My son wasn’t even a year old when he developed eczema… after his birth, someone made us chicken and cheese enchiladas, so I ate some. Within 24 hours he had bloody streaks in his diapers, so I avoided dairy. I would try it out every two months and still reactive with bloody stools. Around 10 months I thought he was ok and dabbled in it here and there, then he developed eczema, so took it back out, it cleared up. Little did I know it was just the beginning stages of psoriasis and here is our story how I am reversing my son’s psoriasis.

My son began developing these red, scaly and dry patches behind his arm and on his cheeks around 18m and I kept thinking it was eczema. In May of 2012, he was sick with a stomach virus and did not eat anything for almost five days and his skin cleared up. That is when I knew it was related to something he was eating, however, we were already, gluten, soy, dairy, nut, peanut, corn, coconut, fruit and egg free, so it was baffling to me. I took him to our in house allergist and she told me that it was not related and to have him tested for a condition that causes allergies in the digestive track. I opted out, I didn’t want a scope down his throat and decided to get a second opinion and went back to the alternative pediatric GI we had seen a few months prior. He said that he had candida and prescribed him a very powerful anti-fungal. Without testing him, it did not sit right with me, so I took the prescription and never filled it. Though I was convinced he had candida

We went to a dermatologist  in the fall of 2012 to get a proper diagnosis and when she looked at him, she said it is psoriasis and she had seen enough cases, however there was no relation to diet and skin issues. She gave me a prescription for a topical steroid. I took it and never filled it. I was not going to give my son a steroid cream, it also disrupts the gut bacteria, which I already knew was imbalanced and the possibility it would not work. I was glad to get the skin issue figured out, but was bummed about my dead end streets I was running into. Everyone thought I was crazy for keeping him off of these foods.

I went back to my naturopathic MD who did another stress assessment scan and learned he still could not do any of the above foods and to keep avoiding it. Though when she looked at his red scaly cheeks, she knew he was eating something he could not digest. In Chinese medicine, red cheeks is related to the stomach.

I saw another allergist, recommended by a friend, while he confirmed psoriasis, did the scratch tests, they came up negative. He said to keep avoiding gluten and dairy and gave me a prescription for a steroid cream…

Perplexed one day I was talking to my mom who told me my father was allergic to salicylic acid, a component found in aspirin. It is a life threatening allergy for him. I don’t remember why she told me, but it stuck in my head.

April 2013, three weeks before my son’s 3rd birthday, I pulled out all of his food charts for the 50th time and looked up salicylates and link to psoriasis. I came across this post on a connection with before and after pictures. I found another site that had a food chart with foods that were high in “sals” and it matched almost perfectly. With the genetic component it made sense and he went on a low-sals diet for a week and his skin was clearing up! I went back to the allergist and he was even impressed with my findings and said he wouldn’t do a blood test and the food elimination diet we did was the best method. He advised to keep doing what I was doing and look into the Feingold diet. He also did another scratch test but added tomatoes, coconuts and a couple of others. While there was no immediate reaction, he was racing to the bathroom and peed about seven times in 2 hours…it triggered his bladder, a sign of a sals allergy and he was throwing more tantrums, the most since we started our low-sals diet.

 

You can see how much the skin has healed and how it is reforming and blending back to his normal skin.

He also had it on his cheeks:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All I did was change his diet. The reason he it was not full blown was because we were already avoiding some trigger foods like fruit, nuts and coconut. No special creams and for the doctors that told me there was no relation…I found this study in 1964, now many would think this research is “outdated” I find it to be of value to link this sensitivity to psoriasis. What did I use on his skin? I was using California Baby, but at the time I kept thinking it was making his skin worse. I later learned it has salicylates in it. As does steroid creams as does many other personal care products such as shampoos, toothpastes, and of course many fever reducers. So I found this African Shea Butter just to keep his skin from being so dry and itchy.

So What is a Salicylate? I began writing about this allergy in my Chicago Parent column. But being off of salicylates I noticed other things.

1. His behavior changed. He was more calm, more focused

2. He slept better. Waking almost none to once in the middle of the night. And he was sleeping till 6-6:30am, for us that is huge!

3. He began to poop on the potty and his bowels changed they looked normal. That is a big deal folks!

4. He is less aggressive. When he eats something that is moderate to high in salicylates, he gets really aggressive, hits and angers easily.

5. His speech has improved big time, saying 4-5 word sentences, bigger words and we have not seen any speech therapist since he turned 3 in April.

It has been so strange to see all of this change from a naturally occurring compound that is found in fruits, veggies and herbs. It boggles my mind, but you know what, I am determined to reverse this and heal his gut. I have something to prove.