Adventures in allergy-free cake baking

Disclaimer: I am sharing our story to share our story, and am not offering medical or food allergy advice.

A couple of weeks ago, we discovered that Bulk Barn has a glutenfree white cake mix. Generally people with allergies need to stay clear of bulk foods, but now that we’re not as concerned with potential cross-contamination with tree nuts (or so I thought) or anaphylaxis (or so I thought), we figured it was an easy way to make an allergyfree cake for Moses.

Ingredients:

• sugar, potato starch, tapioca flour, whole grain sorghum flour, baking powder (monocalcium phosphate, bicarbonate of soda, cornstarch), sea salt, xanthan gum, natural vanilla powder (sugar, cornstarch, vanilla extract).

Just add:

• egg replacer, vegetable oil and water (but we added almond milk instead because Moses has been drinking almond milk daily for the last several months).

All safe ingredients for Moses (although not the best for him since the first ingredient is sugar).

Our cake kind of looked like this. Recipe and photo credit for the Best White Cake (but not GF) here.

Take 1

We made it for the first time a couple of weeks ago to bring to a birthday party and added some allergy-free chocolate chips to them. We didn’t even need to make any icing. Moses thought it was delicious. We were thrilled!!!!!!!  Yay!!  Moses can eat cake, and it’s easy for us to make!!! He acted like a crazy maniac after eating it (Moses doesn’t do well on sugar), but we didn’t care too much because when we go to birthday parties, we want him to be able to eat cake. Big success!

We put some of it in the freezer to save for another day.

Take 2

A couple of days ago, I gave Moses a tiny bit of the cake as an extra treat. He complained that his tongue was itchy and we told him to wash his mouth out with water. We didn’t know if it was a fluke (since he didn’t react to the same cake a couple of weeks ago), and didn’t think much of it.

Take 3

So then yesterday, I gave Moses a bit more of the cake (I’d completely forgotten about the fact that it had made his tongue itchy the day before), and right away, he told us that his tongue was itchy again.

My boy is such a character…  As he was rinsing his mouth out with water, spitting water into the toilet (easier for him to reach than the sink), he yelled out, “Dad, you still make the best cakes ever!”

Then within minutes, his lips were completely swelled up. Uh oh.

Thankfully, his tongue didn’t swell and he had no other allergy symptoms. We immediately gave him some Benadryl and Aerius, and went directly to the ER. Within about an hour, the swelling of his lips had subsided. They also gave him Decadron (a corticosteroid and anti-inflammatory).

We all stayed in pretty good spirits the entire time. DH and I didn’t panic, and Moses remained in good spirits as well.

The next day

But, now that it’s the next day, DH and I are kind of going WTF?! This was Moses biggest allergic reaction for a long, long time.

What did he react to? Was it because the cake mix was cross-contaminated with something? What was that something? Did he react to the almond milk? (But, since he drinks almond milk daily, it shouldn’t be that). Obviously, we’re going to stay clear of buying cake mix at the Bulk Barn, but should we also cut down on his almond milk?

I should mention Moses very rarely actually eats almonds (he generally doesn’t like the taste), but a couple of weeks ago, I gave him 4 almonds and he immediately had severe stomach pains afterwards and diarrhea (whereas, he’s eaten them before with no ill effects).

I tried to get a hold of Moses’ allergist, but she’s out of town for a month, and the earliest appointment that we can make is in December! I also tried his pediatrician and we can see her in a month’s time.

So this is our plan…

• No more Bulk Barn cake mix (or bulk foods for that matter);
• No more whole almonds;
• Back to being hyper-vigilant about potential cross-contamination with tree nuts; and
• Continue to give him almond milk once a week (but cut it back from giving it to him daily). We’re going to do this because when we told our allergist that we’d given Moses a break from eating peanuts for 6 months because I thought he was sensitive to it (after he’d passed the peanut challenge), she had told us to NEVER EVER EVER again give him a break from eating peanuts because we run the risk of turning peanuts into a potential anaphylactic risk. She says that it’s much better to continue to let his body have a little bit of it every once in a while rather than cut it out completely. For this reason, we don’t want to stop giving him almond milk (unless done under advisement from his allergist), since his body seems to be used to it. (By the way, Moses is back to being able to eat organic peanut butter with no problems).

Heilkunst view

I asked his Heilkunstler about it and she wondered whether it was the type of almond (i.e., Moses might have negatively reacted to the whole almonds because of the pesticides — I can’t remember if they were organic or not), or the freshness of them. He may be super-sensitive to anything fungal, or slightly rancid oils in the nuts. That would explain his negative reaction to eating the 4 almonds, but why did he react to the cake?

Moses just started clearing the carcinosin miasm (cancer chronic miasm) and I wondered if he’s just extra sensitive at the moment (he’s just getting over a healing reaction related to the first powder — night terrors, flu-like symptoms).

His Heilkunstler replied:

Carcinosin tackles the super-sensitive state, as it removes the sacrificial state of mind.  Sensitivity comes when a person doesn’t have robust boundaries because their sense of self is weak, so they don’t know what is them and what isn’t, so they have a hard time keeping “not me” things out, or have super-sensitive boundaries that over-react to keep EVERYTHING out.

Treating this round of Carcinosin will help to ground him in his sense of self and thus help with the allergies, though while he is working on it his sensitivity may flare up at times.  The best foods for this state are vegetables (especially greens), fruit and light protein, and to avoid grains/sugar as much as possible.

Makes sense to me.

So, even though this seems like a big step backwards (a snake, if you will), I’m not too worried about it, and feel that this is just part of the ups and downs of the healing journey.

Cake Solutions

We need to find a new solution to our cake dilemma because we are inviting all of the kids in Moses’ class and his dayhome to a birthday bowling party in 10 days. Yikes!

I mentioned before that we have an allergy-free cake recipe that involves four different flours that I tried baking for Moses’ third birthday. It was a complete flop, and I was so discouraged that I stopped baking for a long, long time.

The last two years, we bought allergy-free cupcakes / cakes from local bakers  that were delicious, but DH wanted to make Moses’ cake this year. Also one of them is sadly no longer offering her services and the other one did so as a special favour for us. I would have asked the latter to bake Moses a cake again this year, but DH was certain that we’d figured out the birthday cake dilemma (i.e., Bulk Barn GF cake mix).

DH is persistent and found out that Glutino has a chocolate GF cake mix that he is going to try to make this weekend. Moses sometimes likes chocolate and sometimes doesn’t, so we hope that he likes it this time.

We also need to figure out icing! Ack! Wish us luck! (Thankfully, DH doesn’t get stressed out about baking like I do, so he’s on it). And, as Moses said, “Dad makes the best cakes ever”.

Recipes

• Simple vegan white cake that I think we could easily make into a GF recipe by using 50% brown rice and 50% GF oatmeal.
• Glutenfree, eggfree, dairy free white cake recipe here. I think I found a winner here! She also has recipes for allergy-free frostings.

Updates

May 10, 2012 – DH baked the Glutino chocolate GF cake mix with egg replacer and it is absolutely delicious! It’s very moist and very chocolaty, but didn’t rise very high (maybe because we didn’t use real eggs)??  I think we’ll need to make 3 or 4 of them to feed all of the kids.

May 16, 2012 – DH made another Glutino chocolate cake for Mother’s day dinner (for the whole extended family) and it was a big hit. DH’s mom wants us to make it every time we have dinner over at her place.  We made it with this dairyfree icing recipe here (scroll to the bottom of the post — yum, yum — it was too sweet for our taste when we made it with 2.5 cups of icing sugar, so we’ll cut back on the amount of sugar next time we make it…) and put strawberries on top. Such a rich dessert — you don’t need a very big slice to feel like you’ve eaten a slice of heaven.

Oct 14, 2012 – We tried the icing recipe with 2 cups of icing sugar and it was still way too sweet. We’ll try it with 1 cup of icing sugar next time… A friend of ours also made a fruit topping for the cake (she heated frozen strawberries, frozen blueberries and maple syrup). yum, yum!

Living with food allergies (a day in the life…)

Today, during breakfast, when Moses was eating an almond (and deciding that he liked the taste of it after all), he commented:

“Hey, I’m not allergic to too many things anymore…
Because I used to not be able to eat almonds, and now I can”.

My heart filled at that moment.

Hanging out in downtown St. John’s

We rejoiced with him and shared in his excitement that he is able to eat so many more different foods.

