Saturday, March 27, 2010

Asian Food Made Allergen Free

Every Saturday our whole family gets together and we have lunch. Yesterday I decided to do something different. Maybe we should start having at least one ethnic day thrown in there. Not that typical American food is bad, but a little change is always nice. Of course this can cause some kind of a problem with my daughter not being able to eat everything.

One Christmas when she was about 1 years old we had Chinese food. That didn't go over very well. She was very lethargic while opening her gifts and wound up throwing up later on that night (this was before we definitely knew she had food allergies). So, in order for us to enjoy a nice variety of food and having her join in, I would have to figure out how to make everything instead of buying it.

My older sister made the Chow Mein (she is a great cook) and white rice. I decided to make the Lumpia and Beef and Broccoli. As your mouth waters I will let you know that I am a vegetarian (which works out well when my daughter tells people she is allergic to meat), so everything has veggie meat in it. Surprisingly, everything can taste just as great with veggie food instead of meat. You just have to find the right products to supplement. At times it can be hard. I spent half a day trying to find veggie beef for the Beef and Broccoli!

To make the Chow Mein food allergy free, I had my sister put some aside for my daughter and used olive oil on it instead of the Asian sauce she uses. For the Beef and Broccoli, I took a portion of it out before adding the Asian sauce. She will just eat the beef tossed with some broccoli in it without any type of seasoning. And for the Lumpia, I took a portion of the mixture out and set it aside. I left out the soy sauce, egg, and cayenne pepper.

So, she can join in with us when we eat different foods. We just have to tweak it a bit so that it is safe for her to eat. I use to just make her separate food, but as she gets older, she wants to eat what everyone else is eating. So I have to learn how to substitute!

p.s. ~ All she ate was the lumpia and some of the veggie beef! Picky, picky, picky!

Thursday, March 25, 2010

Allergy Free Cafeteria Session and Friday Blog Hop!

My daughter ate school cafeteria food for the first time last week. I don't know that I will be making a habit out of this. I don't feel as though they have the healthiest food to eat, but once in awhile will not hurt.

According to her it was the best time she had ever had. I make her lunches every single day. Sometimes I try to coordinate with what the cafeteria is having, but that doesn't always workout. We are vegetarians and the school pretty much offers meat. That particular day they were serving pizza, so I felt like she would be safe eating there that particular day. The office asked me to have the teacher follow her and make sure she picked out a pizza and not something else.

Well, it was a successful event and I may let her do it again. I just have to get pass all the unhealthy grease and unnatural products they put in the food!

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Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Special Friday, March 26th How to Train Your Dragaon Screening

Paramount is looking to get the word out about special morning screenings for moms this Friday at 10 am in these cities:
 
* Chicago (suburbs only)  
* Denver (Douglas County, Boulder Valley, Littleton)  
* Los Angeles (Inland Empire ONLY) 
* Miami (Broward County) 
* Minneapolis (Rosemount & Bernsville Egan)  
* Orlando (Orange County, Brevard, Volusia)
* Portland 
* Sacramento (Stockton, Lodi & Vacaville Counties)
* Salt Lake City (Weber, Toolele & Murray Counties) 
* Tampa (Mantee, Sarasota, Hernando & Citrus County) 
* Washington D.C. (Prince Georges County & Spotslyvania)
 

The reviews are SCORCHING HOT and the movie looks like a ton of fun. Check your local movie listings for information about time and location for other showings.

Get Tickets to How to Train Your Dragon Online!
Visit the Official How to Train Your Dragon Site


Thanks to Twittermoms for the special chance to display this on my blog.
Disclosure: No monetary or product compensation was received for this posting.

Sunday, March 14, 2010

Unexplainable Hives


I decided to make some oatmeal raisin cookies for my family's luncheon on Saturday. I figured if I made them from scratch my daughter would be able to eat them also. So I pulled out all the ingredients for them and proceeded to create them. Once I was done, I put them in the oven and cooked them. After they cooled off, I gave one to my daughter to try. As usual, she was hesitant to try it. I think she has been told no so many times that when it comes to trying allergy free foods, she thinks problems will still occur.

