hereHaving a food intolerance is very frustrating. Find out 6 ways to rebuild tolerance by restoring digestive health. Overtime your child will be able to build up their tolerance levels and increase their threshold to the food they are sensitive to.
1. Identifying and Removing Problem Foods
Removing common irritants like sugar, dairy, gluten, soy and the chemical additives found in many processed foods can provide relief. As a first step find out the offending foods by doing a food allergy/intolerance test. It’s important to get to the bottom of it sooner rather than later.
Start with an elimination diet recommended by RPAH. Keep a food journal recording what foods your child eats and how it affects them. This can help pinpoint which foods are causing trouble.
Eliminate food for two weeks. Reintroduce food and keep notes on its effects. Rotate food. This way you can avoid eating the food that has the same chemical which will build up and cause an intolerance. Get support from a dietitian to ensure your child is getting enough nutrition.
2. Repair Gut Lining
Eating food you are sensitive to will lead to leaky gut or gut permeability. Once the intestinal wall gets damaged it causes undigested food particles, toxic waste products and bacteria to “leak” through the intestines and get into the blood. This will increase food intolerance symptoms.
Supplements to Repair Gut Lining:
Slippery Elm
Slippery Elm bark coats the intestines soothing the gut lining. This will help with stomach discomfort.
Aloe Vera
Aloe Vera gel will help heal the lining of a damaged intestinal tract, healing and/or preventing leaky gut syndrome. Drink Aloe Vera juice to fight inflammation, soothe and relax the GI tract. It contains key vitamins, minerals, enzymes and amino acids that are vital for our bodies to function properly.
L-Glutamine powder
L-Glutamine is an amino acid. It supports immunity and digestion by fueling the cells that line the small intestine. Glutamine heals the intestinal lining more than any other nutrient.
3. Taking a Probiotic
Probiotics are live beneficial bacteria. Probiotics support, rejuvenates and replenishes the microbiome. It helps digestion and enables the body to extract nutrients from the food. Good bacteria produce enzymes or proteins that inhibit or even kill harmful bacteria.
There are two main types of probiotic strains:
1. Bifidobacteria: This species of bacteria is commonly used in foods and supplements. This species
- supports the immune system
- limits the growth of harmful bacteria in the intestine
- helps in breaking down lactose into nutrients the body can use
2. Lactobacillus: This species of bacteria produce lactase, the enzyme that breaks down lactose or milk sugar. These bacteria produce lactic acid. Lactic acid helps control the population of bad bacteria. It serves as muscle fuel and increases the body’s absorption of minerals. Learn which type of probiotic strains help with reducing histamine intolerance here.
Choose a probiotic that is gentle on your child’s stomach. Culturelle is a great probiotic for children and is free from dairy, gluten or sugar. It contains Lactobacillus GG the worlds most researched probiotic [1]
4. Taking Digestive Enzymes
The villi and microvilli projections are covered with digestive enzymes. Enzymes are needed to breakdown the food components: carbs, fat and protein. In a leaky gut, enzyme support is crucial to healing and rebuilding the villi.
Taking supplemental enzymes before eating reduces the stress on the GI tract. Enzymes help with digestion, making food easier to break down and nutrients easier to assimilate. Digest spectrum capsules from Enzymedica is a great enzyme to help with digestion of gluten, phenols, casein and lactose. This company also produces a number of other products to help with digestion. You can check them out on iHerb.
5. Normalise pH Level
Digestion is a complex process controlled by several factors. pH plays a crucial role in the digestive tract. It helps
- break down proteins into smaller molecules
- as a line of defense against pathogenic bacteria and yeast found in our food
- absorb nutrients such as calcium, magnesium, zinc, copper, iron, B12, selenium and boron
- stimulate the pancreas and small intestines to produce digestive enzymes and bile
The pH is a way of measuring how acidic or alkaline the body is. The pH in the human digestive tract varies greatly. Those levels vary throughout the body. The blood is slightly alkaline, with a pH between 7.35 and 7.45. To enable the break down of food the stomach is very acidic, with a pH of 3.5 or below. Depending on what is eaten the pH level in the urine changes. This is how the body keeps the level in the blood steady.
Children with food intolerance tend to have low stomach acid. Betaine HCL is specifically formulated to support proper digestive conditions in the stomach by assisting in the production of pepsin (required to digest proteins) and stimulating the production of other enzymes. Start with a very low dosage. A medical professional can prescribe the dosage.
6. Support your Metabolism
The liver plays a crucial role in the detoxification process. Supporting the liver is important.
Vitamins B1, B2, B5 and B6, omega three fats, zinc and magnesium will help the body produce the sulphate the liver enzymes need to flush out excess salicylates.
Histamine is broken down in the liver by enzymes and if the liver is not functioning to its fullest potential, histamine levels remain high in the body. This, in turn, will cause histamine intolerance.
Silibinin, a milk thistle extract, is one of the most researched plants and is known to balance liver enzyme levels and has demonstrated anti-inflammatory effects. Milk thistle helps protect liver cells from damage and help in regenerating liver cells.
It is evident that restoring and rebuilding the gut will help children tolerate more food and increase their threshold.
If you are struggling with food intolerances, allergies, SIBO or other digestive problems, there are products that can help with symptom relief. I know it can be frustrating but there are treatment protocols and supplements which can really help.
I have designed this product guide to equip you with the best and most effective supplements you can buy for treatment as well as symptom relief. This list has been compiled through my own experience as well as working together with trusted and experienced practitioners.
You can check out my recommended supplement guide here
IMPORTANT: Note, that you should consult your physician or naturopath regarding your child’s specific health condition/s and dosage requirements. Always read the label carefully as there are age requirements for certain supplements.
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