9 posts tagged “food allergy”

New versions of my oat muffins and Sourdough breads. 

Strawberry Banana Muffins 

Makes 12 muffins

Bowl of Wet ingredients:
1/2 c Strawberries mashed
1 small banana
2 oz of applesauce
1/4 c sugar
1/2 c Rice Milk
1 c oats
1/4 c Canola Oil

Bowl of Dry ingredients:
1 c Bisquick
1/4 tsp sea salt
2 tsp baking powder

Mix the rice milk and oats together (I used Old Fashioned because I prefer the texture, but any will do). 
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit and put paper liners or spray (like "Pam") in the muffin pan.   
Mash the fruits and throw that in, along with the rest of the first 7 ingredients.  The oats need to set in liquid for about 10m.  They are usually ready by the time I've done the rest.  In another bowl mix the dry ingredients. 
Throw the dry into the wet and mix.  Don't over stir.  Spoon into muffin pan and cook for about 22 minutes.  They should be lightly browned and a tooth pick inserted in the middle of one should come away clean to show they are done.   These are so good for breakfast.  I also frost them when my son needs a non-dairy cupcake at some food event.   

I also have another bread variation.  A local health food store now has reasonably priced, white (finely ground) unbleached, unbromated flour which is perfect for bread.  And the price of Spelt has gone down as it's become more available.  It has at least 15% more protein than it's regular wheat cousins.  It also has greater iron, potassium and B vitamin content.  But I just like how this tastes!

Spelt Sourdough

makes 10 buns or a medium loaf

1/4 c room temp or warm soymilk
1/4 c warm water
2 Tbsp instant (mashed) potato flakes
1/2 c sour dough starter
1 1/4 c Spelt flour
1 c regular bread flour
1 tsp sugar
3/4 tsp sea salt
2 Tbsp Olive Oil

mix it together, knead for 10 m  and let it rise to twice it's size
(however many hours later, depending on your starter, mine needs at least 6 hours)
punch it down and roll it on a floured suface into a 10 inch roll, cut at 1 inch intervals
roll each into a ball and place on a floured pan
let rise again to double size (less time than before, mine takes about an hour)
bake at 375 degrees Faherenheit for about 20 minutes.

The same store now has hard red (whole) wheat flour, so I am using that in my recipes that call for whole wheat.  More on that once I have experimented a bit.   
 

It doesn't happen often, because I HATE going to the grocery.  I usually have to go home after an hour, done or not.  It takes me so long to read all the ingredients to every product we bring in the house.  I hate it.  But yesterday and today were not so bad.  I was even happy with the results.  Our Costco is carrying Rice Dream rice milk again.  YEAH!  Costco also had Illy coffe for $4.99!  I got one.  I got my sister three.  Not entirely happy with them though, their decaf sucks.  You have to buy 3 lbs of it to learn that.  Or in my case, 6lbs because you didn't remember trying it last year and not liking it.  Duh.  Our local grocery had many of the things I needed on sale tonight.  Including their decaf coffee that tastes like Maxwell house brand.  I stocked up on diet caf-free pop and organic ketchup.  (insert your own joke here) And tonight I found that Duncan Hines now has more cakes we can eat, at least most of us.  I'm afraid that the box cakes still need egg, and most of the time our nephew is celebrating with us when we have cake, so  I'll still be making the silver white cake and her chocolate sister, mostly.  I believe that recipe came from the "Baking Without Eggs" cookbook.  But I like variety.  And I LOVE cake!  Duncan Hines Moist Delux Spice Cake used to be the only commercial brand we could find- the only mix at a regular grocer that didn't have milk.  Tonight I was reading the ingredients again.  The following Duncan HInes Moist Delux boxed cakes did not list milk in their ingredients lists:
Decadent Carrot Cake (the one with real carrots and raisins)
Lemon
German Chocolate
Red Velvet
Spice

Sometimes Duncan Hines has two sorts of a similar flavor, so remember to look for "Moist Delux" and always read the ingredients.  Things change all the time.  We've been burned by that.  The chocolate flavors may have been milk free before; I don't think I read them.  Prior to the 2006 labeling laws going into effect, we stayed away from chocolate all together, because most chocolate has milk.  And Little Boy Blue doesn't like chocolate even when mommy buys the expensive special milk-free kind for him.  So I have given up trying to convert him.  We don't need a whole cake as it is, there's no way I'm getting a chocolate cake just for me.   Mmmmm....chocolate cake....
(Sorry.  Had a Homer moment.)      

