A New Grant

What if I told you not to eat any milk, soy, wheat, egg, or peanut products?
What would you eat?

Grant has suffered with allergies his whole life. We've always done what we felt was best to help him, but it has never seemed to be enough! This is the Grant I have known for the past 3 years...

Blindfolded I could identify him by his rough, rashy skin with scabs on his wrists, arms, ankles, and legs. I've had neighbors ask "is Grant okay?" because they can hear him screaming and tantruming 75% of the day and waking them up at night. He takes 4 different medications every night before bed. He complains about being in pain daily and rarely smiles. The only time his skin has been clear and his mood happier has been 4 times in his life, lasting 10 days each... this has been when he's been prescribed steroids. Sounds dramatic, but this is a 3 year old we're talking about.

Like I said, I have done everything I could, or I thought. 3 allergy prick tests done by 3 different doctors have yielded 3 different results. Each time, I eliminated what I was told was the new allergy from his diet. There was no difference in his appearance or demeanor.
Then we realized, the only thing we haven't tried.... eliminating ALL of the allergies at the same time, even if another test falsified it. I am ashamed to think it took us 3 years to come to this idea. So, as of June 1st we have been eating only organic and nothing containing MILK, SOY, WHEAT, EGG, PEANUT, FOOD DYE, NITRITES, or HIGH-FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP. But, that's everything! Come to find out, it's not.

And come to find out, it is making a difference! It took only 4 days to notice a significant difference. I thought maybe I was fooling myself until I asked him how he felt... He looked at me, smiled, and said "Good, no itchys!"
So where do we go from here? I'm not going to continue on with his diet if he's really NOT allergic to milk or something else. The only way to figure out what is is and isn't allergic to is to introduce them one by one (like an infant with baby food). In a few days we are starting with MILK. We will start serving him milk, yogurt, ice cream, and anything that contains JUST milk and none of the other allergens for a couple days. If he tolerates it we know he's not allergic to milk. If not, NO MORE MILK. We'll wait another week for his skin to clear, then introduce another food item, doing the same thing for all of them.

This is exhausting, trust me. My hope is that he can tolerate a couple of these because eliminating everything takes a lot of time/planning. No more quick trips to the grocery store. No more eating out, ANYWHERE! But we're willing to adapt if that's what it comes to.
The best part of the whole thing is that he understands and can be reasoned with. My visiting teachers just came over last week with muffins. He runs over to me and says, "Do those have wheat and eggs?" I told him yes, thinking he would be totally crushed. He wasn't, "Okay, can I have one of my cookies than?"

I'm optimistic!