FOOD INTOLERANCE NETWORK
FACTSHEET
How
to start failsafe eating: a step by step guide
A lot of
families see a big change just by cutting down:
§
Switch to preservative
free bread – Brumbys or Bakers Delight plain breads are the safest.
§
Water is the best drink, it can be filtered, bottled, spring, mineral or
soda water – and tap water if it tastes okay - but not soft drinks, cordial or
juice. As an occasional treat you can make magic cordial (see the Failsafe
Booklet).
§
Avoid
nasty additives, especially artificial colours, preservatives, flavour
enhancers.
§
You might
like to cut down on salicylates by avoiding broccoli, citrus, tomatoes,
grapes and their products.
§
Use the recipes
in the Failsafe Booklet or Friendly Food.
If this
doesn’t help, or if you are desperate, it is best to do the full diet. There is
a huge gap between avoiding food additives and doing a low salicylate, low
amine elimination diet. Like most mothers, when I first saw the dietitians’
booklet, I thought ‘this is too hard!’ The whole point about elimination diets
is to get them right, so you have to stick strictly to the foods in the
shopping list. The key is to be well prepared.
1. Check
with your doctor that there is not some other cause for your problems. For
example, children with significant hearing loss or painful dental decay can
sometimes appear to have ADHD.
2. The
diet that was a magic answer for us is called the Simplified Elimination Diet
from Royal Prince Alfred Hospital Allergy Clinic in
3. If
weight loss is a problem especially for children, weigh your child and
record the weight once a week. If a skinny child loses weight, ask your
dietitian about caloric supplements such as Polycose or stop the diet.
Medication for ADHD is a common cause of poor appetite and stunted growth. It
is easiest to start this diet with your child unmedicated if possible. Families
of medicated children often start during school - and drug - holidays.
4. Decide
how many foods you will exclude. This is the hard part. If you don't
exclude enough food chemicals, the diet won't work. If you exclude everything
from the start, the diet might be unnecessarily difficult.
§
For most
people, the best place to start is failsafe
(free of additives, low in salicylates, amines and flavour enhancers) and now
that A2 milk is available, it is easy to switch to that too. Most of the
recipes are failsafe with dairy and gluten free options. Moderate salicylates
and amines in recipes are listed as options and avoided during the elimination
stage.
§
If you
have any reason to suspect dairy foods
– pale face, dark circles under eyes, stuffy or runny nose, breathes through
mouth, constant throat clearing, another family member reacts to milk, problems
with milk as a baby, frequent ear infections, grommets, would live on milk if
you let him/her, drinks litres of milk a day, or hates milk, see point 27
below.
§
For autism, severe symptoms or if there is a
family member with coeliac disease,
see point 27 below.
§
For severe
symptoms including autism and chronic fatigue syndrome, you may have to work
especially hard at avoiding environmental
chemicals, see point 24 below.
5. Read
the shopping list in the Failsafe Booklet or the food lists in your
dietitians’ booklet.
6. Check
Product Updates on the website, in case manufacturers have changed
ingredients. This happens frequently.
7. Establish
a failsafe house by eating or giving away all the unsuitable food in your
kitchen. It is best for the whole family to do the diet for support. It is
common for fathers to refuse to do this, but at least they can appear to
support the diet while at home. Children who are expected to stick to this diet
while others at home eat tempting foods beside them will very reasonably sneak
food or money.
8. Negotiate
incentives with your child - 'what's this worth to you?'. Daily credit
points and weekly rewards with a bonus after three weeks are better than one
big bribe. Ask for the support of your partner and anyone else in the
household.
9. Mark
D-day - diet day - on your calendar, preferably on a Monday. You might want
to wait until a special occasion, birthday party or school camp is out of the
way.
10. Using
the recipes and sample menus in the Failsafe Booklet, any of my books, or
Friendly Food, draw up a week's menu plan, including snacks, which you
feel is workable for your family. It doesn't have to include a lot of variety.
There might be a lot of home made chicken and chips at first. In the first
three weeks, you just want to get rid of food chemicals and cravings.
11. Go
shopping. Take a list of the ingredients you need for your recipes and the
shopping list for other ideas. Keep an Additives to Avoid card in your wallet.
