Allergy testing - *met our fantastic Paed!!!! And we have a plan p7*

[Jimbob]

So happy her poop was not diarrhea

Cooking will get easier over time. The hardest thing I found when James was gluten free aswell as dairy and egg free was baking cakes and bread. I just about gave up on bread as none of the recipes I tried came out well. James cann now tolerate gluten but wil not eat bread to this day. I think the gluten free bread put him off for life.

Kelly x

[my3girlsjde]

OK, poo was a bit soft this morning but she had tons of applesauce for breakfast and it definitely wasn't diarrhea. AND her bum is completely healed. Hopefully this will help her in the freak out department when she needs to be changed.

The rice flour worked and was actually pretty easy. I'm very thankful for the food processor my mum got me when I told her I wanted to make baby food. That thing can do anything! Hopefully I can attempt baking later. She LOVES anything that looks like a cookie. I've even given her crackers and she calls them cookies so hopefully I can make a really nutritious one for her.

[my3girlsjde]

Just got a call and we have an appointment to see a pediatrician!

In three months

But at least we're being taken seriously and we'll go for allergy testing from there. The clinic called with all of E's info and reactions and that was the earliest they could see her. Kind of bitter sweet that she's not more serious and can't get in faster. The Dr shortage is much more serious here than it was before we moved. But at least we'll have an assigned pediatrician and oh, I'll have to take the big girls in and make him address any concerns I have with them at the same time

[~ Vik ~]

Yay!! Did you get on a cancellation list just in case? We were supposed to wait for months too but got in to see the allergist within weeks because of cancellation. Keeping fingers crossed xx

[my3girlsjde]

Oh never thought of a cancellation list! Thanks   Will call tomorrow first thing as dh will be away come the end of Feb and he'd really like to be there.

Another firm bm . Who knew having kids would make me so ecstatic for proper poops???

I've also been making homemade sorbet for the girls and it's so nice for E to have her 'ice cream'. And it cost less than $2.00 to make a litre of it . Gotta love that.

We're still having some changing issues and I'm not sure if it is from the nasty diaper rash she's been dealing with for so long or just developmental. I know really it could be either so hoping developmental and she's not got an aversion from all of this. But only time will tell.

Now off to put a reminder in my phone to call ped's office to see if they have a cancellation list.

[Mom to M&M]

Yay for steps forward! How do you make your sorbet?

[my3girlsjde]

4 containers of mott's fruit puree, 1 cup water with 1/2 cup sugar boiled to a syrup and then cooled (what you would do for a hummingbird), and 1 tbsp lemon juice. Chill everything and toss in the ice cream maker. I also made her some ice cream with coconut milk and cocoa.

Breakfast is the big challenge but she does seem fine with oatmeal and fruit so I'm thinking not necessarily the gluten if that's possible and just the wheat?

[abbysmomma]

Oats are usually contaminated with wheat and are therefore not gluten free. you can buy oats (and instant oatmeal) that are specifically wheat free. If her wheat allergy is not too severe she might be able to tolerate the contamination. Ds1 has a wheat allergy but can tolerate small amounts. In fact, he actually tests negative on scratch test but will get hives during a food challenge. There was a time where he would have up to nine foul, mucousy poos a day and I think it was from the oatmeal he was having. Pm me if you want more info

[my3girlsjde]

Will do and thanks! That's why I'm wondering if it's not overly severe or not specifically gluten and just wheat if that's possible.

[~ Vik ~]

Oh Vicki, that fruit sorbet sounds fantastic! Do you just use the little cups of Motts unsweetened applesauce? Or is there a different kind? I could make this tonight! Could you give me your ice cream recipe too? In fortunate enough to be able to buy some that's safe for Dylan, but it's 5.99 for 500mL and I'm sure homemade would be so much healthier

So happy for good poops too! Hopefully E will get over the diaper changes when she realizes it's not hurting anymore. Could you try pull ups so that you could just change wet ones standing up? We went through an anti-diaper phase for awhile and that saved my sanity

[my3girlsjde]

Oh my Vikki - that's outrageously priced! I looked at some too and just really couldn't afford it since the big girls are really struggling with E having her special food and not them. So I get to make cheaper and healthier stuff anyhow.

I've got a couple of recipes for you and will pm them. I've used them this week and it's just nice to have some cheap options.

[Lindsay07]

I haven't read all the responses but DS is allergic to milk and CORN.  Corn is an ingredient in MANY products.  Any of the "-ose" ingredients are corn-based (glucose, sucrose etc).
DS is 8 months and on a corn-free, milk-free formula and I have to be VERY careful about solids he eats.
Here's hoping they're grow out of it!

