posted
In my continued quest to get relief for my child from his arthritic pains, I am now trying an elimination diet.
Brief history - he was born with congenital Lyme and has suffered from hand and feet pains daily since about 1 year old.
He's on Ibuprofen daily for years now and I don't know what to do once his stomach gives out.
He did about 7 months of abx and then a few months of herbs. Nothing helped and his pains are as bad as ever.
My current theory is that because my wife was on abx throughout pregnancy, he was born without gut flora and has leaky gut syndrome. And leaky gut is the precursor to various autoimmune diseases including Rheumatoid Arthritis.
So our Naturopath ordered a food sensitivity test through Alletess Labs in the form of an IgE Food Panel.
The IgE showed he had strong sensitivity to an unusually large number of foods. Top of the list were the common ones like Gluten, Dairy, Eggs, etc.And there were some weird ones including Rice which is our staple food.
So we are on day 8 of having eliminated all these foods (very tough thing to with a toddler!)
Sadly, his pain has not shown any signs of abating.
I would be interested in hearing others experiences with food elimination diets. Did it help in any degree? How long can it take to notice any improvements?
I could sure use some advice/good stories right now to keep steadfast on this diet.
Thanks!
Posts: 655 | From USA | Registered: Sep 2007
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posted
That's a real shame. I hate it when young children are in pain.
Ibuprofen itself can make gut issues worse .. even with regard to gut bacteria.
It also contains salicylates, which he may be sensitive to already ... and that could make things worse.
Have you tried curcumin for pain?? It's not quite as hard on the stomach. I use the NOW brand from Swanson's.
I have not tried a total elimination diet .. I don't think?? I had to eliminate nearly everything I was eating last year and then slowly add low salicylate and low histamine foods.
Is your child currently eating potatoes or other nightshades? Those can cause a lot of pain.
Also .. Google RA and gut health. I read something the other day about specific gut bacteria that was lacking in those with RA.
Hope this helps!
-------------------- --Lymetutu-- Opinions, not medical advice! Posts: 96222 | From Texas | Registered: Feb 2001
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posted
I have tried curcumin and fish oil, it doesn't touch his pain. Even Tylenol doesn't work. Ibuprofen is the only thing that works.
He is not eating potatoes as it showed up as a strong positive offender on his IgE.
But he is eating tomatoes and peppers as the test showed low/no sensitivity to those foods.
Regarding gut bacteria, my Naturopath has sent a stool sample kit. I need to collect child' sample and sent it off to the lab. It is a specialty lab that can detect abnormalities in the stool and provide a list of antimicrobials/antifungals to which any discovered microbes are susceptible to.
Posts: 655 | From USA | Registered: Sep 2007
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posted
There's been a healthy gut summit going on all week and speakers have a lot to say about the issues you're raising. The last two free days for listening are Sunday and Monday, and the series can be purchased.
If you are interested in checking it out, go to www.healthygutsummit.com and sign up to listen to any of the speakers for the last two days.
I've been listening throughout the week and have learned a lot!
Posts: 13116 | From San Francisco | Registered: May 2006
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posted
My son had leaky gut so bad he would go into anaphylaxis ( vomit, swelling, hives stop breathing 911). We tested his zonulin levels at dunwood labs in atlanta to confirm leaky gut. Google zonulin. most docs have never heared of test. He was then diagnosed with congential lyme. You need to be gluten diary free, alletess, and the amy myers protocol. http://www.amymyersmd.com/2013/05/8-supplements-to-heal-a-leaky-gut/ praying for you to stay strong
Posts: 58 | From GA | Registered: Dec 2014
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posted
Definitely sign on to the Healthy Gut Summit today while it is still free!!!
-------------------- --Lymetutu-- Opinions, not medical advice! Posts: 96222 | From Texas | Registered: Feb 2001
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Brussels
Frequent Contributor (5K+ posts)
Member # 13480
posted
My little girl started with lyme arthritis by the age of 2, after her first tick bite.
