Hi Bernadette and Daniel,

Thank you both so much for taking the time to write such detailed messages. I truly appreciate your reassurance and for sharing your knowledge and personal experience.

Yes, pretty much everything Daniel described resonates with what we see in my son as well. Reading through everything, I agree that a holistic approach feels like the right one for Jake too, and I’ve started feeling more hopeful that he will be okay.

To answer your questions and share a bit more detail:

Sleep:

It makes sense to me now why he becomes so tired and dysregulated if he sleeps little less than usual, while his younger brother doesn’t seem to be affected. He usually does not have screen time before bed or during the week because he has tennis, swimming, basketball, gymnastics, and now tutoring. We keep screen time and movie nights mainly for weekends. As you both pointed out the importance of sleep for him, I will try to prioritize his sleep more.

I’m happy to complete a 3-day food journal and share it with you. I will also watch the “Food Pillar” video as you suggested.

My husband is from India, so our home diet is mostly Indian based (variety of lentil soups, vegetables, chicken/mutton curries), but not spicy. We also eat weekly grilled fish/chicken/lamb, along with vegetables and salads. I’ve always tried to minimise gluten by using GF oats, GF bread, amaranth, buckwheat porridges, GF pancakes/waffles, and eggs (twice a week).

We have been regularly making bone broth and giving it to the kids on an empty stomach in the morning, with some breaks in between. I wasn’t aware it could increase histamine levels – should I stop this for now? His histamine levels were very high when we tested him in 2022.

He was mainly having camel milk and goat/sheep cheese, Greek yogurt (cow-milk based), and only rarely cow-milk-based cheese or milk.

Since his recent eczema flare-up, we have already started removing gluten, dairy, and egg. I am struggling a bit with consistency as he sometimes ends up having things like muffins or croissants from the school cafeteria.

Apart from his anaphylactic nut allergy, he had mild allergies to pomegranate, orange, and capsicum when he was younger. His symptoms were itchy throat and sometimes vomiting. Despite his immunologist advising not to stop those foods, we removed them for about a year until his eczema improved and then reintroduced them. He seemed okay and did not show any previous symptoms.

When he was a toddler, he had slightly elevated IgE for dairy and egg white, but without any symptoms.

Digestive Health:

He does not complain of stomach pain, has no bloating, and I rarely notice gas. His bowel movements are almost daily, rarely skipped, and generally solid/well-formed. Given his long history of eczema, allergies, and frequent antibiotic use early in life, I strongly agree he has still ongoing gut inflammation.

Breathing:

He is mainly a nasal breather both at night and during the day. He does often get nasal congestion, sneezing, and itchy nose/eyes due to dust and cat allergy (including carpets or fleece clothing), or during viral illnesses. I did get him tested for cat which showed negative but later he showed the symptoms to cats by sneezing and extremely itchy and swollen eyes.

Piano / Brain exercises:

Luckily, he is already into piano. There have been moments when he wanted to quit, but I insisted he continue. I’m not very into board/card games myself, but I will try to introduce more of the games you mentioned.

Testing:

I am willing to proceed with blood testing for: fasting glucose, fasting insulin, HbA1C, LDH, HOMA-IR, iron/ferritin, CRP, vitamin B9 (folate), B12, B6, vitamin D, iodine, RBC zinc, and RBC magnesium. Please do let me know if I need to include any other blood work.

As advised, we will focus first on implementing the first six points. We will then look into neurofeedback as you suggested though I need to learn/understand more about it.

Thank you both again for your time, support, and guidance. I’m very grateful!