[my3girlsjde]

Thanks

I've just spent the last week trialling wheat and restricting EVERYTHING E gets. No diarrhea So I'm back to wondering if she can tolderate small amounts, it takes time to build up, or it's not really an issue and may have been the eggs. She did have a mandarin and diarrhea right away and it seemed to burn her. It healed right away and didn't come back with the continued wheat so now a bit confused and hopeful. I'm going to continue the wheat another week to see if there's any reactions, but her poo is rather normal.

I did take a look again through some of the items she'd been having lately and wondering if it may actually be a build up of milk in her system. Things like chicken fingers have both wheat and milk. Crackers have wheat and milk. The pancake mix that I thought was ok actually contained quite a bit of buttermilk in it I thought I had checked them all but we must have switched mixes and I didn't check. Again it could be egg. Or anything really especially with the processed foods. But I'm thinking this should be a great argument for getting some tests done. If I can prove that wheat isn't the culprit after 2 weeks then fabulous. Same with any other food like eggs. But if certain processed foods are giving her such a reaction I'd like to know what they are so we can help her out, kwim?

Things I know for absolute certain:
milk
soy
bananas
peaches
tropical fruit

And the maybe's:
eggs
wheat
oranges

Can I just add that food trials are a PITA? It's so hard to make sure that she's getting nothing else. It wouldn't otherwise be an issue if we weren't worried about knowing exactly what might be causing an issue but the big girls do sneak away with food from time to time (we're pretty strict about the eating at the table bit) and we do go to a morning program often and kids just drop food by nature so I feel like I've become a hovering mama and it's driving me nuts.

But with something as big as wheat I'm going to take it for a full two weeks just in case this is one of those slow build up things like milk was while I bf'd. Then I'll try eggs for two weeks.

Any thoughts? I'm cautiously optimistic now that this hasn't been wheat at all. Since she doesn't get a whole lot of processed food as a rule due to the milk and soy, it's not been overly hard, just a little more challenging to cook things that everyone will eat. The rice flour did work well and I was able to make passable cookies. But coming on Christmas, it would be really nice to give her a 'real' cookie that everyone has.

The really great news is that we now have a family Dr here I made a call today and the Dr was willing to take us on due to the needs of the family, primarily E. We go to meet him early January and I'm going to be pushing for earlier testing for allergies if possible.

Will update if we have any new reactions.

[my3girlsjde]

The great news now is that E can tolerate all kinds of wheat. I'm so incredibly relieved that it's not wheat. She doesn't eat much, maybe a piece of bread or a couple of cookies but enought to know she can do it and it's not what was causing the diarrhea.

The bad news is that on Christmas Eve, we had a new reaction to an old food She wouldn't sit still for a good pic so this is the best that I've got. We had McDonald's which she's had before. Only fries with her usual sweet n sour sauce. At first because she's got a cold I thought the pink cheeks were just from a temp. But the cheeks kept getting redder and redder. Then I clued in (because she wasn't wearing a shirt) that every place that the sauce touched her, left her with a red welt. It was like it burned the skin.

She's had this sauce for over 6 months and from what I can tell, nothing in it has changed. It absolutely didn't touch anything else because we've been so careful with what she's been having due to trialling the wheat.

The first is blurry because she wouldn't sit still. She was understandably a bit irritable even after it was washed off.
The second is about 45 mins later and still really blotchy and red
The third is about an hour and a half later and still pretty pink.

There wasn't any wheezing, thankfully. Just a bit of irritability throughout the day and she was up a lot but also had a bad cold so hard to say what caused what. But she's been practically bathed in this particular sauce on numerous occasions and this is new and sudden. I've been on the website before and the allergens listed in this particular sauce are soy, gluten and celery. But it's all been tolerated in the past and in large amounts.

Thoughts?

[MasynSpencerElliotte]

Well, first off she is just so adorable Vicky! Secondly, even though she has eaten the sauce for months she could still react to something in it...many people go all their lives eating a particular food only to develop an allergy to it.  I consider myself a ticking time bomb because alot of family members have developed allergies later in life.  Tough call though as it really could be anything in the sauce, not just to most allergenic ingredients!

Just out of curiousity, did fries also touch her every place the sauce did? Just pondering x-contam in the frying with something else or something on the person's hands who dished up the fries.

Awesome news about the wheat though