Frustration

It is so frustrating to know your child is having or had a reaction to some type of food and you don't know if it was cross contamination, poor labeling, a new allergy, or something he picked up off the floor. The chipmunk is throwing up and I know it is not from an infection. He did this a week ago and I figured it was from a new brand of coconut milk I had added to his smoothie. It was the only thing new he had ingested. This time no new can of coconut milk to blame it on. But I had some new brand of dolmas and he started throwing up within 10-15 minutes of nursing him. It is so much more difficult to pin down the causitve food when breastfeeding is involved. His usual form of allergy reactions have been rashes and hives, throwing up is a new reaction to endure. It is gut wrenching to watch your child and wonder if it is going to get worse.

A New Style of Baking

We went to a neighborhood brunch and I knew that the usual stuff would be there, scrambled eggs, hashbrowns, and other stuff that wouldn't be right for our allergy diet. So I began our entry into allergen friendly baking on unsuspecting neighbors. Oh I still brought my french toast casserole that everyone expects, and made a dish of the scrambled eggs, since it will probably be the only time the others kids will get it anymore. But I also brought cinnamon rolls and pumpkin bars. Now the cinnamon rolls weren't great looking since it didn't rise like normal glutan cinnamon rolls, but my 16yo daughter thought it was store bought because it was slightly crunchy on the outside and oh so gooey on the inside. The pumpkin bars disappeared before my husband got through the line, my kids assured him they were tasty. Good thing too, those pumpkin bars will be hitting the breakfast table once in awhile. Next time I make them I will take pics and post the recipe.

Review: Enjoy Life mini chocolate chips

The one thing I really missed with this whole allergen free diet was chocolate. An entire year of no chocolate. You see I wasn't a real fan of dark chocolate. It's not to hard to find chocolate that is allergen free if you like dark chocolate. I have finally grown to appreciate dark chocolate. But if what you are craving falls into the semi-sweet or milk chocolate camp, I hadn't found anything that I would even want to try to turn into chocolate chip cookies or any other baking that I could hope to try in my kitchen. That is till now. Enjoy Life Chocolate Chips. Oh yes I could eat these little babies all evening. I am dreaming of making coconut ice cream with chocolate chips. I am thinking cherry vanilla with chocolate chips. My only problem is if there will be any left in the bag by the time I get the ice cream maker out of the cabinet. I should of bought more bags, I wonder if I can get a discount by the case.

Nutrition Facts: Milk And Milk Substitutes

Nutrition Facts: Milk And Milk Substitutes

Grams Per 8oz	Milk (Whole)	Soy	Almond	Rice	Coconut
Calories	146	105	60	120	90
Total Fat	8	4	2.5	2	5
Sat. Fat	5	0	0	0.1	5
Chol.	24	0	0	0	0
Sodium	98	114	150	86	15
Dietary Fiber	0	0	<1	0	0
Sugars	13	9	7	10	7
Protein	8	6	1	0.5	1
Vitamin A	5%	9%	10%	0%	10%
Vitamin C	0%	0%	0%	2%	0%
Calcium	28%	30%	20%	2%	10%
Iron	0%	6%	2%	1%	4%

Thank you to
http://www.fitnessspotlight.com/2009/08/24/nutrition-milk-milk-substitutes/

however the figures for coconut milk have been changed to reflect So Delicious Coconut Milk Beverage by Turtle Mountain Co

For dairy allergic kids, it looks to me that coconut milk is the best choice. For us it is the only choice because of personal allergens.

You've Got To Be Kidding

You've got to be kidding! A common response when someone finds out what Eli and I can't eat,since I am still nursing. Can't have dairy, eggs, wheat, soy, peanuts, tree nuts, and sunflower oil. There goes my rice milk, no chance of almond milk. Regular milk is a distant memory. Milkshakes are a form of torture when consumed in my presence. Yea I feel like that sometimes. And its fun to remind my husband of that fact when he's slathering his burger with cheese, sandwiched in between real bread, and washed down with a big glass of milk. But I have to remind myself that its not about what ya can't eat. Concentrate on what can be eaten.

From the Beginning

Our own food allergy journey began a few weeks after our son was born. He was and is a beautiful baby boy, but I am a bit partial. What started out as baby acne just kept getting worse. After the baby acne came the cradle cap. The pediatrician just said it was a bad case of cradle cap and it doesn't have to be limited to the scalp. So much for all those cute baby pics, all I could see was his broken out skin. Shallow I know, but they are only little babies for such a short time and I wanted to remember those days. Fast forward a few months later. He is so broke out from eczema that there are parts to his skin that are just raw, weeping, oozing open sores. The sores were so bad it worried the nurse all weekend she had never seen such a bad case. I take him into the pediatricians office and the only diagnosis he can come up with is just a real bad case of eczema. His own children suffer from eczema so he definitely can relate. However an offhand remark started me thinking about him being 'sensitive' to certain foods. The ped mentioned that when his wife ate eggs his son's eczema would flare up. I was breastfeeding, so what I ate, he would get in some form or another. That started my research into food allergies and an elimination diet for myself. The elimination diet was very bland and not very exciting food wise. But I saw improvement almost within days. In ways I did not even associate with food sensitivities. Before the new diet he would spit up all the time and I was changing his diaper constantly, I just figured some babies were like that. His spitting up diminished dramatically and his BMs were now only a few times a day, not every time he nursed and sometimes in between. His eczema improvement was slow and never totally dissipated. But after a month there was huge improvements. I am told it takes 30 days to get diary out of a nursing babies system so it is often called the 30 day miracle.  When I went back to the ped at his 6 month check up I didn't even mention the elimination diet, the pediatrician recommended a food allergy blood test. I was slowly starting to add foods back into my diet and he seemed to react to everything. When the blood test came back I had just eaten scrambled eggs. Needless to say neither I nor the baby got any sleep that night. He was allergic to eggs, amongst other things. It was indeed as if he was reacting to everything. The blood test came back milk, wheat, eggs, soy, and peanuts. With dog and a few other environmental allergies you can't due much about. If the Dr. had just called a few hours earlier I might have gotten a few hours of sleep that night. I was floored. I had figured out the milk, the wheat and eggs were a bit of a surprise. The eggs were confirmed that night with a tummy ache, it had been over a month since I had eaten any eggs. The pediatrician almost was reluctant to tell me the whole list. Pretty much everything was confirmed by accidental exposure like the eggs the morning the results came back. Only a few  other food allergies not on the original list were discovered like pecans from some cross contamination and sunflower oil when I couldn't get the eczema cleared up till I banned anything with sunflower/safflower oil in it. The eczema though well under control, still flares up. The journey has just begun and I am still learning.