More Dairy. Dairy Dairy Dairy.

I am slow to follow up my posts about what good non-dairy dairy products exist out there.  First, a little update on what is going on with us.

Several months ago, I started the GAPS Dairy Introduction Structure.  The purpose of this is to take someone who is dairy intolerant, and get them to a point where they can at least occasionally tolerate some types of dairy products.  I guess the reasoning behind the structure is that dairy is a key element of the GAPS diet.  So if someone needs GAPS to control another condition (common with Autism, Bipolar Disorder, Depression and others), they want to work dairy into the diet even if the person is intolerant.   They basically build up the 'right' type of bacteria in the gut.  It is only something to start once the gut has healed from whatever has been damaging it.  And the process can take years!

We began the process in the late spring, with homemade ghee (which is clarified butter).  You basically take regular organic unsalted butter, and heat it to a specific temperature, and then pour the clarified portion into a jar.  My girls did not react at all to the ghee.  So we moved onto organic butter.  I baked, cooked, and used organic butter on popcorn for the remainder of the summer.  No reaction.

With both foods (ghee and butter), I also performed a sensitivity test.  Basically, you put the dairy food in liquid form on the inside of the wrist before the person goes to bed.  If they wake up with no irritation there, they do not have a sensitivity to it.  Both girls showed no sensitivity to organic butter.  We are getting somewhere!!!

Now we are at the homemade yogurt / kefir stage.  I made my first batch of homemade yogurt last week.  The first jar I mixed with homemade strawberry jam (courtesy of Stephanie Johnson!) and some agave.  Do you know what the most eye-opening thing about this yogurt adventure has been?  How. Much. Sugar. Is. In. Our. Yogurt.  HOLY.  BUCKETS.  I cannot believe how much agave I used and it was still WAY more tart than what you get at the store.  That aside, I got it to a point where I think it tastes good, and Ullrich and Summer will both eat it (Ullrich enjoys it on his fruit - but he does not have a dairy intolerance, so he is eating it for the pure joy).  Guess who doesn't care for it?  Cadel Alana.

The Introduction Structure calls for the girls to get a teaspoon every other day.  So we have been doing so.  Cadel, I have to fight to get her to swallow hers down.  Summer asks for "mo pease" most of the time.

Once we are sure that they are doing okay with it, they can have a teaspoon daily.  And then a little more.  And more. Until we are at a half a cup daily.  I have no idea how I'm going to get there with Cadel.  Hm.  Might call for the straight up white sugar.  Hey, where can I get some high fructose corn syrup?  ONLY KIDDING.  I'm trying to drag her through this part of the process to get to the homemade cottage cheese next.  She LOVES cottage cheese and misses it terribly!

In bad news, Summer James has been waking in the night this week.  I think it is teething, but I'm pulling back on her yogurt for now.  I may try again in a week or so.  No rush, I guess.  Want to do this right.

Okay -now for a little something you can use.  But that I don't have to any more.  Now that we are back with our good friend organic butter, we will be buying a lot less of this (but maybe we will use it when the girls' immune systems are down like in the winter months?).  Earth Balance brand non-butter.  This stuff is the BOMB.  You would not know it is not real butter.  We used it for everything!  Even on popcorn when it would be hard to compromise the butter flavor.  It's really quite great.

OR:

Preschool Snack List

As I prepare myself for the school year, I have decided to put together a snack list. I plan to provide it to the parents in Cadel's class, with permission of our teacher, of course.  We always have snacks there for her if what is brought doesn't work for her restrictions.  However, I thought to myself "If it were someone else's child who was intolerant, wouldn't I want to know so I could try to work with their needs?"  I think so.  Yes. I guess I would at the very least like to know what some choices would be and make an informed choice (e.g., So I do not buy something that I think a child would be able to have only to find out they could not, and worse have to see their sad face when they can't!).  Note - Cadel does not make a sad face every time she cannot have something - it is really ALL in managing expectations!

I'm hoping to be able to include with the list a note explaining Cadel's allergies, and a very sincere message about no one having to work around her - this is definitely not my expectation!  I will, however, be inviting the parents to email me a heads up if they would like to so I can provide a snack for Miss C that is in parity with what they are bringing.  For example, if  their child wants to bring birthday cupcakes, then maybe I could send Cadel to school with an allergy-free cupcake - not much more work for them, and a big win for us.  I'm hoping our awesome teacher will be supportive.

Anyway, I've segmented the lists somewhat for ease of shopping.   We do have nut allergies in our preschool class, so I've included some separate items in case you want to use my lists but don't have nut allergies.

Easy to find "healthy-ish" snacks:

- baby carrots

- sliced apples

- orange slices

- grapes

- strawberries

- raspberries

- fruit snacks, fruit rollups, fruit leathers / flats, twisted fruit

- air popped (or oil popped) popcorn (not microwave kind unless it expressly says GF, which most don't)

- applesauce

- cereals - Rice Chex, Corn Chex

Easy to find, but "not-so-healthy" snacks:

- Kraft jet-puffed marshmallows

- plain flavored Pop Chips (the other flavors have dairy)

- candy- Skittles, Starbursts, most lollipops.... actually, this is a great resource for candy - http://surefoodsliving.com/2011/10/halloween-candy-list-gluten-free-allergen-free-2011/ - she updates with each holiday!

- Lays potato chips

- tortilla chips
- Frito's

- most popsicles (check for dairy if you aren't sure!)

