Food Allergy Family Fun

Took a long maternity leave from the blog, but I'm back!

2011-08-26T13:41:00.000-05:00

So this is what has been occupying my time the past few months ...

He was born in April and his name is Thomas Patrick, Tom for short. He is four and a half months old now and the light of our family. We adore him and, best of all, the girls think he is the best - they play with him constantly and he thinks they are quite entertaining.

I had a lazy summer, taking care of Tom and playing/swimming/reading/lounging with the girls. Now I'm back to reality - back at work and the older two back in school - and my mind inevitably shifted back to food-allergy issues because Ainsley has a new teacher, new classmates, etc. So this is what I've been doing in the food-allergy realm as of late that I've really enjoyed:
-went to two events sponsored by the new Food Allergy Center at Children's Medical Center, including a panel on food allergies and schools and a food-allergy cooking demonstration at a local Whole Foods.
-organized an informal dinner with other food-allergy moms, some of whom I knew and some of whom I didn't. Seven moms showed up! It was a wonderful time of sharing, commiserating, and bonding, and was so easy to plan.
-met with Ainsley's new teachers (her school combines grades 1 & 2 so she has two teachers) about her allergies, and am about to meet with the principal, counselor, nurse, and teachers at an official 504 meeting.

Ainsley is one week into school and so far everything is going well. The only changes from last year are (1) unlike kindergarten, first and second grade doesn't have snack time (HOORAY!!!), and (2) she is now carrying an epipen and Benadryl in a small shoulder bag/purse instead of the teacher carrying it (we also have epipens and Benadryl in the nurse's office). With each year, she has gotten so much more mature when it comes to taking responsibility for her own safety. So far she's been great about keeping up with the purse and she is very careful about what she eats and understands not to eat anything I don't okay. It is such a difference from the preschool years (especially 3 and under).

I hope to begin posting more often now that I'm back on a normal schedule. I missed this blog and connecting with other food-allergy parents.

Letting go a little

2011-03-25T10:53:00.000-05:00

Today is a momentous occasion for Ainsley - the first time I've allowed her to buy a food item from the school cafeteria. I never thought this would happen, but thanks to the encouragement of her teacher, whom I trust very much, we are giving it a go.

It all started a few weeks ago when Ainsley won a "good spirit" award for her class. As a reward, she (like every other kid who wins it) got a token for a free ice cream at lunchtime (every Friday the cafeteria serves ice cream). Her teacher called me that morning and asked if it would be okay if Ainsley cashed in her token for a popsicle, because the cafeteria had one kind of popsicle that had no milk or other allergens in it, and another child at the school who was also milk-allergic had previously had one with no problem. I took a deep breath and said "Yes," both nervous about what could happen and excited that Ainsley would get to try something new.

Thankfully, she had no reaction to the popsicle, and loved being able to eat it while her friends ate ice cream. So the teacher suggested that I allow her to buy one every Friday (have I mentioned yet how much I love her teacher? She truly cares about Ainsley). Today is the first day we've done it. I sent a dollar in her lunch bag and emailed the teacher to ask her to make sure Ainsley got the right popsicle and knew how to pay for it. Lunchtime is almost over now, and I've gotten no phone calls, so I am assuming everything went fine. I am so happy she's able to participate in the normal lunchtime routine in this small way.

Interesting reports from the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology annual conference

2011-03-23T14:04:00.002-05:00

Every year I am excited to see what research news the AAAAI conference has for those of us dealing with food allergies. I follow the reports posted on MedPageToday. The conference showcased several interesting studies, including:

My two favorites are the one on oldest siblings (it says oldest kids have the highest risk of food allergies, followed by the second kid, then the third kid - so my soon-to-be baby has the least risk of my three children of having food allergies) and the one on cookies/other baked goods helping kids overcome their milk allergy.

Regarding the last study, last summer our allergist instructed me to start adding very small amounts of milk and egg to baked goods and giving them to Ainsley on a regular basis because he said the research was showing this was a safe way to induce tolerance to these allergens (safe because she was able to tolerate some baked egg/milk when she was very young so we know she's not allergic to baked milk/egg in small concentrations). Still, I hesitated to do this because it feels weird to introduce these allergens to her diet - and because logistically it's harder to bake this way because I can't allow her to help me mix up the batter (because she would come into contact with the unbaked forms of these allergens) and would have to keep separate mixing bowls/utensils for this type of thing. But this study has convinced me that I have to start doing it ... sometime after the new baby arrives and I have some energy again.

Don't forget the easy stuff

2011-03-16T10:52:00.000-05:00

Two or three weeks to go now before baby #3 arrives, so predictably I've been lazy with posting in the last couple of months. I have been lazy with a lot of things. Or maybe just busy and tired. In any case, I hope to get back to posting more regularly after the first few months of new-baby haze have worn off.

In the meantime, I wanted to tell you something simple that I frequently have to remind myself - not all things related to preparing food-allergy friendly desserts need to involve ovens, from-scratch mixes, or hours in the kitchen. Just this week Ainsley proclaimed a new favorite dessert, one that takes approximately 30 seconds to make - the Root Beer Float. It started when we were on a short Spring Break vacation this weekend and stopped at a snow cone stand. This is another easy, no-bake dessert my kids love - snow cones. I have a little shaved ice machine at home (bought for about $25 at Target) so I have frequently made snow cones for them at home, but there is, of course, nothing quite like walking up to a little shack and ordering one. I have also found snow cones to be one of the few things that are almost always Ainsley-friendly, as long as she stays away from the flavors that have added cream.

So anyway, at this snow cone stand, Ainsley ordered an orange, Leighton asked for strawberry, and I got my favorite, cherry. My husband, however, is not a fan of snow cones, so he opted instead for a root beer float (the stand also sold ice cream). Ainsley was intrigued - she had never heard of this concoction before. She watched closely as Dave poured the root beer over the ice cream and went about consuming the treat, and wasted no time in asking if I could make her one sometime.

So the next day we went to a grocery store that sold coconut-milk ice cream (soy or any other kind of nondairy ice cream would have worked fine too, of course) and I bought a pint of vanilla plus a 2-liter of A&W. A minute after getting back to our hotel room, I prepared two floats for my two little dolls and watched as they gulped them down eagerly. Ainsley had one more after that, and then another for dessert that night. I thought she might not like the taste of root beer - boy, was I wrong.

So with summer approaching, you might just want to pull this one out of your bag of tricks to the amazement and delight of your kids. And don't forget the snow cones either.

