Crazy Allergy Mama

Review: The Divvies Bakery Cookbook

2010-07-21T21:44:00.000-07:00

This review is cross-posted here from our other blog, Chronicle of an Infant Bibliophile. Please visit there to enter to the give-away!

As regular readers of Chronicle of an Infant Bibliophile may know, our little bookworm has a host of food allergies (including, among others, egg, milk, wheat, and nuts). I was excited to receive a copy of a new allergy-friendly cookbook this month, and for the chance to not only review it, but to provide a give-away copy to one of our readers!

The Divvies Bakery Cookbook: No Nuts. No Eggs. No Dairy. Just Delicious!

For those who are not aware, Divvies is a dedicated milk, egg, treenut and peanut-free company started by Lori Sandler, mom to an allergy-ridden son. Honestly, we have not tried any Divvies products because of my son's wheat allergy, but I have read about the company often in allergy circles, and was eager to learn more.

The Divvies Bakery Cookbook contains over 75 nut-, egg-, and dairy-free recipes. I love that the book divides them into categories such as "Sweets That Make the Schoolhouse Rock" (with plenty of bakesale suggestions) and "It's Your Party!" (with great birthday ideas). This is clearly written by an allergy mom!

I have tried one recipe so far -- just one, but I have tried it three times. Not because it didn't work out well, but because it was so delicious that we kept needing more of it! In the book, the recipe is called "Fruity Frozen Slushies." The idea is to make a wonderful slushie mixture with fresh fruit (and few other ingredients), freeze them, and bring them along on picnics as a slushie, as it will melt a bit on the way.

We call it homemade berry gelato or sorbetto around here, though, and eat it right out of the freezer - sometimes even in cute little cups like in this photo. We recently discovered a gourmet gelato shop nearby that serves a few dairy-free sorbetto flavors. My son loves going there, and hasn't had any issues, but as with any shop, there is always a risk of cross contamination. I cringe when I look at all of the pistachios and hazelnuts decoratively topping the nearby gelato flavors in the case. This allows me to make him a treat that is truly just as good, far cheaper, and likely much healthier. Not to mention getting to work on our stockpile of frozen raspberries from our garden.

I love the organization of the book, variety of recipes, clear instructions, and the beautiful photographs.

Peeves? Just two minor things ...

Since we deal with a wheat allergy, many of the recipes are currently off limits to us, unless we modify them and do some experimentation (or, the Bibliophile outgrows his wheat allergy, which I hope will happen soon!). That's not a peeve, of course, but it would have been great if the book somehow denoted which recipes were gluten free in the index, maybe with asterisks or just a separate list. There are blank pages in the back, though, so we can just make our own list back there.

I was excited to try the fudge recipe below, which I received permission to share with readers. However, one of the ingredients is a Silk brand soy creamer. I know Silk also makes a hazelnut creamer, so I was worried about cross contamination issues with nuts in case they use the same equipment for all of their creamers (we do drink Silk brand soy milk all of the time, so if their milk is produced on the same equipment as the hazelnut creamer as well, then we clearly have assumed that risk already). Just to be double safe, I tried contacting Silk, but wasn't able to get an answer through their website. I will try calling them again this week. Until then, I didn't want to chance a reaction, and tried the slushie recipe instead.

Here is the Fudge recipe from the book. If you get the chance to try it before I do, I'd love to hear how you like it.

Win a Copy!

The publisher has generously offered to provide a copy of the Divvies Bakery Cookbook to one lucky reader. To win:

1) Leave a comment on this post at Chronicle of an Infant Bibliophile saying why you would like to win this book. Make sure to leave your email address in your comment if it isn't in your profile, so I have a way to contact the winner.

2) Follow Chronicle of an Infant Bibliophileor Crazy Allergy Mama and leave a separate comment letting me know.

3) Facebook or twitter about this give-away and leave a separate comment letting me know.

That's three entries per person. Prize may ship only to U.S. or Canadian addresses. Deadline is one week from today - July 28, 2010 at midnight EST. Good luck!

Disclosure: We were provided with a copy of the Divvies Bakery Cookbook in order to write this review. If you click on any of the links above and purchase anything, we may receive a small commission through our affiliate relationship with Amazon.com.

Appointment Update

2010-01-29T18:41:00.000-08:00

Well, we saw the allergist today. We did a skin prick test for milk, wheat, oat and peanut. He has previously tested positive to milk and wheat, had a possible eczema reaction to oat, and has strangely never been tested for peanut. He came up positive for milk, wheat, and oat, and negative for peanut (I am happy about that, but we will never feed it to him because of his other nut allergies). The allergist felt his wheat reaction was severe enough that a challenge would fail. He would like to retest in a year. So, that leaves him still allergic to: wheat, milk, egg, nuts, sesame, and possibly oat.

Despite the less than wonderful news, I left the appointment smiling. The little guy was just so delightfully charming and clever at his appointment, showing off his newly found geography and reading skills, that I couldn't help but feel like a lucky mom to a thriving boy. So, we will just keep doing what we're doing for now (like cooking these sweet potato muffins with orange ginger icing that we made today). Better luck next time.

More testing soon

2010-01-26T11:48:00.000-08:00

Just a quick post to say that we're seeing an allergist on Friday, and I'm gearing up for a possible wheat challenge! I think we'll skin prick test for wheat and milk, and I am going to call today to make sure that we will be able to do the wheat challenge if we choose to. It will feel very strange to open up a packet of Saltine's, after treating wheat as the enemy for so long! I'll update this weekend.

