Pls help! Toddler food intolerance

Hi Roxrox, I saw your thread a few days ago but haven't had time to reply before. I was in a similar situation as you when my LO was 18 months. She had red spots around her mouth, she sometimes had dark patches under her eyes and her weight growth was slow and the paediatrician ordered the food allergy test. The results showed that she was allergic to all gluten, so wheat, oat, barley like for your daughter and also lactose. I, however, was more naive than you and didn't question the doc or the results. He was the doctor, he knew what he was talking about. What test have you had done? For us, it was a blood test and we had results on 300 different foods with level of allergies ranging from 1 (mild) to 4 (severe). And gluten and lactose appeared as 4. The book going with the tests advised stopping the level 4 foods for a year. So we did and swapped dairy milk to soya and rice milk, and pasta to rice, quinoa etc. 10 months later, I saw a dermatologist for a completely different matter and her 1st question was to ask why my daughter had dark patches under her eyes. I talked about the allergies and she asked me about the test. She told me that the test was no proof of allergy and that basically it was just a money-making thing. So I googled the name of the test and discovered that the test looks for some antibody in the blood in reaction to some foods but that there are no proof that the presence of the antibody is a sign of allergy. I don't know if the test you have had done are the same but it is worth getting a 2nd opinion. I have then met dr Ursula Rolef at Health Bay Polyclinic for a consult and she told me about symptoms of allergies. Then I saw dr Kathryn Foehe at the Children's medical centre upon a friend's recommandation. We had different tests done and they all came back negative. In the mean time, after the 1 year gap, I had re-introduced lactose and gluten and my daughter was fine. She is now nearly 4 years old and she still has dark patches under her eyes at times, when she is tired and she is still a skinny little thing but my mum has kept telling me that I was the same at her age so... I hope this helps <em>edited by French Nath on 05/09/2013</em>