A&J Bakery Valentine's Treats

2011-01-21T15:35:00.000-06:00

In case any of you don't know, A&J Bakery in Rhode Island makes all kinds of fun holiday treats for kids with pretty much any allergy and ships the treats nationally and internationally. For two years now, I've ordered their gingerbread house kit for Christmas. For Valentine's Day, I just ordered a package of six lollipop cookies and two heart-shaped brownies (The Love Bunch Two) that is free of egg, milk, peanuts, tree nuts, wheat, and gluten (the cookies are free of soy too).

Here is the page on A&J's Valentine specials in case you are interested. Please support this food-allergy friendly bakery!

My favorite Christmas present this year

2010-12-27T11:19:00.002-06:00

The Divvies Bakery Cookbook! You would think that with all of these allergy-friendly baking books I have, I wouldn't need another one. Yet the Divvies one has several recipes that I don't already have. One thing I love about the book is that it includes some simple snack and drink ideas, and also fun party activities that involve food (like make-your-own sundaes using lots of safe mix-ins). I cannot wait to make the chocolate marshmallow treats, which involve melting chocolate chips, mixing mini-mashmallows in, and then putting spoonfuls in paper baking (cupcake) liners to set - how easy is that!

Best dairy-free fudge EVER!

2010-12-22T09:41:00.003-06:00

Just when I thought I was through with updating you on the yummy holiday goodies we've been eating, I received the most wonderful surprise from my coworker's wife, Natalie. She has first-hand experience with food allergies as her second son suffered from them when he was a baby. She gave up dairy and soy for many months while she was nursing him, and became an expert in cooking and baking dairy- and soy-free during this time. For Christmas, she gave us a batch of her to-die-for dairy-free fudge. Ainsley absolutely flipped for it, and Dave, Leighton, and I had to stop ourselves from eating all of it before Ainsley could get her fill. The best thing is it appears very easy to make! Here is the recipe:

Natalie's Dairy-Free Fudge

20 oz (2 bags) Enjoy Life chocolate chips

1 can (15 oz) Cream of Coconut (she used the Coco Lopez brand, which she found at a regular grocery store - Cream of Coconut is used to make Pina Coladas so it may be on the same aisle as the alcoholic drink mixes)

dash of salt

1 1/2 tsp vanilla or almond extract

Optional add-ins: 1/2 cup of chopped nuts, dried cherries or other fruit, marshmallows, etc.

Melt the chocolate chips and cream of coconut over low heat until fully melted. Remove from heat and add remaining ingredients. Pour in a square baking tin lined with waxed paper and refrigerate until hard (about an hour). Allow to soften at room temperature for 10 min or so before pulling the sides of the waxed paper to remove the fudge from the pan in one big block. Cut into squares and store in a cookie tin or in the fridge.

* * * * * * *

One of the best things about this recipe is that it has introduced me to Cream of Coconut - I had never heard of it before! Natalie informed me that it can be substituted 1:1 for sweetened condensed milk. She has offered to use it to make her famous Key Lime Pie for our family after the new baby comes, and I am definitely taking her up on the offer!

The gigantic holiday baking post!

2010-12-19T08:36:00.022-06:00

Wow, can a pregnant woman think of excuses to bake yummy goodies! I have baked sooo much in the last couple of months. Here is a run-down of what I did and where I got the recipes.

First, in early November I had a craving for lemon bars. I had always wondered whether I could make a dairy- and egg-free lemon bar that tasted like the real thing, and I found a great recipe that allowed me to do that. Unfortunately, the pic I took (below) is not very good, but trust me - in person, the bars look practically identical to the lemon bars with which you are familiar.

Here is the recipe (which I got from here and altered just slightly):

Time-Warp Lemon Squares
Ingredients:
Crust:
1 cup all-purpose flour
5 tablespoons margarine (I used Earth Balance)
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons orange juice

Filling:
3 egg equivalents, prepared (I used Ener-G Egg Replacer)
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon real vanilla
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
juice of 2 large lemons
zest of 1 lemon

Topping:
powdered sugar for sifting on top

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. For crust: In a bowl, combine crust ingredients. Put parchment paper in the bottom of an 8 X 8" or 9 X 9" pan. Press crust mixture into bottom of pan. Bake for 15 minutes.

2. For filling: While crust is baking, mix together the egg substitute (follow directions of your brand) in a bowl until foamy. Add the remainder of the filling ingredients and mix together. Pour over the crust, and bake 18-20 minutes. When pan is done baking, take it out of the oven and put it in the refrigerator for at least an hour to cool and set.

3. After it is set, take it out of the refrigerator and sift powdered sugar on top. Then cut into about 16 bars.

* * * * * * *

Next was time for some Thanksgiving cookie fun. Ainsley's class was having a Thanksgiving feast at school and the cookies that would be served were not safe for her. So I made some cookies just for her, which were cuter than the ones the other kids ate! I got the idea from a Nick Jr. suggestion that showed how to make sugar-cookie turkey shapes by using your kids' hands.

For the sugar cookie dough, I used the Holiday Cut-Out Cookie recipe from Linda Coss's What's to Eat? (for link to book, see sidebar, "My Favorite Cookbooks") - this is my favorite sugar cookie recipe because the cookies hold together really well after baking. When using this recipe, I always add a little extra flour because I have found that if I don't, the cookies flatten out a little too much for my liking during the baking process. This time I only did a half-batch of the recipe because I was pressed for time and cut-out cookies can be very time-consuming!

Here is a pic:

After making the dough and rolling it out on a floured board, I made the turkey shapes by tracing my kids' hands in the dough using a butter knife. I drew a little triangle (for a beak) near their thumbs. After baking the cookies according to the recipe's directions (except I think I baked the cookies for only about 7 minutes instead of the longer period the recipe directs) and letting them cool, I began the decorating process. I should note here that I always bake cut-out cookies on parchment paper - then I never have to worry about them sticking to the cookie sheet.

I iced the cookies using Betty Crocker cookie icing (which is vegan and nut-free and dries hard to allow you to stack the cookies). I cut open a bag, poured the entire contents of the bag in a cup, and colored it orange with a couple of drops each of yellow and orange food coloring. I used a knife to spread the icing over each cookie; after I put the icing on each (and while the icing was still sticky), Ainsley stuck an eye on the turkey using Enjoy Life mini-chocolate chips and then added a gobbler using Welch's fruit snacks (strawberry or raspberry). Then she put multi-colored sprinkles on the turkey's tail-feathers. After the icing set a bit, I painted the beaks on using a little paintbrush and the rest of the icing in the cup, which I made a dark shade of pink using a couple of drops of red food coloring. Then I drew the feet on each turkey using chocolate Betty Crocker cookie icing (I used the nozzle that comes on each icing bag).

