Back at it

Heloooo my 3 readers! Hahaa. I stopped blogging once I was put on bed rest because I had a lot of resting to do :). Since my last post I delivered a healthy baby girl ( with an experience worth it's own entire blog about *grumpy face*) and returned back to work. My 3yo is back in daycare and we're on the same food calendar schedule as the daycare is. I've been a bit lazy and havent been keeping up in trying to make her food "match" her friends but I'm getting there. There seems to be even less time in the day to prepare meals when you have another kid to care for.
Gwen is doing well on her restrictions, she's had a birthday since my last post and enjoyed her vegan, gluten free, soy free cake very much. We've attended other birthdays and I attempted to prepare her substitution "cake" for those and it went well also. She's a little trooper about all of this. I have new pictures of her rash to post. (dont mind her messy room!) It seems to be clearing up still, so I hope that with continued efforts in keeping her diet clean, it will be gone sometime next year!

There are a few darker, raised red spots on her lower arm but it's because she continues to pick at the rash as it scabs. I get so frustrated and tell her it's making it worse but it's become a habit now, I think.

My stomach has decided to start acting up lately. I went to my regular doctor and got an ultrasound of my entire abdomen and pelvis. They reported that everything looks normal. Well, that's fantastic except for the fact that I don't feel normal. I made an appointment for our Naturopath and will ask to do my food allergy blood test, if he agrees that is what is causing my pain and discomfort. It's really frustrating getting older. My body is just reacting so differently to everything. Especially post-baby. I'm not losing weight as easily as I did with my first, exercising hurts worse and the soreness lasts longer than before, and now my guts just stopped accepting everything I chose to eat. I have a feeling I have an allergy that Gwen doesnt, since I stick pretty close to her diet and still am having issues.  My husband plans on getting his food allergy test done as well after mine. I'm also going to ask about the baby too. Just like my 3yo, she has major spit up that gets everywhere ALL the time no matter what we try. We've tried several different kinds of formula and nothing seemed to make any difference. Hopefully the doctor will have some suggestions for formula to buy or maybe make ourselves (because I have so much extra time for that.....)
This looks to be quite the life-long journey and is just beginning. Hopefully I can get more creative with quick and easy recipes to keep everyone happy. In the meantime, if you havent already, please check out my sisters' and my website! Its growing and changing still so there should be plenty of interesting and new things on there all the time relating to all of this allergen craziness!

www.webringourowncake.com

One month! Detox complete?

Yay we made it through a whole month of food allergy elimination dieting! Gwen has done an amazing job and continues to eat whatever I can come up with for her. Some days she likes it, other days not so much. So I am still learning. One thing I need to work on is keeping snacks available in the car and in my purse for weekends and unplanned shopping trips etc. She also hasn't seemed to like any of the snack cracker/chips that I pack for her at school. They keep sending them home with notes saying she didn't like them.

I got the March meal calendar for her school. There was much copying and pasting from this month and even some things duplicated throughout the week. I haven't looked at her final printed version but when she emailed it to me, the cook had pizza scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday next week, and chicken noodle soup for 2 days the following week. If she didn't correct this, then at least it will be easy meal planning for me! Just make double batches this weekend and I'll be set!

Gwen has been liking to help me in the kitchen alot. Usually just stirring or pouring things for me. It doesn't seem to get her any more or less excited about her food. She just likes to help!

Her rash continues to look about the same,which is still much better than it was a month ago.

My lesson learned from last week is to stay away from gluten at the very least. It appears I can have some chocolate if there's no gluten in it, and some ice cream and some cream in my coffee. Let's face it, I'm almost 8 months pregnant and there were some theories I desperately needed to test when Gwen wasn't around! I'm ok with just keeping the portions of these things small just to satisfy a craving for a while. I had some girlscout cookies last week and after just 3 got a bad headache. Then I continued to eat them and added on a pizza later. The headache only got worse and turned into a 3 day long migraine that I could not get rid of. I will stay away from those things and from eating large portions of food that might possibly give me a problem. It may taste good momentarily but the side effects last much longer than the gratification. If only everyone on a diet experienced bad side effects when they ate the bad food, it would be so easy for everyone to lose weight!

My doctor said I only gained 2oz in the last two weeks, even after my pizza and cookie bender last weekend. That was exciting. I'm positive I'm gaining all the appropriate baby weight while possibly shedding some excess fat from eating all this healthy food.

