Food Allergies &... Well Life I Guess.

For the wheat allergies you can go to the celiac website. Amazon has recipe books (maybe you can modify for child) on gluten free cooking. I, also, have found recipes dairy and wheat free on line. Just google gluten and dairy free recipes.

Hi Marcei,

My son has a severe peanut allergy and by choice, I've removed gluten (wheat) and almost all dairy from his diet. We removed the gluten and dairy from his diet about five months ago. It wasn't as hard as I thought it was going to be. I just had to change my way of thinking. First, I shop at Whole Foods because they have a really good selection of gluten and nut free items. Also, I found a wonderul website (http://www.elanaspantry.com) which has tons of gluten and diary free recipes. Elana does use almond flour, so if your child also has an almond allergy, that won't work. I also have 15 month old twins. I have not given them gluten or dairy. Can your child tolerate goat's milk? That is what I give my son and my twins. It's easier to digest than cow's milk. The protein in goat's milk is more like the protein in human breastmilk. Since all of my kids are on this diet, I'm doing this for the whole family. It's just easier.

Here are a few examples of what my babies eat: gluten free oatmeal with applesauce and bananas, eggs, avocados, chicken, veggies, sweet potatoes, rice noodles (tinkyada brand). I also recently discovered quinoa. I cook 1 cup of quinoa in coconut milk (1 can of whole foods brand) for about 10 minutes. During the last 5 minutes or so, I add diced apple and dried cranberries. Then, I let it cool and put it in the food processor. If you need more ideas or have questions, feel free to email me.

Lastly, I also had my son treated for his peanut allergy using NAET. You can find out more info at http://www.naet.com. It's basically an accupressure treatment to eliminate the allergy. We have not exposed him to peanuts since his treatment, but it's my hope that if he is exposed again, his reaction will be less severe (last time, he had anaphylactic shock).

Hope this helps and good luck!
C.

I wish you good success in dealing with the allergies. The main bit of advice I can offer is become an avid reader of labels on everything you buy. Peanuts and peanut products are in so much that we eat. I think the only product that is more pervasive is the high fructose corn syrup which is in "everything"! Don't assume because it doesn't seem to be something that would contain peanuts that it doesn't. We have a person in our family who is allergic to corn, and what a surprise I had when I found high fructose corn syrup in saltine crackers! I believe the pervasiveness of that in products is what has brought on the allergy to corn in the first place.

As far as your little one wanting to eat table food rather than baby food... let him! You will need to be sure it is in small enough bites, pureed or whatever for him to handle it well, but if that's how he wants to eat there should be no problem with it. I would avoid carrots for several months yet, as there is something in regular carrots that comes from the ground they are grown in that is supposed to be harmful to very young children. Baby food companies grow those in special soil so their food is Ok for the babies. Otherwise I don't know of anything (other than no honey prior to one year of age) that you need to avoid. If you were to puree some table food and do a taste test between that and the same type of food from a baby food jar, I think you'd agree with your son that the table food is much better.

My 1.5 year old son never did eat baby food. I tried buying it, I tried making it from scratch, I tried all sorts of baby food cookbooks but he never wanted the pureed version of anything. Since he started eating solids, he has eaten what we are eating, but cut up really small.

I fed my kids baby jar food very infrequently. I mashed up what we ate. When the kids were little my husband and I ate lots of squash and sweet potatoes.
I read everything on lables of foods. My daughter has a rice allergy, among other things, like soy.
We have a list of restaurants she cannot go to, KFC, CiCi's. She has never had an anaphalactic shock to anything yet.
THere are food stores not that cater to the gluten free diets too. Check and see if there are any in your area.

It sounds like you've got a lot of good websites to go to. My son used to eat a PB&J about once a week for several months and was fine. My hubby then started giving him cashews, unknown by me. He broke out in a rash around his mouth and it took the ped, derm and finally an allergist to determine it was a mild peanut alergy. It was the combination of nuts at almost 2 that caused it. We cut out peanut butter and the rash went away, poor kid he loved peanut butter. For a while I used butter as a replacement and so he thinks butter is peanut butter. Someone told me about soy nut butter and now he gets soy nut butter and jelly sandwiches. He likes it a lot. He still thinks butter is peanut butter and he calls soy nut butter "honey". =) Definately read labels. I was giving him Natures way oat and honey granola bars for months (no outbreaks) and then realized they do have some peanut in them. I still give him those occasionally because he's never had a reaction to them. Chocolate/candy is the hardest though. M&M says may contain peanut. He's been fine with the plain. Watch out for Sees candy though, their chocolate is laced with peanut oil.

I don't have allergies in my house, but several people I know do, and they love the website called LivingWithout.com.

Good luck!

My son is allergic to dairy, eggs, and several nuts, including peanuts. It was hard in the beginning, but we did figure out how to work around it and now he eats tons of things. He's 2.5, but we found out at about 10 months.
Check out foodallergy.org for great resources.
I love the cookbook What's To Eat, which is all dairy, egg and nut free recipes. They may contain wheat though, so look carefully and substitute as needed.
Whole Foods and Sprouts markets have some good choices for allergy-free foods. The brand Enjoy Life is all free of the top 8 allergens (including the three your son has) and Ian's brand also makes SOME allergy free products. Just make sure you are checking the labels, because not all products will be safe.

