First, there are lots of gluten free options available now. Not that you have to avoid gluten, but if it’s gluten-free, it’s wheat-free too. Potatoes and other roots are wheat free. If you’re not a vegetarian, meat is wheat free. So are eggs and cheese. Embrace rice, millet, barley (unless you rally are allergic to gluten; barley has gluten). Oats should be okay too.

A lot of ethnic foods are wheat free, but watch soy sauce–most soy sauce has caramel color which could be made from soy, and others actually have wheat. Learn to read labels. Cook more from scratch. Wheat-free breads leave something to be desired. But corn tortillas are find, as are almost all chips except sun chips. Get some cookbooks and learn how to cook from scratch. Bisquix has a gluten-free pancake mix, or you could experiment with using a non-wheat flour in your favorite pancake recipe; pancakes are very forgiving.

I wish you could see my son’s list of allergies–it’s almost everything people eat every day. It would help you see how much variety you do have.

One thing I would check is to see if you have yeast/candida. It could be a source of some of your troubles. Or not. But it wouldn’t hurt to check.

Good luck!

Anyhow, keep him on a GF diet for 4-6 weeks. I say this because even though he did not test positive for celiac disease doesn’t mean that he doesn’t have a gluten intolerance. I read somewhere that 90% of people who are sensitive to gluten don’t know it. If he improves, then try testing other grains other than wheat (oats, rye, and barley are the other glutenous grains). If he reacts, then you know he needs to be gluten free. You’ll learn to embrace things like quinoa, millet, rice, and such, and also to use other things like potatoes, sweet potatoes, etc, that can make delicious dishes without gluten.

If, on the other hand, he does not improve on the GF diet, then it might be that he is allergic to something else, either in place of or in addition to the gluten. In that case, you can do an elimination diet. Find several hypoallergenic foods, as few as possible, but make sure you get a balance of basic nutrients (ie, enough protein–add olive & flax seed oils if the diet is too low in fat). Keep him on that simple diet for at least 3-4 weeks. If the symptoms disappear, then start adding in foods one at a time, 2-3 days apart, and watch for symptoms. This is very hard to do, but it is the only reliable way to test for allergies on your own. Things you should add last would be nightshade (potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, etc), citrus, and glutenous grains.

There is also a blood test you can do that is fairly reliable (probably not as much as the skin test, but it can help). Ask your doctor to do an IgE blood allergy test. It requires a simple blood draw, and they can test for anything you want if the doctor is willing to authorize it. He will get an IgE score–if it’s over 100, then he definitely has allergies. They test for basic things, such as grains, meat, oranges, lettuce, some nuts, and so on. About 20 things. If you suspect other things, you can ask them to add them to the list.

Hope that gives you some ideas. Please keep in mind that I am not a doctor, just a mother, and it would be a good idea to run anything you do by your doctor. Also, I would suggest you check out my other blog, http://mybabyhaseczema.com. I know your son isn’t a baby now, but some of the information might be relevant still (such as the Renew lotion–you should look into getting some, as well as the other Renew products).