"Nancy Morris wrote:"
>
> Hello all.  Just realized it is 4 weeks today on this diet...I slipped =
> up around T-giving but besides that I have been living on turkey, lamb, =
> rice, squash, sweet potatoes and white potatoes, peaches and =
> pears....and later grapes, chicken, oats, and a few fruits.  I miss soda =
> and caffeine.  I miss juice.  I miss wheat. I miss eggs.  And the sad =
> part is he isn't too much better off now then he was at the start.  He =
> did seem to get significantly better (eczema and reflux wise)at about =
> day 9 or 10 but he was never FREE of the two issues....and then the =
> eczema came back, not as bad, but it did come back....we still haven't =
> gone a whole day without a reflux episode.  So it got better but not ALL =
> better!  I fooled around with the diet (took oats back out; took chicken =
> back out; took corn back out; went totally back down to lamb and rice =
> and water) but nothing changed for the worse or better.

Hi Nancy!  Sorry to hear the elimination diet is not working for you.
I did something similar and didn't get any answers either.  sigh...  My
son was having reflux and blood in his stool.  My older son had been
sensitive to milk, soy, peanuts and peas in my diet.  With my youngest,
though, I went down to turkey, brown rice, sweet potato, pear and maple
syrup/sugar for several weeks, and like your son, he got only a little
better.  I had figured he would have to either get all better or get
way worse (if he happened to be allergic to one of the items I was
eating, since I was eating tons of those items!).

> disaster but I have been good since, but still he spits up often, seems =
> uncomfortable, doesn't sleep well, has eczema and just seems "not quite =
> right".

In my case, we weren't dealing with eczema and his doctor advised us
that the bloody stool was not dangerous, so we treated the reflux
symptomatically, and I went back to a full diet.  He outgrew it by
a year.

One other thing you might consider trying is a hypoallergenic formula,
while you pump (to maintain your supply).  We did that with the milk,
soy, peanut, pea fellow for a while while mucking with my diet.  I
*really* didn't want to bottle feed for many reasons, but it did
provide some information that helped solve his mystery.

> my husband even feels bad for me =
> (that's a HUGE thing; he doesn't usually feel bad for anyone who CHOOSES =
> to do something and then complains).

My husband was pretty much in awe of me.  It is one thing to choose something
for yourself, and another thing to choose to make a big sacrifice for your
baby.

> tired.  I am on the fence about reflux meds and about allergy blood =
> testing--I have been told RAST is more accurate than SPT (but I know, by =
> exper. with my older guy, that they can also be useless sometimes). Any =
> suggestions?  Thanks!!

I would do the reflux meds if they make him feel better.  We did Zantac
which worked better for my first allergic kid than my second, but was
still helpful in reducing his pain as well.

The blood testing, I didn't find useful at all.  We did it the first
time and I don't recall the results, but they didn't correspond well with
what empirical evidence showed.

Good luck to you!!

--Robyn (mommy to Ryan 9/93 and Matthew 6/96 and Evan 3/01)