For some strange reason she went downstairs to eat it. It was a good thing she did because she yelled out that her throat felt funny. I was able to give her something to drink and her throat felt better. I am beginning to believe that her food allergies aren't as life threatening as some other people's children. She doesn't seem to go through all the major symptoms that some other children go through. Don't get me wrong, I still treat them as though they are. You never know when it could change.

After I gave her something to drink, I thought that everything was fine. She went back to playing and it was as though she never had the cookie. I then put her in the tub to give her a bath. While she was in there she told me her legs were itching. I told her, her skin was probably dry. She use to have eczema when she was a baby, so her skin tends to be a little drier. When I took her out and started to put Vaseline on her, I noticed scratch marks on her legs. I asked her what had happened and she said after her throat started to hurt, her legs started to itch. She had little bumps all over her thighs. I told her to try and not scratch as it would put marks on her legs.

Later on in the middle of the night she woke up to tell me her legs were itching her really bad. I turned the light on and examined her legs. She had actual hives on them. I had to look for the topical benadryl to put on her. She stated that it didn't help, but she was able to go back to sleep.

I can't figure out why that happened. It is always hard to tell when it is not directly related to food. There shouldn't have been anything that would have set her off in the cookie. The only thing that I can think of is either the nutmeg or the cinnamon. I don't think she is allergic to either of them, but those were the only seasonings in them that she doesn't usually have. I don't know, maybe she is truly allergic to one of them or maybe she is just having a pseudo allergic reaction to them. Only time will tell.

Thursday, March 11, 2010

From Food Allergies to Asthma



I just had a conversation with my daughter's allergist. We were going over how her RAST numbers have gone down and what to look forward to in the future. We decided (more or less me) that we would wait two more years before putting my daughter through a food challenge. I just think it would be better if her numbers were closer to zero.

According to her allergist (I can't speak for all the others), there is a certain trend they follow. This would be kids that she has dealt with that have had lower RAST numbers vs. higher ones. As excited as I was to hear that there was a trend in the numbers going down I become dismayed at what followed. See, my daughter not only has food allergies, she also has outdoor and pet allergies. I never thought that her outdoor allergies could become an issue like her food allergies, but apparently they can. She explained that most of the kids that she has whose RAST numbers fall (food wise), start having to deal with allergens in the nose which leads to asthma. The sad thing is that her outdoor allergen numbers went up quite a bit. This is due to the fact that we are going into spring/summer. So, this year, or over the next two years (before her next test session) I have to watch for her coughing or wheezing while she is running. If that starts up, it is back to the allergist again.

Having to make sure I have her epipens and benadryl with me at all times is something that I have become accustomed to. But now having to think that I may have to include an inhaler with them is very disheartening for me. To think that she may have to carry her epipens and an inhaler to school..... I just pray it doesn't get to that point, especially for a kid who is HIGHLY active and loves being outdoors.

Copyright © 2010 Allergykidmom. All rights reserved


Monday, March 8, 2010

Food Allergy Conflict



This weekend has been a good one. We haven't had any issues with food, which is good.

Within the next two weeks my daughter's school is going to have a pizza day for lunch. She is not allowed to eat cafeteria food (per school request), which has her feeling left out sometimes. I am going to go up to the school again and see if they will let her participate in pizza day. Technically, I am against her eating food that I haven't prepared, but I think this could be an exception. So starting today, I will have to go to the office and make my way through the chains to find out if it will be okay.

Another thing I have decided to do is call all the local schools in my area and see if they are set up to deal with kids with food allergies. I will also ask (if they are) what protocols do they follow. Then I will put an article in my local paper so that more parents can be informed as to which schools to send their children to.