Here's to a great and healthy March for all!

Day 21

3 weeks in the books! My daughter has been completely Wheat/Dairy/Egg/Soy/Legume free for 3 weeks today and we have all survived! She has thinned out and her rash has thinned out as well. It, as well as her, are not as red and puffy as usual. The lines of the rash have thinned out and are closer to her skin and closer to skin tone than before. Only one time since she's gotten this rash has it gotten better like this, and last time was with super high powered steroid cream that only thinned the skin itself and never actually got rid of the rash. 

Yes it is still there and still prominent but believe it or not, it is better.

I still get overwhelmed sometimes with all this cooking. I'm still not entirely used to it but am getting better. I struggle with time management and portions. For time management, I have been coming home from work around 5 on weekdays and head straight to the kitchen to prepare dinner/breakfast and lunch for that evening and the following day. I usually try to make that night's dinner match the lunch for school the next day and make enough to eat for both. For portions, it seems I either only make enough us all for dinner and for Gwen and I to have enough for lunch and my poor husband is on his own. Or the alternative is I make enough for about 26 people and much of it goes to waste. And it seems the days when I make too much are the meals that none of us are too excited about. So it really goes to waste. 

Being 7 months pregnant, I am tired every single night but I make cooking my first priority. A few times in the last 3 weeks, I got home later than 5:30 and ended up having to stay up late to get all the food made for the next day. This week has been better, I did some more prep work over the weekend (the holiday helped too) and have batters ready in the fridge for breakfast stuff. But I still do feel a little trapped and panicky sometimes. I'm not able to see friends, do any extra curricular activities or do any type of shopping (grocery, baby or otherwise) on weeknights or meals get screwed up. I try to play with my daughter while I'm cooking and some nights she likes to help out.

I'm still figuring out how to not have this cooking thing rule my whole life. I'm sure it will be figured out soon. In the meantime I still try to make things special and fun. I had breakfast at my daughters daycare for Valentines day. I made special heart pancakes for us thinking she'd get a kick out of it. She could have cared less lol. I know that putting in extra effort and details can go completely unappreciated by her but I'd rather try and have her not care, than not try at all. 

For Valentines evening I made a big batch of chicken nuggets to keep some in the freezer to have on hand. That came in handy for lunches over the weekend. They were yummy and I could tell she missed them so that I at least know she did appreciate. 

So far for these three weeks I've only cheated at that Baby Shower that I regretted big time the next day, and last Friday I got myself some See's candies. I didnt have coffee at all on Saturday, and had a migraine all day Saturday, Sunday and Monday. So I might have to re-try this chocolate thing and see if that's what caused the migraine or if it was missing one day's dose of one shot of coffee...... :)

Donuts in the break room

Yes. The announcement was made at 8:30 am today. There are donuts in the break room. I normally do not particularly enjoy donuts. I really only like berry jelly filled powdery ones so I'm usually not tempted. I walked in to re-fill my water and saw a box full of berry jelly filled powdery donuts. With Monday's food hangover still fresh in my memory, I just sighed and decided to grab my snack. Here is my answer to you, Donuts in the break room!

A bucket full of strawberries shall do just fine. (It pays to be prepared!)

Also, a side note to my last post: That mayo recipe did NOT work. It was just milky oil, it never thickened. I'm not sure if that's due to not using a hand mixer throughout the process, or if it's due to using coconut milk as a substitute to their suggested Soy...maybe I will try again another day. I added it to the chicken "salad" anyways and added a little vinegar for flavor. It was ok, but nothing remarkable.

Cause + Effect

Happy Monday!

We have successfully survived week 1 of the "elimination" part of our diet. I am continually coming across hurdles to find substitutes for things that normally are completely simple to pick up at the store or make at home. Tomorrow, my daughter's daycare is having Chicken Salad Sandwiches for lunch. Not only do I have no clue what I will do about bread, but I had no clue where to start finding/making mayo for the chicken salad part. (Every mayo I've come across and recipe I've found has eggs.) Thank goodness for the internet. That's all I have to say. I don't know what we would do if we didn't have recipes at the tips of our fingers! Here is my latest find that I will be attempting tonight:

Dairy + Egg Free Mayonnaise:
(I found this on Gluten Free Day.com but substituted the milk)

Makes about 1/2 cup Mayo

- 1/4 cup Milk (coconut or rice)
- 2 tbls lemon juice
- pinch of salt (to taste)
- 3/4 cup oil (saffron or coconut?)
- Spices (to taste)

Mix everything together first before adding oil. Add oil slowly while mixing until thick.