Not the best news, but not the worst news either.  The allergy blood test results are in, and they must have been
I Cap because the nurse described six categories, the old RAST had five.  My son scored a low positive on Soy, Egg Whites and Banana.  We may still be able to eat some of these.  We'll know more once we talk to the allergist.   I am hoping she'll re-test for milk, also.  There is still the possibility that his reaction was partly due to a virus.  And the nurse said that the rotavirus is one that can come in waves like we had.  If we are able to reintroduce these foods, the conclusive evidence will be that it does or doesn't make him sick again.   Overall I am relieved.  Soy protein is the harder of the three and we can deal.  He likes rice milk, and can do without the rest.  I imagine we'll have some fuss over Toffutti Cuties, but we can still have Sorbet.  I am just glad wheat was negative. 
Good news from our otherwise crappy insurance: his speech therapy will be (mostly) covered.  We are going to end up spending a few thousand dollars this year on insurance, but I expected that.  And it'll happen later rather than sooner.  That's the good news.  Can't wait for Uncle Sam's Economic Stimulus check.  It's already spent.  All of this was a good exercise, actually.  I figure we'll need some services for our daughter when she comes home and I'd gotten rusty in dealing with bureaucrats.   Ha. 

  Today was day three with no tummy upsets and I am thankful.    My Dear Son went to his last 2 soccer games and the after-party.  He had such a  good time that he threw a fit about leaving and had to sit in time out.  Felling better, though.  It was nice to just see a normal boy again, and not worry over him.  I don't ant to raise him to think of himself as different.  He's just a kid, really.  He ran and played all afternoon and had so much fun.  He's worn out.  We put him down for a nap, late as it was and will wake him up shortly.  We had great coaches for soccer this season.  I hope we are as lucky next time.  It's random selection for the young kids, except coaches get to have their own child on the team.
  We got o see the allergist Thurs.  He's going to be runny nosed and irritable from tomorrow until then without his antihistamines, but we want an accurate test. 
   DS went with Dad this morning and brought me back some flowers.  Love my boys! 

Rotavirus and new food allergy?  I am hoping this was some virus and just the banana.  The last of the lower GI tests came in negative, but they were all for bacteria (salmonella, e.coli, and so forth), and inflammatory bowl syndrome.  I suppose since they tested for bacteria, then they haven't ruled anything out from lack of fever.  What I remember from medic school was, generally, acute bacterial infections had high fever and accute viral infection had low fever.   I talked to the nurse today about rotavirus.  She said it can be active upto 30 days.  Much longer than I expected.  I guess two weeks is just an average.  I also looked it up quickly and read, 'children under 5'.  I also saw some clinical study results stating that of the test group, 77% of kids who tested positive had fever.  So DS could be one of the 23%.  Now I have no idea why he wasn't tested for it.  He had another episode last night.  But tonight he was wanting to play, and went outside with daddy for a while.  The remaining three allergy results still aren't in.  There appears to have been a glitch somewhere at the lab (across the country).  Hopefully we'll hear something Monday.  Odd to have given us only one result of four, when they all came from the same blood test.  I am betting we'll be told it needs to be redrawn.  My son is frantic that he not have to give blood again, and I'm pretty irritated.  I asked them to do one draw for any tests they wanted.   We've had three now.  if they do ask to have it redone, I'm going to tell them that we'll have it done at Dr B's office, the allergist we are seeing next week.  If the scratch and the I Cap are considered equal, then I want to do an ICap  because I think a scratch is just too hard on him.  And I really don't want her to do a scratch test on milk proteins.  I don't want to have to take him to the hospital.   When the nurse said she was going to have to track down our blood tests results I almost laughed.  I know I haven't learned patience yet.  For me not knowing is worse than the worst case scenario.  So it figures.  God is giving me another few days to learn to trust in Him, I guess.  If my husband tell me one more time to 'think positively' I'll kick him, I swear.  So the plan now is, see the allergist (Dr B) and have the Pedi do a Celiac's panel, simultaneously, if no positives on the last three.    