* * * * * * *

After Thanksgiving came Ainsley's 6th birthday party. As you may know, I try to go above and beyond when it comes to Ainsley's birthday cake because she can't eat anyone else's birthday cake all year (except for her sister's). This year she requested a Star Wars cake (she is a tomboy!) so I gladly obliged. I made a marble cake (chocolate/vanilla swirl) using the marble cupcake recipe from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World (for link to book, see sidebar, "My Favorite Cookbooks"). I doubled the recipe to make a 14-inch round cake.

I made the cake the day before her party and let it sit on my counter to cool in the pan overnight. The next morning I turned the cake onto a silver cake board I bought at a party store and started to decorate. I used Pillsbury chocolate and vanilla frosting (I like making my own frosting on occasion, but I found last year that the homemade frosting is harder to spread on a birthday cake than the Pillsbury is so I opted for store-bought frosting this year). I frosted half the cake with the chocolate and half with the vanilla (I used a ruler wrapped in Press and Seal and sprayed with oil to help me make the center dividing line). Then I used an icing bag with a shell-type nozzle to decorate the sides in the opposite color icing. Finally, I mixed the remaining chocolate and vanilla frosting together to make light brown icing for the words, which I piped on with a different (smaller, less fancy) nozzle. I added Star Wars cake toppers (Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker) that my husband found on the internet, along with star candles Ainsley picked out at the grocery store.

I got many compliments on both the look and the taste of the cake, and best of all, Ainsley loved it!

* * * * * * *

Then it was time to move on to Christmas baking. Every year I participate in a cookie exchange with some friends, and this year I made Choco-Cherry Spritz Cookies from Linda Coss's What Else Is to Eat? (for link to cookbook, see sidebar, "My Favorite Cookbooks"). I have made these before and the only problem I encountered was that they were crumbly after baking, so this time I added about 1 1/2 tablespoons of orange juice to the batter and that solved the crumbly problem.

Here is what they looked like - they were a big hit!

Note: You will need a cookie press to make these. I have this one. I used a design that had a hole in the middle, but covered the hole with a little bit of dough prior to baking (if I hadn't, the melted chocolate that I put on the cookies after baking would have fallen through the hole). I love making cookie-press cookies when I need a lot of them, because you can really pound out a bunch of cookies fast with a cookie press. I will say that it takes me a couple of minutes every time to re-learn how to use the press (basically, I have to practice holding it down on the cookie sheet, pulling the trigger for about 3 seconds, and then pulling up the press to make the right-sized cookie). But after I remember how to do it, the process goes really fast. Again, I bake these less than Linda's recipe calls for - I only left these in the oven for 5-6 minutes. Also, unlike with the sugar cookies, I do not use parchment paper here - these don't stick to ungreased cookie sheets.

* * * * * * *

Then it was time for Ainsley's kindergarten Winter Party. At the beginning of the school year, I signed up to be one of the class party coordinators. Thus, for the Winter Party, I was in charge of all of the food. I brought fruit salad (which I bought pre-cut from Target) and Snowman cookies and asked another mom to bring a bag of plain Rold Gold pretzels. The kids loved the menu.

Here are the cookies we made at home:

To make them, I bought a snowman cookie cutter that I happened to spot at the grocery store and used Linda Coss's Holiday Cut-Out Cookie recipe again (adding extra flour to the dough as I did when I made the turkey cookies). Then Dave and I spread vanilla Betty Crocker cookie icing on each one. Dave and Ainsley were my assistant cookie decorators and they did an A+ job assisting me. After Dave or I would spread icing on a cookie, we'd hand it to Ainsley, who would add two Enjoy Life mini-chocolate chip eyes and a carrot-shaped nose made out of orange Betty Crocker fruit roll-ups (immediately before decorating the cookies I cut a fruit roll-up into several small triangles for the noses). Then Ainsley added three Fruit Loops to each cookie for the buttons.

After the vanilla icing set a bit, I took some chocolate Betty Crocker cookie icing and, using the nozzle that comes with it, drew a hat and a smile on each snowman. I left the cookies sitting on the counter overnight and by the morning, the icing was completely set and I was able to stack them and take them to school (note: it takes the icing at least 4 hours to become completely hard so don't plan on being able to stack the cookies right after decorating).

I actually made a double-batch of the cookie dough and, after we cut out the alotted number of snowman for baking, we made lots more cookies in various Christmas-y shapes (reindeer, stockings, Christmas trees, stars). After we decorated the snowmen, we drizzled some of the leftover icing (chocolate and vanilla) on these other cookies and then topped them with sprinkles and crushed candy canes. I put the cookies in little paper boxes I found at the Container Store and gave the boxes to each of the three kindergarten teachers at Ainsley's school because they all watch out for her with regard to her allergies. We also gave a box to the school nurse and to the counselor, who have been very instrumental in ensuring that things went well for Ainsley food-allergy-wise this year. (In addition, we gave a Target gift card to Ainsley's teacher, because she does the most with regard to ensuring Ainsley's safety and is also a wonderful teacher in general). Everyone really loved the cookie gifts and I was happy to show our appreciation for what they've been doing.

* * * * * * *

Okay, finally, this week I've had a hankering for Monkey Bread. A long time ago, on a morning show, I saw Paula Deen make it using pre-made, refrigerated biscuit dough, and thought, that looks safe for Ainsley! So during this week's shopping trip to Kroger, I scanned the refrigerated biscuit-dough section and found that Kroger-brand buttermilk biscuits are safe. They only contain wheat and soy. So I bought a four-pack and our adventure began.

Here is a pic of the Monkey Bread right after it came out of the oven:

And here is a pic after I turned over the bundt pan onto a plate:

Paula Deen's Monkey Bread
(There are actually a few variations of this recipe on the internet, but the one below is what I used)

Ingredients:
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
30 canned refrigerator biscuits
1 stick (or 1/2 cup) margarine (I used Earth Balance)
1/2 cup brown sugar
Optional: 1 cup chopped walnuts, pecans, or almonds (we used almonds because it's the one nut Ainsley's not allergic to, but the bread would taste just as good without nuts); raisins would also work well

Directions:
Spray a bundt pan with oil (I used Baker's Joy spray that has flour in it) and set aside. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Combine sugar and cinnamon in a big bowl. Cut refrigerator biscuits in half and toss in cinnamon and sugar mixture. Melt the margarine in a saucepan and add brown sugar and bring to a boil; then add nuts. Line the bundt pan with biscuits and pour butter mixture over them.

Bake for 20-25 minutes. Let sit for 5 minutes and then, while still hot, turn over onto plate.

