Some Frequent Causes of Specific Complaints. Allergic symptoms are almost always due to something that's: Inside the home or school Outside the home or school Foods Chemicals and Pollution Please remember that the symptoms these children (and adults) show are not just the classically-recognized respiratory or stomach problems but also extreme fatigue, aggression, hyperactivity, depression and other psychological/neurological symptoms. Many of these symptoms are increasingly diagnosed as Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) or Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and mistakenly treated with powerful and very seriously questionable drugs such as Ritalin, Clonidine, and Prozac. By asking and recording what a child ate, touched, or smelled within an hour before a symptom occurred, you can often find the cause of an allergic response. It's often very easy to detect the specific cause, and eliminating it sometimes takes care of the problem without any need for drug therapy. Problems Inside Home or School: Children suffering these will be worse in the winter when they are indoors for many hours, or in dusty, moldy, or chemically-contaminated rooms. (These children are often better if traveling or staying temporarily in some other indoor surrounding that isn't dusty or moldy.) A damp, moldy, or dusty home is one of the most frequent causes of resistant asthma. Common indoor causes of ill health or poor behavior include dust, molds, pets, cleaning materials, chemicals, and scented personal items. If children are routinely worse at night, the cause could be something in the bedroom such as the bedclothing, stuffed toys, bedding material, mattress, pillow, or a food eaten regularly just before bedtime. Problems Outside The Home or School: These allergies are worse shortly after someone goes outside but better inside the home. If the symptoms recur every year at about the same time in the warm months when the pollen count is high, think of trees, grass, or weed pollen. If a person is repeatedly worse on rainy days, think of a mold allergy. Some children are worse near freshly cut grass, wet leaves (molds), lawns freshly sprayed with chemicals, asphalted roads, or exhaust fumes in gas stations or traffic jams. Food Sensitivities: Although children may appear to outgrow allergies identified in their infancy as due to formulas or foods, it is often only a period of transition. The infant problems from milk, soy, or corn often become the cause of a variety of different medical complaints as a child ages. Food-sensitive children tend to be worse after they eat, and often crave the very foods to which they are most sensitive. Within an hour after eating a problem food, they often develop red earlobes, red cheeks, dark eye circles, wiggly legs, and a "spaced-out" look. At the same time, they have a sudden drastic personality change, or other health problems. Until proven otherwise, constipation or bloating suggest a dairy-food allergy. This is particularly true if a child loves all dairy. If you asked which unsuspected food causes more medical and emotional complaints than any other, it is probably milk and other dairy (cheese, yogurt, ice cream). Food allergies can be a complex issue that's not as straightforward to detect and deal with as what's outlined above. For more on this important matter, we'd recommend you read Dr. Rapp's best-selling book, Is This Your Child?, available at bookstores (including Amazon.com) nationwide, Chemical Sensitivities: Children with these sensitivities often smell or complain about odors before others. They can develop nausea, drowsiness, or headaches. They may wet their pants, or have behavior changes during car rides or in certain stores, especially polyester clothing departments. They may intensely dislike the smell of gasoline, tobacco, perfume, pesticides, paint, carpets (especially synthetics), aerosols, freshly dry-cleaned clothes, beauty parlors, gas stoves, kerosene heaters, nearby factory outflows, or chemical lawn sprays. A Few Items That Often Appear To Cause Specific Medical Complaints: Along with the other things listed below, the foods or beverages you love, crave, or can't live without are often unrecognized causes of chronic health problems. Although each person is different, a few major foods and other causes of the following are listed below. NOSE CONGESTION, COUGHING, AND ASTHMA, THROAT CLEARING, CLUCKING SOUNDS: Milk, cheese, yogurt, corn, wheat, molds, dust, and pollen. ECZEMA: Eggs, milk, wheat, oats, corn, rye, rice, yeast, tomatoes, pets, dust, molds and pollen. ABDOMINAL SYMPTOMS: Constipation (any age): Milk, other dairy products, yeast. Diarrhea: Milk, wheat, corn, sugar, fruits, and yeasts. BAD BREATH: Milk, wheat, and eggs. HYPERACTIVITY: Red-dyed foods (or beverages or medicines), sugar, milk, apple or orange juice, corn, tomatoes, potatoes, grapes, peanuts, yeasts, molds, dust, and pollen. FATIGUE: Milk, yeast, corn, wheat, oats, rice, rye, peanuts, sugar, fruits, potatoes, molds, dust, and pollen. BEDWETTING (After 5 years of age): Milk fruit juice (apple, orange, grape, or pineapple, dust, molds, and pollen. HEADACHES: Milk, cheese, chocolate, eggs, wheat, corn, rice, oats, rye, yeast, molds, red wine, dust, and pollen. JOINT TIGHTNESS: Meats (beef, pork), grains, (wheat, oats, corn), tomatoes, potatoes, peppers, tobacco, coffee, tea, natural gas, other chemicals, and molds. HEART DISEASE: Chemicals (phenol, natural gas, hydrocarbons, formaldehyde), foods, dust, molds, and pollen. SEASONAL DEPRESSION: Early Spring: tree pollen, molds. Mid-Summer: grass pollen Early to late Fall: weed pollen, ragweed Damp days: mold spores Winter: Dust and molds Next: What Else Can You Do. BACK TO: Allergies and Chemical Sensitivities..