Allergy-Friendly Gingerbread House

2009-11-18T18:07:00.000-08:00

Sure, it's not even Thanksgiving yet, but I just couldn't resist . . . when I read about a bakery in Rhode Island called A&J Bakery that had come out with an allergy-friendly gingerbread house kit this year, I called and ordered one right away. And when it arrived this week, I couldn't wait. I think we'll order another one, to put together on Christmas day. And maybe some as gifts for other people, who don't even have allergies, because I'd like a bakery to be supported for offering such a wonderful product. And besides, it will give me a chance to focus a little more on the aesthetics. I was just thrilled to be able to be making a gingerbread house with an egg-, dairy-, wheat-, nut-, sesame-allergic child... I didn't care much what it looked like.

I called and ordered our kit over the phone (the website, the last time I looked, still needed to be updated to reflect that the kits are free of all of my son's allergens, so I wanted to call and double check). The person I spoke to seemed very knowledgeable about allergies, explained which allergens were and weren't present in their manufacturing facilities, and clued me in to the fact that the candy included in the kits is made by Gimbal's Candy in California.

How do you like this label, from Gimbal's website?

My only complaint is that the kit doesn't come with any ingredient lists, including on the candy. I admit that I was nervous to try the candy when it arrived, because it didn't have ingredients or a name of a company or anything so I could double check that it was safe (I had forgotten the name he told me over the phone). That's why the house you see above is decorated with smarties and dum dums. Later, I emailed the bakery to get the name of the candy supplier again, and I've since eaten the candy provided, since I'm comfortable having seen their website that they should be safe for us. The candy is wonderful, and I give major kudos to A&J for providing such quality candy with the kit. I'm sure there were cheaper alternatives they could have gotten away with. The candy included in our kit were packaged in three small bags - one of thick chewy (scrumptious) black licorice scottie dogs, one of soft, sweet chewy red and black candies covered with non-periels, and one of a mixture of gourmet jelly beans. Also included

with the kits were all of the plastic figures you see on our house - deer, Christmas trees, gifts, and a little Santa. My two-year old was absolutely delighted with every piece.

I was really impressed that the kit arrived in tact -- 6 pieces ready for assembly (4 sides plus 2 for the roof) -- with clear instructions, including a recipe for frosting, and that the cookie pieces remained in one piece all through assembly, even though I totally ignored the directions to make it a two-day process to make sure the base was stable before adding the roof.

But, how does it taste? Very good! We've been taking the house down now and then and nibbling at it. After approximately 24 hours, it looks like this:

Just to be clear - it is not falling apart. We're devouring it. Thank you, A&J, for allowing us to add a new Christmas tradition to our family, allergies and all.

(Note: we were not provided with any products or remuneration for this post; we're just very satisfied, grateful customers).

Cookbook Review: Make It Fast, Cook It Slow

2009-11-12T21:08:00.000-08:00

(A few of you who subscribe to both of my blogs will notice that I'm cross-posting this on both, sorry. But, I love this book enough that I wanted to share it with the readers of our main blog - Chronicle of an Infant Bibliophile - and also post here, because all of the recipes in the book are gluten-free).

Yum. Yum. Yum. Sometime this year I came across Stephanie O'Dea's blog, A Year of Slow Cooking, on which she posted a recipe using her slow cooker every single day for one year. The recipes looked delicious, and her writing was funny, down-to-earth, and honest. I loved how she included a "verdict" for every recipe, including the reactions of her picky kids. I was hooked. I bought my first slow cooker just to try her creations, and I wasn't disappointed. My favorite dish from the site is her orange chicken.

Make It Fast, Cook It Slow: The Big Book of Everyday Slow Cooking (Paperback), by Stephanie O'Dea. When I learned that Stephanie was having her first cookbook published, I knew I needed a copy. I have cooked too many meals with my laptop precariously balanced by the stove, a misstep away from a cup of chicken stock coating its keys, and having to tap my touchpad with my elbow every few minutes to keep the screen saver off. I was thrilled when my copy arrived last week. The book is divided into 16 chapters. Here they are, with a sample recipe title from each chapter:

Beverages (pumpkin spice latte)
Appetizers (sweet and spicy chicken wings)
Breakfast (breakfast risotto)
Baking (five-layer brownies)
Side Dishes (sweet-and-sour caramelized onions)
Beans (clean-out-the-pantry chili)
Pasta & Casseroles (barbequed chicken and cornbread casserole)
Soups & Stews (pizza soup)
Seafood (fillet of sole with pesto)
Poultry (chipotle chicken with sweet potatoes)
Meatless Mains (ratatouille)
Meat (pineapple pork tenderloin)
Takeout Fake-Out (chicken makhani (indian butter chicken))
Snacks & Fondue (chocolate and marshmallow fondue)
Desserts (cheesecake)
Fun Stuff (brownie-in-a-mug)

Hungry yet?

For those with gluten intolerance or wheat allergies, everything in the book is gluten free. We have to avoid dairy and egg as well as wheat around here, but most of the recipes can be easily altered to be safe for us. Every time I pick the book up, I find another five recipes I want to try right away. My only complaint is that the book lacks photographs of the finished dishes, something I usually like to see in my cookbooks. Really, though, photographs are not necessary to follow the recipes, and I appreciate the lack of photos if it kept the price down.

