Food

Pizza, chicken nuggets, grilled cheese, Goldfish crackers, Cheerios, ice cream, scrambled eggs, graham crackers, chocolate chip cookies. Foods of our past. Foods Americans serve kids at almost every function. Every six months or so I want to quit. I want my family to be able to fully partcitpate in all things--and almost anything with kids had food! Maybe Kassy isn't allergic to all these foods anymore. Maybe we should eat whatever and see how it goes. Let's just order a pizza and eat it. Yum. Whatif I didn't have to think so hard about food? Poor Kass, sometimes she asks for a snack and I look at her for a long time,"No" I want to say, "I'm sorry but I can't think of anything you can it at this moment, so you can't eat." Maybe if I didn't have to think about everyone else's diet, I could think more about mine. Maybe, maybe, maybe...


God reminded me last week that the food allergy discovery was a gift. In my reflections, I decided to blog about it as people often ask, how did you find out about the allergies? What DO you eat?

Kassy had a long history of ear infections almost since birth. By eight months old she had had six or so ear infections. The doctor recommended tubes though there wasn't hearing loss yet. He touted tubes as a cure-all. A miracle cure that would turn my crabby baby into a happy one. Knowing what I know now, I would have waited on the tubes. But, by nine months old, Kassy had tubes. Most of the ear infections stopped (not all). But she was still crabby--whiney and screamy and hard for me to enjoy. Talk about feeling guilty. I wished Kassy would sleep all day so I could ignore her. She was always touching her ears, it was like the tubes hurt. But there were fewer ear infections. And the doctor said the tubes weren't hurting.

When the tubes fell out around age 2, I was hopeful it was all over. But ear infections returned, not quite so frequently as before. A new doctor again recommended tubes, but he was more cautious and wanted to wait six months. She was failing her hearing tests now. But Kassy was still so crabby. I went to a Naturopath (easy to find in Bozeman). He put her on probiotics, and some immunity boosting herbs. When those didn't work, he began an elimination diet. Once we had eliminated dairy and wheat, he wanted to add apples, corn, and soy. I said, I can't do this. I need to know if these are allergies or not. Kassy clearly didn't have true food allergies. Such reactions are immediate and much easier to detect. In the naturopathic world they also measure delayed allergies(IGg): reactions that can take more than 4 hours to show up. Reactions can include congestion, ear infections, crankiness, skin conditions like eczema, and autoimmune complications. The test measures the antibodies produced in your blood when exposed to different foods. Then they rank the reactions on a scale from low to extreme, depending on how many antibodies are produced (your body shouldn't produce antibodies in reaction to food since food is not a germ). If a food is in the moderate range, they recommend only eating that food every three or four days. The medical community doesn't accept IGg testing, saying the tests aren't reliable enough and that there isn't strong enough evidence that IGg reactions significantly effect people.

Kassy's test took two weeks to come back. I had seen a few other people's reports so I knew what to expect, but the naturopath warned me, "Kassy's is one of the more extreme results I've seen." Kassy had almost no moderate reactions, most hers were low or extreme (avoid these foods completely). Her extreme reactions included: gluten (wheat, barley, rye, spelt), oat, all dairy including the casein and whey, both the white and yolk of eggs, soy, peanuts, almonds, blueberries, zucchini, kidney beans. I read and reread that test. What on earth would I feed her? I sobbed.

God led me to a book at Borders called Cooking Free. It's a cookbook for people with multiple food allergies. I have since learned to make egg-, diary-, gluten-, and nut- free breads, waffles, pretzels. I buy special cereals made of only corn, rice, and other non-glutinous grains. I am used to the dense texture of gluten-free products (gluten is a protein that makes bread spongy). I now stock xanthum gum, sorghum flour, bean flour, corn flour, tapioca starch, potato flour and more(you can't just substitute one flour for a gluten flour like wheat and get the same result.) I know what quinoa is and how amaranth tastes. I know how to sometimes use applesauce and hot water in place of eggs. My poor daughter never gets to eat yogurt or cheese or cow's milk (we use rice milk). My food bill is high and shopping takes a long time and usually requires several stores. I've learned that most canned tuna contains soy, most deli meat including hot dogs contain milk, and most traditional cereals, even Rice Krispies contain gluten. I now make my own taco seasoning, my own gravy, etc. Unless you go organic on everything, there is soy is all prepacked seasoning and meals.

So we've adjusted. And honestly, between my diabetes and her allergies, we eat more nutritious food than the average family. I get tired of thinking so much about food though. Last summer we gave gluten to Kassy every day for a week. She got an ear infection by the end of the week. Two weeks ago, I tried giving her some of the forbidden food. It's hard to know what causes what though. I came down with a cold about the same time as the forbidden food exposures. Kassy then got the cold and an ear infection. And man was she crabby. So hard to be around. I don't know what caused what. I don't know if IGg food reactions are scientifically legitimate. I do know that after four months on the new diet, she wasn't as crabby, maybe it's because she wasn't getting as many ear infections. I wish I could isolate factors and learn true cause and effect. But I can't and I am thankful, thankful that God showed us a way to make my darling's true personality come out. Now I pray that He will deliver us from these restrictions.

A friend of mine encourages me, telling me what a great mom I am because how I cook. I love the encouragement, but what mom wouldn't?