Got a call from the Pedi office today with some of our tests results in: only one of the RAST results was finished and it's a hit.  DS is positive for Bananas as I suspected.  The good news is he's a RAST class 1 for banana, whereas he's a class 5 (highest) for dairy.  The bad news is that Banana isn't one of the big 8 which are required to be reported  on ingredients lists.  "Natural Flavoring" becomes a risk again.  Doc E said to me, "In my whole career, I've only had one kid allergic to Bananas...It's very rare."  This was his response to me saying my gut told me bananas.  A voice screamed inside my head, "DON"T SAY THAT!"  I had a flashback of Doc P telling me that an exclusively nursing newborn couldn't have a cow-milk allergy from the mom.  I hate going through this again.  It's not as bad because he's not a baby and because I will not be talked out of checking for food allergies, now.  I respect his docs, they are good, but I know my kid better than they do, and I trust my own instincts. 
We'll need to know more about the banana result and will look to the Allergist for further info.  There are many things that coincide with Banana allergy, Latex is the one people may have heard, but also mango, avocado, kiwi, chestnut, birch pollen, etc.  He may need to be tested for similar allergens.  We'll see what Doc B says about it.  We will be going forward with the awful scratch test next week, and I don't know what all they'll test for.  That also means DS will be without his antihistamines and runny, itchy, irritable.  Seems almost back to normal today.  No vomiting yesterday or today, at least.  His tummy seems mostly settled.  And he's giving me grief about bedtime.  That's a sure sign of improvement.  I'm gonna let him go to his last day of school tomorrow, but I'll stay in the area in case he gets sick again.
I'm afraid that's not the end of the story, though.  It's too odd that we had three good days ion a row here (Fri, Sat, Sun) then Mon was so bad again.  I am hoping he had a roto virus in conjunction with the banana allergy, that would be my best case scenario at this point.  But I'm afraid that he may have yet another food allergy; Something else going on besides milk and banana.  I really hope not.  I am praying that he does not have a wheat allergy.  I have remarked that I think wheat is the worst one to deal with; so blithely.  Pray it isn't our fate.  We've taken out the wheat now too, at least until we know, and it is hard.  His starches are potato, oat and rice for now.  He gets one of those and meat and fruit and veggies for meals.  I'm also trying not to give him corn because nephew has a problem with it.  High Fructose Corn Syrup is in most everything, but I'm at least really limiting it, too.  I have to ask the allergist about corn as well, because we don't have a test out for it now.  I'm also curious about his dairy score, will they scratch test him at all because he's so high?  Will they check his blood level to see if it's gone down?  I wonder.  We are praying about it every day. 
I know so many in the world are dealing with worse problems.  I ask for prayers for people in China.  Especially for the little ones in orphanages from which there's no news yet.  I can't help but worry over my own boy, anyway.  It's my job.  Parenting is protection and providence.  And I pray that the Lord will protect our boy where we cannot.   

Three days of normal crazy kid and then DS woke up vomiting today.  The doc wanted to see him again, and they took more blood and did more tests.  At least his CBC was fine.  That's all I know right now.  Still no word on the allergy blood results.  Found out today that they ran regular RAST on what blood they had, not I-Cap.  He was fine for a bit, and wanted to eat.  Then it started again after 5pm, and he's been so sick ever since.  I'm worried again:  His color is terrible, he's gray and pasty, He's thrown up so much today I don't think anything has stayed with him.  I'm worried about him staying hydrated and I know he's lost weight.  But still no fever.  It's definitely getting worse.  I'm going to try to not give him wheat tomorrow and see what happens.  That's assuming we get back to solids.  I am really worried about my boy.  This has been going on for a long time, but it hasn't been this bad.  I am making an appointment with an allergy specialist tomorrow.  I'm not waiting on the Ped doc.  When he seems ok, I'm calm and believing in the process.  When he's sick like tonight, and last Thurs, I'm scared.  Pray for my boy.