When I received the book, I poured through it wondering which recipe to try first. I settled on "Brown Sugar Chicken." Here is Stephanie's "Verdict" on the recipe:

It should be noted that this chicken has been named "Candy Chicken" in our house. I don't think my kids have ever eaten so much chicken in their lives. If you are tired of dried out, boring chicken, you must try this. You simply must. Go. Now. Go to the store and buy the ingredients.

I listened! Well, sort of. I sent my husband to the store for ingredients.

We made a few substitutions based on what we had on hand, but the end result, served over rice, really was delicious. So delicious that I completely forgot to take a photo before we ate it all. But here is a photo stolen from Stephanie's website (I cut my chicken up a bit smaller, so mine looked a little different than this):

Verdict: Make It Fast, Cook It Slowwould make a wonderful holiday gift paired with a slow cooker. You must read this. You simply must. Go. Now. Order this book.

Thank you to Stephanie O'Dea and Hyperion for sending me a review copy. Purchasing products by clicking through the links in this post to Amazon.com will provide us a modest commission through our affiliate relationship with Amazon.com.

Saying Hi

2009-11-05T21:12:00.000-08:00

We haven't posted here in ages, but I thought I'd pop in and mention that we posted on our other blog about our asthma scare at the ER this week. This is the third time that the little guy has had wheezing in connection with a common cold, so for now, at least, we're adding asthma to our list. As most of you who happen upon this blog probably know, eczema, allergies, and asthma are all linked, so this isn't a huge surprise to us, although it would be nice to escape it! Anyway, the good news is that he's much better now, and even ran around the park for a scavenger hunt today with no breathing treatments needed all day.

We survived Halloween, including attending a large party, with no incidents. Thank you, sincerely, to the makers of smarties and dum dums, for their yummy allergy-friendly treats and product labeling. Or, as my son calls them, "tee-tee" (candy) and "yapops."

We'll be seeing a new allergist at the end of the month (insurance issues causing us to switch), so I might update again then, although it is only a consultation at this point. We've had to push back our wheat challenge for now.

I'll also be posting a review here soon for a favorite new cookbook that promises to make our winter much more pleasant.

I hope you and your families are well.

Yum (birthday ideas for the allergenic)

2009-09-03T18:55:00.000-07:00

We made these Muddy Buddies today, and they were scrumptious -- chocolate, sunbutter, cereal, (non dairy) butter, powdered sugar... how could they go wrong? Picky toddler loved them, and a guest with no food allergies requested the recipe. I think I'll be making them often around the holidays, because they're ridiculously easy to make (and transport). The little guy enjoyed shaking the bag around to coat them with the powdered sugar.

Every time I see a new, fun recipe idea that is safe for our son's allergies (like this cute jello fire engine hat), I star it in Google Reader and daydream about making it for his birthday parties.

So, here is tonight's daydream. I can make a birthday cake out of rice krispie treats, using nondairy butter, frost it, and use those Muddy Buddies as the rocks in the back of the dump truck bed. I think it would be adorable and delicious.

What's new at our house:

2009-08-29T08:23:00.000-07:00

I hate the whole health insurance system. I have made approximately 30 phonecalls between the allergist's office, pediatrician's office, and insurance (and the billing and records departments of all three) to try to get the bills from our last allergy visit taken care of. We're now in an "appeals process." Basically, the doctor was out-of-network, because our insurance didn't have an in-network pediatric allergist, so we were told we could go see this highly recommended allergist, so long as all of the proper paperwork was submitted. His pediatrician's office messed that up, despite my repeated phonecalls and assurances that it was all taken care of. That part is annoying, but not a big deal (I know I'm not paying it, so it's just a matter of getting everyone to sort it out before I get reported to a collection agency). The frustrating part for me is that now there IS a pediatric allergist in the network. He's only in town one day a week, but I have to switch to him now. I could only schedule a 15 minute consultation visit for November, which means our wheat challenge won't be done and I'll also have to schedule a whole different visit for testing. And, God forbid he have a severe reaction in the meantime, because our only option will be an ER trip, to an ER without a pediatric allergist on call. I miss Boston. But, luckily the little guy's allergies have been really well controlled lately. In fact, part of me is wondering if I should just forgo a visit until April, when we can switch to Blue Cross and widen our network of specialists.
We went out to eat! To a fancyish sort of restaurant nearby. They made us a burger (no bun), and boiled parsley potatoes, plus a few glasses of fresh squeezed orange juice. It was delicious. I'm laughing as I type this, because I just remembered that the burger should have come with lettuce, tomato, onion, and pickles, and they just brought it to us plain. No bun, no lettuce I guess!
Don't ask a question if you don't want the answer. Our son is really starting to try to talk a lot now. It's so cute to see him get new words every day. This morning, I said, "what do you want for breakfast?" He said, "ham!" (I buy nitrate-free prosciutto from Whole Foods). "oops, sorry kiddo, that's all gone... we'll get some more." "Hon-eeeeee-dew!" "Oops, that's all gone too." Can you tell we do our weekly shopping on Saturdays?
Why can't regular markets carry nitrate free ham and bacon?
I booked a trip to Hawaii this week! We've been wanting to visit there for years and weren't sure which island to visit, when to go, etc., and then we became parents and everything got more complicated. I realized that Oahu has a Whole Foods. Score. I booked a condo in Waikiki with a full kitchen, and we'll just cook the whole time. Allergies made easy.
That's all I've got.