Sounds simple. Hopefully it will be and will taste good!I have not perfected the art of food photography. I'm not sure if I should continue to take pictures for the blog because so far they all seem pretty unappetizing (but taste so much better than they look!) Like this one.

This is my homemade sweet & sour meatballs. Looks pretty gross but it was delicious! I used my mom's recipe and adjusted a few details to make it allergy friendly. My daughter devoured it for lunch and then a few nights later requested it for dinner again.

Throughout the week our biggest struggles seemed that through the Detox process, Gwen was having some terrible diapers accompanied by some terrible moods. I was really hoping it was due to detox and not a long stretch of "terrible twos" about to hit. Her moods seemed to level out by Friday night and was pretty much an angel all weekend. Thankfully! She slept a little bit better so we all were in better moods and sleeping better.

This successful week was followed by an action packed weekend. I took Gwen to her cousins allergy friendly Tea Party where the girls got to dress up fancy and do fancy arts and crafts. She had a blast (and was very well behaved I might add!) then from there we went to her Big Sister class at the hospital. They had snacks at the class but since they were graham crackers she could not participate. This was the first time she's been left completely out of something. I felt terrible but luckily my sister let me pack some food from the tea party, so I just told her that I had a muffin for her in the car when the class was through. She just said "Ok" with a smile and that was that. She did not cry or ask why she couldn't participate. I'm so proud of her.

Yesterday I went to a friend's Baby shower. I had considered cheating a few times during the week and having chocolate or something dairy filled but decided to save all of the cravings for Sunday, since I wouldn't have Gwen with me I could eat a little more free and not feel as sneaky. I felt like a kid in a candy store.  It was a long buffet line of everything "naughty". (In reality I was a pregnant lady at a buffet. Enough said.) Homemade mac n cheese, crackers, cheese cubes, cupcakes, quiches, basically eggs, dairy and gluten everywhere. I even had a chocolate peanut butter cupcake to add every allergen onto my plate. I figured if one thing on my plate would make me sick, why not enjoy everything.

Well, I didn't enjoy it for very long. Just a few short minutes after I started my gluttonous feast, my body started protesting. I got a headache and body aches, instantly I felt exhausted and my stomach felt like it was trying to expand outside of my body.

For this whole week I wasn't sure if I had any or all of the allergies my daughter did. I wasn't sure I felt any different being on this diet. Saturday was the first day I felt very happy and had alot of energy but I wasn't sure if it was because the sun was shining and my husband let me be able to sleep in. Now I have my answers. Since I jam packed my plate with everything, I'm not sure which food caused which side effect but I know now that "cheating" is totally not worth it. At our visit a few weeks ago, the doctor likened food allergies to drinking alcohol. People don't have to completely avoid them, but if they chose to eat what they shouldn't  they will be fully aware of the consequences shortly after. Like drinking 2 bottles of wine. You learn after the first time of doing it that there are consequences and if you ever chose to drink 2 bottles of wine again, you will know exactly what to expect the next morning. I completely have a dairy/egg/gluten hangover today and feel I've learned my lesson. Now I'm excited to let my body detox again so I can feel as happy and healthy as I did on Saturday.

Soy no more!

Jumping headfirst into a crazy type of elimination diet has felt like jumping headfirst into a tornado. So many labels to read, so many ingredients to avoid but luckily also so many alternative ingredients to find and use. I’ve never been a consistent cook but so far I’ve been planning and preparing meals for the week going on 4 days now and am very encouraged and proud of myself. So far everything is turning out very tasty and my family is eating it! We still struggle with being hungry a few hours after a meal but have enough fruit and Trader Joes snacks that we’ve been doing alright.

            While clearing out our pantry of food we can no longer eat and the first day of grocery shopping trips (3 stores in one morning to find everything on my list), the biggest shock to me was Soy. When on earth did Soy start being added to EVERYTHING?! And did this happen with no one noticing? It is in every single can of Tuna Fish in the regular grocery store. TUNA!? My pregnancy has given me a bit of a paranoid personality for some reason, but I feel that a Soy conspiracy theory at this point is not being overly paranoid. I wouldn’t have to make as much from scratch if it wasn’t for Soy being everywhere.