There is a group on CafeMom for parents of kids with food allergies and asthma - you should check it out.

K.
http://oc.citymommy.com
http://www.discoverytoyslink.com/karenchao

My son has milk allergy and I found the website http://www.godairyfree.org/ helpful. It has a recipe section and I've just substituted things. I personally had to go through a wheat-free period in my life to help with some stomach issues and "spelt" flour works pretty well as a substitute to wheat flour for making foods also. You can find it at any health food store. As for my son, he just started stage 3 foods (he's 8 months also) so I'm having to make most of his food now due to the ingredients in the store-bought ones. It's pretty easy to make your own baby food, and then you never have to worry about the ingredients. He has no problem being interested in food though. Once your son is introduced to a food group, if it's in your dinner, just puree it up and serve it to him. That way he'll still be eating what you're eating, but in a form good for him :)

By the way, FYI, my son also has an allergy to peas, and my pediatrician told me to watch out b/c they are in the same food group as peanuts. So you may want to avoid peas with your son too.

There's a book called "Sophie Safe Cooking." I'm not sure who the author is, but if you can't find it then send me a note and I'll find out for you. The author's daughter is allergic to the Big 8, and she wanted to find recipes that the whole family could eat. I've made a few of the recipes and they are pretty darn good!

As far as eating your food, that's absolutely fine, as long as it's either soft enough that he can chew easily or small enough that he can't choke on it. My LO has been eating off of my plate since about seven or eight months.

Good luck to you -

H.

I can't remember if Udi's is dairy free, but we have severe wheat and nut allergies in my house and that is our favorite brand of bread products by FAR. It's the first bread I've found that's gluten free and worth making a sandwich with. So far I've only been able to find it in the freezer case at Market Street, and they have muffins and pizza crust too that are good.
There's a blog: gfdfw.blogspot.com that I look at for stuff in the area. She doesn't update it every day but it's got some good info. Amazon.com sells lots of groceries. And for cookbooks, our favorite author is Jennifer Cinquepalmi. She's got 2 out and they're both full of great food.

And yes about the big kid food. :) Some kids decide early that they are not babies anymore and only want to eat what you're eating. I'd say just roll with it and try to keep a balanced diet.

Hi Marcel,

Our second child has multiple food allergies as well. Holidays, birthday parties and vacations will all be a challenge. Looks like you already got quite a few recommendations for cookbooks and websites. There's an on-line support group for parents that I found incredibly helpful with learning to live with food allergies: www.kidswithfoodallergies.org. If you become a member, they have a SF Bay Area subgroup that is good for getting in touch with other local parents.

Good luck!
-D.

My 10 yo daughter has food allergies as well, to peanuts, and shellfish, and also to chocolate. She'd been allergic to milk,eggs and tree nuts as well when she was younger, but she's outgrown those.

We survived her toddler years with soy nut butter, which used to be available through Trader Joe's. They discontinued carrying it when the recession hit, but my husband found out the name and web site of the company that makes it, so we've been ordering it directly from them. There website is:
http://www.soynutbutter.com/

We have also found a company that makes chocolate that is peanut and tree nut free. They are Vermont Nut Free Chocolates, and their website is:
http://www.vermontnutfree.com/

I'm happy to help support companies that make an effort to provide products for folks who have food allergies. So many of the larger companies make no effort to.

One last lifesaver we found was a cookbook that had a fantastic cake recipe that was egg and dairy free. I think the title is "What's to Eat? The Milk-Free, Egg-Free, Nut-Free Food Allergy Cookbook". My daughter's third birthday was the first one where I was able to make a cake that was tasty, and all due to this cookbook.

Good luck!
L.

As long as he doesn't have celiac's disease, I can give you some ideas for wheat alternatives. You can substitute Brown Rice pasta for regular pasta. I would get the Tinkyada brand, as I've found they have the best texture and the whole family will eat it. You can substitute spelt flour for wheat flour in any recipe, just make sure you get some xanthum gum for your baked goods. It will help keeps your cookies and other baked goods together as spelt flour tends to be a little crumbly due to less gluten. As for milk, you can substitute Rice milk or soy milk.

Hi there,

I can't help with the allergies part of your question, but maybe with the not wanting baby food. My little one started on "solid" pureed food at 6 months and went along with it for a month or two. Then she became less and less interested in it and just refused to eat it for about 2 months! So, she was exclusively breastfed when she was a year old. I tried every day, several times, to offer her food, but she always rejected it. Ugh!

Finally, we offered her Oatios (like Cheerios) and other little things she could pickup herself. That got her eating. I don't know if it was the consistency or that she didn't like being fed -- that she wanted to do it herself. (I never forced her, just think she wanted to be in control) There are lots of soft foods that you can cut into little pieces that he can pick up and much on himself.

Here is a site our pediatrician suggested. We didn't go this route because we were beyond this phase by the time she suggested it, but it's worth investigating. www.baby-led.com

Good luck!

H.