This is a GREAT recipe for your kids to help with! Ainsley practiced her scissor skills by cutting the biscuits in half, and my 2-year-old helped by using her hands to mix up the cut-up biscuits with the cinnamon-sugar mixture.

* * * * * * *

Time will tell if this baby comes out weighing 12 pounds because of all of the baking I've been doing! I hope you will use some of these recipes and enjoy these goodies yourself. One last thing I want to mention - I am not a baking superstar. I am a regular mom who has had no special training (not even a cake-decorating class) and have learned by doing. The important thing to know is that YOU CAN DO ALL OF THIS TOO! Just try some of these things! Your kids will love you for it and think you're the most amazing mom (or dad, or grandparent) in the world.

And last but not least, I want to wish each of you Happy Holidays and hope that your family is able to enjoy much of the great food this season has to offer despite your or your family member's food allergies!

Short update - a good dairy-free queso & great vegan blog!

2010-12-10T13:35:00.002-06:00

I really need to write a full post, but when I do, it's going to be long - I've been baking away in the kitchen, making turkey-shaped sugar cookies for Thanksgiving, gingerbread people and a marble cake for Ainsley's sixth birthday, lemon bars (yes - I found a great egg-free recipe!), and (next week) sugar-cookie snowmen for Ainsley's winter party. But right now I wanted to let you know about two things my very knowledgeable vegan co-worker Annette told me about today - (1) a vegan queso (aka nacho cheese sauce) that actually tastes *good* and (2) a great blog with some to-die-for dessert recipes on it. The queso is called "Nacho Mom's" and the website is here. It has gotten great reviews, including on Amazon, where I bought two jars. I was excited to see that it will be stocked in DFW-area Whole Foods markets beginning in January.

The vegan blog is called Chef Chloe and is here. She won Cupcake Wars on Food Network with a vegan Raspberry Tiramisu cupcake. A lot of her desserts look pretty simple to make and include things like vegan whipped cream, which I have always wondered how to make.

Thanks for the tips, Annette! I cannot wait to get the vegan queso in the mail!

New restaurant in our line-up: Chipotle

2010-10-18T15:07:00.002-05:00

I feel so liberated every time we try a new restaurant and Ainsley finds something good to eat and has no allergic reaction. We did it again last week when we ordered food for her at Chipotle. Most of you in major urban/suburban areas have probably heard of of it - it's a chain that makes made-to-order burritos and tacos. We have a ton in the DFW area because we're all crazy about Tex-Mex here.

My husband and I have been eating at Chipotle for years but for some reason (well, fear, clearly) I had not tried to determine whether Ainsley could eat anything there (we had taken her there but had always brought food from home or from a fast-food place for her). But my babysitter is braver than I am and last time she went there, she asked about the company's food-allergy friendliness. Low-and-behold, it is very sensitive to and accommodating of food allergies. It has a chart online (and also one you can request in the store) that shows what food components contain allergens. As you can see from the chart, the only thing a kid with nut, peanut, milk, egg, and sesame allergies can't have is the cheese and sour cream. And the workers make the food right in front of you so you can watch to make sure they don't accidentally include any allergens in what they're making for you.

So we took Ainsley there the other night and ordered a kid's "Taco Kit," which is a divided plate that comes with two tacos and some sides. On the plate, we asked for the shredded beef (barbacoa), pinto beans, rice, guacamole, and lettuce. Then she sat down and got to put the tacos together herself using the different components, which she thought was really fun.

I am thrilled to say that she thought the tacos were really yummy and had no allergic reaction.

Note: The only special accommodation to request when getting food at Chipotle is for the preparer to put on a new set of plastic gloves before preparing the food tray because the old gloves could have cheese residue on them.

Happy eating - I know where we'll be chowing down at least one night a week!

So we're having another one!

2010-10-13T21:17:00.003-05:00

I am four months pregnant so I decided it was a good time to tell you that there will be another kid in the house come April. We are very excited - my husband and I have always wanted three kids. Ainsley will be six and Leighton will be three when the baby arrives. If Leighton will just get out of the "how many ways can I try to kill my toddler self" phase before then, I think we'll be alright. If she potty trains before then, that would be the cherry on top, but I'm not really expecting that to happen as she's not that interested yet and Ainsley was over three when she finally stopped with the diapers.

So you food-allergy minded people might be wondering what I'm doing this pregnancy to try to prevent this baby from having allergies. Well, nothing really. With Leighton, I avoided the foods that are likely to cause life-long allergies (fish, shellfish, peanuts, tree nuts). But the research on avoiding allergens while pregnant/nursing is very mixed and Leighton didn't turn out allergic to that stuff or to the allergens that I continued to eat (eggs, milk, wheat, soy) so I don't really think my avoiding those foods made a difference. So this time I'm eating like a normal person, although I don't eat a lot of the life-long allergens anyway (I don't care that much for fish and of course I'm not around a lot of peanuts/tree nuts) so I doubt the baby's getting much exposure to those foods.

Another question you might have is why on earth would my husband and I want another child when (a) taking care of one food-allergic child is so time consuming/expensive and (b) the new baby might also have food allergies, meaning double the trouble. I can understand this viewpoint and have heard at least one other food-allergy mom say her child's allergy was part of the reason she decided not to have a third baby (the allergic child was her second). But my strategy with food allergies has been that it is not going to limit Ainsley or our family. That means we will do everything we can to make sure Ainsley gets a normal childhood (goes to a regular school, goes on YMCA Adventure Princess campouts with her dad, etc.) and that we also don't let food allergies determine our family size. Sure, a third child will mean more work - on top of the special things I have to do to keep Ainsley safe - but somehow we've made our current situation work, and work well. I have never for a minute regretted having Leighton, and Ainsley adores her too, and I know it will be the same with the next baby ... even if this one has food allergies.

Of course, we will be very disappointed if the baby has food allergies - undeniably, life is easier when a kid doesn't have them. But if that happens, life really won't be that much different or harder UNLESS the baby is allergic to wheat and soy, the two things Ainsley eats the most. I just have to hope for the best, and keep reminding myself that siblings of food-allergic children have only a slightly increased risk of having allergies (10% greater risk than other kids). The likelihood is that the baby won't have allergies, and if he/she does, I would think they're likely to be to the foods to which Ainsley's allergic. If that's the case, we're well-equipped to handle them.

And one day there will be a cure, and all of my children will be able to eat whatever they want, and none of this food-allergy talk and worry will matter anymore :).