We gave him high fives and told him that over time, he’ll be able to eat more and more foods. We reminded him which foods he still needs to avoid: wheat (gluten), milk, fish, eggs and some nuts (like walnuts). And told him that very soon, we’ll be baking with a tiny little bit of an egg to see if he will also be able to eat baked goods with eggs.

He went off to do his own thing, and my heart rejoiced.

Moses doesn’t often talk about his food allergies. He just accepts them. Knows that it’s been a part of his life, his whole life until now.

He’s used to us bringing his own food to parties. Eating a different meal and dessert than everyone at extended family dinners and birthday parties.

When well meaning adults accidentally offer him a birthday cake, he is used to saying, “No, I can’t eat that. I have allergies”. He very rarely complains.

Sometimes, he asks why he can’t have a certain food, and we’ll explain to him that it has an ingredient in it that makes him sick. And, if we can figure out a way to make that certain food in an allergy-free way, we tell him that we’ll make it for him on the weekend.

I’ve learned to keep an organic lollipop in my purse at all times because he often gets offered candy from well-intentioned adults (even at his Taekwon-do class, the kids get candy at the end of each class — for several weeks, they weren’t allergy free and we had to take away the candy and offer him the organic lollipop. I’ve since sent an email asking them to re-think their policy of offering candy at the end of class — many children [mine included] don’t react well to sugar, or at least to offer allergy-free choices — happily, they now are).

The latest heartbreak (my own) was when the parents at Moses’ school wanted to throw a surprise party for his Kindergarten teacher, whose last day was on Friday (Moses’ new teacher is returning from maternity leave on Monday). The parents thought it would be a good idea to make a surprise cake for the teacher and wondered if we could make an allergy-free cake for the occasion. We do have an allergy-free cake recipe, but last time I tried to make it, it was a disaster. It calls for four different flours, and we still haven’t figured out a good icing. We didn’t want to experiment with his whole class since we typically find that “allergy-free baking” doesn’t taste the same as “typical desserts”. We offered to make an apple crisp. Our apple crisp recipe is easy and delicious! One of the other parents even offered to make a second double batch so that we could have enough for all of the kids.

Then, we were informed that some of the parents told the organizer that “some of their children don’t like apple crisp” (really, who doesn’t like apple crisp????), so it was decided that they would make a cake, and we could bring a special dessert for Moses (like always).

Oh, how, my heart broke. I thought how nice it would have been  for Moses to be able eat the very same foods as the other kids for one day.

So… we wound up making a special dessert for Moses. DH tried out a new recipe: a GFCF “blueberry buckle” (it’s like a moist coffeecake, but with blueberries) from the Food Allergy Survival Guide, and he sprinkled icing sugar on top to make it fancy. Moses loved it!

Moses’ normal seat in his classroom just happened to be on the very table where they decided to place the going away cake. It was decorated fancy and Moses excitedly pointed out how the cake had a chalkboard, tiny chalk, and a tiny eraser on it. But, never once did he complain that he wouldn’t be able to have any. He happily ate his delicious blueberry cake (while I longingly looked at the chocolate cake).

Anyway, all that to say that  a lot of things go on behind the scenes for families with food allergies. And, how thrilled I am that Moses allergies are healing. And that he is noticing and is happy about it too.

Update:

April 23, 2012 – We found a great gluten-free white cake mix at the Bulk Barn. Now that we’re not concerned with cross-contamination, we can shop at the Bulk Barn!  Moses loved the white cake with allergy-free chocolate chips that DH made for him, to bring to a birthday party. (He was crazy after though — Moses doesn’t do well on sugar).

May 9, 2012 – Moses actually had an allergic reaction to the GF cake mix (even though he tolerated it fine a couple of weeks ago). hmmmmm…. Read more here.

Tree nut challenge

As a follow up to Moses’ allergist appointment, we gave Moses some tree nuts in the parking lot of the children’s hospital ER today. We were advised to do it in the morning, in case there were any problems.

To bring any new readers up to speed, Moses is able to eat almonds and peanuts and he didn’t have a reaction to his last tree nuts prick test, so his allergist felt that we should be able to try feeding Moses the rest of the tree nuts on our own (and not in the hospital, as the almond oral challenge was done). We opted to do the rest of the tree nuts together because it is virtually impossible to get nuts that are not cross-contaminated with other nuts.  As it is, most nuts are cross-contaminated with Moses’ other allergies (milk and wheat), which makes it complicated.

We brought a lot of toys to keep Moses occupied, and he played with his toy cars in the snow next to the car between eating bits of nuts.

This is how we did it:

• 11:20 am – put  his hand in the bag of mixed tree nuts.  Then touch his lips with his hands.
• 11:30 am – bring 1/4 of a cashew to his lips.
• 11:32 am – eat 1/4 of a cashew
• 11:42 am – eat 1/2 of a cashew

He felt fine up until this point.

• 11:49 am – bring a walnut to his lips. Eat 1/4 of a walnut

Within a couple of minutes of eating the walnut, he told us that he had a tummy ache. He went to the bathroom and had diarrhea. He told us that he still felt sick after. After a few minutes, we drove home (we knew that he wasn’t having an anaphylactic reaction).

When we got home, he told us that his tummy didn’t hurt anymore, but he didn’t want to eat any more nuts.

So…

On the good side of things, we now know that Moses does not have life-threatening anaphylactic reactions to tree nuts!!! We  no longer need to avoid products that are cross-contaminated with tree nuts.  This will simplify our lives tremendously!!  But we will not actually feed him any other tree nuts for awhile. Based on his reaction (diarrhea and tummy ache), it seems like he still has an intolerance to cashews and/or walnuts. We might try another oral challenge in another month or so.

Now this is curious…

Ask and you shall receive.

As you know, over the last couple of years, Moses’ food sensitivities and allergies have been healing. It’s been an answered prayer. From my perspective, Moses’ sensitivities and allergies have been healing as a result of prayer and the systematic treatments that he has been undergoing. I am not surprised by the fact that his health has been improving. It’s been very confirming that his treatments have been working.

But, there’s another side story that I need to fill you in on. DH’s. (And I have received his permission to share it). What’s fascinating is that three or four years ago, DH prayed his own prayers. He bargained with God, requesting that he take on Moses’ allergies and sensitivities in exchange for Moses’ health. To give you some context, DH is a healthy man. He eats well and consciously. He exercises regularly. He runs consistently. He is athletic. He does not have an allergic constitution. We always assumed that Moses’ allergies came from my side of the family since  allergies, asthma and eczema run in my family and not DH’s family. (We’ve since found out that genetically, Moses’ severe allergies were not inherited from either of us, but was the result of a very rare genetic mutation in the STAT3 gene that is related to his hyper IgE syndrome diagnosis).

Within months of DH’s prayer, DH started to experience gastrointestinal difficulties. He started to notice that he could not longer eat eggs or gluten. At the time, Moses’ health hadn’t noticeably improved and we kind of joked that God only heard part of DH’s prayer.

Fast forward, three or four years later and Moses’ health has never been better. And DH’s sensitivities have actually gotten considerably worse. Through trial and error, he figured out on his own that he was sensitive to eggs, gluten, oatmeal (even oatmeal that is not cross-contaminated with gluten) and hemp seeds.  Even after avoiding all of those foods, he’s still been experiencing significant GI difficulties, so he decided to splurge on an IgG test that is done through a naturopath. It’s basically a blood test that can be used to find out which foods that you have a IgG allergy response to (IgG allergy responses are not life-threatening and tend to be gastrointestinal responses and skin responses — I think of them as sensitivities). You can read more about IgG tests here.

IgG allergies are difficult to diagnose because reactions do not occur until hours or days after ingestion of an allergen. This makes it extremely difficult to determine which foods are the causative agents.

We’ve only ordered IgG allergy testing for Moses once, when he was  two and a half years old. At the time, we were having difficulty pin-pointing exactly what he was reacting to, and combined with the results of the IgE allergy testing that his allergist did, this is how we found out that he was allergic or sensitive to 40+ foods. Ack!

A week after we received the great news about how Moses’ allergies are continuing to heal, we received news that DH’s sensitivities are much more extensive than we had thought.

DH is now highly sensitive to (and should avoid): almonds, baker’s yeast, barley, egg whites, chili pepper, corn, flax seed, kamut, oat, spelt, wheat. (The almond sensitivity can explain why DH’s GI system has been so out of whack — DH has been eating A LOT of almonds ever since we found out that they were safe for Moses to eat).

