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teachingmyown
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| Posted: March 23 2010 at 1:56pm | IP Logged
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I am offline for Lent (and missing you all terribly!), but needed to pop in for a minute for some help.
Dd10 is ALWAYS congested. I have long suspected dairy but never done a consistent elimination diet. However, she has given up dairy for Lent. We are several weeks in and the child is just as congested!
What else can it be? Where can I turn for help besides standard allergy testing?
Thanks!
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In Christ,
Molly
wife to Court & mom to ds '91, dd '96, ds '97, dds '99, '01, '03, '06, and dss '07 and 01/20/11
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stefoodie
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| Posted: March 23 2010 at 2:18pm | IP Logged
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if you don't want to do allergy testing yet, i'd go with eliminating the big 5:
besides dairy, try eliminating
wheat
corn
soy
nuts
i know, that's going to be really tough. maybe you can eliminate one at a time and see if there's any improvement?
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stef
mom to five
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St. Ann
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| Posted: March 23 2010 at 3:58pm | IP Logged
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Dust/House mites
Mold
These things can keep me congested for life!
I have to take my own pillow with me on trips. I can not lay on my inlaws sofa without getting stuffed up. (I vacuum my cushions semi regularly)
If you think dust/mites could be a possibility, just wash her pillow and case and see if she has any relief. If there is the slightest relief I would highly suspect an allergy to dust...then get out the vacuum! 
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Stephanie
Wife and mother to Hannah '96, Maria '99, Dorothea '01, Helena '03
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mom2mpr
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| Posted: March 23 2010 at 8:42pm | IP Logged
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DD has a million allergies. Diet, environment, dust,etc.
I have found at this time of year things are worse--her eczema mostly--because one of her worst allergies is to trees.
I was told to think of her allergies as always being there but when one more is added on she goes "over the line" of being able to deal with it. So even though trees are mostly respiratory/nasal symptoms, her eczema acts up because she has gone past "the line."
Hard to explain. It is like her homeostasis in her immune system is gone. Even though it isn't really there normally.. 
So, it might be some pollen type thing.
I have found Zyrtec to help this time of year, and if it gets REALLY bad (nighttime snoring and sleep apnea) we go for the prescription steroid nasal spray. I don't like it, but my kid can breathe at night..and I can sleep
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Nina Murphy
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| Posted: March 23 2010 at 10:52pm | IP Logged
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St. Ann wrote:
Dust/House mites
Mold
These things can keep me congested for life!
I have to take my own pillow with me on trips. I can not lay on my inlaws sofa without getting stuffed up. (I vacuum my cushions semi regularly)
If you think dust/mites could be a possibility, just wash her pillow and case and see if she has any relief. If there is the slightest relief I would highly suspect an allergy to dust...then get out the vacuum! |
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Yes, and consider mattress and pillow covers. We got ours at Sears. Things got so much better when we did this, even though it sounded crazy. Our mattresses and pillows are supposedly dust mite magnets. We also got rid of most stuffed animals....boo hoo. We stopped using the whole-house fan which was pulling all kinds of stuff in, despite saving us money on AC-----what a waste of money that ended up being! (All on allergist's advice.)
Also, started taking Claritin every morning. Things are soooo much better. Not perfect, but manageable.
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~~Nina
mother of 9 on earth,
and 2 yet-to-be-met
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St. Ann
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| Posted: March 24 2010 at 6:27am | IP Logged
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Nina Murphy wrote:
[QUOTE=St. Ann] Dust/House mites
Mold
We also got rid of most stuffed animals....boo hoo. |
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You know, Nina, you can kill the dust mites on stuffed animals if you put them in the freezer for 24 hours. I wash ours every now and then and freeze them when necessary. Of course the clutter issue is another, but you do not have to get rid of everything.
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Stephanie
Wife and mother to Hannah '96, Maria '99, Dorothea '01, Helena '03
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CatholicMommy
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| Posted: March 24 2010 at 8:11am | IP Logged
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When you say dairy, is it really ALL dairy? I had to cut EVERYTHING dairy out of my son's diet to see a difference. After 2 weeks, he cleared right up. Now he can have small amounts of items with milk in them (crackers, bread, etc.) and even small amounts of yogurt, but one bite of cheese or decent sized sip of milk and he's back to purple eyes and congestion for several days. We're in step 2 - cutting it all out for several months and see if we can slowly re-introduce small amounts and find a decent threshold.
