lets just say his stomach does NOT do a happy dance.
So, here we are. 3-year-old loves dairy, wheat, eggs: must now STOP dairy, wheat and eggs. I’m NOT looking forward to this! But I am looking forward to seeing if it helps him. I will be one grateful mama if my baby boy starts to sleep better and release some of his stress and anxiety.
Will his new diet fix his anxiety? Only time will tell. And I’ll be sure to keep you posted. Next stop the gluten-free market. And then a blood panel for me to see if perhaps I have food intolerances contributing to my own mental health issues.
This is going to be SO interesting. Tell me, do you think diet can affect anxiety?
UPDATE: YES! Indeed it has helped his anxiety so much. Read more about it HERE.
Food and nutrition can absolutely affect all aspects of your life! It is amazing what a sensitivity to certain things can do to your body and body chemistry.
I sure think it can, and all other sort of things too. We have been trying to go gluten-free for our own reasons (even though we have no intolerance), and by doing that, eliminating processed foods (hard!!!) and only getting sugar from whole fruits & veggies, it is AMAZING how much better we feel. Not to mention my PPD seemed to improve. When we went off that, things seems to have gotten much worse again.
There is a book about dieting for your blood type…I haven’t read it, but a lot of women I’ve talked to have said it changed their life!
There’s a great new book on this: What’s Eating Your Child? by Kelly Dorfman. Also, I’ve heard the GAPS Diet book is good. I’m not sure yet which combination of foods are causing my son’s issues, but gluten and dairy on the hit list right away. At 10 months old and still nursing though, it’s ME that has to do the horrible elimination diet. It’s not easy, and I can totally relate to the pain of giving up favorite foods.
I had chronic pain from a young age until I found out I had celiac at age 25. I think it is great when answers are found early. If you need any help on the gluten free diet, I have celiac disease as well as 2 of my 3 kids. When contaminated, we have to eat vegan for a little while to rebuild body. It was really hard in the beginning changing diets and support can really help!
There is actually medical evidence that diets impact our psychology.
http://www.dailyrx.com/feature-article/food-happy-thought-11307.html
Simply eating a healthy diet can help improve your mood? Food allergies can have drastic effects on the body and can definitely impact our behavior and mood.
Let me know if you need any gluten-free help! I will be very interested to hear the results of your tests, as I’ve wondered in my little Celiac head if you also cutting out gluten, like John, would help your mood/mental health. 🙂 And good luck with Ronin’s GF; it will get easier as time goes by. The initial adjustment is really the hardest.