DH is also moderately sensitive to (and should reduce his consumption of): amaranth, bean sprout, Brewer’s yeast, brown rice, buckwheat, cashew nut, cheddar cheese, egg yolk, hazelnut, lima bean, milk, millet, navy bean, peanut, pistachio, quinoa, soy bean, watermelon and whey.

Holy moly!

It’s kind of funny when you think about it. DH and I find it all very curious. There’s really no obvious reason why DH should have developed all of these food sensitivities. We don’t really understand it. But, the only thing that seems like a plausible explanation is that it is literally an answered prayer.

DH prayed with all of his heart and soul, during the depths of his despair when Moses was so sick and so allergic, that Moses would be spared of his food allergies and sensitivities and that DH would bare it. He wanted to carry that cross for Moses. And, now it appears that he is (although a milder version of what Moses experienced).

So much love

DH isn’t really bothered by all of these extra sensitivities. He is just thanking God that it is not Moses. We both are.

He has an appointment scheduled with our amazing naturopath, who will hopefully provide him with ideas of how to avoid these foods. DH can safely eat meat (which he doesn’t like to eat), fish (which is difficult because Moses is allergic to fish and tends to have a reaction even when we cook fish), vegetables and fruits. Sounds very much like a paleo diet (minus eggs and nuts) to me, so I think that our family will be learning to eat in a different way.  (I know that some of you are paleo diet followers, so feel free to offer us some tips on doing so).

On the good side, IgG sensitivities tend to be short-term sensitivities that can change after you stop eating the offending foods for a period of three months or so.

Things continue to be interesting for our family. All things considered, both of us are still very thankful that it is DH and not Moses!

More reading:

• How to start a paleo diet. Optimal paleo diet foods include chicken, fish, shellfish, eggs, nuts, berries, carrots, turnips and avocados.
• Bulletproof executive – upgraded paleo diet

Updates:

March 21, 2012 – DH had an appointment with our naturopath and she thought that DH may have a yeast problem. She suggested that he start Citrigen (an antimicrobial) and HMF probiotics.

My son is healthy and well

Hello my dear friends.  Just felt like giving you an update on how we’re doing. Moses is doing great healthwise. He had an allergist appointment yesterday, and all went well. He received a prick test on a couple of new food items that we were curious about: kiwi and shellfish. He passed with flying colours!  No reaction at all. His allergist re-tested him with eggs and there was no reaction (which is in contrast to the violent throwing up episode that he had after eating a pancake made with 1/8 of an egg 6 months ago). She wants us to try baking with eggs to see if he’ll tolerate that. We’ll try it over the weekend. Will start off with a very little bit of an egg in GFCF muffins and see how that goes.

He’s still reactive to wheat and fish, and his allergist didn’t bother re-testing him with mixed nuts because for the last six months, he’s been able to drink almond milk every day with no problem. He doesn’t like almond butter or almonds, so he’s not eating them very often, but we’re no longer fearful of almonds. Next step is try feeding him the rest of the tree nuts. Our plan is to feed him some mixed nuts in the ER parking lot one of these weekends (we have his allergist’s support on trying this on our own!).  Soon.  Will be sure to let you know how that goes!

So his current allergy list is:

• wheat (we avoid all gluten since he’s likely sensitive to gluten and gluten is generally not great for most individuals),
• dairy;
• and fish.

Eggs are likely a sensitivity, but as I mentioned, we’re going to try them in baked goods and we’re at the point where we are not concerned with products that are cross-contaminated with eggs. We also avoid MSG, chemicals, additives and preservatives as much as possible. Moses is doing so well that the allergist feels that she doesn’t need to assess him again for a whole year. She is very pleased and surprised by how much his allergies have healed over the last couple of years.

Holy goodness! This is amazing, amazing, amazing!  (For new readers, my son was once sensitive / allergic to 40+ foods, so I really feel that his sensitivities / allergies healing are a true miracle). I am so grateful! I once prayed that Moses would one day only be sensitive to gluten and dairy. That was my prayer (at the time, this idea was inconceivable really), and three years later it’s essentially a reality. I even think it is conceivable that one day, he will no longer need to carry an epi-pen. I actually feel that he is no longer at risk for anaphylaxis (since I know that gluten, dairy and fish are not anaphylactic risks for him). My new prayer is that Moses’ sensitivities and allergies completely heal.  So be it, and it is so and so it is.

If you need a reminder of his current treatment / supplement plan, you can read about it here. I feel like I’m a broken record, but I really feel that Heilkunst homeopathy was the most important part of his healing. We do a lot of other things as well, but we were doing many of the other things before we started healing with Heilkunst, so I feel that the Heilkunst healing was the key.

His recent eye injury back in February healed quickly (within 2 weeks, his eyesight had essentially recovered to where it was prior to that injury). I feel that prayer, total body modification and increasing his glutathione levels contributed to his quick recovery.

He has been healthy and well for four months!!!  I feel that increasing his glutathione levels has also been a significant factor in how he has been doing in the last couple of months. Like all things that create true healing on a deep level, his body detoxed when taking only the tiniest bit of the glutathione accellerator. I’ve given his body a break for the last month from detoxing anything (we haven’t tackled any new chronic miasms [Heilkunst homeopathy] since November and even gave him a break from the glutathione supplement during the last month). The last month has been heaven as Moses is really at a great point in his health. His health has stabilized and he’s generally happy. He is now a typical healthy five year old.

My boy loves Taekwon-do!

He has a powerful punch!

During our last appointment with our chiropractor (who does TBM and cranialsacral therapy as well), he assessed Moses and me, and commented that our bodies are the best they have ever been since we’ve started seeing him. My body is “less reactive”. Moses’ body is feeling “more normal”, less tense and more at ease. I really feel that our current treatment plan is really, really working!!

Now that his allergist appointment has passed, I’m going start clearing the last two levels of the Sycosis miasm (details about the first two levels here — it was a doozy). I’m a bit apprehensive about it, but feel that it’s important to do, to continue his healing journey. As always, I’ll let you know how it goes!

Some extra goodies:

• CBC radio had a special on gluten-free baking. DH called in to offer some of our tips (esp. baking with 50% GF oatmeal flour and 50% brown rice flour). Interestingly, the dietician mentioned that many individuals with a gluten sensitivity don’t do well even with oatmeal that is not cross-contaminated with gluten since a protein in oatmeal (avenin) is similar to the gluten protein.  Fortunately GF oatmeal is not a problem for my boy (although DH is actually sensitive to oatmeal). You can listen to DH (he’s got a great voice – so natural and at ease on the radio) at minute 34 to 38 of the show (the third recording on this page)!
• I recently heard this fun Wiggles song about allergies (thanks to Allergy Kinder’s FB recommendation). Check it out!

Updates:

March 10, 2012 – Moses had his first bit of kiwi. So far, so good!

March 18, 2012 – He ate 3/4 of a cashew and 1/4 of a walnut and then had a tummy ache and diarrhea.  On the good side, he’s not anaphylactic to tree nuts anymore, but seems to still be intolerant to them. Read more details about the oral tree nut challenge here.

Introducing… Allergy Kinder!

My dear friend, Aliki of the Mama Files, has recently launched a FB page, Allergy Kinder, which is an alternative space to share and connect with others that exercise an alternative approach to allergies

Allergy Kinder’s  mission is to provide you with:

• An alternative, unique, insightful and informative space related to allergies and children.
• A space where we can celebrate the unique children that are coming through to be with us.

I invite you to check it out and like Allergy Kinder on Facebook!

 

 

My son can now eat almonds!

When Moses was a year old, I wasn’t thinking and gave Moses some almond butter. Fortunately, he didn’t have an anaphylactic reaction, but his back broke out in huge hives and it sure frightened us. That was the last time he had any tree nuts.

Since then, his allergy scores have been high for tree nuts (re: RAST test, blood tests, prick test and IgG tests). But during his most recent prick test last month, he showed absolutely no reaction to the tree nut mixture.

I’m thrilled to share that Moses passed his almond challenge today with flying colours. During the 2.5 hours that we were at the hospital, he ate 15.5 g of almonds in 5 doses. He can now officially eat almonds! Next time we go to the store, we are going to stock up on almond butter and almond milk! Oh, how I love almond butter!

