First of all, I am not a doctor. However, I have many anecdotal stories from friends about milk and earaches, about wheat and runny noses, about milk and juvenile arthritis… and especially my own. I have two young boys with food allergies. Even I have experienced firsthand the behavioral changes and instant “colds” when we have an accidental food exposure. It’s not just the rashes and stomach aches that are happening. I honestly believe that a deeper immunological imbalance has occurred.
When first approaching this with pediatricians, not only myself, but other mothers I have encountered have been immediately driven to medications to treat the earache, or the constant constipation, or even the sudden onset of arthritis in a 3 year old. Diet is not even mentioned once, even though it plays such a significant role in the body’s immune system.
After endless research, and trial and error with food eliminations, “we” the mothers, finally figured it out for ourselves. No more wheat and the runny nose is gone. No more soy and the constipation is a thing of the past. No more milk and the little girl who stopped walking with supposedly diagnosed juvenile arthritis is now running around the yard. My own son stopped eating gluten and not only did the rashes go away, but so did the temper tantrums.
Perhaps it is high time for the pediatric community to start really looking at diet in the beginning of diagnosis. The United States has had a significant shift in the way we grow and handle food. There may or may not be a connection, but with the rise in dietary conditions in children, pediatricians need to start looking at the dinner table, instead of a prescription pad!