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Garden of Francis
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teachingmyown
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CatholicMommy- What does she eat then? You are saying nothing even made with milk? Just a fruit, vegetable, and meat diet?
The idea of a dust allergy in this house scares me! I am not quite the model housekeeper. 
It is all so daunting. I know, I am a wimp compared to what many of you deal with, especially you, Nina, but I have trouble just keeping it all together. 
Thanks for the advice.
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In Christ,
Molly
wife to Court & mom to ds '91, dd '96, ds '97, dds '99, '01, '03, '06, and dss '07 and 01/20/11
Remembering Today
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CatholicMommy
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| Posted: March 24 2010 at 12:03pm | IP Logged
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For my son, it's been anything with milk at all - at least for getting it all out of his system - now we can start seeing where the trouble foods are. We've just had to find foods that don't contain milk. For example: Some graham crackers are ok, others aren't. Yesterday we picked up some club crackers that are fine (I'm not keen on the soy replacement, but at least we'll get accurate results with checking out the dairy stuff).
He likes a LOT of peanut butter and jam sandwiches (bread made without milk). Vegetables with pasta in a variety of fashions. Etc.
I am hoping it's a temporary thing We follow the Eastern Rite fasting pretty closely already, but for non-fasting days, staying no-dairy is hard. But if it's a health issue.... SIGH.
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cathhomeschool
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teachingmyown wrote:
CatholicMommy- What does she eat then? You are saying nothing even made with milk? Just a fruit, vegetable, and meat diet?
The idea of a dust allergy in this house scares me! I am not quite the model housekeeper. |
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For my son eliminating the majority of dairy made a world of difference. He does really well when we eliminate it *completely,* but I don't do that as consistently as I should. It sounds daunting but it's not that bad. A lot of protein bars and granola bars don't contain diary (He's on swim team and has to have stuff like that at school after he swims.) At home I substitute rice milk, almond milk or broth or water when I would normally use milk. And we've just gotten used to not putting cheese in dishes. Our main problem comes from him eating out (at church or somewhere with swim team or a youth group), so his allergies aren't completely gone. He also has lots of environmental allergies and dust mite allergies. He takes meds for that and has dust covers on his pillow and mattress. We have no carpet in our house. I wash his sheets in super hot water to kill the mites. But honestly, the dairy has made more impact than all of that other stuff combined. So maybe if that's the main problem and you can really eliminate it to see, it won't be so daunting after all.
I hope you find out what the problem is!
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Janette (4 boys - 22, 21, 15, 14)
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Nina Murphy
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St. Ann wrote:
Nina Murphy wrote:
[QUOTE=St. Ann] Dust/House mites
Mold
We also got rid of most stuffed animals....boo hoo. |
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You know, Nina, you can kill the dust mites on stuffed animals if you put them in the freezer for 24 hours. I wash ours every now and then and freeze them when necessary. Of course the clutter issue is another, but you do not have to get rid of everything.
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Thank you for this tip! Not that we have any room in our freezer, but....good to know!
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God bless,
~~Nina
mother of 9 on earth,
and 2 yet-to-be-met
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Nina Murphy
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teachingmyown wrote:
CatholicMommy- What does she eat then? You are saying nothing even made with milk? Just a fruit, vegetable, and meat diet?
The idea of a dust allergy in this house scares me! I am not quite the model housekeeper.
It is all so daunting. I know, I am a wimp compared to what many of you deal with, especially you, Nina, but I have trouble just keeping it all together.
Thanks for the advice. |
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Oh, Molly, believe me. I am a major Wimp, too; in fact, I'm sure I have you beat.
Don't be intimidated by those mites! There is NO way to beat them! They will just come right back!
We need to figure out how to function, how to just *maintain*, sometimes, right? Sometimes a cure is possible, sometimes lessening symptoms is all we can hope for.
If something has a specific cause and effect, of course, you avoid it completely, i.e. my kids' allergies with seafood and peanuts. We're talking urgent care visit. (Which we just had this past Friday...fun!) You'll know. But don't stress yourself out too much trying to figure it all out. One thing to eliminate, look for, or work on at a time, maybe? 