We need to talk to his allergist to figure out our next steps with respect to trying other tree nuts, but my gut is that if almonds are safe for Moses, then other tree nuts will be too (especially given that the prick test tested a tree nut mixture). We’ll introduce the other nuts one a time though (spacing out by at least 4 days before trying a new food). If you recall, Moses is already eating peanuts.

This is something that I didn’t know, tree nuts come from a variety of different plant families. Almonds belong to the plum family.

• walnut family: walnuts, pecans;
• mango family: pistachio, cashews;
• legythis family: brazil;
• beech family: beechnut, chestnut;
• birch family: hazelnut, filbert, hickory nut;
• plum family: almonds;
• macadamia family: macademia.

Tree nuts were the only food that we were still concerned about a potential for anaphylactic risk for Moses. Moses is still allergic to wheat, dairy, fish and eggs, and sensitive to gluten, but none of these are anaphylactic risks for Moses (and we hope that he’ll heal these allergies as well). We’ll still carry around Moses’ epi-pen wherever we go, but the great fear of anaphylaxis isn’t there anymore.

(Just to bring any new readers up to speed, when Moses was one years old, he had three anaphylactic reactions to unknown sources, so the fear that we had about the potential for anaphylaxis is a real one, but one that we are ready to let go. I currently think that his past reactions were to chemicals and not to foods per say, and was also related to his sky high IgE levels).

After we’ve introduced other tree nuts to Moses’ diet, we’ll also be able to let him eat foods that have had the potential to be cross-contaminated with tree nuts. As I’m sure most of you know, most foods have had the potential to be cross-contaminated with tree nuts, so this is going to open up our world like crazy!

So very thankful!

The gift of vision

I think the biggest gift that I received from Moses’ shamanic healers was the gift of their vision. They all saw past Moses’ symptoms and shared with me the bigger, divine picture.

When Moses was a year and a half, one of Moses’ shamanic healers shared with me that she was shocked by the strength of his energetic field because she was expecting to feel  a “weak energetic field”. She shared that she felt that Moses was in fact, a strong soul who chose a “oversensitive body” so that he could overcome and heal his body. He would be the “wounded healer” (making reference to the fact that most healers start out as wounded, and as they heal their wounds, this becomes their greatest strength).

His other shamanic healers all shared a similar view, that Moses was a strong spiritual teacher and had chose this body and this difficult path so that he could overcome it.

Hearing these viewpoints helped to elevate my own viewpoint, and ground me in the truth, to remind me of Moses’ inherent strength. And the truth is that deep down, I always felt that Moses would be healed. In fact, deep down, I was puzzled why it was so difficult to keep him healthy given all of the many things that we were doing to keep him healthy. When we found out the news of his genetic immune disorder, it finally made sense to us why it was so difficult to keep him healthy. Yet, I held on to my vision of Moses’ healing.

I firmly believe that my vision of Moses’ healing has helped to make his healing and current health a reality.

I share this for those of you who are parenting children with chronic illnesses or difficult diagnoses. Hold tight to a vision of healing for your child. Know that with the grace of God/Spirit, your child has the capability and strength to heal. And he/she will. It may take time, but he/she will. Believe in miracles. Cultivate your relationship with the divine, however it is that you may define it. Try Heilkunst homeopathy, which in my opinion, has been a Godsend in my son’s own healing journey (and it is in my humble opinion, that it can help virtually any chronic illness or diagnosis that you or your child may be facing).

And remember that even in this moment, your child is perfect. Divine. Holy. A gift from God. And on a soul’s level, your child chose you, out of all souls to parent him/her. Trust your intuition about what it is your child needs.

When Moses was 14 months old, I was really struggling as a mother because my son was itchy, in apparent discomfort, with a terrible rash all over his body and allergic to most everything. I asked God for guidance on how to best care for my sensitive son. The message that I received was:

You child is already perfect, whole, complete, magnificent. There is nothing that you need do to add to that or change that. Just open your eyes and see his magnificence. He is a beautiful sight to behold. Not only from a physical perspective. He is already transforming the world, one heart at a time, starting with yours. Open your eyes and see. He is not flawed in any way. He is perfect. Behold him as such.

So be it and it is so, and so it is. For my child and for yours.

True and deep healing can happen. It has for my son, and it is possible for your child too.

Third egg challenge — failed

Based on the recommendation from Moses’ allergist, we tried an at home egg challenge today. Not good.

His last oral egg challenge was in April when his allergy test indicated a moderate response to eggs. His allergist mentioned that most people with a moderate response to eggs can tolerate eggs in baked goods (all but two of her patients). Back in April, he had a tummy ache after eating the equivalent of about 1/30th of an egg. She thought that it was time to try another oral challenge and during his last allergy test, his allergist didn’t even bother testing him for a response for eggs.

So today, while I was making GFCF pancakes for lunch, I had (what I thought was a brilliant) idea to add 1/4 of an egg to the pancakes. Moses ate about half of the pancakes, so he ate approx. 1/8 of an egg. Although the pancakes turned out fluffy, light and delicious (the best pancakes that I’ve made in the last 5 years), it turned out not to be a great idea at all. I really should have tried the egg in a baked good (as per the allergist’s recommendation) as eggs are cooked for a longer time in a baked good. Plus he would have eaten less egg if we had tried him with a baked good first. (I just wasn’t thinking about how pancakes are different from a baked good).

Moses started to complain that his tongue and mouth were tingly. We got him to drink some water. We should have given him some Benadryl right away. Then DH took him to Tae Kwon Do while I went grocery shopping. When I picked them up, DH told me Moses wasn’t feeling well. DH gave him some Benadryl right before I picked him up. He was very itchy and complained that his stomach was hurting him. His face had turned bright red. He was moaning and complaining like crazy.

When we got to the house, he projectile vomited all over the back seat of our car and then on the drive way. He vomited again and again and again. And then we knew he would be okay.

We got him into an epsom salt bath and calmed him down with an organic lollipop (I know — sugar isn’t great, but we wanted to give him something to boost his spirits, which it did). And now, he’s feeling better. His face is still bright red, but his stomach no longer hurts and he’s feeling better emotionally. And it will be a very, very, very, very, very long time before we try eggs again.

DH is actually also sensitive to eggs. He can tolerate it in baked goods, but if a baked good has too many eggs, he responds in a very similar way to Moses (terrible stomach pains, dizziness, hot flashes, extreme fatigue). Anyway, now we know that all of the precautions that we are taking with respect to eggs are worth it. And, we’re thankful that the reaction passed relatively quickly (that he threw up the offending food and got it out of his system).

Moses’ allergies are healing

More tangible evidence of Moses’ healing…  he has fewer and fewer allergies!

According to the prick test, he only has three allergies:

• milk (4+);
• fish (4+) ; and
• gluten (3+).

He showed no reaction to peaches, peas, turkey and……. tree nuts! Yep, that’s right….  no reaction to tree nuts.

He is going to be scheduled an oral challenge for tree nuts in the hospital sometime in the near future to make sure that he can really eat tree nuts safely.  Will let you know how this goes!!!!!

At home, DH and I will gradually try to introduce some of these other foods (peaches, peas and turkey) to Moses’ diet. We gave him grapes the other day (a food that he used to be reactive to), and there was no reaction. We gave him peaches tonight, and so far, so good.

Yippee!!!!!

To put this into context (for any readers who are new), this is absolutely amazing given that my son was once allergic / sensitive to 40+ foods. His culinary world is starting to open up. We also need to test eggs again to see if Moses can tolerate eggs within baked goods. (Last time we tried, it gave him a stomach ache).

We are still sticking with organic foods as much as possible and avoiding foods with preservatives, artificial flavouring, artificial colouring, etc.

All this to say that, Moses’ body is healing. Since his body is less allergic, I’m taking this as a sign that his IgE levels have decreased. We’ll know for sure when his IgE levels are tested next month.

Thanks for all of your continued support and prayers for our son!

We are so grateful to Spirit!

Update:

Sept 24, 2011 – Peaches turned out to be fine. Eggs, however, turned out to be not a good idea at all. He is still very allergic / sensitive to eggs.

October 2011 – He can now officially eat almonds!!!

First day of school

Thursday was Moses’ first day of school and he was excited about it! DH, Grammie and I all walked him to his school to witness this important rite-of-passage. Our baby is growing up.