The only way for our kids to be food safe at school is for us parents, to take the initiative and make it that way.
Copyright © 2010 Allergykidmom. All rights reserved


Friday, March 5, 2010

Blog Hop #8



Friday Follow

MckLinky Blog Hop


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Thursday, March 4, 2010

Parsley ~ An Actual Food Allergy

There are so many different types of foods that children or adults can be allergic to. Sometimes I am not sure if my daughter is just not feeling well or if she is really having an allergic reaction. Most of the times her reactions to certain foods is pretty much clear cut, but then there are those times when she just vomits (pardon my words) hours later and has no other reaction with it. Those are times when I am left wondering if it is truly something to be avoided or not.

A while ago we had a big dinner at my parent's house. Everything was "food safe", so my daughter could eat until her heart was content. At least that is what I thought. A new item that was presented was red potatoes with parsely and olive oil. Now looking at that, you wouldn't think that it would affect someone in any way whatsoever. But later that night, she got up out of her bed and told me she felt sick. She then went into the bathroom and plopped herself in front of the toilet. I have been blessed to have a young child who can tell me she is going to be sick and still make it to the bathroom before throwing up. As gross as this may sound, I have been in the habit of checking her vomit to see what has made her sick. This time it was red potatoes and parsely. Wow, who would have thought that would be the thing to make her sick!

Today I decided to look on the internet and see if someone could really be allergic to parsely. Can you believe it, you can. I have always kept her from it after that one incident, but that is just because I tend to get paranoid when she has any type of reaction to food. On Wikipedia I found out that parsley is part of the Birch family. Some of the other foods in the Birch family are: almonds, apples, apricots, avocados, bananas, carrots, celery, cherries, chicory, coriander, fennel, fig, hazelnuts, kiwifruit, nectarines, parsley, parsnips, peaches, pears, peppers, plums, potatoes, prunes, soy, strawberries, wheat, and potentially walnuts. After seeing this I thought that I should have done research on it sooner. She happens to be allergic to almonds, hazelnuts, wheat, and walnuts. It is hard to say what to avoid and what not to avoid. She can eat apples, bananas, carrots, celery, cherries, soy, strawberries and wheat (her number for this is so low she is not affected by it) without a problem. Unfortunately, it is going to have to be a guessing game for me for the rest of her life.

Copyright © 2010 Allergykidmom. All rights reserved


Monday, March 1, 2010

Allergy Test Results



I received good news today from my daughter's allergist. Her test results came back with lower numbers. Now when I say lower, I mean way lower. To most of you this may not seem like a big deal, but for someone who has had to watch what their child ingests for the sake of their life, it's a big deal. I thanked her allergist over and over again. I'm sure she could see the smile on my face by the tone of my voice.

First, we talked about her cashew results. This one was the highest number the last time she was tested. The results showed that it went down from a 28 to a 6. She wanted the number to be a 5 or lower, but this was good news for me. See, I had to deal with her having a reaction to cashew butter and it wasn't easy. She fell asleep (her blood level dropped) and then threw up later. I was happy to hear that it was a 6 even though a 5 would have been better.

Next we talked about her peanut number. Originally, it was a 12 and dropped down to a 6 also. This is good news because peanuts seem to be in everything or cross-contaminated with everything. This shows that within the last 3 years, her numbers dropped in half. Just think what another 3 years could bring.

The last thing we discussed was regarding her having a food challenge. I can't say that I am all that keen on this idea. I would love for her numbers to be a lot lower. I still fear that something could go wrong even though she would take this test in a hospital.

When my daughter got out of school I told her the allergist called and gave me good news. I explained to her that her numbers were lower this time which means she is getting better. I told her she still isn't allowed to have the foods that are listed on her allergy bracelet, but one day she may be able to. With a smile on her face, she looked at me and said, "One day I may be able to take this bracelet off and not have to wear it?" I told her maybe. She jumped up and down with joy.

Even though her numbers are lower, I will still take the same precaution as before. The epipens and the benadryl will continue to go with us everywhere. The avoidance of bakeries, certain restaurants, and potlucks will still stand firm. But the thought that maybe, just maybe one day all of this will be in the past, is all I need for hope.
Copyright © 2010 Allergykidmom. All rights reserved


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