One year after diagnosis

So, we got Sasha's latest RAST blood test results a few months ago - mid July in fact. I was pretty nervous as soon as they had her blood despite feeling quite confident in the weeks leading up to it, but then all of a sudden I began to doubt it would be good news. However her results were fantastic.

I don't have the actual numbers in front of me but I do know that in just under 12 months, her dairy allergy went from 100+ down to 12, her egg allergy went from around 10 to just under 2 and the peanut was around 4.5 down to 0.2 or something, low enough to be a zero score on paper.

So that was pretty incredible really and I sat stunned for several minutes afterwards! We booked Sash in for a baked egg challenge at the specialist's office for around 3 weeks after those blood test results and she passed - yay! In fact, about two weeks ago, I trialled her on scrambled/fried eggs based on a gut feeling and she appears to be tolerating those just fine also. We're still avoiding tree nuts for now (almonds, walnuts etc) as well as seafood for her. Last time I gave her a piece of salmon sushi she came out in hives on her face for the first time ever, so she won't be having fish for a little while but I still have it from time to time and she doesn't appear to react to it via breast milk.

This is what I wrote on my personal facebook page not so long ago to sum up where we were at:
"Just taking a second to blow our trumpets here so bear with me... Just under a year ago, almost to the week, I was sitting in a specialists office with an eczema covered, failure to thrive baby being told she had severe multiple food allergies and it would take 5-10 years to outgrow them. After persevering with breastfeeding while also embarking on a fairly restrictive healing diet, today I'm pretty stoked to say both Sasha and I had a fried egg for breakfast, that her milk scores have reduced by almost 90% and her peanut allergy is currently at zero although it's still yet to be challenged... she loves food and eating and is active and lively and has a very healthy size puku (tummy for non-New Zealanders). So even if we still have a few backward steps because our allergy journey isn't over yet, we've made fantastic progress in under a year and I just wanted to share that with everyone because I'm pretty damn proud of us, including my husband who does some pretty long hours so that I can buy the food we need, and has been as supportive of this as anyone could ever expect. " 

The support was really cool to read, so thank you to anyone who commented with their encouragement!

Am currently contemplating going grain-free as much as possible, so pretty much doing paleo but without fish or treenuts (will review this in a few months) so currently running down all the grains in our rice. I think I'll keep rice noodles for her because they're just so slurp-tastically fun for her to eat. Plus I'll probably still have sushi and a bagel from time to time - just less of the stuff on a day to day basis.

Next on the list is study online to become a food coach/mentor to help other families transition to a completely new way of eating, especially for those dealing with allergies or intolerances - quite excited really.

I've also started a Facebook group called "Healing Food Allergies... Naturally" if anyone is interested in joining! Just a place to chat and share stories or ask questions where natural options and healing via nutrition are safe topics and everyone feels supported :)