What I’ve come to understand is that the soy bean plant is cheap and effective. Because it is so cheap and effective, it has been genetically modified to produce more, thrive in the midst of being covered in pesticides, and stripped down for use of every single particle and excrement of the plant. The main use for it, I’m finding, is that it’s an emulsifier. Take the tuna for example. Soy is added to carry the consistency of the fish oil and water together, so that it fully covers all parts of the can and doesn’t let any of it dry out. So the fact that this plant is a great marketing tool for keeping food looking good and is cheap has led to its production and insertion into everything we eat. People don’t realize how much soy they consume on a regular basis. The fact that it mimics estrogen in the body and screws up our natural hormones frightens me. So having it show up with a high reaction on my daughters chart is very exciting for me! I’m glad to clear our systems of this genetically modified, toxin sprayed, sneaky food additive.

Ok, off that soapbox.

On Sunday night my sisters and I prepped some dough and batter for the week to help save time. It has been extremely helpful as I get home from work around 5:00pm and my daughter’s bed time is 7:00. We made dough for biscuits and pizza and also pancake mix.

Here are some recipes! (Big thanks to my sisters)  

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Gluten Free Biscuits

Ingredients
1½ cups superfine white or brown rice flour plus more for rolling
¾ cup tapioca or potato starch (not potato flour)
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon kosher or fine sea salt
6 tablespoons cold fat (such as butter, Earth Balance or shortening. I used Coconut Oil), cut into small pieces
¾ cup milk (any kind including dairy free. I used Coconut)

Directions
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicon baking mat.
Whisk together the flour, starch baking powder and salt. Cut the fat into the flour either with a pastry cutter, two knives or by rubbing the fat into the flour with your fingers. Make sure you leave some larger pieces of fat. Add the liquid, starting with ½ a cup and gradually adding a little more at a time, mixing until the dough comes together. Put a little flour on a work surface and dump out the dough. Knead 3 or 4 times then either roll or pat it out to about ½ inch thick. Cut into biscuits using a 2 ½ inch cookie cutter. You can gently reform the dough to cut more biscuits. Place the biscuits on the prepared baking sheet and bake for 20 minutes or until lightly browned. Serve warm.

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Gluten Free Pizza Dough:  http://www.food.com/recipe/gluten-free-pizza-crust-44487

Here's how mine turned out! (Toppings: SunDried tomato chicken sausage, red peppers and mushrooms)

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And for the Rice Pancakes:

1 cup (rice or gluten free Oat) flour

2TBLS honey/syrup

1/2 tsp salt

1 egg (I used a banana instead as the binding ingredient)

1 cup (rice or coconut) milk/water

2tsp oil

Vanilla

I used the Oat flour, Coconut Milk and Banana replacements and they tasted like Banana Bread Pancakes! So yummy!

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So for these first 2 school days, I’ve been able to very closely match my daughters food to that of what they are serving in her class. Yesterday was Cereal from the Organic/Natural food store for breakfast, Quinoa Chicken Soup and biscuits for lunch and some Trader Joe's rice chips for snack. Today was oatmeal for breakfast, gluten/dairy/egg/soy free pizza for lunch and they are having fruit and veggies for snacks. I'm a little worried that this has been almost too easy. I hope it's just because my whole family has taken our little family under their wings and are walking us through it right. I'm so thankful for them! I'm sure I'd still be floundering and packing plain rice and sausage for lunch every day feeling too overwhelmed to even know where to start if it wasn't for all their help! So I will continue this positive and productive energy and keep the food coming for my family and wait for hopefully positive results to show up. In my daughter's rash, in our families energy and our health.

Entering the Blog Hole...

Hi, My name is Nicole and I am a 28 year old Wife, Mom, Paralegal, and most recently now, Blogger! Not only am I new to blogging but I'm also brand new to food allergies and that is going to be my main focus on this blog. So, as of now the only recipes I have to share are from my sisters. They have both had to make radical changes to their diets along with their entire families and have been living this way for a little over a year now. I have much to learn!