First elementary school fundraiser: selling cookie dough that contains nearly all of Ainsley's allergens

2010-09-30T09:26:00.002-05:00

Our school didn't waste much time in rolling out the first fundraiser of the year: selling preportioned trays of cookie dough. Surprisingly, Ainsley was ecstatic about the idea of selling something to benefit her school and couldn't stop talking about it or asking me when we could go out and sell some to our neighbors. She even told me, "Mommy, it's okay if you buy some even though I can't eat it - I won't be upset."

So far she's sweet-talked my mother into buying some even though my mother never eats cookies except when she makes them for her granddaughters (my two girls), and thus has no use for cookie dough that Ainsley can't have. She also got our babysitter to buy a few packs. Despite her pleading, I am not going to buy any - I just can't imagine having cookie dough around that she can't have.

I am very happy she's taking this so well and is excited about it rather than sad she can't have the dough. This will make it easier when we have to sell girl scout cookies in a few years, I guess.

We have had the first allergic reaction of the school year ... and it didn't happen at school

2010-09-16T08:49:00.003-05:00

I can't believe we had a serious allergic reaction within the first two weeks of school, after having avoided one for the past year. What is even more unbelievable is that it did not happen at school - it happened when I was with Ainsley ... at a birthday party.

As I've explained before, I hate taking Ainsley to birthday parties. It is a hassle for me, as (on top of getting the birthday kid a present) I have to pack a cupcake and something else for Ainsley to eat, depending on what food will be at the party. But when Ainsley started kindergarten I decided to take her to more parties so she could socialize with her classmates, with whom she'll be going to school for the next several years. The first birthday party of the school year happened two weeks after the start of school. It was for a sweet little girl whom Ainsley hardly knew, at a barnyard close to our house. The barnyard was really a petting zoo. Attached to the petting zoo was a party room where the cake and other food was to be served.

As soon as we arrived, Ainsley started jumping in a bounce house that was by the petting zoo. After she tired of that, she wandered over to the petting zoo and began petting the bunnies, goats, and miniature horses. She did that for about 10 minutes and then went back to the jump house (after I put sanitizer on her hands).

A few minutes later, Ainsley started crying in the bounce house because she'd landed wrong on her ankle. When she climbed out so I could look at the ankle, I immediately noticed lots of raised hives on her forehead. They were all near the same location so the result was that most of the center of her face looked horribly red and swelled. I instantly forgot about the ankle and got into allergy-parent mode. I knew right away what had happened - the animal food must have had nuts in it, and she must have gotten residue on her hands from petting the animals and then spread it to her face.

I took her as fast as I could to the bathroom, where I gave her two teaspoons of Benadryl and began washing off every part of her exposed skin. I then washed off my arms, legs, and face and did the same for my 2-yr-old, who was with us. I was so relieved that Ainsley was exhibiting no internal symptoms. The hives on her face looked nasty, but at least she didn't need the Epi-Pen.

As soon as I washed all of us off, I explained to Ainsley that we had to leave the party because she couldn't be around the residue anymore. She was so upset - she started crying hysterically, because she wanted to stay. This is one of those times when I kept saying over and over to myself, "Food allergies really suck." What a cruel condition to have, that keeps your kid from enjoying or even staying at a birthday party.

I walked back to the party quickly to thank the host for inviting us and to explain why we had to leave. Then we hurried out of there and went home, where I had all of us immediately strip down and shower. I then threw all of our clothes into the wash and hosed off our shoes. It's funny how contaminated I felt at that moment - like I had rolled around in toxic waste. What a strange life we lead.

Clearly, I re-learned my lesson about birthday parties. We'll certainly never go to another one at that barnyard, and I will be even more careful around petting zoos (we'd never had a problem at one before, but I knew it was possible). And next time we get invited to a birthday party, we'll go if it's for a good friend of Ainsley's; otherwise, we'll just stay home.

Ainsley about 20 minutes after she got the Benadryl and was washed off. It actually looked worse before that.

Allergy letter to parents of other kids in Ainsley's class

2010-09-16T08:36:00.005-05:00

Some of you wanted to know the wording of the letter the school sent to the parents of the other kids in Ainsley's kindergarten class to inform them of her allergies. I am retyping it below. It's a standard letter the school district has for food allergies. On the back, the letter has a list of foods that are safe for Ainsley so that parents can send those foods to school for snack time (a different child is assigned to bring snack for the entire class each day). Ainsley doesn't eat the snack that's brought - she eats her own snack (she picks from a box we sent that the teacher keeps in the classroom) - but we still wanted kids to bring only snacks that were safe for Ainsley since they eat snack in the classroom.

The letter (front side):

Dear Parents:

A student in your child's kindergarten class this year has a severe food allergy to peanuts, all tree nuts (cashews, pecans, walnuts, pistachios), sesame seeds, eggs, and milk. We are distributing this letter to the parents to help you understand this situation and to help foster a safe and worry-free year for this student and his/her parents.

This student's allergy can be life-threatening and the student carries an Epi-Pen at all times. We need your help in maintaining a nut-free, egg-free, and milk-free environment in the classroom and ask that any classroom snacks or treats that you send be nut-free, egg-free, and milk-free. The allergy can be triggered not only by directly eating or coming into contact with the above but also by exposure to foods that contain any peanut/nut traces, oils, flours, or food that is processed in a plant with peanuts, nuts, eggs, and milk or sesame seeds. For this reason, most pre-made cookies, prepared cookie dough, and cookie mixes are off limits. Also, many bakeries use nut products, flavorings, or oils in their facilities or products. if you are sending in any type of classroom treats, please notify the teacher in advance so that arrangements can be made to ensure the allergic student has a safe snack or treat.

We want you and your child to understand that the student's allergy can be triggered even by ingesting or exposure to very small amounts of the above allergens. I will talk with the students in the classroom to discuss ways they can help keep the classroom safe, such as always washing hands after lunch or snacks, not bringing snacks with these allergens, etc.

The school realizes that helping us to maintain a nut-free, egg-free, and milk-free classroom takes a certain amount of effort and diligence on your part, and we thank you in advance for your cooperation in helping us maintain a safe, healthy environment for all of our students. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me at the school.

Sincerely,

[The school nurse]

Back side:

This is a list of recommended snacks that are free of milk, eggs, peanuts, tree nuts, and sesame seeds. The list below is not exhaustive and there may be more options. Please note that it is important to read the label as manufacturers are required to list the eight major potential allergens in bold type in or after the ingredients list.