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~~Nina
mother of 9 on earth,
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insegnante
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Molly, no idea how likely dairy is to be the issue anyway for your daughter, but when my breastfed baby reacted to dairy in my diet (not sure if "allergy" was the issue,) I ended up having to eliminate even minute amounts of it for about 8 months. I would still consume "made in a factory that also processes dairy" and was never known to have a problem, but not, say, hamburger buns that contained dairy. Once she reacted after I had absentmindledly consumed a single cheddar Goldfish cracker -- ok, that's "obvious" dairy but how much could really be in it?!
Not that this is really relevant to your older child, but she had no problems with dairy in her own diet when we introduced it (gingerly) at a little after 1 year, or with my resumed consumption of it. And she's the only child of ours who has liked to drink plain milk :)
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Theresa
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Angi
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In order for a child to stop reacting to a food, generally, all forms of it must be removed from the diet for 2 weeks. This includes milk/cheese/yogurt/etc. Life without dairy is not really difficult once you get started. We sub rice milk for milk, soy yogurt (wanting to try coconut yogurt), skip the cheese, generally skip the lunch meat, read every label and when all else fails, feed the kid Oreos LOL. Oreos (almost all kinds) are dairy free, as are teddy grahams.
I would not eliminate more than one food at a time.
After saying all of that, I would suspect envirmental allergies before food for stuffy nose.
Angi - whose family avoids 13 different foods, has 3 kids on antihistimine, and lives and breathes food allergies LOL
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cathhomeschool
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insegnante wrote:
| Not that this is really relevant to your older child, but she had no problems with dairy in her own diet when we introduced it (gingerly) at a little after 1 year, or with my resumed consumption of it. And she's the only child of ours who has liked to drink plain milk :) |
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My oldest had terrible colic problems when I nursed him because I ate dairy. He was fine when he was older and was able to eat dairy without signs of trouble. He slowly developed allergy problems and the allergy tests showed dust mite and other problems. What linked it back to dairy for me was that the whole family got the flu a couple of years ago and we all quit eating dairy. His allergy problems and acne cleared up. Once he started dairy again both came back. I say all this just in case your daughter has acne issues later on. I read that adult acne is almost always caused by a food allergy. Mine is definitely dairy related (and I had the same issues with colic/dairy when I was a baby).
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Karen T
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After years of allergies and asthma getting worse and worse I was finally retested this past year (I'd been tested once 5 yrs ago and reacted to nothing). This time I tested positive to every single grass, mold and weed, all the trees except oaks, dust and dogs. So I'm pretty much a poster child for allergies now! Here are the things my allergist recommended:
1.Get the mattress and pillowcase covers - this is #1 if you even suspect a dustmite allergy - you spend a greater percentage of your time sleeping than any other single thing. Wash sheets, pillowcases and blanket/comforter weekly in hot water, dry on hot. don't hang laundry outside to dry - you'll just pull in more pollen!
2. No humidifiers - they breed mold. (disappointing b/c dry air irritates my nose too)
3. keep windows closed and run AC if warm, change filters frequently.
4. once a week, "wet-dust" bedroom. This means just a damp cloth wiping every surface down - can use pledge, etc or just water.
I have found these things, esp #1, to be very helpful. Unfortunately, right now the outside pollen has overwhelmed any tiny improvements I"d made in the winter. I have started allergy shots but it will take most of the year to see any improvement. I do use local, unpasteurized honey as well, but this only works for the pollen allergies.
good luck!
Karen T in Md
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Maria B.
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Have you ever thought of trying a Neti Pot? I have not tried this yet, but several of my friends have received great relief from their allergy symptoms using one. They are available at Whole Foods and other stores. You might want to try it.
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Maria in VA
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Karen T
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yes, it's one of those things I keep meaning to try and forget to get one, etc. I have a friend who swears by one also. One of the problems for me is that my symptoms are not just nasal. B/c of asthma I get severe chest congestion and coughing. But I suppose the Neti Pot helps by trapping some of the stuff you breathe in before it gets past the nose so it would still be helpful I guess.
Karen T
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4Real Forums : Our Lady of Good Remedy and Care
Topic: Allergy question