   Thursday afternoon DS was very sick.  I took him to his preschool program because he wanted to go so badly.  Once there he started feeling bad and asked to go home.  he was worse in the car on the way home, and he quickly got sicker.   I gave him Benadryl  even though he didn't have hives.  My gut says this is food allergy again.  I thought I'd watch him for a while and call the doc.  He wanted to lay down, wanted to be carried to bed.  His tummy was hurting so much he was crying.  It was hugely distended and rock hard.  We just got in the car and went to the doctor's office.  I called on the way.  He puked his guts out in the car, poor kid.  And just looked awful.  The doc wanted to Xray his abdomen, so we did.  I had the feeling we were paying for an Xray of gas, but I did it.  And it was gas.  The big question is 'why are his intestines so irritated?'.  He keeps having bouts of diarrhea or vomiting, and he's fine in between- normal kid, no fever aches etc.  Thurs was worse.  The doc wanted blood for an I CAP allergy test.  They didn't get enough blood, and blew both of his little anticubital veins.  Next time we will insist on driving to the Children's hospital where they know how to do Pedi blood draws.  I asked if they could run the most likely culprits on the blood they have.  We had to go back Friday.  he was better Thurs night, but this time was scary.  Doc E wanted to run four allergens.  I have a feeling that it's banana.  Uncommon, I know.  But I am praying it's not soy or wheat.  Egg we could live with.  I told the doc that he hasn't had fish in a month and has never had tree- or pea-nuts.  He's had food cooked with shrimp.  That was a while ago, too.  He's never actually eaten any shellfish.  And we know milk, already.  That's the big 8.  I was curious to see what his score would be now on milk, but we'll just wait until next year.  He's taking Zyrtec for seasonal allergies, and it's used to control hives.  I wonder if he could have a full-blown anaphylactic reaction (life threatening) and not get the tell-tale welts.  Would his teachers be savvy enough to give him the epi pen just on difficulty breathing, before had seizures or worse?  
   For the last two days we've been avoiding soy, egg and banana as well as the usual milk/dairy.  I am keeping a food log.  Very hard to avoid wheat; We haven't, but he's doing fine.  He's back to normal.  That's the good news and the maybe not-so-good news, too.  I really want my boy to outgrow his allergy, not have more.  Pray for us, that he stays healthy and the doc can give us some answers. 

I am sitting in front of medical forms having a minor panic attack.  I have to fill out paperwork for my son's preschool so that they are prepared to treat an allergic reaction if he has one.  I am keenly aware that his teachers (nor any adults in the building) have probably NEVER administered an Epi Pen auto-injector.  I need to hand over this drug that could save my son's life to people who probably don't have an every-day, working understanding of this drug OR of severe allergic reactions.  Yes, they all have seen the video, and they may even have practiced with the trainer pen.  But will they freak out and hesitate when it's time to give the Epi?  (This happens all the time)  No way to know.  Will they jump the gun and give it to him without him needing it, risking a fatal heart arrhythmia for no good reason?  I hope not.  How do I address the issue of a second dose?!  Even Basic EMT's aren't allowed to give a second dose without permission from the Medical Control Doc.  Do I trust these strangers to understand and weigh the real danger of giving him a second heart-racing dose against the possibility that he may die from not being able to breathe?  He's on Zyrtek now.  Will that give him some protection, or will his BP spike and his heart rate brady down from even one Epi?  Will the mostly volunteer department near the pre-school have a quick enough response if this happens?  Will it be a Paramedic?  I am crazy if I call there tomorrow to get their average Advanced Life Support response time and average response times?  If it sucks I'd try to get my boy closer to home.  Close to me.  But what good does that do without equipment?  I drive a mini-van now.  We don't have an ALS ambulance in the garage.  Why did I not think of this before?  He's twenty minutes out if he has a problem.  I was thinking I'd stick close for the first few days.  But if he has an exposure, chances are it'll be later in the school year when people have gotten lax.  I am so scared for my baby.  I am going to talk to his doctor about the second dose issue.  I am going to ask to have 10 minutes with everyone who will be in charge while he's there so I can go over signs, symptoms and emergency treatment.  I'll take them the practice pen and the video.  But right this second I'm not sure I can do it.  He's so little.  I don't know if I'm ready to turn over the care of my baby in a world full of something that can kill him.  You know, all sorts of schools are peanut-free.  There's never going to be a dairy free anywhere. 
Dear Lord, please guide me and protect my son.