Any nutritional advice for juggling multiple food allergies?

[rafiki]

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[Lovedtodeath]

Whole grain flours from Bobsredmill.com. They have many that are very nutritious. Most are gluten free. also...

 

http://www.specialfoods.com/whitesweetpotato.html

 

glutenfreepantry.com even has dairy free gluten free cheese!

 

Ten years without food, food allergy survival. (book)

 

Look into energy therapies like Naet.

 

My DS is severely allergic to yeast. DD was allergic to wheat, so it took us forever to figure out is was yeast for him. Keep your mind open to possible allergens.

 

HTH

[Rebecca]

Dear Michelle,

I am sorry about your new found food allergies. It stinks.

 

We deal with multiple food allergies too...

I do have some food advice...

 

FWIW, my third son has all poultry, milk, egg, treenut, sesame, coconut. It used to be worse- he used to be also allergic to beef, peanut, and soy too.

I have another child my fifth son who also has allergies and at one time- he had all grains. :001_huh:

 

So, I do know how it can feel at time. It is hard.

 

As far as insurance... I don't know. We recently worked it out with our plan to FINALLY be able to get some of Neocate formula covered- but for years we have footed this expense ourselves.

 

Secondly- do you know about the Parents of Kids With Food Allergies forum? It has a recipe database and tons of support. http://www.kidswithfoodallergies.org

There are parents on there with food allergies too. It is a wonderful forum and is medically top notch. The recipe database is awesome. These families deal with every kind of allergy and it is full of delicious recipes.

 

As far as meals,

I would think you can do one of two things:

Find the common denominator for all of you and start planning most of your meals around that.

Find the common denominator for your kids and plan their meals and cook for yourself separately.

 

It is expensive.

 

It looks like you have chicken, turkey, pork, and fish as main protein sources. (We have beef, pork, and fish.)

 

I would start making meals based around that. You have both milk and soy and that makes it hard. :grouphug: Really hard. With anaphylaxis it makes it so tough- because you probably don't want to have those foods served/ in the house.

 

When my five year old was younger we were blessed to have an awesome nutritionist and she gave us great advice. Is your allergist affiliated with anyone?

 

Do you have the cookbook What's to Eat by Linda Coss? It does use soy but you can substitute rice milk for soy milk and canola oil for the soy based margarine... also if you do not have coconut- which is appears you don't - you can use Spectrum spread which is a palm oil based shortening that you can use for baking, margarine substitute, etc. It is dairy and soy free. You can find it at Whole Foods or Earth Fare or Wegmans, etc.

 

Coconut milk can be used in a variety of ways, ice cream, whipped topping, etc. This might be good for you guys with not having the milk/soy. My son is severely allergic to it though.

 

Also, you might want to look into having your thyroid checked because an out of balance thyroid can contribute to having food allergy symptoms- especially as an adult not having had them before.

 

Just some ideas. I hope something helps.

Sincerely,

Rebecca

[Lovedtodeath]

Rebecca has some good advice... the biggest culprit that contributes to foood allergies is an out of whack adrenal gland, and most people have adrenal and thyroid problems both. A book that helped me with multiple allergies caused by hypothyroid, hypoadrenal and candidiasis is From Fatigued to Fantastic. Drrind.com also has unformation on this. DD and I have overcome our allergies. I have found that after 2-3 years of strict avoidane we were able to add them back in. I am afraid to add yeast back in for Jake though.

 

I have found Electrodermal testing very accurate for recognizing specific food allergies, and recommending treatments for that individual person. Immunocal helps to keep symptoms down and treat the underlying problem.

[CactusPair]

:grouphug:

 

Have you tried DariFree as a milk replacer? It's a potato-based powder. It doesn't taste like dairy milk, but it's ok. We use it mostly in batters or smoothies. It's very nutritious. Calcium and extra vitamins are available in fortified orange juice. My dc like Minute Maid Kids Juice in the .5 gallon carton.

 

I 2nd bob's red mill grains. There are a lot of non-gluten grains that are high in protein and fiber. You can also make smoothies with rice protein powder. I add brewer's yeast to mine for extra nutrition.

 

I would try to concentrate on serving a lot of fruits and vegs. at mealtimes. High-quality frozen vegs. make a quick, easy way to fill up a dinner plate.

 

Instant brown rice is good, too. You can make non-gluten pancakes with buckwheat, darifree powder and egg replacer powder. very nutritious.

 

For meat, there's chicken, turkey, and fish, esp. salmon (if seafood allergies aren't a problem).

 

allergygrocer.com has a lot of pre-packaged type foods, but it's expensive. they carry tinkyada rice pasta, which is delicious. don't try any other non-gluten brand.

 

i haven't food a way out of the short-order cook role in our allergic household, though. I just try to cook a lot of stuff in the microwave and keep it simple. We eat a lot of potatoes.:001_smile:

[mom2mea]

:grouphug:

 

Sorry, no new advice, just a big hug! My 4 year old is severely allergic to peanuts, lentils, peas (I just found out that these foods are all related), eggs, and dairy. We have recently been using coconut milk and oil for cooking and substituting and it works well.

 

We have not worked with our insurance at all.

[TracyR]

Sorry. Not a whole heck alot of advice on this. My youngest has multiple food allergies to milk , soy , wheat , eggs , peanut , barley and oat and a few others we can't seem to pinpoint. She was already born with health problems so that didn't help. Wether they are caused by thyroid issues I'm not so sure about that. I have hypothyroidism and don't have any allergies.

