Hi again,
It's a while since I've been here, so I hope it's not too
presumptuous of me to jump right back in with a plea for help. Last
March or so I learned that my breastfeeding baby boy is sensitive to
salicylate, so he and I have been on a pretty strict failsafe diet
ever since. He also reacts badly to eggs, but gluten and dairy
turned out to be fine.
Anyway, despite a diet with plenty of meat, he has come up anemic.
Worse, though, he has a high lead level. The rest of the family has
yet to be tested. Anemia and lead often go together because they
compete chemically, and it's a bit of a chicken and egg situation,
where it's not clear which came first. The recommendation is to
supplement with iron, and to keep to a diet that is conducive to iron
absorbtion, which will encourage the release of lead. And that means
plenty of fruits and vegetables.
So, I'm kind of stumped. He can't tolerate almost any fruits or
vegetables. He likes cabbage, but there is only so much cabbage you
can get a one year old to eat. He likes pears, but... ditto. He
can't digest banana very well, and I'm afraid to start giving him
other fruits. Recent accidental exposures to onion, pepper, and some
other flavors suggest that he is very, very sensitive.
But I'm finding myself in "pick your poison" territory, and the
poison we're trying to get rid of, well, it's a really bad one. I am
still reluctant to jump too fast into dietary territory that I am
pretty sure is going to cause some misery and havoc. If it were me,
I'd experiment a little to find out what I can tolerate. But it's my
baby, and I don't like the idea of experimenting on him.
Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the dietary balance
here, or specific experience dealing with lead on a failsafe diet?
Thanks.

Emily