Ever since we started to wean our son Harrison onto solids at 6 months old he started to get skin problems that looked a bit like eczema. The poor boy would get dry skin on his legs, stomach, arms and face. We would spend ages applying creams trying to soothe his irritated skin. It cost a fortune as we searched for the magic cream, all to no avail. A new one would seem like it worked then eventually it would all come back. Molly, Harry’s older sister, never experienced these problems so we were ill prepared and underinformed.
This is a topic that yet again falls into a grey area of medicine where there is plenty of disagreement about what to do but the general medical advice was to wait until he grew out of it and apply creams. Although I am no leading expert on nutrition, I do have reasonable knowledge on the effects that diet can have on the gastrointestinal system that can lead to skin problems so I started to notice that Harry’s face would flare up after eating certain foods. It was hard to narrow down though as he would eat groups of foods at the same time but slowly a pattern emerged. When he ate eggs and milk his skin would quickly react and after eliminating those two, his skin got a lot better but not perfect. It then became clearer that he reacted to bread as well. Now we gave and currently give Molly eggs, milk and bread all of the time so it was a bit difficult to change Harry’s diet. Luckily, they both eat well and can flourish on other foods but I decided that it was time for some help. There are tests that you can have done to check for food intolerances through a simple blood test administered through a pin prick. Fortunately for us, James, our illustrious sports therapist and personal trainer, has ‘future’ mother in law, Philippa Parish, who is a dietitian with a degree in Nutrition and all of the equipment, experience and knowledge needed to hopefully help us understand Harry’s problems. According to Allergy UK 45% of the population suffer from a food intolerance. An intolerance must not be confused with an allergy which can potentially have much more severe outcomes, if you think of a nut allergy for example. Philippa conducted the blood test that measures the igG antibodies that may be linked to a range of inflammatory conditions. It then measures the food antibodies reaction to different food proteins identifying the particular trigger food for you. It will show whether a particular food creates a strong, medium or mild reaction.
Unsurprisingly poor Harry’s test showed that he had a strong reaction to eggs, milk and wheat. We already had a good idea about those results but it was reassuring to us that we were doing the right thing and also that the test was correct and worked. It also showed up that Garlic and Legumes are potentially bad for Harry. What was nice to see were all the things we can now more confidently feed Harry. We thought that he might not be reacting well to tomatoes but they were fine on the blood test as were most vegetables and all different types of meat. We were giving him oat milk instead of cow’s milk but that produced a medium reaction on the blood test so we have switched him to calcium enriched Coconut milk which is easy to find these days.
With all of the changes to Harry’s diet over the last few months his skin and digestion has returned to what you would expect for a normal healthy toddler. It’s so nice to see his skin soft and beautiful again. Although Harry was a healthy boy before and was happy and enjoyed life, I feel much more comfortable now we have adapted his diet. I know that this month’s blog is a bit controversial and will raise as many questions as answers so please take what I’m saying as just my experience with my own children and, like my own, all children are different. To be honest I think I will get myself tested as I know I have a couple of food issues of my own!
If you would like any more information about this blog then please message me directly or simply contact the expert Philippa on her mobile 07970 950839 or her email pilippaparish@blueyonder.co.uk. Next month I go to work at the IAAF World Championships so I look forward to telling you all about working behind the scenes at the world’s biggest sporting event in 2017.