Moses was comfortable and happy that the girl from his dayhome is in his class, a familiar face. Within minutes, he was joking and laughing, having a great time. On his second day of school, he had gym, music and worked on some crafts, so that was fun too!

Ready to take on the world!

So far so good!!!! I’m starting to breath a huge sigh of relief… 

Some news about how the school is dealing with allergies – we learned that the assistant principal of the school has a child who is anaphylactic to nuts. It was wonderful to be able to talk to someone who really understands life-threatening allergies. There’s a picture and a medical plan of action for all of the children with an anaphylatic risk posted in all of the main rooms (i.e., classroom, main office, music room, library and gym). The teachers have all had recent epi-pen training. On the first day, his teacher made some announcements to the parents about how there are a couple of kids with severe allergies in the class, so the parents know not to pack snacks with nuts and eggs, and also sent home a note with this reminder as well. We’ve made it clear that Moses is not to eat anything other than his food. And we’ve told Moses to refuse any food that is offered to him. My fears around food allergies and potential reactions are starting to diminish. 

Today, he had his first day of Tae Kwon Do and he thoroughly enjoyed that too. One of the parents of a mutual friend remarked that “Moses tends to shine and do well and be comfortable regardless of the situation he’s in”. DH and I didn’t know how to respond. We were speechless. I think DH and I are still amazed that our child, who was once so anxiety-ridden and upset, is now simply happy, content and comfortable.

I’m very thankful.

Allergy-friendly restaurants

As you know, Moses is allergic to many things (gluten, dairy, fish, tree nuts and sensitive to eggs, soy and preservatives, plus some others). To date, the only restaurant we’ve been able to eat at is Swiss Chalet (he can eat their chicken and fries). Here’s Swiss Chalet’s allergy guide. (Note that the oil that the fries are deep-fried in has some cross-contamination with potential allergens, but it doesn’t seem to bother Moses).

Today, it occurred to us to try Montana’s Cookhouse because they are owned by the same company as Swiss Chalet. And happily, Moses can eat their rotisserie chicken, fries and carrot sticks. It’s more expensive than Swiss Chalet, but they have a much more varied menu for DH and I. We were thrilled!!!!!!!!!!  Here’s their allergy guide.

We haven’t tried any of the following yet, but for your information…

• Wendy’s Allergy Guide -  here
• Burger King’s Allergy Guide – here
• Read No Nuts for Me’s restaurant list here.

If any of you know other restaurants in St. John’s, NL that you know of that cater to allergies, we would like to know!

 

GFCF mac and “cheese” recipes

I *love* mac and cheese. It’s such a comfort food for me. Months ago, I found a glutenfree, dairyfree recipe for “macaroni and cheese” that used nutritional yeast flakes. I finally got around to buying some nutritional yeast flakes (you can get it at Dominion in the health food section).  When I got home, I tried to find the recipe, but couldn’t find one that was Moses-friendly (most, if not all of them, use a milk alternative like rice milk or soy milk).

I tried to make my own version, which included nutritional yeast flakes, water (instead of a milk alternative), butternut squash, some spices and rice macaroni, but I’m sorry to say that it wasn’t very good at all.  I was so disappointed!!

I wound up just sprinkling some nutritional yeast flakes on Moses’ pasta. Right now, he just wants to eat his pasta with ketchup (he doesn’t want any pasta sauce on it). Not the healthiest choice, but at least the nutritional yeast flakes add a bit of nutrition!

Dairyfree mac and cheese recipes

In case you want to try for yourself, here are a couple of dairyfree mac and cheese recipes that use nutritional yeast flakes. I’m eventually going to try again once we can cook with rice milk, so I’m basically writing this post for myself so I don’t lose these recipes.

I wish my mac and cheese looked like this.

Butternut squash mac and cheese  - this one uses butternut squash, almond milk (not yet Moses friendly) and cashews (also not yet Moses friendly) and nutritional yeast, but sounds delicious.

Vegan Mac and Cheese

Butternut squash mac and “cheese” (GF, vegan, with nutfree option)

Tomato mac and “cheese” (uses cashews)

Oh, and This Little Piggy recently shared this simple Cheesy Shells with Ham for the Picky Eater. I haven’t been able to find Daiya Mozzerella (a dairyfree cheese) in the store, so can’t try this.  We haven’t found a dairyfree cheese that Moses can eat yet.

If you have a favourite GFCF mac and cheese recipe, please let me know about it!

What is nutritional yeast good for anyway?

To get me motivated to use the nutritional yeast flakes in other dishes, I found out that they are a good source of protein and a good source of Vitamin B and folic acid.

I’ve been asking my friends what they do with nutritional yeast flakes and many of them say they love it on popcorn. That’s next on my list of things to try. I’ll probably also continue to sprinkle it on our pasta too.

What do you do with nutritional yeast?

Updates

November 2, 2011 – Yippee — we found Daiya (dairyfree) “cheese” in the soy products / vegetarian section of Dominion, and I made my son his first GFCF “mac and cheese” following this recipe here. DH *loved* it, but Moses didn’t like it at all. Truthfully, I didn’t really like the Daiya cheese either (it’s hard to compare with “real cheese”), but I was really disappointed that Moses didn’t like it. Oh, well…  At least, he knows he’s not missing anything when his friends eat mac and cheese.

The next day, we tried to mix the Daiya cheese in with a quinoa and veggie stir fry. Again, DH *loved* it, but Moses didn’t.  Too bad, I had high hopes for this dairyfree cheese, as I’ve heard great things about it from others who are on dairyfree diets.

One year of Heilkunst healing

As mentioned, Moses recently completed healing his timeline with respect to Heilkunst treatment. Although there have been lots of ups and downs related to healing reactions, overall, his health has improved remarkably. These are some of the improvements that we’ve witnessed over the last 12 months:

• His iron levels are now normal, and he no longer needs to take a daily iron supplement.
• We have been able to introduce a number of new foods in the last year, including: organic beef, pineapple, pears, garlic, onions, celery, citrus fruits, honey, navy beans, sesame seeds, sunflower seeds. Peanuts are back on the safe list. Eggs and soy are only mild sensitivities.  Overall, we are not frightened to feed our son or to introduce new foods (as we were in the past, when he was sensitive to just about everything)  and we fully expect him to be able to eat most foods one day. More about his food sensitivities/allergies healing here. More about what he can currently eat here.
• As of last month, his skin has just about cleared up (without the use of medicated creams). His skin has never before been clear (it first developed when he was 3 weeks old and never went away before this time). This is a miracle, especially given his Job’s syndrome diagnosis because one of the major symptoms of Job’s syndrome is a terrible skin condition (the syndrome is named after the biblical character’s skin afflictions).
• He only had two abscesses develop (another symptom typical of Job’s syndrome), but they both resolved themselves. (On two separate occasions prior to this, he needed them to be drained under general anaesthetic).
• He has not had pneumonia for the last 10 months. He actually developed pneumonia during his first two healing reactions (round 1, round 2), but the first was mild enough for them to treat with antibiotics at home and the second, they didn’t prescribe any antibiotics at all. Prior to this, Moses required IV antibiotics in order to fight pneumonia (he had a total of three hospitalizations due to pneumonia).
• Overall, his lungs have been a lot clearer and the last time he received a chest x-ray, his lungs were clear despite the fact that he was in the middle of a major healing reaction.
• Related to his lung function, he is more physically active and confident. He used to tire easily, but now he runs and rides his bicycle without fatiguing.
• He did not require hospital admission for anything this entire year!!!!!  (Amazing!!)
• His immune system seems to be a lot stronger. There were several times when many of the other children at his dayhome were sick (or DH or I were sick) and Moses did not get sick. In fact, other than healing reactions, he has not had any recent infections.
• His mouth is no longer chronically sore. (His mouth used to be so sore that he wouldn’t let us brush his teeth, and we had daily battles over this). The chronic sores at the corners of his mouth have healed. I also believe that the Fluconazole (antifungal) helped with this.
• He has grown quite a bit over the last 6 months (prior to this time, he was very short for his age — he looked to be about a year younger than he was, which I thought might have been due to the steroidal creams and puffers he was on). He is now in the normal range for his age (still small, but neither DH or I are very tall). I take it as a good sign that his body is actually spending some time growing rather than simply always fighting off infection.
• He no longer regularly has night terrors (unless he is going through a healing reaction). He now sleeps through the night.
• Conversational skills had never been a problem for Moses, but by the third month of treatment, we noticed that his conversational skills really took off.
• Between healing reactions, he is happier, more grounded, more confident. He seems to have better regulation over his emotions (i.e., less tantrums).

