high eosinophils-need help

[Guest guest]

Hi all,

We had an appt. with Dr. G. today and 's eos. count is up to

5.9%, which he wasn't happy about. They've been going up and down the past 8

mos. or so, between 3 - 5% but this is the highest yet. Of course, Dr. G. asked

me what was going on with his diet, and I, as usual, replied

" nothing! " This is a child who eats no gluten, casein, soy,

citrus, nuts, seeds, eggs, preservatives, or colors, or any of the off-limit

fruits. His only grains are rice, potato, and corn. His diet is mainly meat,

veggies and 'legal' fruits, and Dari-Free. Dr. G wants me to send his diet in

for him to check (again!) though nothing has changed.

I am SO frustrated and burnt out on this. ly, I am tired of hearing

how kids whose immune systems are chronically taxed by diet and high eos. can

have ANAs that turn from neg. to positive, etc, etc..... If I was feeding my

son macaroni and cheese every night that might be constructive to hear.....but

I'm not. Being able to go just gf/cf would be heaven for me, as I'm getting to

the point where I want to avoid social situations and going anywhere due to the

severe food issues, and its not going to get any easier as he gets older. Not

to mention tired of cooking ground turkey and white rice all the time. And my

son who is really tired of eating the same thing every meal.

My son's eos. were at 5% when we started . Now that I've removed almost

everything from his diet, we're at 5.9%....how does that make sense? And why do

his EOS go up and down if his diet is always the same? There's got to be

something else at play than just diet.

My son tests positive to just about everything on the food screens (waiting

for test results on a new screen for this year) but doesn't have any clear-cut,

consistent reactions to food. He gets minor eczema flares, an occasional loose

stool, off/on reddish ears, but I can never definitely correlate them with

anything specific. Foods don't seem to cause any behavior changes that I've

seen.

Please, somebody, tell me you've had this same problem-- and if so, how did

you get the eos down--or did they just drop on their own?

Limiting my son's diet so severely has been the most difficult aspect of all of

this so far, and now I just feel like giving up.

Frustrated, Becky

[Guest guest]

This same thing happens to us with our less effected

nids son. He has gone up to 9.5! Dr. G feels that he

is cheating on his diet, but I know he is not. I have

sent his diet in 3x now. This last time, Dr. G said

all was ok with it. I don't believe my son is

cheating. The last time it went up, we removed peanut

butter and it dropped from 9 to 2.5. Now it went up

to 3.5, and Dr. G is concerned. I know it is

frustrating, but perhaps it is related to a parasite

in the intestines? I have heard that can do it. Good

luck. Barb

--- & Becky <beckeric@...> wrote:

>

> Hi all,

>

> We had an appt. with Dr. G. today and

> 's eos. count is up to 5.9%, which he wasn't

> happy about. They've been going up and down the

> past 8 mos. or so, between 3 - 5% but this is the

> highest yet. Of course, Dr. G. asked me what was

> going on with his diet, and I, as usual, replied

> " nothing! " This is a child who eats no gluten,

> casein, soy,

> citrus, nuts, seeds, eggs, preservatives, or colors,

> or any of the off-limit fruits. His only grains are

> rice, potato, and corn. His diet is mainly meat,

> veggies and 'legal' fruits, and Dari-Free. Dr. G

> wants me to send his diet in for him to check

> (again!) though nothing has changed.

>

> I am SO frustrated and burnt out on this.

> ly, I am tired of hearing how kids whose immune

> systems are chronically taxed by diet and high eos.

> can have ANAs that turn from neg. to positive, etc,

> etc..... If I was feeding my son macaroni and

> cheese every night that might be constructive to

> hear.....but I'm not. Being able to go just gf/cf

> would be heaven for me, as I'm getting to the point

> where I want to avoid social situations and going

> anywhere due to the severe food issues, and its not

> going to get any easier as he gets older. Not to

> mention tired of cooking ground turkey and white

> rice all the time. And my son who is really tired of

> eating the same thing every meal.

>

> My son's eos. were at 5% when we started .

> Now that I've removed almost everything from his

> diet, we're at 5.9%....how does that make sense?

> And why do his EOS go up and down if his diet is

> always the same? There's got to be something else at

> play than just diet.

>

> My son tests positive to just about everything

> on the food screens (waiting for test results on a

> new screen for this year) but doesn't have any

> clear-cut, consistent reactions to food. He gets

> minor eczema flares, an occasional loose stool,

> off/on reddish ears, but I can never definitely

> correlate them with anything specific. Foods don't

> seem to cause any behavior changes that I've seen.

>

> Please, somebody, tell me you've had this same

> problem-- and if so, how did you get the eos

> down--or did they just drop on their own?

> Limiting my son's diet so severely has been the most

> difficult aspect of all of this so far, and now I

> just feel like giving up.

>

>

> Frustrated, Becky

>

>

> [Non-text portions of this message have been

> removed]

>

>

>

>

>

=====

Barb Katsaros

barbkatsaros@...

[Guest guest]

Is there a value to looking at percentages, rather than the absolute

eosinophil count? For example, a total white cell (WBC) count of 12,000

with 5% Eos would be 600 eos. The same 600 eos in a total white cell

count of 6000 would be 10%. The number of cells hasn't changed, but the

number of other cells surrounding them has.

Steve Kahler

[Guest guest]

I was about to reply with the same thought Steve. When our son started

treatment his white cell counts were 12,000 and EOS of 9%, thats about 1080

EOS absloute count - high.

Now his white cell counts are tyically about 5,000 (almost for the last year

now) and EOS range from 2-7% ie thats 100 - 350. The fourth Meridan labs

panel we have done in July shows all foods are now negative except casein,

egg white and lamb which are low equivocal - we started with over 30 in the

very high end of positive! My son's system is very much cooled off - and the

last immune panel done is CA in July was brilliantly normal for the first

time. That doesn't mean things are not tickling up the EOS - they may be

but just harder to find, especially since we adhere to a very strict CF/GF

soy free nut free diet. Also remember that EOS can be set of by other gut

pathogens like parasites and certain bacteria. In the tropics we are very

prone to such, and our son has had Giardia, Salmonella and most recently

E.Coli - and at all of these times his EOS were elevated - they hit 12%

when he had Salmonella!

I don't think 3 - 5% is a big variance over a long period - that's good

you've to maintain this Becky. Dr G might be concerned that they have

tended higher - but as Steve pointed out, look at the absolute cell counts

too. Early in treatment, our son got an EOS count of 0% - I didn't believe

the lab. I phoned the lab and asked how many cell's they counted under the

scope (the basic CBC is done electonically but to differentiate between

various white cells, it is done by sight ) - they said 100.....I thought

goodness that leaves a lot for error- I asked them could they count more -

so they counted 3,000 cells and the result was 2%. My company statistician

got hold of the data and said that the margin of error was well over 2% - -

ie an EOS count of 4% could be between 2 and 6!.

Hope this helps - send in your diet to be examined - if it is good as you

say you may not find anything to eliminate !

Re: high eosinophils-need help

Is there a value to looking at percentages, rather than the absolute

eosinophil count? For example, a total white cell (WBC) count of 12,000

with 5% Eos would be 600 eos. The same 600 eos in a total white cell

count of 6000 would be 10%. The number of cells hasn't changed, but the

number of other cells surrounding them has.

Steve Kahler

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