Fresh Snacks
Fresh fruit
Raisins – plain only (not covered in anything else, like yogurt or chocolate)

Prepared Snacks
Bagels – Thomas brand only (original, cinnamon/brown sugar, blueberry, & whole wheat
flavors only)
Ritz Crackers (Nabisco) -- Original, Whole Wheat, Honey Butter, Hint of Salt, or
Roasted Vegetable flavors only (no Ritz Bits please – Ainsley is allergic to all types of them)
Ritz Muchables Pretzel Thins (Nabisco) – buttery flavor only
Wheat Thins (Nabisco) – original flavor only
Triscuits (Nabisco) – original flavor or reduced fat original flavor only
Triscuits Thin Crisps (Nabisco) – original flavor only
Teddy Grahams (Nabisco) – honey, cinnamon, chocolate chip, and chocolate flavors only
Honey Maid Graham Crackers (Nabisco) – original, honey, or cinnamon flavors only
Saltines (Nabisco) – plain or multigrain flavors only
Premium Soup & Oyster Crackers (Nabisco) – original flavor only
Keebler Original Club Crackers – original or multigrain flavors only
Keebler Town House Crackers – original flavor only
Keebler Grahams Bug Bites
Keebler Scooby Doo Graham Cracker Sticks – cinnamon or honey flavors only
Lorna Doone Shortbread Cookies (Nabisco)
Barnum’s Animals Crackers (Nabisco)
Ginger Snaps (Nabisco)
Rold Gold Pretzels (including thins, sticks, tiny twists) – plain flavor only
Rold Gold Braided Twists – honey wheat flavor only
Quaker Quakes Rice Snacks -- apple cinnamon flavor only
Good Health Natural Foods Veggie Sticks / Veggie Chips
Pirate’s Booty – veggie flavor only (not the kind coated in cheese)
Snapea Crisps (by Calbee Snack Salad) – plain flavor only
Sun Chips – original flavor only
Cheerios – plain and multigrain flavors only
Frosted Mini Wheats (Kelloggs) – original flavor only
Oreo Cookies – original kind only
Stacy’s Pita Chips – plain or cinnamon sugar flavored only

***********

I would love to say that all of the parents have diligently paid attention to this snack list and sent only safe snacks, but in reality I think some of them didn't read the letter at all and I know that at least a few have sent things like string cheese that are clearly unsafe. There is really nothing I can do about that as this is all about voluntary compliance. I do think that the kindergarten teacher doesn't serve certain things if they are brought, like peanut butter crackers, because she knows how much we fear those foods in particular (she has a few back-up snacks in her classroom).

I have already had to send a reminder/clarification email to the class parents because at Meet the Teacher night Ainsley's teacher mentioned that she had a child with a peanut allergy in her class and didn't mention Ainsley's other allergies. Some of the later questions from parents made clear that they thought Ainsley had only a peanut allergy. My follow-up email is below:

Hi fellow class parents,

For those of you who attended Meet the Teacher last night, I wanted to clarify that my daughter, Ainsley, is severely allergic not only to peanuts, but also to tree nuts (such as cashews, walnuts, etc.), dairy, eggs, and sesame seeds. That is why the letter the school nurse sent home about Ainsley listed all of those items as allergens, and that is why the suggested snack list on the back of that letter listed only foods that do not contain any of those allergens (if any of you did not see the suggested snack list on the back of that letter and no longer have the letter handy, I'd be more than happy to send a copy of the list to you if you let me know). We feel it is important for the snacks the other kids eat not to contain any of her allergens because it is so easy for the residue from those snacks to get on everything in the classroom since it will be on all the children's hands and they often eat the snacks in class.

It is true, however, that at lunch Ainsley can sit by other kids who are eating dairy, eggs, and sesame - she just can't sit by kids eating things like peanut butter & jelly because those sandwiches can be messy and the peanut butter (or other tree nut butter) might get onto her eating surface. Thus, the teacher checks the other kids' lunches and puts kids who do not have peanuts/peanut butter or tree nuts/tree-nut butter in their lunch around Ainsley.

As for birthday celebrations and parties, we definitely don't mind if you send treats that contain dairy and eggs as this wouldn't be an everyday thing like snacks (and it is so hard to find tasty treats that don't contain dairy & eggs). We would, however, appreciate it if you would avoid sending treats with peanuts/tree nuts in them as we would like to keep peanut/tree-nut residue from the classroom because it as particularly potent in terms of setting off an allergic reaction. Ainsley will have her own separate treat on those days so do not worry about her being left out!

Thanks so much for your understanding, and please don't hesitate to contact me with any questions.

Ainsley's 504 Plan

2010-08-20T17:04:00.013-05:00

I met with the nurse, counselor, and all three kindergarten teachers today to go over the final version of the 504 Plan/IHP we hammered out in the Spring. I was extremely pleased with the way the meeting went - they were all warm and friendly and wanted to see a picture of Ainsley, know what typically happens when she has an allergic reaction, and what we usually do when it happens (they know to give her Benadryl and, in some cases, the Epi-Pen, but it was wonderful to have an opportunity to explain how an allergic reaction usually manifests in Ainsley and precisely what I do in those situations). Ainsley's teacher was happy to receive my bag full of 12 weeks' worth of individually-packaged snacks for her. They also liked the bright red insulated bag I bought to keep Ainsley's Epi-Pen and Benadryl in for the classroom (the nurse will have a set of Epi-Pens and some more Benadryl in her office too).

So here are the important parts of the 504 plan that I wanted to share with everyone. I am not pasting the entire thing because it is very long and some parts simply describe Ainsley and her health history, etc. Here are the important parts:

SCHOOL ACTIONS

-Perfect Measure Children’s Benadryl x 2 will be in the insulated bag in the classroom and in the clinic.

-Epi-Pen Jr. Dual Pack x 2 will be in the insulated bag in the classroom and in the clinic.

-Home supplied safe snacks will be kept in the classroom and in a freezer in the cafeteria (e.g., cupcakes in case a child's parent sends birthday treats for the class).

-Home supplied lunch box will be kept separate from other children's in the classroom.

-The school will send out a district letter to the entire class informing of student’s allergy including recommended snacks.

-The school will provide a safe environment in the classroom through education of food allergies and its effect [the first week, the nurse will show the Alexander the Elephant movie to the class and talk to the kids about food allergies, no sharing food, etc.].

-The school will provide a designated table adjacent to a regular table that will be cleaned by assigned staff prior to schedule lunch time. Cleaning will be with “Break Up” a high level cleaner that breaks up protein, animal fat and grease.

-The child will sit in a designated seat at the end of the table with students peanut/nut-free sitting around her.

-Student or teacher will carry the insulated bag with Epi-Pen and Benadryl so that it will remain with her at all times.

-HVAC in the clinic will maintain constant temperature year around from 68°-78°.