Wow — isn’t that amazing??? I feel that my prayers for my son’s healing have been answered.  I am so grateful to God / Spirit / the Universe. I am so grateful to the mother who introduced me to Heilkunst. I am so grateful to Rudi and Patty and to my Heilkunstler.

Overall, life has become easier for the whole family.

What’s next?

My prayer is for my son’s healing to continue to unfold. I would love to witness:

• A complete healing of my son’s eye (it is healing).
• To continue to introduce more and more foods.
• For his skin and lungs to stay clear.
• For his baby teeth to remineralize; that his adult teeth develop healthy.
• For my son’s IgE levels to be in the normal range.
• For his healing reactions to get more and more milder.
• For him to be able to discontinue all medications (with support from DH).

And it is so, and so it is. Thank you for your continued blessings and support.

Read more about our healing with Heilkunst journey here.

Colicky baby — milk sensitivity?

As I was comforting Moses last week during his intense gastrointestinal pain, it reminded me of when he was an extremely colicky baby and it pained me to think of how much pain he must have been in for so many months.  He could not be comforted. He was in so much pain that he had difficulty sleeping. We had no idea what the term “sleeping like a baby” meant.

I had read before Moses was born that “some babies have colic and there’s nothing that you can do about it”, so it didn’t occur to me that his discomfort was related to gastrointestinal issues.

My advice to all parents of colicky babies (after exhausting the typical things most parents do to comfort a colicky baby*) would be to suspect a dairy sensitivity / allergy. My chiropractor mentioned this possibility to me early on, but I was reluctant to listen to her advice because I was breastfeeding and I loved eating dairy. I tried removing it from my diet for a week and didn’t see much of a difference, so I happily went back to eating dairy. It wasn’t until Moses was five months old and someone told me that it takes milk proteins a month to leave the body, so I would need to remove dairy from my diet for a month before I might see a difference in my son. Oh — a whole month! How I wish I’d known that earlier.

In Moses’ case because he was sensitive to many things, I didn’t see much of a difference when I removed milk from my diet for a month, but I sure noticed a big difference when I introduced it back. His eczema got so bad that his face swelled up and turned red and he started throwing up like crazy. The milk allergy was later confirmed with allergy testing, but it took forever before we were able to get an appointment with an allergist. I can’t help but think of how much of his suffering might have been avoided had we known sooner.

Since that time, I’ve advised other friends of colicky babies that their babies may be sensitive to dairy. Like me, they were also skeptical and very reluctant to give up milk, but inevitably, they have found that their baby’s colic went away within a couple of weeks of giving up milk.

In addition to dairy, there are some other common foods that babies may be sensitive to when their breastfeeding mothers eat certain foods, such as: soy, corn, wheat, eggs and peanuts. Kellymom has some good information about dairy and other food sensitivities in babies. Another excellent resource for breastfeeding moms is Calm Baby Cookbook by Dr. Melanie Beingessner (a chiropractor). Her cookbook includes 85 recipes that avoid the top 10 foods that babies are sensitive to. Generally babies settle down within a couple of weeks of following her recipes. A sample of the cookbook can be found here.

Baby language

Something else I wish I had known when Moses was a baby was how to decipher baby cries. According to the Dunstan baby language:

• neh – I’m hungry.
• owh – I’m sleepy.
• eh – Burp me.
• eairh – I have wind. My tummy hurts.
• heh – I’m uncomfortable. Change me.

Even now, it breaks my heart to hear the example “eairh” cries because Moses was constantly telling us “My tummy hurts. My tummy hurts. My tummy hurts”. In my opinion, if your baby is colicky and particularly cries the “eairh” cries a lot, I would try removing milk from the baby’s diet and, possibly some of the other foods that babies are often sensitive to, if you are breastfeeding.

* Other good tips for comforting a crying baby:

• I particularly like Dr. Harvey Karp’s “Happiest Baby on the Block” (5 S’s: swaddling, side/stomach position, shushing sounds, swinging, sucking). Interestingly, we still kind of use the five S’s with Moses when he is in pain. In fact, he told me to tell him “ssshhhh” when he was in pain at the hospital just this week. We don’t swaddle him anymore (of course), but we still rock him and he still self-comforts with his blankie and pretends to suck on his blankie.
• I also like the attachment parenting principles

Do/did you have a colicky baby?  What worked for you?

****

Gina Laverde in Things are Brighter Now describes how Dougie developed colic too after switching to a dairy-based formula. This same post also chronicles Dougie’s autism story (vaccine injury and subsequent recovery using supplements, raw food and whole foods).

Home Remedies Blog – Is Colic Caused by the Food in a Mother?

Results of the egg challenge

Big news this week is that we fed Moses GFCF banana bread with 1/3 of an egg. He had about 1/10 of the banana bread, so he had about 1/30 of an egg. His allergist has been encouraging us to try baking with an egg because his last allergy test only showed a moderate reaction to eggs, and she finds that eggs that are baked in foods are generally tolerated well by individuals who are moderately allergic to eggs.

I’ve been reluctant to try eggs. When he was two, he was actually hospitalized for four days due to accidental ingestion of eggs (it caused gastrointestinal bleeding). And the last time, we tried baking with 1/4 of an egg, his rash got a lot worse. DH is also very sensitive to eggs.

But, based on our allergist’s recommendation, we went for it. The truth is that we didn’t notice a reaction at all, but Moses later told us that it gave him a tummy ache and he didn’t want any more banana bread. Although we will continue to avoid eggs for now, this still shows tremendous progress relative to how he used to respond to eggs. We now consider eggs to be a food sensitivity and not so much of a food allergy (i.e., it’s not a potential anaphylatic trigger for Moses).

Simple glutenfree and dairyfree meal ideas

Moses will be starting at a new dayhome in a couple of weeks. Given his food allergies / sensitivities, his dayhome provider wanted some ideas for meals.

His current list of allergies: tree nuts (Oct 2011 – he can now eat almonds! update here; we will slowly start to introduce other tree nuts over time, but in the meantime, we are still avoiding other tree nuts until we know for sure they are all safe), dairy, gluten, fish

Sensitivities: peanut (May 2011 – now eats organic peanut butter every day), soy (can tolerate in small quantities), eggs (recently downgraded to sensitivity from an allergy), turkey (Sept 2011), mangoes (May 2011), peas (Dec 2011), grapes (Sept 2011),  MSG, preservatives, artificial colours, artificial flavours, etc.

This is much, much, much less than what it once was (once was 40+ food allergies/sensitivities).  Yay, yay, yay!!

Generally, we try to feed him as much organic food as possible, which is very limited where we live, unfortunately. We try to buy local, organic chicken as much as possible, and we only buy local, organic lamb and beef directly from the farmer.

Breakfast:

• glutenfree oatmeal with blueberries / raspberries / strawberries /bananas and maple syrup
• hot brown rice cereal with fruit and maple syrup
• fruit shake (frozen blueberries, banana, hemp seeds, water, lettuce)
• another morning shake recipe here
• glutenfree, dairyfree, eggfree French toast
• glutenfree toast with olive oil and avocado
• grapefruit with drizzled with some maple syrup
• hemp hearts in apple juice with blueberries
• glutenfree granola cereal with hemp hearts, chia seeds and water or apple juice (instead of milk)
• GFCF eggfree pancakes
• Occasionally (around once a week or so), he can have organic peanut butter and strawberry jam sandwich (he likes it with bananas and we use his allergyfree bread, of course).  Peanut butter is a sensitivity, but not an allergy.  We were avoiding it for a few months, but recently have reintroduced it back with moderation. (Update – May 2011 — he can now have this every day)
• I try to hide 1 tsp of flax seed oil in whatever he’s having for breakfast.

