Try This Diet First

The Elimination Diet

This is where you eliminate the most common allergenic foods from a child's diet, then wait a while, and add them back one at a time to see if they get an obvious reaction to them. This "catches" food allergies, mainly, but won't be the definitive answer if more than one food combined together causes the problem. When I tried to do an elimination diet, it didn't demonstrate to me the gluten/casein problem.

The most allergenic foods are:
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Wheat, Dairy, Eggs, Peanuts, Corn, Soy

The next most allergenic foods are:
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Chocolate, Yeast, Tree Nuts

After that, are:
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Citrus, Tomatoes, Aspartame and MSG, Vinegar, Shellfish

And these are occasionally reactive:
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Bacon and pork, Cinnamon, Mustard, Bananas, Grapes/raisins, Coconut, Onions, Berries (Strawberries mainly), Peas, Celery, Spices like turmeric, cloves, curry, Kidney beans, Melon, Pineapple, Mushrooms, Peppers, Plums, Barley, Beef, Chicken.

To begin this process, sometimes Doctors recommend the "Lamb and Pears" diet, where you only eat the least reactive foods for a week or two (not easy, but doable), then add back the ones from the above lists one at a time, to see how you react to them, spacing this out by going back to the non-reactive list for a few days in-between.

Least Reactive Foods (Generally), or "Lamb and Pears" Diet
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Lamb, Pears, Rice, Carrots, Beets, Cauliflower, Kale, Squash, Salmon, Halibut, Sole, Cranberries, Trout, Apricots, Turkey, Broccoli, Olives, Olive Oil, Rabbit, Cabbage, Sweet Potatoes, Tapioca.

Don't take any anti-histamines during this process, since you are looking for allergic reactions. (An allergic reaction is most often a histamine response.)

Don't eat any processed foods during this time, since they often mix foods together and some have traces of foods not on your list (if its a small enough amount, they don't have to put it on the label.) Also, you might be reacting to a preservative or food additive. If you include the preservatives as part of the re-introduction of foods, you might be able to isolate the one which is giving you problems.

List of Food Additives to Avoid
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Dyes, Nitrites, Nitrates, Sulfites, Sorbic acid, Parabens, Benzoic acid, MSG, EDTA, Aspartame, Propyl Gallate, Alginate, Bromates.

I also try to eliminate:
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- Anticaking Agents- Artificial Sweetening Substances- Color Retention Agents- Emulsifiers- Flavor Enhancers- Flavorings- Flour Treatment Agents, dough conditioners- Food Acids- Glazing Agents- Humectants- Mineral Salts- Other Preservatives- Propellants- Stabilisers- Thickeners & Vegetable Gums

In particular, I react to dough conditioners.

I think that because of the problem I have with gluten, the dough conditioners make it worse, (I wonder if it could be the other way around--the dough conditioners triggered my reaction to wheat gluten.) Anyway, I can eat some breads and not others without a histamine reaction. However, the other brain symptoms are still a problem from the gluten.

Some chemical exposures can make allergies of any kind worse since they can trigger the allergy, or cause someone to react to something they weren't allergic to before.

Petrochemicals like car exhaust, oil furnaces, Formaldehyde, Chlorine, Phenol, Ethanol, Flouride, Benzyl Alcohol, Glycerine.

Avoiding exposure to these can reduce the total load on the child's immune system.