Why your child may not have a food intolerance, after all

Or why I'm learning that everything I've thought was true may be wrong.

I want to start by saying that none of this detergent business will ever change my opinion that the only foods we were ever meant to consume are the ones straight from the earth and not chemically or genetically altered by man. For me, that's a common sense issue. Our bodies were created in an amazing way, and regardless of your beliefs, it's hard to deny that for all of time, we've been eating food, and then suddenly, in the last 5 decades or so, we've begun to eat food-like products. Perhaps someday we'll evolve to eat these products without harm, because our bodies are amazing and adaptable. But we know that evolution takes a long time, so as for me and my family, we're sticking with foods that we know our body recognizes as food. We have far too many diet-related diseases these days to even attempt to make the argument that the Standard American Diet is good for anyone. The only argument that seems legit is that it's worth it to continue to eat the Standard American Diet, regardless of side effects, because, like smoking, they often take a long time to manifest and it's hard as a species to discontinue pleasure now because of something we are at an increased chance of experiencing down the road. Look at how long it took for smoking to became more uncommon (but it certainly still exists!). Even I stop at McDonald's sometimes, get Starbucks when I'm out shopping, eat chocolate chip cookies. Because I find a way to convince myself that the side effects from the food-like products are worth the satisfaction of eating them (or the ease of preparing processed foods, or the decreased cost of buying them, etc., we all have our own justifications and only you know if it's truly worth it).

However, this detergent discovery has really changed my thoughts on food sensitivities. A.J. Lumsdaine, the author of Solveevzema.org, said this in an article I read:

"Eczema in babies is often blamed on food allergy, but A.J. knew from her chemistry lab days how hard it is to wash chemical residue from glass or plastic containers. She suspected some of her son’s apparent allergies were actually a reaction to detergent. When he first began eating solid foods, he seemed to be allergic to everything. For instance, he broke out in a rash after eating plain rice porridge A.J. had cooked herself. However, when she switched to soap-based dishwashing cleanser and washed away the detergent residue on the rice cooker, the baby began to eat her home-cooked porridge happily with no reaction. Store-bought foods were also a problem for him. “Many processed foods, especially produce that has to be washed as part of the processing, seem to contain enough traces of detergents to give our son contact eczema,” A.J. says. “It’s interesting to note that many of the foods people think of as causing eczema are also ones likely to accumulate detergent residue from processing, such as eggs and some dairy."

Just a few weeks ago, I was lamenting the fact that Landon appears to be allergic to every food. It's been a rare meal that I've sat him down to where he hasn't started violently scratching his face to the point of a blood-soaked bib. Inside, I was frantic. The idea of having a child who is allergic to almost every food rocked me to my core, and I was terrified. It seemed as though each child was becoming more and more allergic than the one before. Ben is allergic to peanuts (this is a true allergy which has been confirmed with IgE levels), Adalyn appeared to be allergic to all sorts of things though I hadn't been able to specifically pinpoint them and Landon? Well, he was pretty much allergic to every food I'd tried. Or so I thought.

Just two weeks ago we visited an allergist and were contemplating whether or not to run all the tests he had ordered for Adalyn (which we knew would set us back a couple thousand dollars and cause her quite a bit of pain and discomfort and the results of those tests are never accurate). I've seen enough difference now in just a few short days that like I said yesterday, I'm pretty confident I can declare this a reaction to detergent. And since washing our dishes in Dr. Bronner's diluted in water, Landon hasn't had one meal episode of intense face scratching. He's been eating the foods I've given him without incident. As has Adalyn, who also often appeared to turn red all around her mouth and began scratching after many meals. Because of that, I'd declared her "sensitive" to citrus, tomatoes, dairy, melons, wheat, the list goes on. That poor child was eating just a handful of foods because I was certain she was allergic to everything.

That's not to say there won't still be an element of food sensitivity to her or Landon's eczema. But my theory is that eczema causes a weakened immune system (which is why my kids are ALWAYS sick), and a weakened immune system can contribute to the body's inability to process certain foods. Totally my theory, but I'm so curious to see if once their skin clears up, they stop getting sick every single week and they begin to be able to tolerate any food I give them.

Truth be told, it would be much easier for my children to have a food intolerance than a detergent intolerance. Much. But if that's not the reality of the situation, it does me no good to keep on assuming it's a food intolerance when nothing I've eliminated has worked for them. The health world is so inundated with claims that we are now allergic to everything that it's become ingrained in my psyche that my children must have food intolerances.

This detergent thing is rocking my world, though. Could it be possible that what we have grown to believe is widespread increases in food intolerance (not allergies, which are testable) are actually a widespread reaction to chemicals (detergent)? It's not that crazy a theory, right? Maybe our gut issues are actually coming from detergents. The majority of our immune system is in our gut. It could of course all be coincidence, but for the first time since I can remember, Adalyn has had two days of zero digestion issues. I won't elaborate further, but she has been plagued with tummy issues for as long as I can remember, which got much worse after her one round of antibiotics in December. Last night I was talking with my husband about it, and was like, "There's no way it could be from the detergent," but he reminded me that our immune system is in our gut, and as A.J. noted above, this detergent is getting into the gut at each meal via the dishes we eat on and the washing of the equipment used during processing. It could be just as likely that it's the detergent our bodies are reacting to as it is the food. Detergent is naturally irritating to skin, albeit for some people, not enough to notice, so it doesn't seem too far-fetched to assume it is also irritating inside of our bodies.

Like I said above, it's easier to eliminate a food, or a food group, than it is to avoid detergents, which are everywhere. And it breaks my heart, because what does this mean for my children...for our family? My parents are coming this weekend, and we are going to great lengths to assure they don't bring their detergent with them. We're buying scrubs that they can wear while they're in our home, which I will be superwashing before they get here. They'll have to shower in Dr. Bronner's before coming over and will be using our toothpaste while here. My mom has to wash her face and they have to leave their shoes in our garage. Even their luggage can't come in. How sad is that?

While it's easy to make a peanut-free bubble for Ben because there has been so much mainstream attention surrounding the peanut allergy epidemic, will I live to see a day when science recognizes that detergent is harmful to the health of everyone and it will be systematically removed? Or will this just be something my kids deal with for life. Will we have to refrain from having playdates at our house forever? What does this mean for our family? The questions are flooding in now, and I'm overwhelmed, but all the work in the world is nothing for my sweet babies. As long as they are without pain, it's all worth it.