The Suspects

We are now 2 weeks into this journey so I am starting to make some more specific observations about the effectiveness of this food plan. First, I will definitely say that we have seen some positive changes. Sometimes it is small things like my son not arguing when given consequence for behavior or actually sitting and listening to a sermon. (For the first time in several years, I was able to actually worship during worship time and not worry about what my six year old was doing.) His teacher said that he was not as "high strung." There are still many things that he needs to work on, but overall, I don't feel like I am walking on eggshells all the time with him and he seems to get out of his bad moods quicker, especially if Wii playing is on the line! I do have a few food suspects. I am not definitely saying these are triggers, but I am going to be watching more closely. Mainly, certain types of naturally occurring salicylates. Grapes and honey are both on my "watch" list...both are high in salicylates. At this stage, honey is not specifically eliminated, but many moms on the forums have found that their children could not handle this. Ironically, I have been using honey in my homemade granola bars that I have been making as well as buying several Annie's Homegrown snacks with honey in them. I tried to pinpoint something different in his diet on the days that he seemed off and both of these seemed to be likely culprits. Interestingly, he "accidentally" had a fruit roll-up at a friend's house and did not seem to have a reaction to the dyes. I am not saying that dyes aren't an issue, but some have found that children react to as little as a jelly bean if they are super sensitive. So, I did some investigating about salicylates. When I began, I was actually going to "skip" this stage of the plan but I felt God was saying if you are going to do this, do it 100%. Now, I am glad that I did. When my son had allergy testing done several years ago, three of the foods they tested for are high in saliyclates. He was allergic to two of them (Peanuts and almonds, but not tomatoes). Also, as a baby he had a period of time when he broke out after eating strawberries, also high in sals. Now, this kid loves fruit. In one day, he may have apple juice, a clementine, a bowl of grapes and an apple. All of these are high in salicylates. If indeed he does have a sensitivity, I can imagine why he might have some negative behaviors associated with eating too many.  The good news is that if this is indeed a problem, it typically doesn't mean that the person has to eliminate them fully. Most salicylic sensitive people can tolerate some. They are strictly eliminated on Stage One of Feingold to see if they are a problem. Incidentally, it was an "infraction" of eating grapes at school that clued me in. Also, as I got thinking about it, he usually doesn't have problems when we are on vacation. I always thought, "Well, we are on vacation, that's why there aren't any problems. We are typically doing something out of the ordinary and fun." But, factor in that we are eating less fruit and there COULD be a correlation. Finally, and less of an issue, but still noteworthy is that we do have a member of our extended family with a severe aspirin allergy (salicylate sensitivity is also known as aspirin triad sensitivity) and it seems that there is a genetic component to this sensitivity. So, for now, I have my eye on salicylates.