What's new in your allergy world this week?

Checking in, again.

2009-08-15T16:13:00.000-07:00

So much for weekly posting! We've been really enjoying the summer, and the move into a new house, and it has kept us busy over the last month or two. In terms of new foods, we've been gobbling up a lot of summer fruit - our little guy's usual favorites (watermelon, blueberries), plus raspberries plucked from our garden, and cherries. No luck enticing him with peaches, plums, or apricots, although he likes peach juice. I finally let go of my irrational fear of apples, and after weeks of eating Enjoy Life caramel apple bars, I moved on to apple juice. He's been drinking a lot of it with no obvious reaction. His eczema is great - a little spot here or there but I've barely used any medicated cream since Easter! Amazing. I have noticed his scalp has a lot of dark brown spots on it, so I think he has some kind of toddler cradle cap thing going on. I keep hoping to fix it without getting a dermatologist referral.

We bought a grill this summer and have found it SO useful in preparing safe meals with a bit more variety. I also bought a crock pot, and have been making roasts and soups, all of which is allergy friendly. Here's a lamb and veggie meal from last week:

Today I called a nearby restaurant, and they assured me they could handle his allergies. So we might venture there sometime this week. We haven't trusted a restaurant with his allergies in a couple of months. I can't say I miss it all that much. I've been having so much fun cooking. (We did, however, in a moment of bravery, feed him chicken kabob skewers from a food truck (!) last month, and lived to tell the tale. The very nice owners showed me their 100% vegetable oil (so no dairy), and I could see that the kabobs were the only thing on the little grill they were using).

We've also started baking often - practically daily. I pull the chair up to the counter and let the little baker stand on it (while I chant "don't kick, hold on, hold on, don't kick or you'll fall -- I caught the chair in midair once after a kick!). Mostly we've been baking from this new book (I bought my own copy, which is the one I've been using, but I also won a give away, so another is on the way).

The first week, I tried three recipes and had mixed results. I think I need to fiddle with the amount of leavening due to altitude issues. They all tasted wonderful, but I couldn't get a good consistency. I had two really nice creations from the book this week, though -- one of them is a cake (they call it a bar, but it's quite cake-like) made from rice flour, lots of orange juice, and fresh blueberries.

Yum. And it actually looks like a cake! I might try them in muffin cups next time.

And the other, which I made last night and really enjoyed, were little melt-in-your-mouth round cookies (made with corn starch and flavored with chocolate chips), rolled in confectioner's sugar. We ate them all before I could take a photo!

Have I mentioned how much we love the coconut-milk based ice cream from So Delicious? It comes in vanilla (the little guy's favorite, but our grocery store just stopped selling it) and mint chocolate chip (my favorite), among other flavors. I bought some coconut milk and am thinking that once our stock of vanilla flavored ice cream runs out, I might dig out our old ice cream maker and try making some. Because of the cost of the ingredients, it won't really end up that much cheaper than buying it at the store, but it might be our only option since they're not selling it at the local shop anymore. I'm so glad we started eating coconut, despite the whole FDA "tree nut" thing (see what FAAN says about coconut).

I scheduled an allergy appointment for the end of October, when we'll most likely repeat testing and possibly do a trial of wheat. Sorry for the hodgepodge nature of this post, but that's what's new on the allergy/culinary front.

Just checking in

2009-06-18T20:53:00.000-07:00

I haven't felt much like blog posting lately. We've been busy moving into a new house. Allergies have been pretty well in check... just some red rashes around the mouth popping up here and there which I'm hoping can be attributed to play groups rather than new allergies (I figure kids' toys are just swimming in crumbs?). We haven't exactly been doing one new food a week, but we have done some. I think our new foods last week were lettuce (not like I'd been holding off because I suspected an allergen...he just wouldn't try it before) and some delicious dairy-free mint chocolate chip ice cream made from coconut milk. The latter is a new favorite of mine, but "bubba" prefers the plain old soy vanilla stuff. As those of you with tree nut-allergic kids probably know, coconut is technically classified as a tree nut by the FDA for warning label purposes, but actual coconut allergies are apparently quite rare. I was pretty sure he'd had it before as an oil in cooking, and it's an ingredient in his shampoo and soap, so I wasn't too worried. Maybe I can hunt down a "safe" macaroon recipe now.

This week we've tried pineapple (the juice through a straw - he didn't want the bits), with seemingly no ill effects. I also bought some Enjoy Life chocolate chip cookies, but he seemed to want the apple and snickerdoodle varieties we usually buy instead. Picky guy.

I also bought beef to try this week and haven't done it yet. I thought when I cooked it before that it caused eczema, but I think I just read too much online. I keep thinking about articles I've read linking milk protein allergy to reactions from eating beef, and I go and heat up some more chicken for him. Apparently it is only a problem for a small number of people, though. I'm just being silly. And lazy. But we'll try it soon. Tomorrow hopefully, before the beef spoils.

That's about it around here in the allergy department. Nothing terribly exciting.

How are your kids doing?

And then there were none (eating out at restaurants with food allergies)

2009-05-30T16:28:00.000-07:00

Prior to our son's recent allergy testing (which revealed additional allergens), we had two local restaurants that we frequented. I've spoken to the managers at both places, and we order the same thing every time, which they know by heart (but I repeat each time, just in case). Since discovering his allergy to sesame, one of the two restaurants has become a bit more problematic, leaving us with one. We went there today.

