Contemplating An E.D.

Well, here we go again.  E.D. = Elimination Diet.  We've made some progress but we continue to see symptoms of food reactions with Bug.  Every time we seem to be getting close to "baseline," there is a setback.  It doesn't help when I do stupid things like eat food at a retirement party and, though I remembered to ask if there was dairy in it, I totally forgot about soy.  Of course there was soy on that chicken.  And, I should really just pass on food prepared by anyone else because the reality is that there is always the chance that the staff misunderstood or is not fully informed about hidden ingredients, cross-contamination, etc.  I need to stock my purse with more snacks to keep me going when I am out of the house.

So last night I began thinking about starting another elimination diet - not as drastic as the one that I did with Lovey, but to help narrow things down a bit more.  I'm going to pick a few foods from each food group and take out the other common allergens (wheat/gluten, egg, corn, nuts, citrus, and fish/shellfish, which I don't touch anyway).  I'll have wheat-free oatmeal, green smoothies, rice and chicken or turkey, potatoes, carrots, and a list of about 20 or so foods and ingredients that I will limit myself to and cross my fingers that it isn't any of them.  Without the major allergens, you would think we should be ok. 

Do I want to do this?  Heck no, but it took us over 7 months to get on track with Lovey's sensitivities and meanwhile he was in discomfort and damage was being done while he was reacting.  He is still reacting to dairy.  My hope is that we can figure out what's going on with Bug much sooner - he is already 2 months old - and maybe even prevent any longer term problems.  I hate seeing him feeling so uncomfortable :(