Her pain in the knees were horrible. the only thing that stopped her pain, was stopping lyme disease, with multiple herbs, homeopathy, etc.
As soon as lyme comes back though a new bite or by relapse, her knee pain re-starts and she can have 0 pain in one day, and 100% pain in the next, with an extremely swollen knee in about 48 hours.
As always, anti pain medicine will never stop her pain. The only thing that works, is anti borrelial or anti microbial treatment.
So sorry to hear your small child is in pain. It is HORRIBLE to see them suffering.
For my daughter, what helped was treating the infection with herbs and homeopathy, loads of binders to avoid herxes. In the end, we found photon with nosodes as therapy, and that put lyme dormant for good for her and for me too.
We were ALWAYS on specials diets. Never ever we could eat everything freely. Specially during lyme. You eat bad stuff for you, you just get worse. I do not think that only controlling food would have put lyme dormant for her though.
But diet is essential to anyone willing to fully heal. We are on gluten free diet for more than a year now, despite being lyme free.
Posts: 6199 | From Brussels | Registered: Oct 2007
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posted
SacredHeart, I went to Dr. W in Germany for the treatment. Brussels did the treatment on her own. No one in the US does the same treatment as the doctor in Germany.
I found food allergies over 20 years ago with elimination diet. It helped me a lot. I also had allergy testing done.
Like Brussels, I eat gluten-free even though I'm free of Lyme. I also avoid other foods I'm allergic to or have an intolerance to.
-------------------- sixgoofykids.blogspot.com Posts: 13449 | From Ohio | Registered: Feb 2007
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When your child flares, how long does it take for the anti-microbials to work?
I am hesitant to give him any herbs right now because I want to see if the diet works on its own and don't want to confuse the results.
Our naturopath said we should give the diet at least 4 weeks time. At that time if there is no improvement then I will have doubts whether his problems are gut related. And he'll have to get back on herbs or abx.
Posts: 655 | From USA | Registered: Sep 2007
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Brussels
Frequent Contributor (5K+ posts)
Member # 13480
posted
Sacred heart: I self treated, while I was waiting to go to the same doctor Sixgoofykids went to. When the time of my appointment came, my daughter and I had barely any symptoms.
I just followed dr. W's protocol (the doctor of Sixg) and did it at home. Do a search with words PE1, or Bionic protocol, or hardynaka (my old screenname) or Brussels. I wrote it all here (back in 2009, when lyme finally subsided).
---------------- Without dieting, there is NO WAY out of lyme or any chronic disease. I do not think it is possible to be eating inflammatory foods and still heal.
I think eating well (diet is different for each person, and it varies with the time) is at the bottom of the pyramid for anyone willing to heal.
Today, I'm like Sixgkids, no lyme anymore. But if I eat badly (meaning for me, non organic, junk foods, little fresh foods, no fermented foods), I just fall sick with something else, fatigue comes, my brain gets slower... I don't feel fit.
And I'm not sick with lyme anymore.
During lyme, I do believe that people that do not want to do a diet at all will not heal.
Dr. K's practioners will put you on a diet from DAY 1 you go see them. No diet, they say, no healing.
But diet alone won't heal anyone (not me, at least!). But you do feel more energy coming if you eat 'correctly'. As I told above, each person has to find out what, and it varies from people to people.
Posts: 6199 | From Brussels | Registered: Oct 2007
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Brussels
Frequent Contributor (5K+ posts)
Member # 13480
posted
Yanivnaced:
I'm not sure she was flaring. It was just CONSTANT pain, no stop, day and night. Her knees were just swollen, doubled of size. I don't think it was a flare....
Diet may help stopping a bit the inflammation. But if the origin is ALSO infectious, the pain will not fully stop.
I took my daughter to dr. K's practioners, and both put her on: - diet - homeopathics - herbs - microcurrent - acupressure (dr. K's type of tapping acupressure) - supplements
I do understand your logic of trying a treatment one by one.
But if you are as long as we are, treating lyme, you will understand that ONLY COMBINED treatments will work for the worst cases.