The manager is quite the fan of our little boy, always smiling at him and coming over to say hello even when she's not waiting on our table. She repeats our order from memory and asks about his allergies each time. Our order is complicated. It goes something like "We'd like the "saucy" chicken, with no sauce, french fries (which I know are done in a dedicated frier) instead of the rice, with none of the red spice they've recently started sprinkling on the fries (it contains wheat), and with no butter or garlic on the vegetables." Luckily I usually just have to say hello, and they recite the order to me. I hate being the problem customer, but I say it kindly, and figure if it is too problematic, they can tell us not to come back.

Today, when they brought our chicken, it looked like this --

clearly covered in sauce. I explained nicely that it had sauce on it. She disagreed. I kindly insisted it did, wiping some off and showing her. She explained that it was probably just "a little bit." (Red Flag!). I asked if she knew if the sauce they used had wheat (the restaurant does have a gluten free menu). She said it does have soy sauce in it. "Ah, too bad, we can't eat it then." She said a few times that she thought he'd "be OK" with it (I posted about this phrase just last week). And she also offered, quite sincerely and helpfully, to "wash it off" for us. {Insert image of eyes bugging out of head}. Luckily the only allergen likely at issue is wheat, which he has a low score on and might even be able to tolerate at this point, but the idea that an allergen can be washed off of a chicken breast... well, yikes.

She brought us a plain chicken breast, after cleaning the grill (see the difference in color in the second chicken breast?), and I did eat it, but kind of regretted even eating that. Sadly I don't think I'll enjoy eating there anymore, because I can't trust them if I know that's how they view allergies. (He did break out in a small red rash around his mouth afterwards, which went away after a bath. Might have been just touching the highchair, table, etc., the food... who knows).

On a bright note, I've decided we'll just splurge on a nice grill and lose the "Whole Foods guilt" I feel from spending so much money there, reminding myself of all of the dough (ha, pun) I'm saving on restaurant outings!

Have any scary / amusing restaurant incidents to share with us? Leave a comment!

Don't eat the duck pellets

2009-05-27T20:16:00.000-07:00

Well, after my rush of enthusiasm to start an allergy blog, I've already slacked off a bit. We're buying a house this week, so that is my excuse. I didn't really pick one new food to try this week. Last weekend, we tried cherries. Yesterday we tried craisins at a park. Not really foods I feared an allergy to, so I don't feel like I'm sticking with my plan all that well, but I'll try to do beef next week (he's had it before, but I thought it caused eczema. Now that I know he's tested negative to the skin prick, I feel OK about trying it again).

Here is my Crazy Allergy Mama moment of the week: I went to the aviary with my son for a playdate. They have 25 cent duck pellet handfuls from a dispenser. Some of the other kids fed the ducks with the pellets (and one then fed our little guy some food with the same hands she'd just held the pellets with). A nice lady offered to let my son have some of hers, and I had to tell her that although it sounds crazy, I am not sure if he's allergic. On my way out the door, I stopped by the information desk. We frequent the park often, so I figured I might as well ask. (We fed ducks with food at a farm recently, but they sold bags of corn). I asked the woman at the desk if she knew what was in the duck pellets. She went into a lengthy explanation about how she knows it is not the same as dog food, because she checked into that and knows it is different than what she feeds her dog (was she planning to steal the pellets to feed her dog and her plan was waylaid?). I explained that he is allergic to wheat, among other things, and I just am not sure what would be in a duck food pellet. And then, she said...

"I'm sure he will be OK."

Do you hate that phrase as much as I do? I hear it all the time, and it drives me crazy (hence the title of the blog). If you don't know, say you don't know!

(For the record, 5 seconds of googling found me this:

Ingredients
Pellets and starter crumbs for ducks and chickens are basically made from milled wheat plus beans, peas and oil seeds to increase the protein content. Manufacturers are allowed to add a certain amount of re-processed food such as pasta waste.

Source: Call Duck Association (emphasis added)

So, yes, it appears our son is probably allergic to duck pellets. I'm crazy, but I was right.

Feeding a picky toddler with allergies: What DOES he eat?!

2009-05-23T07:31:00.001-07:00

What DOES he eat?! I get this question a lot (and suspect I'll get it more now that his list of allergies has grown a bit). I even prepared a list once to post to my other blog (Chronicle of an Infant Bibliophile), but as it was off topic, I thought nobody would really be all that interested. When I first learned of our son's allergies, though, I googled like mad for lists of suggestions for feeding a toddler with multiple food allergies. So with the thought that this might help other moms, I'll share some of our favorite foods. (Note: Since I am still nursing, I avoid all of his allergens too).

Our son is allergic to wheat, egg, milk, tree nuts, and sesame, and also avoiding peanut.

The Basics / Whole Foods

My first answer when people ask what we eat is a quick list, like: "chicken, rice, potato, vegetables, fruits." People realize, then, that this really isn't "that bad." Your typical meat/potato/veggie meal is free of all of our allergens (watch any sauces or spices).

