During March and April, John's behavior grew steadily worse, and as if in confirmation, Mary's asthma returned with a vengeance. We had to administer Benadryl twice daily, and apply heating pads at bed time. This was a horrible setback for our family. Obviously we were doing something wrong with both kids, but what?
I thought about the foods we had eaten over the past couple weeks, but nothing jumped out at me. As far as their diet was concerned, April looked just like March, which looked like February. I started to think about spring pollen, then deliberately pushed the thought from my mind. I reviewed the food journals again. Back in February I tested the kids on wheat, a little pasta every other day, and didn't see any reaction. I continued this through March and into April. Could this be a slow buildup? I'd read about this in books, but found it hard to believe. There was only one way to find out. I stopped serving wheat and saw no change for several days. Eventually Mary's asthma subsided, and was completely gone in ten days. John's behavior also improved over the same period. This illustrates just how subtle foods can be. If your child is having a reaction, it may not be the last meal, or even what he ate yesterday. It might be the aggregate of foods that were eaten during the past week. And once you eliminate the troublesome foods, you might not see an improvement for another week or two. I now realize that a food challenge can take a month; hence we can only test a few foods per year. This is a very slow process, characterized by "3 steps forward and 2.8 steps back."