Lunch/dinner:

• organic brown rice and chicken and veggie (grated carrot, corn, broccoli, avocado, mushrooms, cucumber, peppers [green, orange, red], zucchini, lettuce, tomato, etc.);
• glutenfree, eggfree, dairyfree brown rice bread chicken sandwich;
• brown rice or corn pasta with organic spaghetti sauce and ground chicken;
• chicken with mashed potatoes and veggies;
• chicken barbecued on the grill with organic ketchup instead of bbq sauce;
• barbecued veggies on the grill (e.g., peppers, mushrooms);
• easy brown rice with vegetables;
• sweet potato fries (cut up sweet potatoes and put it in the oven with oil, or check out this recipe);
• Bone broth — we use this to make chicken soup or squash risotto
• One of his favourite meals:  squash and chicken risotto (chicken, brown rice, chicken broth (saved from baking a chicken), butternut squash, Bragg’s sauce (a “healthy” soy sauce), some onion and garlic)
• His other favourite meal: homemade chicken soup (chicken, chicken broth, celery, carrots, brown rice, millet, quinoa, Bragg’s sauce, garlic, onion.  yummy!)
• quick and easy stirfry (tonight we had a stirfry with leftover chicken, leftover brown rice, avocado, orange peppers, mushrooms, garlic, onion and Bragg’s sauce. yummy!)
• Instead of chicken, he can also have lamb and organic beef with rice/potatoes. I normally bake his chicken, lamb and beef steaks in the oven in a covered pan with a little bit of water.
• veggie burger (we haven’t tried this recipe yet, but looks delicious!)
• dairyfree chicken tetrazzini (yummy!)
• GFCF mac and cheese (or in our case, just sprinkle nutritional yeast on the pasta, along with some pasta sauce).
• organic meatloaf muffins (yummy!)

Salads

• Carrot, beet and avocado salad

Fermented Foods:

• Importance of fermented foods here.
• Fermented salsa

Snacks:

• organic rice cake with apple butter
• organic apple sauce
• fruits (apples, bananas, oranges, berries, watermelon)
• plain potato chips (potatoes, oil, salt)
• peanut butter balls (if your child is allergic to peanut butter, you can use pea butter) — highly recommended!
• homemade apple juice popsicle; check out what this mama is putting in her homemade popsicles, and this mama makes popsicles with fruit (blood oranges).
• peanut butter Larabars (They only contain peanuts, dates and salt). You can make your own here:
• rice crackers (as long as there is no cross-contamination with his allergens)
• popcorn popped in an air popper with olive oil and a touch of sea salt
• raisins
• cranberries
• “ants on a log” – celery with peanut butter and raisin
• kale chips
• roasted quinoa (take quinoa and fry up in a pan with some canola or olive oil [we use canola oil for frying because I've read that olive oil breaks down at high temperatures], lightly salt with sea salt).  We used this as a snack when my son’s diet was very, very limited.
• Old Dutch Corn Twists (a “new to us” snack — a bit more variety than plain potato chips when we’re out and about)
• organic babyfood (homemade or store bought) — we generally don’t do this, but it’s an idea. Gave him organic prune babyfood when he was sick.
• on special occasions: organic lollipops (If you live in St. John’s, NL, you can get them at Food for Thought, Natural Health Shop on Stavanger and Winners)

Dessert:

• apple crisp
• apple juice “jello”
• glutenfree, dairyfree banana bread (one of our favourites)
• one bowl allergy-free muffins (we make this all the time, but use 50% GF oatmeal flour and 50% brown rice flour). Add raisins and it’s raisin muffins!
• baked banana
• vegan corn muffins (we found these a bit dry)
• dairyfree organic blueberry/raspberry sorbet (with no cross-contamination with potential allergens). We even found GFCF ice cream sorbet cones at Dominion.
• homemade easy-to-make mango sorbet
• healthy chocolate chia pudding (haven’t tried this yet, but looks yummy!)
• Glutino chocolate GF cake mix with egg replacer (yum, yum!)
• Glutenfree, eggfree, dairy free white cake recipe here. She also has recipes for allergy-free frostings.
• dairyfree icing recipe here (yummy!)
• in dessert recipes, 1 whole egg can be replaced with: 1TBSP Ground Flax & 3 TBSP water (whipped together)
• peanut butter chocolate pillows (haven’t made this yet, but looks delicious!)
• crunchy dark chocolate and peanut butter (haven’t made this yet, but looks delicious)
• frozen chocolate peanut butter banana bites (again, haven’t made this yet, but looks delicious!)
• brown rice pudding
• chocolate chia pudding (haven’t tried this yet, but looks delicious)

Beverages:

• water
• apple juice, orange juice, pineapple juice, cranberry juice
• homemade hemp milk (blend up a 1:5 ratio of hemp seeds to water). Recipe here.
• glutenfree oat milk
• green smoothie
• peanut butter bomb smoothie and peanut butter crunch bars. Recipes here.

Condiments:

• Instead of butter or margarine, we use olive oil or coconut oil (Update [January 2012] – we now use Earth Balance, a dairy-free “buttery” spread)

Eating out:

(Of course, always doublecheck with serving staff about potential sources of cross-contamination with allergens)

• Swiss Chalet Fries and Chicken (note: they fry the fries in oil where they also fry stuff with gluten, dairy and fish, but seems to be okay for Moses);
• Montana’s – Moses can eat their rotisserie chicken, fries and carrots sticks (basically the same as what he can eat at Swiss Chalet).  More expensive, but DH and I have a lot more variety to choose from than at Swiss Chalet.  Montana’s allergy information is here.
• Fries at New York Fries (note: no cross-contamination with any potential allergens);
• Jugo Juice or Booster Juice: smoothie made with banana, strawberries and apple juice
• Hava Java (in St. John’s): freshly squeezed orange juice or carrot juice
• convenience store: plain potato chips, apple juice, orange juice
• The Rocket — has organic lollipops that Moses can eat,  chips that Moses can eat, and a fruit salad (but we haven’t asked staff yet about potential sources of cross contamination).
• misc. restaurants: fruit salad

Of course, there are other foods that he can probably be eating, but he’s not a very adventurous eater and I’m not a very adventurous cook.  I’m learning though! Would love some additional ideas too!

***

For more GFCF meal ideas and recipes:

• For more simple GFCF meal ideas, read Shannon’s post about what Gem eats at Autism Miracle in my Kitchen.
• Jaime at Keely’s Kitchen has great ideas for feeding her daughter, Keely, who has 35 food sensitivities. She’s currently following a Body Ecology diet, and was following the Specific Carbohydrate Diet (SCD). Check out Jaime’s 2-week meal plan.
• Real Sustenance — delicous GFCF recipes
• GFCFetcF Kitchen Chemistry – diet that is free of gluten, dairy, soy, and a variety of other foods
• Tori’s GFCFSF Blog - GFCF and soy-free diet
• Whole Food Healing - a journey of dietary renovation to treat Autism and ADHD
• Shakti Yoga recipes (not all are GFCF, but some are)

GAPS / Paleo recipes

• Keely’s Kitchen’s GAPS / Paleo recipes

“Food Allergies and Me”

Allergy Mama (Juniper Skinner), a mom with a child with multiple food allergies has written a book for children with food allergies, Food Allergies and Me. A preview of the book can be seen here. I especially like that it is written by a mom whose child has food allergies because you know that it will be a favourable and empowering message that you will want your child to receive. It takes a child with allergies through his day at school, parties and other outings. I can’t wait to read it to my son.

I ordered a copy for my son today, and will tell you more about it after we read it, but all of the reviews that I have read so far have been very favourable. You can purchase the book from Amazon.

My son’s allergies/sensitivities are healing

I’ve been reporting every month the new foods that we’ve been introducing, but I wanted to do a summary post to let you know how far we’ve really come.

I never really told you how bad his allergies were when he was two and half years old. It was so bad that he was either allergic (IgE blood test, prick test) or sensitive (IgG blood test) to just about everything. The list is actually too long to list. I never shared it in the past because I found it too depressing and I felt that if I wrote it down, I would be “solidifying” it or “making it more real”. He was allergic to all of the major food allergens (gluten, dairy, fish, eggs, soy, nuts, peanuts, etc.) He was sensitive to all meat (except for lamb), and even to foods we thought were safe such as chicken, rice, potatoes,carrots, peas and honey. He couldn’t have foods that had preservatives, chemicals, additives, food colouring or flavouring. He couldn’t have any spices. There was a list of at least 40 foods that we were avoiding. Plus other foods that we were unsure of and too scared to try. His allergies were serious and he even had three anaphylatic reactions when he was two years old and was hospitalized for four days because of accidental ingestion of eggs. We were at the ER just about every week for other allergic reactions (breathing difficulties). We were at the ER so often that the staff would remember us as the “parents of the boy who had so many allergies”. We were advised not to have any more children because the risk of another child with allergies would be too great.  None of the doctors had ever had another patient with as many allergies as my son. Our pediatrician in Calgary, a well known and well-respected pediatrician, told us “there was nothing that he could do to help us”. No one could help us. My husband and I were both so stressed out and nervous wrecks. My husband was scared to answer his cell phone because it was often me reporting more bad news. Every time we went for a playdate to someone’s house, my son would get sick (even if he didn’t eat anything there). He would often vomit after playdates.