Sample meals like this, that don't involve any speciality ($$$) purchases, include:

stir fried chicken (we tend to cook it plain, but you could add onion, celery, salt, pepper, etc.), with a side of mixed vegetables (I've developed a bad habit of relying on frozen vegetables, so peas/carrot/corn is a common side here), and frozen french fries (check the ingredients, because some contain wheat, but many are safe) or baked potato.
boneless pork filets (I like to wrap them in foil with a sauce like A-1 and cook them at 300 degrees for 1 hour), fresh white rice, and vegetables, with apple sauce on the side if you'd like.
tacos: use plain chicken, pork, or beef; a safe (not too spicy for a toddler) sauce like salsa; plain corn taco shells (or over nacho chips for a taco salad); lettuce; avocado; corn or other veggies; rice; refried beans. Omit the sour cream and cheese or use soy substitutes. You might need to omit those seasoning packets (I never used those anyway).
burgers (beef, turkey, or lamb, without any egg or breadcrumbs) (you can buy gluten free hamburger buns, but I don't think they're worth the price); serve with ketchup, sweet potato fries, other veggies
turkey, rubbed with canola oil, salt, and pepper and oven baked; serve with (butter- and milk-free) mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, and vegetables
homemade turkey or chicken soup

Other meals like meat loaf, beef stew, or baked chicken can become safe by easily substituting corn or rice flour or corn flakes for the regular flour (I shake beef stew pieces in corn flour, for instance, and coat baked chicken in a rice flour).

Sample snacks:

Fresh fruit (apple, cherries, bananas, pineapple, peaches, etc.) - our son's fav is watermelon
Veggies (carrot and celery sticks, cut up pepper) - my son doesn't eat these as snacks
avocado spread on rice cakes (check your rice cake package warnings carefully - some have peanut cross contamination warnings)
Quaker mini rice cakes, kettle corn flavor (some other flavors aren't safe)
Potato chips (not all brands are safe; our favorite is Lay's reduced salt version which disappeared for awhile but has just recently reappeared)
Nacho chips
Juice. Yes, there's that whole too much sugar thing, but I can't deny him the pleasure of an orange juice squeeze box when there are so many things he can't eat. At home, we dilute juice (usually orange and white grape), but out I let him drink undiluted. I bought him a veggie juice, but we haven't opened it yet.
Popcorn (watch your choking hazard of course)(butter-free; we get a store brand microwave one that is safe).

Specialty Foods

Speciality foods marketed toward those with allergies/intolerances can get pricey, so it's best not to rely on them too heavily, but I don't practice what I preach. Our house is full of these particular items. I think the mark of a good gluten- (or other allergen-) free food is that it could pass for a "normal" snack. To me, these pass that test. I'll link to them on amazon if I can find the item there, so you can see what it looks like and get other information, but we are lucky enough to be able to find most of these at our local grocery store and/or Whole Foods market. I do order a few of them in bulk from amazon.com. Note that the prices on amazon are often for multiple boxes.

Speciality Meats/Meals:

Ian's gluten-free frozen chicken nuggets. We LOVE these. The company offers other gluten-free choices, but I haven't been able to find them locally. I needed to contacted Ian's with a question, and their customer service was fantastic.
Tinkyada rice pasta. There are many brands of rice pasta, but this is the one I saw most often praised on allergy boards, and we enjoy it. Our toddler won't taste it (doesn't seem to like the texture of pasta), but we eat it with red sauce and chicken fairly often.
Precooked chicken from Whole Foods deli. Some might worry about cross-contamination issues from a market grill, but we haven't had any problems (other than wallet depletion). The ones we buy are lemon thyme and rosemary flavored. EDIT: Sadly, I've stopped buying this, because he seemed to keep getting a slight rash around the mouth whenever he ate it.

Specialty Snacks and Sweets:

Freeze dried fruit. Our favorites are Blueberries and Raspberries from "Just Tomatoes" and Brother's All Natural peaches . We buy small snack bags of the Just Tomatoes products, not these big containers Amazon sells. Does anyone know if they stay crispy in the tubs?
Enjoy Life Cookies and Snack Bars. Ones we have in our house at the moment are: snickerdoodle cookies, no-oats oatmeal cookies, caramel apple bars, and sunbutter bars. (Enjoy Life items seem to be on sale everywhere this week, so I'm stocking up on Amazon.com. Whole Foods keeps running out of the flavors we like due to the sale.)
Enjoy Life Chocolate Chips. (They are dairy-free and processed in a facility without nuts. Many chocolate products have nut-contamination issues). I want to try baking more with these after we move. I'm dreaming of a sunbutter, chocolate chip, marshmallow concoction...
Sunbutter. I finally got around to buying a jar of this this week. I am in love.
Applegate farms hotdogs, ham, and other deli meats. The company's website contains a nutrition key code for every item that tells you if it is gluten-, dairy-, casein-, etc.- free when you click on it. We'll be grilling some of these hotdogs on a new grill once we move into our house!
Ener-G Foods Gourmet Crackers smeared with sunbutter or avocado

Specialty Drinks

Soy Dream and Rice Dream make juice-box-like containers of milk that we call "squeezy drinks" around here.

Specialty Baking:

Arrowhead Mills mixes. We use the Gluten-Free Pancake and Baking Mix every day to make gluten-free pancakes for breakfast.
EnerG egg replacer. We use this in our cookies, pancakes, etc. in place of egg.
The Gluten-Free Pantry Mixes. We use the "Old Fashioned Cake & Cookie Mix" to make snickerdoodle cookies with some substitutions.
Cherrybrook Kitchen Gluten Free Vanilla Frosting . Actually, I've never tried this mix. I bought it in a tub at Whole Foods premade, and it was divine.

I hope to do more baking once we've moved, and to get him to eat more variety in his meals. Ian's chicken nuggets are present at just about every meal around here at the moment.

