Fructose intolerance and dust mite allergy

[sharon]

My son has just had the breath test which was positive. He also has a very high IgE for house dust mite. There seems to be a cross reaction in that if he eats foods with fructose and is in a dust mite environment his symptoms are far worse - stomach pains, reflux, tight chest, asthma, excessive sleepiness, dizzy etc. It's early days as have only just started low fructose diet but it seems that the tiniest amount of veg causes problems. Anyone else with similar issues?

[charlie]

Hi Sharon, welcome to the board, glad you found it. Hope things start looking up from here. Yes, many on this board react to the tiniest amount of veg and fruits so ignore any dietitian advice that lists safe ones, the more you eliminate at this stage the better the improvement your son will have.

we don't have asthma symptoms but do have other problems go on and they are always worse when meg is having a fructose reaction so it is highly possible that the fructose makes his body hypersensative to other triggers. It will be interesting to see if it improves by changing his diet.

Good luck

Charlie

[ukbill]

I would like to offer my welcome too.. ask anything you like.

We will do our best to answer.

Charlie has it right I think.

[sharon]

Thanks both appreciate that. Things going well at the moment and dust mite allergy no where near as bad as it was so think you are right with the sensitivity aspect. I might be being a bit thick here but has pea starch got fructose in it?

[charlie]

Umm, I don't know, peas would have fructose but never heard of pea starch. Try the nutritiondata.com website, that great for breakdown of foods

[ukbill]

Pea starch is a new one on me.

I react to whole Corn (maize) and to peas and most potatoes (depending on cooking method)

However I don't react to Corn Starch (Corn Flour thickener) or Potato Flour (potato starch)

I know whole wheat and whole grains in general contain a small percentage of Fructose and Wheat Germ is an "Avoid" for us HFI

So the milling process extracts the part of the grain that contains Fructose would it do the same for Peas? Not sure on that one.

However just how much are you going to give of this? If its being used as a thickener in say a gravy then the few grams of pea starch added will do no real harm I would think.

Assuming we are talking about a "normal HFI" and not a "super HFI"

Just had further thought.. The peas used to make the Pea Starch are unlikely to be the normal Green peas you and I are used to seeing on your plate.

These varieties are far too lower yielding to be used in food processing.

There are many varieties of Pea and many are horrible to taste (raw out of the field) but are used in the food processing industry. Anyone else had a "Marrowfat" pea straight out of the field? YUK!

They are used in tinned Peas and in Mushy Peas (still too sweet for me though) Marrowfat Peas are very pleasant compared to the yet higher yielding varieties..

They are far lower in sugar but far higher yielding than normal "garden" peas to the tune of about 4 x the tonnage per acre / hectare.

I'll bet any money these are what will be used to produce Pea Starch so I think it will be safe (ish)

[hfimomof3]

It sounds like he might have food allergies in addition to HFI. Tight chest, asthma, that does'nt sound like HFI.Have you considered food allergies? You might keep a food diary to figure out if he is allergic to something he is eating. Do you have an allergist? He might even be anaphylactic to something. Aren't peas in the legume family? Some people are very allergic to legumes. If he has both HFI and food allergies then it will be tricky to figure out what is going on. Go to this board for more info on possible food allergies:

www.kidswithfoodallergies.org

You will probably need to see a nutritionist for somethign so complex. You could start by giving him just white rice and grilled chicken (and a multivitamin) if he can toelrate them, and then with that as your base then test other foods with the help of the allergist and/or a GI. But talk to the nutritionist to make a plan as I am not a medical professional.

[buddhasbelly]

Hi Sharon, my little nephew has asthma and his symptoms get worse when he uses milk products like milk, cheese and ice cream. He also has a dust mite allergy. Maybe you should see too if milk makes you sons symptoms worse?

Did you just found out about the dust mite allergy? If you like I could give you a few starters on how to reduce the dust mite around your son, like we did with my nephew.