A Dairy Free Foray

[Sarah Wood]

I've finally decided to bite the bullet and swallow my biggest fear: an elimination diet!! I am going to give up dairy for at least two weeks, along with my 18mos old son. I am mostly doing it for him, but am interested to see if it affects any of my minor ailments.

Reasons:

DS2 has had a rash in his diaper area, on his perineum, for almost his whole life so far. I've tried a lot of different things on it. It sort of comes and goes, but I am wondering now if maybe it is eczema that happens to be in his diaper area. It is very very itchy and he will sratch it raw if given the opportunity. The skin seems dry and sometimes striated. I would like to be able to give him diaper free time so that he can get more air to the area as well as to facilitate pottying, but it's not an option with the scratching.

I was also looking back at some photos of DS2 from his earlier infancy (6 months-ish) and I think he might now have puffy eyes. His eyes seemed much brighter and more open in the younger pictures. I never really thought about it before because 18mos olds are sort of soft and round all over anyways. My father has commented in the past that he has Denby's lines.

As for myself, I have been bothered by acne for many years which also comes and goes to a certain extent, but certainly seems to flare more often than I get relief. Being a dermatologists daughter, I've tried all sorts of things on it. I think I need to treat it internally, but I fear that it might be something difficult to pinpoint if that is a cause. If anything my diet has greatly improved in the past year, but I haven't noticed any difference.

I also have atopic dermatitis / eczema on and around my ring finger (left hand). I've had it ever since I gave birth to DS1 almost 4 years ago. Again, it comes and goes, but it's been flaring lately and I don't like it! It itches and if pustules develop they are painful. It's a problem when I have to wash my hands so often during the day and that only exacerbates it.

Any advice or recommendations on dairy free or the aforementioned ailments is welcome! I've made a meal plan for two weeks of dinners that won't have dairy. For the other meals, I am just planning to be careful! However, milk kefir is part of my daily regime and I'm wondering if I should just do a little kombucha instead. I'd try water kefir if I can get some grains. I'm a little concerned about having to cut back on probiotics when going dairy free.

[Pat Robinson]

I would not switch dairy kefir for kombucha. You've had mercury removed and probably candida to sequester it. Kombucha kills candida and releases mercury into the blood. The water kefir is significantly beneficial. So, going cold turkey on the dairy-free is preferable for the 2 weeks, probably.

The catch is (you don't want to read this) is that one food is rarely the culprit. Food intolerances is more of a system problem than an isolated food culprit which can be eliminated. You've been adding so many wonderfully nutritional foods this past year. So, hopefully, removing the most common inflammatory food, dairy, will be huge for healing!

Be sure to get sauerkraut with meals and zinc for optimizing digestion. And magnesium. Natural Calm or Epsom salt baths. Folate is huge too. Beans, greens, lentils and liver are the big folate sources. And you are already doing the CLO.

Sunlight! for vit D.

Keep us updated!

Pat