I'm grateful for many things I read online while my son was first struggling with allergies, but one of the best pieces of advice I read was: Read every label every time. Just because something seems safe, even if you buy it every week, you should really get used to checking the label every time you put it in your cart. At least twice, a product that we purchase weekly has become unsafe (a cereal changed its ingredient list and a certain rice cake added a "may contain peanuts" warning).

Sorry that was so lengthy. (It's like that quote, that I've read attributed to many people, including Mark Twain: "If I'd had more time, I'd have written a shorter letter.").

Do you have other snack ideas? We could always use more help! What are your toddler's favorite foods?

RAST scores back

2009-05-22T15:17:00.000-07:00

I received the RAST blood test results back today, and it is time to practice my google skills interpreting them. The good news is that he is not allergic to salmon or shrimp (I hate fish anyway). The slightly bad news is that all of his numbers went up from when he was last tested. That's bad news just because I have read that declining numbers may possibly indicate a likelihood of outgrowing the allergy. His allergist gives fairly little weight to those first scores due to his age at that time, though, so she didn't think it meant he was unlikely to outgrow them.

Basically, his scores reflected allergies to what we expected. The allergist did not test for apple despite me asking her to (Frustrating. But I won't dwell on it) or peanut (which she meant to have checked but is irrelevant for now because there's no way we're giving it to him). His scores were:

Sesame 19.9

Egg 13.5

Milk 6.94

Wheat 3.49

Tree nuts 49 (positive to four different nuts, but cashew and pistachio are the highest)

Basically, anything above .35 is technically a positive (allergic) score, so those are all positive. The higher the number, the more likely he is to react, but it doesn't necessarily tell us anything about the severity of the reaction that he would have. It's difficult to interpret the scores (but you know I will be googling like a fiend trying).

His wheat score is VERY low. It was even lower when he first tested positive (.54). The allergist tells me that a score of 3.49 makes it 95% likely that he can clinically tolerate wheat! She recommends we schedule an in-office challenge (take him in to her office and let him eat a cracker). I'm not sure if I'm comfortable with this or not. If there is only a 5% chance that he's allergic to wheat, then I feel mean depriving him. On the other hand, he reacted on the skin prick test twice (if I understand her correctly, the allergist said that his body could still react to the skin prick even after he can "clinically tolerate" the allergen). I would feel more comfortable if he could talk and tell us if his tongue felt funny or he was itchy or whatever. But, the risk of anaphylactic reactions to wheat are rare at least.

So, that's where we stand. I'll have to decide whether I want to do an in office challenge, and in any case, she'd like to see him back again in 6 months. He actually had a reaction this morning at a coffee shop. He only ate the same safe foods he eats every day (gluten free pancakes, freeze dried blueberries, orange juice), but he broke out in a red blotchy rash all around his mouth. It went away after we got home and I washed his face and hands without benadryl, though. I figured it was wheat from the highchair, table, etc. But I guess it could have just as easily been egg or milk.

This is his back mid-test when I took him for the skin prick last week. That huge one is his egg reaction. The other reactions on the left are wheat, milk, and nuts, and the one on the right is sesame. Poor guy. He never scratched once, though, and (after a super strong steroid cream) was all clear within a few hours.

And we made it up to him the next day (if you don't know how much our son would have enjoyed this tractor ride, check out our other blog, Chronicle of an Infant Bibliophile and our many reviews of books about transportation):

What do you think about trying the in-office challenge? Think we should give it a try?

Midweek check-in and reluctant eater tactics

2009-05-20T20:03:00.000-07:00

We're waiting on our RAST blood test results this week; I was told to call in a week, which would be Friday. I made it until Wednesday to call and ask. I'm weak. The doctor didn't return my call anyway, though. In the meantime, I'm not doing really well with this whole being brave about new foods thing. We found ourselves at a food court today, and I needed to get the little man a snack. I had some freeze dried peaches with me (Brothers Freeze Dried Peaches -- I LOVE these and wish I could get them locally. I buy them in bulk from Amazon). He needed more, though. I ended up buying him a bag of Lay's potato chips, right next to the bag of fresh apple slices and apple juice boxes. I reasoned that I'd be braver once we had the RAST scores back.

Meanwhile, mealtime has gotten increasingly interesting. I can't believe how much an 18 month old is able to negotiate. I've read in general that you're not supposed to set the habit of negotiating about eating, but I'm just so happy to get food into him that I relax the rules a little. Here are some techniques I use lately:

Bribery: "Oh, you want me to read that book? OK, just eat a bite of chicken and I will." I expected this type of reasoning might be necessary when he was, oh, 8! I can't believe I am doing it with an 18 month old. But it works. Almost every time.
Choice: "Here, which of these things would you like a bite of next? (Spread in my hand) Blueberry, chicken, or cereal?" Also an extremely successful tactic.
Telling Daddy: Not in the tattle-tale negative way, but the reverse: "I'm going to tell Daddy what a great job you did, eating chicken off of your fork! I'm going to tell him you ate chicken and peas and rice all by yourself!" This is followed by him grabbing more, shoving it in his mouth, and shouting "DafhrisgshrgA!" (translation: "Dada" with a full mouth).
Hit the road: He sometimes eats better in the stroller. Restaurants are fantastic in terms of motivation, but have become impossible with the number of his allergies lately.
Muffin Tin Monday. I enjoyed participating in "Muffin Tin Monday" (a weekly themed activity run by Her Cup Overfloweth). I posted about it on my other blog (here was our first muffin tin, and here was our second). He enjoyed the novelty of it.
Farewell high chair: We never really had a high chair anyway (just this Fisher-Price Booster Seat ), but I think it has been a couple of months now that we've done every meal on the coffee table with his toys spread around us. He eats standing up. He also frequently runs from the room to play hide and seek while eating. I'm going to give the chair another try when we move into our new house in a few weeks, but I'm fine with this method too. Whatever works. Soon enough he'll be able to sit in a real chair. He can already climb up and sit on the couch.

