In a message dated 97-04-25 22:41:26 EDT, [log in to unmask] (Dale & Leslie
Beachwood) writes:

<< Good luck in your struggles. It's hard, I know, and sometimes when your
 child looks perfectly fine it's hard to ignore the comments of relatives who
 think your diet strategies are crazy. You just have to keep on keeping on...
  >>

Tonite my daughter woke up with her rash from yesterday (the pediatrician
suspects a soy allergy)  having gotten even worse ..... and she is swollen.
 We called our pediatrician and he instructed us to give her Benedryl and
ONLY feed her rice and her Nutramagin for the next two days .  The swelling
has begun to subside (2 hours later) but the rash has not improved at all.
 She has been on VITASOY for almost 6 mo now without complications (she DOES
have a dairy allergy as well).... and now we suspect she has a soy allergy.
 Can a product be OK for an extended period of time, and then suddenly become
an allergy ??

Can anyone give me the names of some good informative books regarding FOOD
ALLERGIES ...... our library has nothing at all on this topic .... but this
is not traditional medicine here.  We are in a very agricultural area where
doctors are still gods.

My family and my husbands family thinks we have lost our minds.  Our sons
Hyperactivity has improved dramatically since we began identifying and
removing his allergies.  We still have a ways to go, but any improvement is
wonderful because we really did not want to put our 3yo on Ritalin or other
drugs for this problem.  Anyway, they absolutely do not believe that food
allergies can alter behavior .... allergies to them are pollen and things.
 And then I tried to explain that some of the chemicals he inhales from the
cleaning products and laundry products were also a big problem .... BIG
MISTAKE on my part !!  And the most ridiculous thing they think we have done
is to eliminate all the dairy from our childrens diets.  Our sons
hyperactivity is made 300 times worse with a drop of milk or the smallest
amount of dairy proteins.  And my daughter vomits within about 20 minutes
with any amount of anything relates to milk, and then she is sick all day
with flu-like symptoms.  "All children need milk to grow big and strong .....
you'll be sorry someday that you did this to them ...."  These are some of
the comments we have heard.

How do we CHANGE this ??  How can I make the people around my children
understand our decisions regarding our children's dietary needs and
restrictions, or atleast respect it ??  I am so afraid that they will give
one of the children a RESTRICTED product ..... and then the children will pay
the price for an adults ignorance ..... HELP !!!!

Tammy
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