Symptoms

Every time I sit down to write more about our experiences, dozens and dozens of examples of behavior and health problems Luke experienced come to mind and it’s hard to quell the desire to talk about them all at once. I think of him dissolving into tears on shopping trips, hitting other kids for no reason, getting up and down from his chair over and over again during supper. His inability to fall asleep, his repeated stomach and headaches, his incessant talking and singing.

Imagines of him bubble up: Luke lying in bed, his feet repeatedly walking up the wall, unable to control his wiggly legs. Luke crouched into a little ball, face into the corner of his closet, refusing to come out. The flat, angry, defiant look he would sometimes give me when I would think, “He doesn’t even look like himself!” Luke starting a meal sitting up and talking normally, and ending it sitting upside down in the chair, his feet up in the air, babbling.

But all those disturbing images are interspersed with reminders of the real Lukas; a loving, funny, cheerful little boy who as a preschooler loved to sing and play pretend, hugged his friends and family liberally, and was kind to our dog.

He was a snuggler who loved to be read to, a smart kid with a sunny smile and a bright and cheerful personality.

And he still is! :-)

As I look back, there were many signs of food allergy which I and our pediatrician just did not recognize. Here’s a list of the symptoms Luke showed, to different degrees and sometimes appearing at different times. I’d like to describe them all in better detail in upcoming posts.

This is not a complete list of possible symptoms of food allergy. I hope to provide some links to those in the future, too, or I'd recommend the book Is This Your Child? by Doris Rapp, M.D.

Luke's physical symptoms:

Rash on his face and hips
Stomach aches
Headaches
Leg aches
Circles under his eyes
Diarrhea
Red ears and cheeks
Inability to stand socks with seams, snug shoes, shirt tucked in, or any kind of slight tightness or discomfort with his clothes.

Luke's behavioral symptoms:

Hyperactivity
Inability to control his impulses
Sleep problems - difficulty falling asleep and nighttime waking
Frustration
Aggression
Nonstop talking and singing, noise-making
Fatigue
Hiding on the floor, under tables, behind chairs

I read the list back to myself today and wonder how we ever got through all this! Some of the issues date back to when he was a baby, and they just accumulated and got worse over time. Like the frog in the water that slowly builds to a boil, the water got warmer and warmer without us realizing it.

Before you wonder why we let this go on so long, be assured I took Luke to the doctor. Multiple times. Multiple doctors. No one ever suggested food allergies.


Fall seven times, stand up eight. ~Japanese Proverb