Food Elimination Diets

The most commonly involved foods in dietary restrictions include:

• Milk
• Wheat
• Eggs
• Soy
• Peanuts/tree nuts
• Seafood

 This chart shows those foods that most commonly cause a child’s eosinophilic esophagitis​. 

Elimination diets remove either the most common foods (as is our practice), or remove foods based on the results of allergy skin tests. A combination of approaches may also be used. In both approaches, three out of four children will respond well to treatment. 

Once the removal of the foods shows improvement in the patient, the removed foods are brought back into the diet one at a time to determine which food(s) is the problem. This process may take six to nine months, and in most instances a single food will be identified as the problem. 

This food(s) is then removed from the child's diet over a period of one to two years. This keeps the child symptom-free and the esophagus healthy. Often after a year of exclusion, the food(s) is brought back into the diet to see if the child has outgrown the food allergy. 

Other Treatment Options

An exclusive elemental diet may also be offered to children who do not improve with an elimination diet. Diet therapies are managed with the assistance of a registered dietitian to ensure your child is getting adequate nutrition for optimal growth and development. The symptoms of EoE can also be treated with medication instead of diet-based therapy.

Learn about the Eosinophilic Gastrointestinal Diseases Program.