I saw Jack Newman's post on never having seen a potato allergy, and I wanted
to respond.  In addition to being in lactation for 20 years, I have four
wonderful breastfed children.  My second child, a son, had this problem.  At
about 8 months he was given potato for the first time.  He was only given
potato at that meal.  No other foods were given.  Within an hour he broke out
in hives all over his thighs.  I never gave potato again for months.  Later
when given it he seemed to be OK.

When this same child was six he was still wetting the bed every night.  I
asked other friends to check their files on reasons for this.  We had already
tried the common milk cause and found that that was not the source.  Someone
gave me the Feingold Association book for people that have problems with
salicylates.  Many use this because of hyperactivity problems, but my son was
very relaxed and calm.  When  I read the list I noticed that he begged for
most of the foods on the list including potato.  When we put him on a trial of
food elimination from the foods that were high in salicylates he was dry all
night and continued that way.  We started adding back foods with salicylates,
but varying them greatly and were able to keep him dry.

When he was about 8 years old he started to wet the bed again.  He had a wart
and I was using the product Compound W on his wart.  I checked the label.  17%
of that tiny drop had salicylic acid in it.  When I stopped using the product
he was dry again.  He was was and is a very healthy person.  I never gave any
of my children aspirin, but I especially have wondered what would have
happened to him if he had had that.

These are the foods from the Feingold list that contain natural salicylates:

almonds         apples          apricots                all berries             cherries
cloves                  coffee          cucumbers       currants                grapes, raisins
wine                    vinegar         gr. peppers     nectarines              oranges
peaches         plums           tangerines      tea                             tomatoes
oil of wintergreen (methyl salicylate)          aspirin                 banana
wh. potato              pineapple       red pepper      paprika

I hope this report helps others who have really odd problems that don't seem
to correct with the usual known common food allergies and sensitivities.

Katy Lebbing, IBCLC
Lactation Education Services
Villa Park, IL