What techniques do you use on your picky eaters?

New Food Monday

2009-05-18T10:07:00.001-07:00

Welcome to "New Food Monday." I'm going to try to add one new food per week to the little guy's safe foods. It doesn't sound like very much, but I have fallen into a comfortable, safe pattern of feeding him the same foods (chicken, potatoes, rice, blueberries, etc.) every day. When he's a little older, I'm thinking that a new food per week might be a fun game to him, but we'll see about that. One step at a time.

This week we're working on apple. When our son was very young, he broke out in hives one day. He had been eating apple baby food for the first time, so I stopped feeding it to him. When we later got skin prick testing done, he tested negative to apple, but the spot with the testing got extremely red and spread into a big rash. The tester assured us this did not count as an allergy, as the reaction has to be raised up to be a positive reaction, but of course, I, Crazy Allergy Mama, just stopped giving him apple.

Although it seems like a simple food to avoid, it actually has been quite a pain, because apple juice is used as an ingredient in so many pre-packaged gluten-free products, like cookies, waffles, cereal bars, etc. Last week we asked to test for apple again, and the skin prick test once again came back negative. We're awaiting blood test results this week, but I've gone ahead and started giving him Enjoy Life No-Oats Oatmeal Cookies (which contain apple juice). So far so good. He seems to love them. He opens up the box, pulls out the plastic tray, takes a nibble of a cookie, puts it back, grabs another cookie, takes a nibble... Not behavior I would have anticipated myself celebrating, but I'm just happy to see him eating. I'm working my way up to giving him a Caramel Apple Bar and some apple juice (I'll try steamed, diced apples, but I'm guessing he won't eat those).

I know, I'm ridiculously paranoid. What can I say? That's why I'm here. I'm Lynn and I am a Crazy Allergy Mama. But admitting it is the first step, right?

Stopping by for the first time? Comment and say hello!

Introduction

2009-05-17T20:26:00.000-07:00

I'm the mama of a beautiful 18-month old boy who is allergic to wheat, eggs, milk, sesame, and tree nuts. He also has eczema. I have hesitated to start a blog about allergies, because I don't want his allergies to define him. We have a book blog called Chronicle of an Infant Bibliophile focused on his love of books. But, I finally gave in to the lure of creating a new blog, and we'll give this a try and see how it works out.

I've rewritten this first post a few times. I don't want to be negative and harp on his early months of discomfort, but I would like to share his story so that parents of babies with similar symptoms might find some guidance. Nearly everyone that learns of his allergies asks how we first discovered them.

So, here is the short version of our story:

Our son cried and spit up a lot when he was very young. His doctor said we needed to burp him better. When he was approximately three months old (those first few months are a blur), he developed cradle cap, which spread to his face and eventually the rest of his body as eczema. When it didn't clear up with hydrocortisone, and some other mysterious symptoms appeared (related to diaper contents), we insisted on referrals to a pediatric allergist and dermatologist. Testing at around 5 months of age revealed allergies to four different tree nuts and wheat. Since I was nursing him, I eliminated these from my diet (he was being exposed to them through my breastmilk). It took a few visits to the dermatologist, and escalatingly stronger creams, but we got his eczema under control. He still had flare-ups, and occasional hives, but he gained weight well, and has grown into a charming, happy toddler. We moved across country when he was approximately one year old and just had our first allergy appointment in awhile at age 18 months. Skin testing has revealed allergies to wheat, egg, dairy, and sesame, in addition to his existing nut allergies. (We're waiting on the blood test results to see if they match the skin testing).

I had suspected some of these allergies for awhile, so had eliminated them from his diet, along with many other foods out of just plain fear and nervousness. After his latest results, I decided that if he is going to live on a wheat-, egg-, dairy-, nut-, sesame-free diet, then I can't be further limiting him through my own fear of trying new foods.

I started this blog to keep myself motivated to try one new food with him every week (this week is "apple week"), to get support from other allergy moms, and to share the bits of wisdom I've built up so far. "Crazy Allergy Mama" comes from the hat I wear when quizzing waiters at restaurants about food ingredients, scrutinizing box labels for cross-contamination warnings, and running around after him at playgroups to make sure he doesn't put other kids' food in his mouth. I suspect it's a label that many moms of children with allergies can relate to.

This morning my son nibbled on corn flakes and raisins out of my breakfast bowl (I never liked milk in my cereal), had a breakfast of pancakes (gluten-free, egg-free, dairy-free) and freeze dried blueberries, fussed for a few bites of chicken at the market (Whole Foods lemon grilled chicken), came home and had cookies (Enjoy Life "no-oats oatmeal") and a glass of milk (Silk brand vanilla soy). And I couldn't help smiling as he ate. Pancakes. Cookies and milk. I'm getting the hang of this.