Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Twice Exceptional New here. I think my 7 YO, PG son has Asperger's

Cathy A... I can't even get my in-laws to treat my son's or my allergies seriously! (fifteen years of watching everyone else eat Thanksgiving dinner!) We are allergic to wheat, corn, eggs, dairy, and soy. My son also appears to have a latex allergy. I've all but given up on complete strangers, or even people who should pay attention like school officials. Most glue, paint, tape, modeling clay (almost all art supplies!) have either wheat or corn in them, and I keep going round and round with school administrators and teachers about it. So I completely understand as well!

I've even gone round and round with doctors who tell me that true dairy allergy is very rare and that my other allergies to anything in the garlic family are just sensitivities. But I've learn that if I'm exposed to something and start to have a reaction, then taking Benadryl stops it immediately. It has to be an allergic reaction if an anti-histamine blocks it.

My point was that "gifted kids can be misdiagnosed because they have an allergic reaction that results in them being distractible, having high activity levels, showing temper tantrums, or being impulsive." I realize that this is in a different league from anaphylactic shock, but it may be a concern to others here. True allergic reactions can cause bizarre behaviors in some people. I witnessed this today in fact when my son came home from day camp with a rash across his face and in an extremely impulsive, aggressive mood. All from playing with play-do. An hour after taking benadryl, the rash was gone and he was back to his sweet little self.

And from the point of view of watching everything my DS8 (today is his birthday) eats and knowing that he can't eat at restaurants or treats at school (and cooking everything from scratch... try making a wheat-free, egg-free, dairy-free birthday cake that an eight year old will eat), then I feel your pain. Allergies just come in all shapes and sizes.

Oh, boy... I've had the same conversation with my DD's pediatrician. Even though her first bite of dairy containing food caused facial swelling, hives, screaming and vomiting (she was 5 months old) he told me that "true dairy allergies are very rare." And advised me to try feeding it to her again in a couple of weeks. Well, I was afraid to try! After seeing her claw at her gums until they bled, I just couldn't bring myself to do it. I took her to an allergist for a second opinion. And yes, she tested positive for dairy, egg and peanut.

Ever since then, when a doctor tells me, "It's not X because X is very rare," I am immediately suspicious. It's really not a good argument for eliminating a diagnosis.

I get the same question all the time re: DS4's dairy allergy, "so, he's lactose intolerant?" At least when people ask, I have the chance to try to explain the difference between a true allergy and lactose intolerance.

Speaking of allergy, I had an interesting conversation with DS's pediatric allergist last week. I tried to discreetly get info about why HG children have high incidence of allergy (I wrote the question in a letter and asked her to email me), but she started talking about it anyway. So much for not using the "g" word in front of DS4!

I'm really going to be paraphrasing here, because DS4's asynchronous development was running high in the doc's office, but I tried to pay attention. So, she talked about how there's probably not a cause and effect situation re: allergy and giftedness, but rather how it's just one of many factors, and a combo of nature and nurture. She talked about how there is virtually no incidence of allergy in poor, underdeveloped countries (but they have other things to worry about, such as parasites, etc).

I also did a little PSA, and gave her the link to the SENG brochure (in spite of drawbacks mentioned on another post), because it does say what docs can do to help in identification. I said that it would be helpful if parents found out about giftedness issues before school, and pediatricians might be a good resource. I acknowledged that giftedness sometimes isn't the easiest thing to notice, since my 4-year-old was defintely in fine 4-year-old form that day!

But the most wonderful thing she said was that she thought gifted kids got short-changed in schools. Yay for DS4's doc!

Parasites aren't all bad!!! Parasites set up an immunosuppressive environment in the gut hence very low incidence of IBD, Crohn's disease and asthma in 3rd world countries. Also, our clean hygiene results in a relatively naive immune system which in it's quest to find antigens to react against, end up finding dust mites, food antigens to react against.

Perhaps the link is correlative ... parents with higher IQs, being more knowledgeable/persistent in good hygiene, pass this on to their kids hence an increase in asthma in this population.

I never forget the look on my friend's face when my baby's pacifier fell on the floor and I gave it back to him. She commented "you're not going to sterilize that?" I said, "No, that's what immune systems are for." Ha Ha Ha. Now, I should add that it was in my own house and he was over 6months old. When they are very little, I am more careful about what goes in their mouth.

He is adorable and its wonderful. He clearly plays to his audience and I love his facial expressions.

My guess is that when he tries to talk to his peers, like he does on this video, he gets a blank look back from them as if he is speaking Greek to them, which he is. So he does not play to that audience anymore.

In Fencing class, its something that he does that is on the same level of the others and hence he can relate with them.

His size may just be related to his intensity levels and his posture to the same reason.

What a happy, loving son!

Latest research shows allergies are caused by introducing solid foods too early. Our Ped. is adamant about this.

Since GT kids are advanced, it would be very easy to start giving them stuff too early.

Jr wants what we are eating and its hard not to give him some when he grabs the fork from our hands and ignores his spoon.

All three of my kids could not tolerate any cow's milk in my diet. The pedi told me, w/ my 1st son who also got eczema when I had dairy, no solid food until 6months. Fortunately, I wasn't living near family and I had caller ID to ignore the phone calls b/c everyone thought I was starving the child to death by not giving solid food. The kid was gaining weight on his growth curve, was fat and chubby and healthy. Even after 2 healthy kids, my mom keeps telling me not to starve DD. Sigh.....family..gotta love them.

However, I had friends who had kids that were so ravenous, they were on solid foods at 8weeks....and I mean JARS of food at a sitting. I would just stare with mouth agape. I think if that's the case, just be mindful of the least allergenic foods.

I don't think this is true in all cases. My kids showed symptoms of food allergy from early infancy. They reacted to proteins that were passed into my breastmilk from foods that I ate. I think the jury is still out on the causes of food allergies.

As in anything, there are multiple causes. DH was telling me that peanut allergy is rare in some country (India?) and they feed the babies peanut containing foods from infancy. Cause or correlation?

I think there was a study that babies can be sensitized to peanuts in utero so if there is a family history, you should abstain from peanuts/nuts during pregnancy.

the immune system randomly rearranges gene segments to produce your repertoire of antigens you can respond to. My theory is that if you are exposed to an antigen when the immune system is naive, those immune cells are a larger proportion of the repertoire and therefore might increase allergy to that antigen. But if the food is given later, when the immune system has setup adequate tolerance measures in the gut, when those same antigenic foods are eaten, the immune system will not react to it as readily b/c those sells will be a significantly smaller proportion of the repertoire due to all the other antigens the child has been exposed to. Every time an antigen is encountered, the immune system expands the cells reactive to that antigen. Hence, allergic reactions get worse upon subsequent exposure b/c more cells are responding and responding more vehemently. the only explanation for kids who went into shock after eating nuts for the first time was that they were sensitized in utero. It has seen been shown that babies in utero can mount an immune response to vaccines given to the mother if given during pregnancy.

Julie:

If you are still following the discussion under your topic, I wanted to mention that we have had concerns about our DS that sound similar to yours, and I've been very concerned at times about AS, Defiance Disorder, and a couple of others.

If you have not already considered it, we found a therapy approach using floor play therapy, as outlined by Stanley Greenspan, et. al., in THE CHILD WITH SPECIAL NEEDS: ENCOURAGING INTELLECTUAL AND EMOTIONAL GROWTH to be effective. With a small amount of outside therapy I feel that we have opened the lines of emotional communication between us and DS quite dramatically, and thus laid the foundation for him to build up relationships with others. His capacity to handle varied and complex social situations has grown impressively in the past few months. If you're interested in hearing more, please send me a private message.