- cereals - Fruity/Cocoa/Marshmallow Pebbles

- most any kind of juice, Gatorade, lemonade

Off the beaten path (for people who may shop at co-ops, Whole Foods, etc):

- Annie's bunny cookies - snickerdoodle or cocoa and vanilla

- Enjoy Life brand chocolate chips

- Snyders of Hanover or Glutino brands gluten-free pretzels

- Lucy's and Enjoy Life brands cookies - both are nearly always free of all allergens

- Enjoy Life brand cocoa loco bars

Things to add if there are no nut allergies in your classroom:

- peanuts - regular or honeyroasted

- Environkidz cereals or bars

- peanut butter with the apple slices

Things that would work but that my Girl doesn't like:

- raisins and other dried fruit

- rice chips  (e.g., Riceworks Salsa Fresca are GOOD).  I bet we will find one that she likes eventually.

- pineapple (she's actually allergic)

- blueberries

Things that DO NOT EVER work, unfortunately:

- granola or other types of bars

- crackers (goldfish, graham, etc)

- yogurt  or Gogurt

- anything with milk chocolate in it (so for example, while Peeps candies themselves are fine, chocolate dipped ones are not)

- cheese sticks

- cookies as not mentioned above

Un-Dairy (Allergy-free Eating - Post #5)

I think one of the hardest things about our allergy situation was imagining a world with no dairy.  I grew up drinking milk, and I LOVE milk.  My kids were milk babies (once they were off the breast, of course).  And, well, cheese was a staple ingredient in many of our favorite meals - homemade pizza, lasagna, pasta with sauce and shredded parm, macaroni and cheese, tacos, enchiladas -- everything I could think of that I cooked often had cheese in it!  Wow.  This was going to be tough.

The first thing we did was target milk.  Milk for drinking and for on cereal (GFV of course!) and oats (GF certified, of course!).  We tried: coconut, almond, hemp, rice, and soy.  Here is what stuck:

Rice milk - kids use it on their cereal and in their oatmeal (I think because it has the least distinct flavor of all and it looks like skim milk).
Almond milk - we bake with it, and SJ drinks it in her bottle.  SJ was pretty flexible, and I wanted to use non-soy (for all of the unproven potential consequences of too much soy) but something that was more than just carbs.
Soy milk - Vanilla soy in my chai, thank-you-very-much.

So, yes, we always have 3 kinds of milk on hand.  Costco helps us out a bit by selling these:

So what about cheese, say you?  UGH.  We have no such luck with cheese.  I have tried a variety of things such as Dai ya shreds, but nothing that doesn't come from animals really tastes decent.

I do want to caution you about some non-dairy products which actually contain casein.  We also have casein allergies (as do many people with dairy intolerances - casein is milk protein.  I liken it to people being allergic to wheat AND gluten).  So always read the labels.  If they are marked Vegan, they won't have casein, because it is an animal-derived ingredient.

I can stand the flavor / texture of a little soy cheese on my salads, and on pizza it's "okay", but I'd honestly rather eat pizza cheese-less at this point. 

One thing I will say that I like surprisingly is this:

I will have to be honest in saying that I'm not sure if I like it because it is actually good, or if I'm just finally desparate enough.  Either way. 

I think I will have to dedicate an entire TWO posts to un-dairy.  I still have butter, yogurt, and ice cream left to cover!  More soon....

Photo Book

I *finally* finished the FIRST part of our 2011 Photo Book on Shutterfly. 111 pages... and I got through June 2011. 

I blame my pathetic pace in creating the book on Shutterfly's new Custom Path Photobook product. There are SO many options for page layouts, embellishments, and backgrounds that I was a bit overwhelmed for a while. Once I got in the groove though I had a ton of fun making original pages. 

Check out how you can use a photo as a background. I did that quite a few times! Fun! 

Click here to view this photo book larger

Click here to create your own Shutterfly photo book.

Holy Pink Eye!

We interrupt this series of important food allergy eating posts to bring you this PSA about pink eye. When I tell people that we were in the Children's Hospital ER this week for pink eye, most can scarcely believe it. I couldn't, either. But it's true. Here's the story:

Ullrich came home from camp Kota on Thursday looking like he might have pink eye. Since Summer had it on Sunday, it wasn't a complete surprise.

 He looked like this:

So we started Summer's drops immediately. However, within the next couple of hours, he continued to look worse.

Until he looked like this, causing me to call our nurse line:

I didn't take his picture right before wiping his eye. I took it right AFTER wiping his eye. That goop was constantly streaming from the eye, as if he were crying green stuff. I told him that he looked like a monster!

The nurse line told us we should take him to the ER due to the rapidity of the swelling. They were concerned about cellulitis (aka- eye infection).

They got us in pretty quickly at the hospital, and upon walking into our room, the doctor literally gasped at how he looked (eye even further shut than in the picture above). It took her about five seconds to decide to prescribe both oral and topical antibiotics. She wanted him to get 3 doses of antibiotic in yet that night (it was already 10pm!). She was very concerned about eye infection, and said if it wasn't much better tomorrow to bring him straight to the hospital.

I had initially felt a little foolish for taking him in for pink eye, as if I were possibly over-reacting.  I definitely felt that it was the right decision when I saw the doc's level of concern. Anyway, this is how pink eye lands you in the ER in case you ever find yourself in a similar situation.  Now you know and won't feel crazy like I did! :-)