The first failsafe shop will be time consuming while you read labels, after
that it will be quicker and cheaper than usual.
12. Try
out some recipes before you get to D-day.
For children, cook and freeze some meals and treats such as failsafe
mince, pear muffins and biscuits. Have magic cordial, pear jam and icypoles
ready.
13. Rate
your child’s behaviour on the checklist in the Failsafe Booklet or draw up
a list of the behaviours which you would most like to see change on the diet
(for example, won't go to bed, argues with sibling, refuses to do chores,
refuses to do homework, low reading ability) so that you have a starting point
from which to measure your progress.
14. On
D-day, start the diet.
15. Join
the mailing list so you can get newsletter updates about product changes,
recipes and inspiration. You might also like to join a failsafe email
discussion group so you can hear from others who are also doing the diet, or
failsafe products in your area. (Send an email with "subscribe" in
the subject line to failsafe_newsletter-subscribe@yahoogroups.com).
16. Keep
a diary of everything that goes in the mouth or on the skin (foods,
toothpaste, medications). Record any behaviour, learning and health problems
during the diet. It is easier to see effects when looking back. Note any
positive behaviours, such as 'fed dog without being asked', 'went to bed
without arguing'. After the diet, keep your diary in a safe place.
17. Expect
withdrawal symptoms within the first two weeks, often on days four and
five. These can be feeling tearful and overwhelmed, strong food cravings,
irritability and the same symptoms you had before you started the diet, but can
also include flu, mouth ulcers and other physical symptoms. You can minimise
withdrawal symptoms by reducing additives over a few weeks before the full diet
and don't binge on fruit and takeaways - the way we did - the weekend before
starting.
18. Read
the Checklist of Common Mistakes on the website many times. There are many
foods allowed on the dietitians’ lists that affect our family and other
failsafers, so your diet might need fine-tuning. If there is no improvement
after two weeks, ask your dietitian, failsafe contact or email group or write
to suedengate@ozemail.com.au for
help. Some children improve within days, others improve slowly, going through
the second week blahs and only coming good in the middle of the third week.
Success is the greatest motivator. Families who see huge improvements are
highly motivated to continue, so it is worth getting the diet right.
19. Give
your child extra love, hugs and time. Children cannot be punished into
sticking to this diet. Set a good example yourself by sticking to the diet and
praise your child often for sticking to it too. Encourage positivity. Laughter
therapy really works so be sure to have fun such as family nights with a comedy
video, or go through family photo albums and remember the good times.
20. Rate
your progress after three weeks. At first, most people can hardly wait to
start challenges. In my experience, people who do best in the long term are the
ones who take an extra week or two to settle into the diet, so it’s best to
stick to the diet strictly for at least three weeks for behaviour, although
skin rashes and chronic fatigue may take longer.
21. You
are ready to start challenges when you have completed at least three
weeks of the diet including a week without symptoms. It’s okay to take a few
more weeks to enjoy family harmony before embarking on challenges. People with
asthma or suicidal feelings must be
supervised by an experienced dietitian. If there is no improvement after six
weeks, do the challenges anyway because some people are best able to notice
effects through challenges. Talk to other people in your email support group
and read the Challenges section of the Checklist of Common Mistakes because it
is easy to make mistakes.
22. As the
diet kicks in and your child becomes more amenable to discipline, establish
a behaviour management program in your household. I have found that
23. When
you have learned which foods affect you and established a new food routine, go
back to your dietitian and have your nutrition checked if you are
avoiding gluten or salicylates and dairy foods especially in a very young
child.
24. Food
chemical sensitivity varies depending on the total load to which we are exposed.
Environmental chemicals, stress, lack of sleep, illness and hormones can all
contribute. Avoid unnecessary chemicals including aerosols; house
renovation solvents, glues and paints; new furniture, and pesticides, perfumed
household cleaners, sunblock and personal care products, see shopping list for
alternatives. This is important for everyone but even more so for people with
eczema, autism and CFS. Allow time for exercise, sleep and relaxation.
