I need help from families with multiple food allergies

[jlcejb6]

I have a new baby who has already had two rounds of double ear infections and been to the Dr. more times than I can count... and he's not even 6 months old yet! He is not a fussy or unhappy baby we just have allergy symptoms we can not get rid of. It was suggested to us to do an elimination diet and we have been trying but I need some help with food suggestions.

 

Right now all of us are doing the same diet, so what do you feed your family when you can't do dairy,gluten/wheat,corn,eggs,nuts,fish,soy,chocolate, and tomatoes?

 

Looking more specifically for snacks, breakfast and lunch ideas.

 

TIA

[MomatHWTK]

We started out with no foods when Ds was 1 and finally diagnosed, just formula. Then we finally got to where we could have everything except pn, tn, dairy, egg, soy, wheat, barley, fish and shellfish. We were able to have oatmeal- are you avoiding that due to the gluten issue? Now we are "just" dairy, egg, peanut, treenut, fish and shellfish. ;)

 

Home cooked meals made with whole foods. Rice and potato for starches, baked meats, simple vegetables. Chicken broth can be used to make mashed potatoes rather than milk and butter. Oil can substitute for your butter in most dishes. Fresh fruits for snacks. We pretty much ate "dinner" type food for all the meals as breakfast was hard to do with all those limitations.

 

When you are ready to try them, beans can work in a lot or soups and stews to bulk up the proteins and carbs. (We avoided all legumes in the first few years b/c of the peanut and soy allergies.) I also use sunflower seeds and sunflower seed "butter" as a peanut butter substitute now. I was more cautious about seeds in general when DS was a baby as I didn't want any new allergies cropping up! I supplemented his intake with Neocate and/or Alimentum until he was nearly 5 years old. Then around age 6/7 he got soy, barley and wheat back in his diet.

[jlcejb6]

We started out with no foods when Ds was 1 and finally diagnosed, just formula. Then we finally got to where we could have everything except pn, tn, dairy, egg, soy, wheat, barley, fish and shellfish. We were able to have oatmeal- are you avoiding that due to the gluten issue? Now we are "just" dairy, egg, peanut, treenut, fish and shellfish. ;)

 

Home cooked meals made with whole foods. Rice and potato for starches, baked meats, simple vegetables. Chicken broth can be used to make mashed potatoes rather than milk and butter. Oil can substitute for your butter in most dishes. Fresh fruits for snacks. We pretty much ate "dinner" type food for all the meals as breakfast was hard to do with all those limitations.

 

When you are ready to try them, beans can work in a lot or soups and stews to bulk up the proteins and carbs. (We avoided all legumes in the first few years b/c of the peanut and soy allergies.) I also use sunflower seeds and sunflower seed "butter" as a peanut butter substitute now. I was more cautious about seeds in general when DS was a baby as I didn't want any new allergies cropping up! I supplemented his intake with Neocate and/or Alimentum until he was nearly 5 years old. Then around age 6/7 he got soy, barley and wheat back in his diet.

 

I am actually strictly breastfeeding and we have just started with the most common allergens and cutting them out all at once. We are cutting out both wheat and gluten to be safe. I do have oats but they are certified gluten free.

 

We have kept doing beans but mostly just white, black and red beans. I don't know of any allergy warnings to them, but I know very little about all this.

[Ellie]

Well, there are lots of other things you can eat: rice, potatoes, meat, pork, all veggies. You just cook them pretty straight up, KWIM?

[sbgrace]

Think whole foods--your meat/lentils/beans if and when you do them, starch (quinoa--which has a good amt of protein though make sure there isn't an issue with cross reaction to corn, potato, rice or tinkyada rice pasta, teff, your gf oats), fruit and/or vegetable. Smoothies are nice and you can add coconut oil for fats. We use ghee, salt, and teff to make crackers and my son loves them with guacamole. We used to use buckwheat but my husband developed anaphylaxis and after learning more about it I''d recommend highly allergic people avoid it.

 

Be careful with gluten free stuff (including flours/mixes) as most are contaminated with tree nuts and/or sesame. My tree nut and sesame anaphylactic son does fine with sunflower butter but I'd avoid it just in case of sensitization given it's a seed. The rest of the family could eat that though for some good fat and calories.

 

Think outside the "breakfast food" mindset.

Edited February 17, 2012 by sbgrace

[ssavings]

DS4 is allergic to wheat, eggs, soy, dairy, chocolate, etc.

 

Breakfast: coconut yogurt, fresh fruit, breakfast potatoes, breakfast meat, smoothies, breakfast "rice pudding", puffed rice cereal (just watch for cross-contamination).

Snacks are usually fruits (sometimes dipped in coconut yogurt), veggies, or smoothies.

Lunch is usually left overs from the night before, quinoa with veggies, quinoa pasta salad, simple stir fry over rice/rice noodles, fried rice without soy sauce, and other simple foods.

[mamakim]

And keep in mind that you don't have to have a huge arsenal of recipes and ingredients just now - the first part of the elimination is just clearing your bodies and only lasts a couple of weeks, right? So you can just stick with the very few basics like rice, turkey/chicken, avocado, veg (probably not corn, though), maybe potatoes or maybe not if you're worried about nightshades.

 

When my three with the immune disorder are old enough to come off of formula-only (at 5 years old), they first trial rice, then organic no-additive turkey, then a veg like broccoli, then olive oil, then salt, then apple, then we start trialing other fruits and veg.

 

And that reminds me to say, which you probably already know - read labels on everything. Like you might think to cook a turkey, but most of them (at least in the grocery store) contain soy.

[Shellydon]

When I did an elimination diet while nursing, I ate potatoes, sweet potatoes, organic turkey, rice. I did that for a couple of weeks, then began adding other food. The rest of the family ate as usual.

[GnomeyNewt]

My son had reactions to food since he was born. We did elimination diet etc etc... Nothing worked till we went in at 2 yrs old and finally got a blood test, to find out what he was allergic too.

 

He is allergic to most fruits & vegetables ... all citrus/orange colored fruits and most vegetables, expect for most of the green vegetables. It would be easier for me to list the fruit/veggies he is not allergic too, since his list is very long. In his case, without the test I don't think we would have figured this one out. Who would suspect their child is allergic to a carrot or potato?? Especially since there is no one else in our family that has this strange reaction to food. Thankfully he just gets runny poop or a stomach ache, he does not have life threatening reactions.

 

I know another little boy who is allergic to just about everything -- milk, soy, most of the foods considered "safe" and foods considered "not safe" too, wheat, etc. He was tested at about 6 months I believe ~ but in his case he was not happy little guy and he couldn't hold food down at all. He does have life threatening reactions to his allergens.

 

Any way to get him tested if you are sure he is reacting to food? The blood test consisted of a prick on the finger and dabbing on some paper. At 2yrs old he did not even cry.

Edited February 18, 2012 by GnomeyNewt