There was a period for several months when he was two and a half / three years old when the only safe foods were: organic hemp hearts (which he didn’t like), organic lamb, organic quinoa, organic ketchup, organic corn, organic bananas and organic apples.  That’s it. (Thankfully, he wasn’t allergic to tomatoes or corn, both of which are common allergens).

The only fruits that my son could eat when he was 3 years old

We tried many, many things from the time that he was born to heal him. I won’t list them all here because I believe that many of the things that we tried probably helped him to a certain extent, and I know can and have helped others. But, now that we know about his diagnosis (a genetic immune disorder), we realize how deeply rooted the disease state was, and why it was so difficult to heal. I often felt judged as a mom. When I went out with my baby, strangers would actually make comments like “What’s wrong with your baby’s face?” (because his eczema was so bad). Ignorant people would make comments to me on a daily basis. I often judged myself as a mom. I often judged myself because I considered myself a healer, and yet couldn’t keep my son healthy.

Even before he started Heilkunst homeopathy, we had started reintroducing some foods (such as chicken, brown rice, carrots, potatoes, blueberries, raspberries, strawberries), so life was becoming a bit easier.

Over the last six months (since the Heilkunst homeopathy), we’ve reintroduced: beef (which is now iffy), pineapple, pears, garlic, onions, celery, citrus fruits, honey, navy beans, and rice milk. I’m ecstatic to be able to re-introduce rice milk because it’s a food that I couldn’t understand why he would react to it (esp. when he could tolerate eating brown rice). We tried to reintroduce rice milk a couple of times over the last two years, but both times, his eczema flared up (here and here). This time, it seems like there’s no ill effect.  Yay, yay, yay!! He loves drinking it and it is fortified with calcium, Vitamin D and some other vitamins and minerals, so I like being able to give it to him. Plus I like it when he has his equivalent food that he can eat (i.e., rather than cow milk, he can drink rice milk).

His current list of allergies/sensitivities: peanuts (yep, he is now sensitive to peanuts; he actually used to be able to eat peanuts, but at least it’s a sensitivity and not an anaphylatic allergy — May 2011 update: he now eats organic peanut butter every day), nuts, dairy, gluten wheat, eggs (May 2011: eggs are now just a sensitivity), fish, mangoes (May 2011 – he can now eat mangoes), lentils, peas and grapes. He is also sensitive to soy, but can tolerate it in small quantities (e.g., we give him Bragg’s sauce, but can’t give him soy milk). Beef is iffy at the moment (May 2011: he can now eat beef). According to the biomeridian testing that his TCM doctor used, he is also sensitive to chicken, apples, baking soda and xanthan gum, but I don’t have the heart to take these foods completely out of his diet. None of these foods are anaphylatic allergies, but sensitivities. He still needs to avoid foods with preservatives, chemicals, additives, food colouring or flavouring. I believe that the chemicals are the worst offenders for my son. (In fact, he threw up the other day when we were out of town and fed him “precooked, frozen” chicken that had “spices and other preservatives added”, the type of food that we would not normally feed him, but we didn’t bring enough food with us during our trip to visit some relatives in a small town). The hope is that with the Heilkunst treatment and also the antiobiotics/antifungals, my son’s IgE levels will continue to go down, and his sensitivities will also be reduced.

Now that I’ve listed it all out, it may seem like that’s still a lot of foods that he’s allergic/sensitive to (and truthfully, it is), but compared to what were were dealing with before, it is so much more manageable. We are now at the point where I can actually follow some of the recipes in allergy-free recipe books. Yay, yay, yay!!

I believe that in the last 6 months, the reduction in his allergies/sensitivities are due largely to the Heilkunst homeopathy. I expect/hope that over the next year, we’ll be able to reintroduce more and more foods. I am ever so grateful!!

Updates:
Sept 19, 2011  – Moses allergies are continuing to heal.

March 2012 - Moses’ latest allergy test — it’s down to five sensitivities / allergies!

DIY food sensitivity tests

When our son was very young and sensitive to a lot of things (they couldn’t test him for enough things in the allergist’s office, especially when he was a baby because they couldn’t take enough blood and also because he was too young for skin prick tests, plus the fact that it takes forever to see an allergist), we struggled with what we could feed him (and I struggled with what I could eat while I breastfed him). Over the years, I learned about a few food sensitivity tests that we could do at home. They really worked. You can also use to first two methods to determine which supplements are appropriate for your child.

Of course, use your common sense. For example, for food items that you think may cause anaphylaxis, consult with an allergist or your health care practitioner.

“Tape it to the inner wrist” or “Smush it on the back” Test

To test milk, or another liquid, you can put it on a cotton ball and then tape it to your child’s inner wrist.  It really works for severe allergies, but might not work for sensitivities. For example, when I did this with milk, my son’s wrist developed hives. (Better to test on his skin than internally). We tested pineapple juice this way before we let him ingest it. There was no reaction on his skin and no reaction when he ingested it.

Another mom has said that she has taken small pieces of food, moistened it, and then taped it to her child’s inner wrist for 30 minutes and see if a reaction occurs. I think this would generally work better for moist foods (like fruits).

Before feeding her son cod for the first time, Mama Juniper smushed it onto her son’s back first and waited for 10 minutes to make sure that hives didn’t develop. (She did this to test for cross-contamination with some of his other allergens). She also mentions that it generally only works for severe allergies.

Pendulum Testing

A mom who also has a child with multiple sensitivities sent me this link on how to use a pendulum to figure out what foods would be good for him. More information about this technique can be found on this discussion group here.

This method was a God-send when I found out about it as I had literally been praying for an instruction booklet on how to feed my sensitive boy.

Anyone can use this method to figure out what foods would be best to consume. And, one can also ask just about any “yes or no” question from the pendulum, if you are having difficulty making a decision about something and would like to access a high level of truth. DH, who is normally skeptical about these sorts of things, really liked it because it worked for him too.

Food Elimination

If there is a food that you suspect that is the problem, remove it from your child’s diet for at least a month. After a month’s time, give your child the food and see if there is a reaction. (Or, if you notice a big difference with the food being eliminated, you may not even want to re-introduce the food).

This is how we discovered my son was sensitive to dairy. When he was a month old and I was breastfeeding him, I was advised that the dairy that I was eating may be contributing to his severe eczema. I gave up dairy for a week, but didn’t see a difference in his eczema, so I went happily back to eating dairy. When he was 5 months old, someone told me that it takes a least a month for the milk proteins to leave the system (which is why my son’s eczema wasn’t affected when I stopped milk for only a week). So I gave up milk for a month. We didn’t see a noticeable change in his eczema (because he was sensitive to more things than just milk), so at the end of the month’s time, I ate a lot of pizza. Lo and behold, my son’s eczema got very bad. Really bad. Dramatically bad. I was convinced and stopped eating dairy while I was breastfeeding him. He hasn’t had any dairy since then (since all of his traditional allergy tests [IgE blood tests and prick tests]  have indicated that he is still allergic to dairy).

I’ve been told it takes gluten proteins 6 months to leave the body (after you’ve stopped ingesting it), so it may take a longer time to notice a difference with gluten after you take gluten out of the diet.

Applied Kinesiology / Muscle Testing

I use applied kinesiology or muscle testing to find out whether a certain food or substance is “in my son’s highest good” to eat. I wrote more about muscle testing here.

IgG levels (need a naturopath for this)

In addition to the traditional allergy tests that your allergist can do (i.e., prick test, or IgE blood tests), consider consulting with a naturopath and determining which foods are triggers based on blood IgG levels. I’ll expand on this when I get more time.

Introducing new foods

When you are introducing new foods, do it one at a time and space them out at least four days in between (give it more time if a new food causes a reaction).

Be sure to keep a food journal to keep track of new food introductions. (You think you will remember if a food has a negative effect, but within a few months, you may not — especially if there are a lot of them to keep track of).

Let me know if you have any other methods that have worked for you.