25. Most
children like to eat some fatty and sugary foods while being weaned off nasty
food chemicals and takeaways. As your child's tastes settle down, reduce the
intake of fats and sugars, and eat more failsafe vegetables, see Hide
the Vegetables in the Failsafe Booklet.
26. It is
not necessary to avoid sugar. Many people think that sugar causes
children’s behaviour problems, but it doesn’t. Food chemicals in with the sugar
- such as artificial colours or salicylates in mint and fruit flavours - are
most likely to be the cause of bad behaviour. Although salicylate-induced
hypoglycemia was first described in a medical journal decades ago, most people
are still unaware that salicylates in healthy food like fruit and vegetables
can actually cause sugar cravings and hypoglycemic symptoms in some people.
Home-made toffees and caramels from natural ingredients are some of the safest
lollies for children. About 95 per cent of the confectionery in Australian
supermarkets contains artificial colours and most of the rest contain
salicylates, for example in mint flavouring. You can buy failsafe lollies for
children from www.smashi.com and www.sweettreats.com.au. A word of
warning though, sugar lacks essential nutrients, contributes to obesity and is
bad for teeth so it is best limited and eaten as part of a balanced meal. Save
lollies for special treats.
27. Avoiding
milk and wheat
Statistically
speaking, additives and salicylates are most likely to be the cause of your
problems. However, milk can be a problem for many and the introduction of A2
milk (www.A2australia.com.au) has
made life much easier for people with food intolerance. It is worth switching
to A2 from the beginning because along additive-free bread, it is the easiest
of all diet changes to make.
• Avoiding
Dairy Foods
As well as
avoiding milk, you need to avoid yoghurt, skim milk powder in bread and
biscuits, icecream, cheese, cream and
butter in that order of importance, where milk, yoghurt and milk powder are the
most important. Alternatives include soymilk or ricemilk - and Nuttelex
margarine - see shopping list. None of these are suitable for infant feeding.
Babies
need breastmilk or baby formula and there are special formulas such as Neocate
for babies with food intolerance available by prescription only. See our
lactation consultant listed under local contacts or ask others on the
failsafebaby group for more information. Some dietitians say that people who
improve on A2 milk will do better on soy or ricemilk, but many families find it
easier to switch to A2 milk first, then switch to soy or ricemilk after a few
weeks if necessary.
Some other
soy issues: some people are affected by soymilk as well as cows milk;
ingredients change constantly in soymilks and you can be caught by a
non-failsafe ingredient, see Checklist of Common Mistakes, and some people
worry about possible gender ambiguity effects of phytoestrogens in soymilks in
infants and young children. For people avoiding dairy foods, it is probably a
good idea to break your diet with small regular amounts of dairy foods such as
weekly yoghurt to maintain your lactose tolerance.
• Avoiding
Wheat or Gluten
It’s
probably best not to start gluten free unless there's a very good reason such
as out of control symptoms, you really want to and you know what you are doing.
Suspect coeliac disease if there is a coeliac in the family or a family
history of short stature, insulin dependent diabetes, unexplained anemia,
osteoporosis, alopecia areata (patchy baldness) or male or female infertility.
If coeliac disease is a possibility, a blood test is recommended first because
the test only works while you are eating wheat. You don’t have to be a coeliac
to be affected by gluten, but statistically speaking, gluten is less likely to
cause problems than additives, salicylates or amines.
Reversible
gluten intolerance can be induced by antibiotics or gastrointestinal
infections. Many people mistakenly think they are sensitive to wheat when it is
really the bread preservative that affects them. Going wheat free or especially
gluten free is difficult and can lead to mistakes. Sulphite preservatives in
commercial gluten free flours can be a problem and some coeliacs develop asthma
or eczema for the first time when they go gluten free. It is much harder to go
gluten free and low sulphite. Except for autism or if your dietitian recommends
it, most people find it easiest to leave wheat or gluten avoidance for a few
weeks until they are settled into the diet. By then many children will have
improved so much it will be obvious they don’t need to worry about avoiding
wheat or gluten.
www.fedupwithfoodadditives.info
The information given is not intended as medical advice. Always consult
with your doctor for underlying illness. Before beginning dietary
investigation, consult a dietician with an interest in food intolerance.
Update June 2006