No single treatment will work for chronic lyme. At least, I don't believe so.
Just see all these practioners treating lyme: they will put you on multiple treatments, not because they do not know what they are doing and are shooting everywhere.
It's just that, if your body fell so sick with a chronic disease like lyme, it did so for MULTIPLE reasons.
You got multiple failure going from many directions, so treating using a single gun will not put you out of lyme fast.
Of course, I understand your approach. It is though a VERY slow approach...
I mean, if there was no pain involved, I would say, ok... But I saw my daughter suffer in a way, I really wish that to no one, specially, not a child.
She couldn't even use the toilet anymore, because any movement, any touch near her knee would be so painful, she would be just screaming on and on.
I'm glad there were energy tests, to test EACH procedure done by her practioners. They tested each food she was allowed, they tested each herb, each type of microcurrent, each supplement, each homeopathic remedy... And the combination of that, did work.
I do hope your child is not suffering extreme pains, constant pains, like my daughter was. It is unbearable to see when that happen, day and night.
Out of desperation, I tried energy tests (with dr. K's practioners). With time, they showed extremely useful, specially to find out what was missing in the combination of treatments.
With energy tests, you can find out what kind of toxin is in the joints, what is the substance you need to take the toxin off the joints.
What bacteria or pathogen is causing the pain. What remedy against that specific bacteria.
Once you give the remedy for both toxins and pathogen, you can see IF the remedy is reaching the affected joints. You can test if the amount given was enough. If the remedy is not reaching the joint, what to do to make it reach it.
With energy tests, you can see if organs are working properly. Like the liver, the GI tract, the kidneys, the lymph. And what to do to make them work better. And so on.
that is how we got better... I do wonder how people get of a bad chronic lyme without energy tests, specially if they get re-bitten constantly, like us...
Energy tests were the most useful tool to check whether a treatment was working or not, enough or not, what was causing the problem etc.
I hope this is not too confusing!
Posts: 6199 | From Brussels | Registered: Oct 2007
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posted
I agree that diet is necessary. i have food allergies, true allergies that show up in allergy testing and that don't have anything to do with having had Lyme. I got exposed to an allergen a couple days ago. Today I'm still fatigued and just want to do nothing all day (not normal for me at all). It's a minor allergy, but it's still affecting me two days later.
I think this shows how chronic illness can be in layers. If I hadn't cut out foods that are bad for me, and if I were still in Lyme treatment, I might write off these food allergy symptoms as Lyme symptoms.
Intolerances are different than allergies, but they can also cause symptoms. I feel much more energetic when I don't eat gluten even though I'm not truly allergic to gluten.
-------------------- sixgoofykids.blogspot.com Posts: 13449 | From Ohio | Registered: Feb 2007
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lymeboy
Unregistered
posted
I'm not sure where you are located, but there are strains of Cannabis that could be very helpful.
I don't know where you stand on this issue but there are now hundreds if not thousands of parents who have seen their child smile for the first time. These kids went from constant pain- seizures,drooling,spasms etc. to pain free days and learning to read and write.
There are strains that will not have a heavy psychoactive effect, especially for children:
I am not a doctor, and you would need to consult a doctor to know what is best. But if you are desperate, this is a safer option than Ibuprofen, which can be very bad for Lyme sufferers, especially young ones.
If you're in a med-legal area, it is an option. Check out some Medical Cannabis message boards, you should find parents just like yourself.
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Dekrator48
Frequent Contributor (5K+ posts)
Member # 18239
posted
It definitely takes longer than 8 days to feel better after eliminating sensitive foods, so hang in there. It is in his best interest.
It is very important to heal his leaky gut which leads to food sensitivities.
Candida must also be addressed.
Our health definitely starts in our gut.
-------------------- The fibromyalgia I've had for 32 years was an undiagnosed Lyme symptom.
"For I know the plans I have for you", declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future". -Jeremiah 29:11 Posts: 6076 | From Pennsylvania, USA | Registered: Nov 2008
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