# Frequent night waking and food allergies??



## Acugirl (Jan 1, 2003)

I am wondering if you all have found a correlation between frequent night wakings and food allergies?

I have a 9 month old who is bf. She hardly eats solids at all. I have eliminated most common allergens from my diet, except wheat...this week, I finally decide to take out wheat too and she seems to be starting to sleep better...

She has many signs of food allergy-mild exema, burn rash on anus, and frequent night waking. I know Dr. sears mentions this at his site as a cause.

Just wondering if you have experienced this and if it is the wheat, how long will it take to be out of her system?

Also, did you have your baby allergy tested to find out for sure and how accurate is that?

Thanks! I am so hoping to get to the bottom of this!


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## tammyw (Sep 21, 2003)

My dd is 6 mos and has food allergies. I have eliminated dairy, wheat, soy, and a few other things (used to eliminate more). She does wake a lot at night and basically nurses every two hours around the clock. I think her tummy gets upset and therefore she eats less, requiring her to eat more frequently. That could be the case with your dd.

Wheat takes 3 days to get out of your system. As for allergy testing, no, it's really not known to be accurate at this age, especially because a child isn't necessarily allergic, but could just be sensitive now. A lot of babies will grow out of these sensitivities with time, and when their digestive system matures. We did take our dd to a Naturopath once. That's worth a try. A friend of mine did that also and has had good success eliminating the foods her dd was sensitive to.

Elimination diets are HARD! Dairy, soy, and wheat are in pretty much everything. I feel bad because I cheated this weekend and had wheat, plus a cookie that had milk in it. I NEVER do this! I sometimes eat wheat, but never dairy. Well sure enough, she has some mild eczema on her face today. I usually see it in her diaper though as well!

Good luck!


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## maighdhlin (Feb 27, 2003)

Once we started an Elimination diet, my DD definitely started sleeping better. She still has wakeful periods when she's teething or fighting a cold, but on a whole it's MUCH better. Eliminating wheat seemed to be the key for us.


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## almama (Mar 22, 2003)

My husband thinks I'm nuts, but I'm trying to do without wheat for a few days and see if it makes things better. My little guy is definately dairy sensitive. He had eczema head to toe until I cut down on dairy. I kept eating chocolate and butter for a while and that did not seem to bring it on, so I would label it a sensitivity versus an allegery.

He slept like a dream from 2-4 months, when I ate whatever I wanted. Now he is up all the time.

My question for you on limited diets is WHAT DO YOU EAT?? I'm tired and want to grab a cheese sandwich to keep going, but go for the rice cake instead. Is there more to life than this? When do you start adding the suspect food back into your diet?

My first guy had dairy sensitivity also, but not as bad. His bum would get red when I ate too much of it. He grew out of that around 8 months, which is the age of my baby now. I was going to start adding cheese back into my diet when I saw this post about wheat. Oh dear!!


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## tammyw (Sep 21, 2003)

IT'S HARD!!! but it does get easier the longer you do it (surprisingly) because I just eat the same stuff over and over again, and yes it gets boring, but I figure I"m doing what I have to do for my daughter.

What I mostly eat:

- chicken
- steak
- eggs (hardboiled mostly in salads)
- avocadoes
- rice (lots of rice!)
- corn cereal
- rice milk
- salad with veggies, eggs, avocadoes, and olive oil/balsamic vinegar
- salmon
- lentil soup (again, find a brand that is safe I think I use Amy's)
- taco salad: ground turkey breast, corn chips, etc.
- hummus and chips
- sushi!!
- potatoes or french fries

For treats:
- kettle corn (there's one brand that is safe I've found)
- sorbet
- gummy bears or some such candy

If you cook, get yourself an allergy cookbook (in the specialty section). You can cook almost anything with the special flours, etc. Talks about what to put in place of dairy, etc.

For me, I'm alone most of the time these days (hubby away for work) so I don't cook really. I just eat all the easy stuff listed above.

Also, I take vitamin supplements - fish oils, flax seed oil, women's vitamins, and calcium. It's a MUST. Good luck


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## MamaMonica (Sep 22, 2002)

This is really, really hard. I have a ds with horrible eczema o n his ankles- he scratches it until it bleeds. It has spread to the creases of his wrists. He's still nursing at 19 months. I eliminated dairy for 21 days with no improvement to him. But soy makes it flare right away, as do tomatoes, any nuts and possibly eggs (in my diet) and we are already wheat and gluten free so eating is pretty much a bummer.

We're vegetarians- I am- but I gave ds some free range turkey since he can't eat much without a flare up. Cod liver oil helps. I still can't pinpoint all the foods that are a problem.

Once I had the flu and couldn't eat for three days and that cleared his skin up more than anything - so I guess food is the problem LOL (a little black humor, there).


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## annikamito (Feb 13, 2003)

My son (18 months now) has had very mild exzema - mostly dry skin around his torso. I tried to ignore it, but once he started scrathing it I decided to take action. I knew that an elimination diet would be the hardest possible way, since I have a hard time anyway just getting a meal together, much less a special one. He also has been one of those all-night nursers - sometimes every 2 hours, on better nights only 3x/night.

Anyway, a friend turned me on to a local acupuncturist who practices an allergy elimination technique called NAET (look it up on the web to learn more an dfind a practicioner). It's based on muscle testing and acupressure massage. After 3 wekes my boy's skin was dramatically improved. However, we haven't seen much improvement in his sleep habits.

I think the NAET method is effective, however, it requires committment and money, since we're about 9 visits into this, and we're not done yet. Of course, my insurance doesn't cover it!
Good luck


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## 3 little birds (Nov 19, 2001)

We recently became raw vegan (no soy, eggs, dairy, gluten) and immediately noticed that now our kids sleep without waking.
Yesterday my daughter ate cheerios before bed and woke every hour screaming from pain until this morning.
My niece has Celiac's disease, so now we are on our way to the gastroentrologist (sp?) for the blood test for gluten.
I feel better without grains, too.


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## moonlightinvt (Jan 3, 2003)

My dd wakes up very frequently, too. She is 18 months and the nighttime is starting to become unbareable (my body aches sooo bad from being on my side constantly nursing her back to sleep).

I hadn't really thought about food sensitivities/allergies as a possible culprit. For a few months she had sinus infections that wouldn't quit. We went to a naturapathic doctor while on vacation and she treated us both for yeast overgrowth with probiotics. Her cold went away immediately. The dr also recommended that her and I cut out the wheat. Dd's bum rash also went away and, now that I think about it, she did sleep better at night.

So, since then I have fallen off the "wheat-wagon" and her rashes and mild exzema is back. Mmmmmm (lightbulb), I guess I should try cutting it out again and see if the situation improves.

I'll let you know what happens.


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## MamaMonica (Sep 22, 2002)

Quote:

_Originally posted by 3 little birds_
*We recently became raw vegan (no soy, eggs, dairy, gluten) and immediately noticed that now our kids sleep without waking.
Yesterday my daughter ate cheerios before bed and woke every hour screaming from pain until this morning.
My niece has Celiac's disease, so now we are on our way to the gastroentrologist (sp?) for the blood test for gluten.
I feel better without grains, too.*
Good luck with the blood test. I was diagnosed wiht celiac disease recently after my health slowly declined for the last several years. I think my ds may have it, too.

This disease is so underdiagnosed and misdiagnosed in the US. It takes an avg of more than ten years of symptoms to get a diagnosis, although people with the untreated disease have 2 times greater mortality rate from all causes than their peers.


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