A few different things have led me to this point. Most importantly, my daughter Gwen. She is 2.5 years old and as of yesterday we found out is allergic to Dairy, Eggs, Soy, Wheat, Grains, and Legumes. Luckily, they are not life threatening allergies but the wrong foods drastically affect her mood and the outcome of her diapers.

Gwen

Little things led us to her current doctor that we love and who helped us find this out. From her having bad acid reflux as a baby and trying all types of formula to no avail, her re-occurring bouts of diarrhea that would have her missing out on daycare and me missing out on work, and finally her rash on her left arm that has been there for 2 years. The pediatrician ordered a regular food allergy blood test which came back with nothing. Their only instruction was to make sure she stayed hydrated and referred us to a dermatologist. The dermatologist only delved skin deep into the issue (hehe) and never did any type of follow up research. We went 4 times over the last 2 years wondering when that rash was ever going to go away. Every single time  the doctor said it looked like Linear Epidermal Nevi or Lichen Striatus. One should go away in a year, the other may never go away at all. That's it. They didn't continue to research anything or want to take a biopsy. Each visit they prescribed a different level of steroid creme until the last visit, they said the steroid would thin out her skin too much in case we wanted to actually do a biopsy later. So they gave us an ointment and sent us on our way once again to wait and see if it would go away this year. At this point as a mother I was livid. My daughter wasn't born with this rash on her arm so I refuse to accept the possibility of it remaining there for the rest of her life because one doctor wouldn't do anything or look into it any further.

Meanwhile over the last year, my oldest sister went through the process of finding out the allergies of her whole family and removing those things from their diets resulting in the clearing of my nephew's severe all-over rash and the increase of their overall health and happiness. She packs her kids' lunches every day and takes their own muffins/cupcakes to birthday parties and never complains because she knows the benefits of keeping foods that are toxic to their bodies out. It almost fully eradicated the terrible twos from my niece and  will probably prevent them from my nephew. She herself lost a ton of weight and is in the best shape and health of her life.

When I decided to stop going to the dermatologist and find somewhere else to turn, I went to her Naturopath. He had cleared my nephews rash and is extremely knowledgeable about how food can affect the body so it seemed like the best next choice.


Helping herself to breakfast at Grandmas: pre-alergy test results


Boy was I right! With just the first visit, Gwen was sent for an extensive blood panel for non-life threatening food allergies, taken off dairy and he said he would be doing more research into the rash and her previous diagnosis! An answer! A suggestion! A "next step" has finally been offered!

Within 2 days of having zero dairy in her diet, Gwen's mood was already better. Daycare said she was playing much nicer with her friends. Even with her cousins she stopped being aggressive and was sharing better. She stopped fighting with me as much (She's still 2, it would to take a whole lot more to stop her fighting completely than just eliminating dairy!) and she stopped snoring completely. She used to snore so badly that I recorded it with the intent of bringing her to an ENT doctor some day. It sounded like sleep apnea or just plain choking. Now it's completely vanished.                                     
                           
3 Weeks went by and she started having some pretty bad days. Bad diapers and bad moods. Finally the results came in and we found out why. Her reactions to Dairy, Eggs, Wheat, Grain, Soy and Legumes were almost off the chart. She'd had exceptionally bad moods the previous day and I realized she had a bunch of eggs for breakfast that morning. It's amazing how everything started making sense. No changes in her rash yet, but the doctor said that will take more time and he is still doing research into it. (Still a great answer!)

Now, we begin our lifelong journey of what we CAN eat. My husband and I decided we will make this a family effort, keeping the foods out of the house that affect her (and probably us too, we haven't gotten our own blood tested yet and the doctor said her reactions could be genetic) and exploring all the ways to substitute the foods we will crave and miss. Luckily she is young enough that she shouldn't miss too much. I am 6.5 months pregnant with our 2nd girl, so she wont be missing anything either :)

                                            
                                                              (old photo) Our Family
My hope is to fill this blog with great ideas, recipes, links, research etc. to help anyone who wants it. I am so very lucky to have my sisters and my parents to help me along, hopefully this can be as helpful to people who don't have living resources in the next town over. So please keep reading if you or your loved ones have food allergies or if you just want to eat healthier! This is not a diet, this is a complete lifestyle makeover and we are in this together.

Thanks for reading my first blog post ever!