-Nurse or teacher will provide hand washing education to the class at the beginning of the school year.

-Student will wear a medical alert bracelet.

-Procedure to follow for field trips: (a) Teachers will notify the school nurse in advance of all field trips. (b) Arrangements will be made with parent, nurse, and anaphylactic trained staff to ensure student’s supplies accompanies the student to the event. (c) A copy of the student’s Quick Reference Emergency Plan will accompany the trained staff.

-Training for school personnel: Student’s teachers and other staff employees will receive annual education regarding the student’s allergy. This includes general information, signs and symptoms of anaphylaxis, administration of Benadryl and administration of epinephrine, Universal Precautions, resources available when questions/problems arise, and emergency measures. All staff members who will have direct contact with the student will receive a copy of the Quick Reference Emergency Plan. In addition, the student’s teachers will receive a copy of the IHP. This training will include substitutes/ IHP in the substitute folder when assigned to the classroom.

************

As you can see, the plan is pretty detailed and I am very happy with it. I take no credit for it - it is pretty much word-for-word the same as that of a peanut-allergic child going into the second grade whose mom revolutionized the school in terms of making it food-allergy friendly.

A couple of things about the plan: (1) It states that Ainsley will eat a separate snack from the other kids. The school has one child bring in snacks for the whole class each week. The school is sending out a "safe snack list" to parents of her classmates that lists only snacks that are safe for Ainsley. I thought about allowing her to eat the snack another kid brings in as long as it's on the safe snack list, but then I got nervous about it and decided that, for now, Ainsley will eat her own snack regardless of whether the class snack is also safe for her. Right now I'm too antsy about the possibility about ingredients changing/teacher accidentally giving her something that's not on the list/etc. Nevertheless, I am thrilled the school is sending out the safe snack list I sent them because that means that, at least most of the time, the class snack will likely not contain anything Ainsley's allergic to and therefore her allergens won't be spread around her classroom (they eat snacks in class).

(2) I also contemplated allowing her to sit next to anyone, not just kids who don't have peanuts/tree nuts in their lunch. But then I got nervous again and decided to play it really safe this semester and see how things go. Thankfully, Ainsley's best friend is in the same class as she is, and I bet they will want to sit together every day, so there's one kid I can count on who won't have peanuts/tree nuts in her lunch. Note that Ainsley is NOT sitting at a peanut/tree-nut free table. Her table will be cleaned with a special cleaner that breaks up food proteins, but she will be sitting at the same table as kids eating peanuts/tree-nuts (and eggs and milk). But she will be sitting at the end of the table so she will only be sitting next to one child and across from one child. The teacher will check the lunches of those two children to ensure they are peanut/tree-nut free.

(3) You might also notice that the plan specifically provides that the nurse's clinic will be temperature-controlled at all times. Unfortunately, the classroom won't be. That is why I bought an insulated container for the medication we'll keep in the classroom.

(4) Another important part of the plan is the provision for the training of substitute teachers. My greatest fear is that a substitute will accidentally give something to Ainsley that she's allergic to (like a snack, birthday treat, etc.) Thankfully, Ainsley is very aware of her allergies and I feel confident she wouldn't accept anything like that from a substitute. Still, I wanted to ensure that the substitute knows about Ainsley's allergies. So, under the plan, the staff is to notify the nurse before the start of school that a substitute is in Ainsley's classroom. The nurse will then make sure the substitute knows there's a child with food allergies in the classroom and will train him/her on how to administer emergency medication, including the Epi-Pen.

Any questions/concerns/suggestions? Please let me know! This has been a real learning experience for me, but so far I'm thrilled about how it's turned out.

Getting ready for Kindergarten!

2010-08-16T13:31:00.002-05:00

Just wanted to post a quick note to let you know that allergy planning for Ainsley's first day of Kindergarten is well under way. She starts on Monday, 8/23, so right now I'm busy finalizing a letter to the parents of kids in her class complete with a safe snack list, confirming with the nurse how many Epi-Pens/how much Benadryl I need to bring to school, thinking about what sort of safe snacks I will buy to stock in Ainsley's classroom in case the class snack isn't safe for her, etc. We will have our second 504 meeting to finalize the plan this week (not sure when yet). I feel so much calmer about this than I thought I would. I think it's because Ainsley really is ready for Kindergarten, and is mature enough to take on some responsibility for keeping herself safe. I am very excited about how she'll like Kindergarten and about all of the new friends she'll make!

Loosening up

2010-08-02T15:02:00.003-05:00

For about three years, we have been in "lock-down" mode in terms of allowing Ainsley to eat food outside of our house. Ever since her last severe allergic reaction in a restaurant (Mothers' Day 2007, when she was 2.5 yrs old) I have refused to let her eat anything at any restaurant except for the cheese-free pizza at my favorite local pizza place, the smoked meat at one of our favorite bbq joints, and a few select things at McDonald's (plain hamburger or chicken selects and apple dippers w/o the sauce), Wendy's (hamburger or kid's chicken sandwich and fries), and Burger King (fish patty or chicken fries and onion rings/french fries/apple fries). The one exception to our ban on other restaurant food is if a restaurant has fresh fruit or corn chips (we live in Texas so at least once every couple of weeks we'll go to a Mexican restaurant and have never had a problem with the corn chips).

Now that Ainsley is 5 and is very good at telling me as soon as she thinks she's having an allergic reaction (usually itchy mouth is the first indicator), I have begun loosening up a little. When we were on vacation in Michigan, I allowed her to eat a cheese-free pizza from a place that assured us their crust was safe for her - thankfully, she loved the pizza and had no problem. I am also allowing her to eat McDonald's chicken nuggets now because even though they contain a slight bit of milk, they don't cause any allergic reaction (this is per my allergist's recent advice that we can start introducing certain cooked/baked things containing very small amounts of milk or egg).

This weekend we introduced a new restaurant to her - Papa John's Pizza. Dave has a love of Papa John's that goes back to his college years, when he discovered he could get bacon (not Canadian bacon - real bacon) on a Papa John's pizza. He introduced me to it in law school, and for years our favorite road-trip food was bacon and pepperoni Papa John's (delivered to whatever cheap motel room we were staying in).

Now that I'm feeling braver about trying new things with Ainsley, I had him check to see if Papa John's crust was safe for her, and low and behold, it is - the thin crust contains milk but the regular crust does not. We ordered a small cheese-free pizza for her with bacon and mushrooms and she went to town on it.

I can't express how liberating it is to be able to give Ainsley new kinds of restaurant foods. These good experiences have encouraged me to talk to other restaurants to see if there are things at other restaurants that are safe for her. She loves trying new things and we love seeing her life is get a little bit more normal.

