Test for sensitivities besides elimination diet?

amother

Ivory

Fri, May 01 2015, 1:35 am

I suspect that food may be playing a role in my child's behavior difficulties. There are a lot of ups and downs, something must be triggering it on or off. But I haven't noticed any clear patterns and a full elimination diet is too overwhelming for me right now. We already strongly limit artificial colorings, additives, and sugars so I don't think that's it. It is not an allergy because this child has other allergies so has been extensively tested for just about any possible food allergy. It is something more subtle than that.

Is there any way to test for this besides going on an elimination diet? I think it is too overwhelming for me to pull off. Especially since this child goes to school (which serves lunches and snacks, bringing from home is not an option) and it is so hard to control what is going on there, they already need to adjust for the allergies so I feel like I can't ask for even more favors until something is confirmed. Plus because of all the hours in school it is hard for me to keep track of how the behaviors would be after different foods anyway. I work by necessity so taking time off school to do this is not an option.

Are there blood tests or skin tests or something that can tell you if a kid is likely having behavioral reactions to dairy/gluten/somethingelse? Please not a quack who is going to do a "test" and then just tell me to eliminate everything. It is clearly something specific because this isn't happening all the time. If it were everything then it would be happening a lot more often.

smss

Fri, May 01 2015, 2:39 am

you can get a blood test done for celiac, but that won't reveal non-celiac gluten sensitivity. there is a test called the (I think?) cyrex array something-or-other that tests for gluten sensitivity, but it's expensive. I have heard from several doctors that the absolute most reliable method is to eliminate the food for 1 month (some say) to 3 months (others say) and see what happens.