 

Anyways I feel for you. I feel like the short order cook too. I cant' make the same stuff for everyone because well everyone wouldn't eat it ( aka my husband and other three children).

My daughter is on Vanilla Elecare to supplement for having all these allergies. I don't know if insurance will help you with learning to make meals for everyone. I haven't come across anything like that. But some states will allow specialized formula for children with multiple food allergies.

There is also the Kids With Food Allergies.com site and Parent-2-Parent (www.parent-2-parent.org ) has an allergy forum as well.

Good luck in it all. It is very frustrating and there really is no accurate testing out there. My daughter has had the RAST ( blood work ) testing and scratch testing and its not be very accurate. Allergy testing still has a long way to go. The only way really is to find the allergy and to stay away from the allergy. Also with everyone having all those allergies you all should have Epipens as well. Even though my daughter hasn't had anaphylactic shock to anything yet there is always a great risk for that. So those with multiple allergies should always have Epipens with them as well.

 

Ian's makes alot of wheat free , soy free, egg free , you name it free products and you can find them at alot of stores in the Organic sections. If not they do have a website. We get their chicken , and they are REALLY good. My other girls will eat those too. There is gluten free wheat. We use Bob's Red Mill. Being creative with veggies is a good thing.

[rafiki]

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[Lovedtodeath]

Good luck in it all. It is very frustrating and there really is no accurate testing out there. My daughter has had the RAST ( blood work ) testing and scratch testing and its not be very accurate. Allergy testing still has a long way to go. The only way really is to find the allergy and to stay away from the allergy. Also with everyone having all those allergies you all should have Epipens as well. Even though my daughter hasn't had anaphylactic shock to anything yet there is always a great risk for that. So those with multiple allergies should always have Epipens with them as well.

 

 

Thank you for the epipen suggestion. As far as your failure to find accurate testing... that is true if you rely on traditional western medicine. Natural Doctors, chiropracters and accupuncturists have open minds, less regulations and more options.

 

I have found Electrodermal testing very accurate for recognizing specific food allergies, and recommending treatments for that individual person. Immunocal helps to keep symptoms down and treat the underlying problem.

[Rebecca]

Michelle,

I am glad you replied... I was wondering what you thought. I, too, thought this thread would move... but I am glad I saw it here.

I am not too familiar with OAS although I think one of my sons has some symptoms of it... hives when eating certain fruits at certain times of the year, etc.

I hope that learning these cross reactions will help your food plan!

I did want to say that we have IgE and non-IgE allergies...

We have epi-pens, emergency kit, etc... so that is the perspective I was coming from. I have one of those children who cannot not even be in the room with some of his foods cooking due to reacting... and it was much worse when he was a toddler...

 

As far as the thyroid: I was referring to that only toward you. None of my children have thyroid issues and one of them has severe, life-threatening anaphylaxis to multiple foods.

I just thought it was a worthy rock to overturn... I know for me, I was developing some new food sensitivities and issues, had a thyroid problem after my last pregnancy- then got pregnant with number six and all the issues have gone away- thank the Lord... but I was never a "true" allergic case beyond hay fever, etc. Sometimes stress can bring stuff on...

Since you were tested, obviously that is not the case... but I just wanted to offer that suggestion.

 

Also- my son has true IgE chicken allergy has evidenced by his spt- it is not cross reactivity and it is very rare.

 

It sounds like you have researched yourself a great plan!

I mainly wanted you to know that YOU ARE NOT ALONE!

 

Also, Cherrybrook Kitchen is MY FAVORITE for treats...

HTH,

Rebecca

[FO4UR]

:grouphug: I have a ds with severe allergies to tree nuts and peanuts. I suspect he might be allergic to wheat too. (...after I bought a grain mill......and he was eating tons of ww.....and standing in the kitchen where the grain was milled:001_huh:)

 

It is SO hard! Eliminating nuts was easy, wheat is crazy hard:confused:

 

I am trying to come up atleast a week of meals that are affordable! So far....rice and eggs, rice and chicken, rice and beef....:lol: (After reading your list of allergies, I am grateful that ds can have those things!)

 

If I had your family's list of allergies, I would come up with a 2 week menu, and repeat every 2 weeks. (just to keep me sane):grouphug:

[Storm Bay]

The easiest way for us to do it is to put everyone (save dh, who wants "normal") food on the same diet. Dd had a LONG list and mine is long, too. We do a rough rotary diet--each food type one day in 4. We also take multi-vitamin/mineral supplements.

 

Bob's Red Mill does grind its gluten free grains in a separate place from their gluten grains, but beware of their mixes as they included legume flours. I buy a lot in bulk from a coop. We have a buckwheat day, a corn day, an amaranth day, a gluten-free cereal grain day. Same with other food families. Ideally, you would eat each food once in one of those days, but we haven't found that something we can implement and still get enough to eat. The idea behind this is to prevent more allergies/sensitivities from developing. If you're interested, let me know, and I'll give you book recommendations, but 2 of my kids need my care NOW!!!!!;):glare:

[Lovedtodeath]

Barley flour is great in cookies and pancakes. A mixture of white (unfermented) rye flour and barley makes wonderful breads.