Conquering Starbucks

2010-07-30T12:57:00.006-05:00

I don't know about you, but for me, one of the saddest parts of being a food-allergy parent is going into a particular food-related establishment and thinking, "My kid will probably never be able to eat/drink anything here." All bakeries and ice cream shops fall within this category. Until recently, so did Starbucks.

Of course, we have always stayed away from the fresh-baked items behind the counter there because all of them contain things (egg, milk) Ainsley can't eat and there are also cross-contamination issues with the nut-containing products. And I would never think of giving her the coffee, not only because she's 5 but also because sometimes the coffee beans have been roasted with nuts. Usually, my friends get their kids little drink boxes of Horizon chocolate milk there, but that's out for us because of Ainsley's dairy allergy. Needless to say, I was always at a loss in terms of what I could order for Ainsley so we usually stayed away from the place (in a pinch I would get her a bottle of fruit juice, but she was never excited by that).

Recently, however, my babysitter took the girls into our local Starbucks to get something for herself and found that it was now stocking packages of Lucy's cookies, which are free of egg, milk, and peanuts/tree nuts (they are also gluten-free). The manager also assured her that it would be safe for Ainsley to have a cup of soy milk (poured straight from the container into a clean cup) with a shot of vanilla flavoring for extra pizzazz.

Ainsley has loved ordering the cookies and the soy milk and now says that Starbucks is "one of her favorite restaurants." It would quickly jump to the top if it gave out toys with its food like McDonalds.

If you have a child with the same allergies as Ainsley, you might want to give Starbucks another look - it seems that it is making an effort to reach out to food-allergic individuals.

Bathing in almonds

2010-07-28T13:57:00.002-05:00

So Ainsley loves almond milk, and she has also started eating honey-nut cheerios (made with just almonds) without a problem! What a new world for us - now I can say my daughter is allergic to "most tree nuts" instead of "all tree nuts." The problem, of course, is acquiring almond products that haven't been processed with other nuts. All of the almonds I've seen in stores have a warning that they were processed with other nuts. Thankfully, however, I found an online almond supplier that ships directly from the farm and guarantees that its almonds have not mixed with any other nuts. I just ordered a 5-lb bag of almonds and a 5-lb bag of almond meal - I am so excited to start cooking with these things!

I also ordered a 3-jar supply of Barney Butter (almond butter made in a nut-free facility) from Amazon. I found that Amazon deeply discounts this product if you sign up to have it shipped to you on a regular basis. I signed up for an every-two-month supply of 3 jars and it reduced the price from $23.08 + shipping to $19 with no shipping cost.

Unfortunately, we received the results of Ainsley's allergy tests and they showed that her numbers to all of the other allergens are about the same. The allergist did give me the green light to incorporate very tiny amounts of milk and/or egg into baked goods, however, to see if Ainsley can tolerate it (a long time ago she used to eat things with egg and milk baked in so I'm not worried about a severe allergic reaction with this sort of thing). He feels that now that she is 5 and can tell me quickly if her mouth is feeling itchy or she otherwise feels funny that it is an appropriate time to see if we can incorporate some of this food into her diet in a way that is unlikely to cause a serious allergic reaction. It is going to be so weird to start cooking with those things again!

New recommendation on whether to get a flu shot if you're egg-allergic

2010-07-16T13:02:00.002-05:00

Food Allergy Initiative just issued this statement recommending that egg-allergic individuals talk to their allergists about getting the regular and H1N1 flu vaccines this Fall. Apparently the current versions of the flu vaccines contain little to no egg protein and are safe for many egg-allergic individuals.

For the last two years, Ainsley has gotten the flu shot (this year she got the regular & H1N1). we go to her allergist's office and he does a skin test with the vaccine to make sure she doesn't react, then injects her with it. Given that both of my kids are highly susceptible to respiratory viruses (we've had a nebulizer in the house since Ainsley was itty bitty), I make sure they're vaccinated every year.

She can eat almonds! And (some) Chick-Fil-A!

2010-07-14T11:33:00.002-05:00

My dad is doing well and is almost out of the hospital, so my attention has turned to other things - including Ainsley's annual allergist appt., which was yesterday. She had blood drawn, of course, and we won't get the results on that until next week. But we have already been able to introduce a couple of new things into her diet. During her appt., the doctor suggested that I take her to Chick-Fil-A for the first time and give her some waffle fries. He emphasized that almost all of his peanut-allergic patients have no problem at all with the kind of peanut oil Chick-Fil-A uses so she should be fine, and it would open up another restaurant to us. I took her there and ordered a kids' meal with waffle fries and the "grilled chicken nuggets" - an off-menu item I had heard that they make for kids allergic to the egg, milk, and/or wheat in the batter used on their regular nuggets.

She had no reaction either to the nuggets (which tasted great!) or the waffle fries, so we can now add Chick-Fil-A into our rotation of Ainsley-approved restaurants (already on the list are McD's, Burger King, and Wendy's).

The doctor also emphasized that I should try Ainsley on almonds. He said that her number to almonds was so low last year that he was sure she wouldn't have a reaction. He offered that if I was really concerned about an allergic reaction, I could give her some almond milk in the lobby of his office.

You might recall that I chickened out on giving her almond milk to drink last year after I put some on her arm and it caused her skin to itch and look a little irritated. I told him about this and he reminded me that some things can cause a very mild skin reaction even if the child actually isn't allergic to them.

So I took the plunge and bought some Silk almond milk at the store and gave her a drop right before we drove home, thinking that if she showed the slightest reaction I could head to the doctor's office instead of my house since the office is very close to where I live (and, of course, I carry her medicine pack with us everywhere so also had an Epi-Pen on hand in case of emergency).

Thankfully, she had no reaction and loved the taste of the almond milk, so I gave her more when we got home.

I am quite excited about this and am all ready to order Barney Butter for us to use at the house. I have also had fun thinking of all the yummy baked goods I can make with it.

I am undecided as to whether I'll give her whole almonds yet. My concern is that I can't imagine I'll be able to find any that are processed in an otherwise nut-free facility. I thought about washing them first to remove residue that might have gotten on them during processing. Opinions? I will ask the allergist about this when I talk to him next week.

She can eat shrimp!

2010-06-28T16:03:00.002-05:00

I have been forced to take a hiatus from the blog because I've been under the weather for several weeks and my dad has also been having health issues - in fact, he will be having major heart surgery this Friday. But I did want to let you all know about an exciting development that I have mentally filed away in the "See, Ainsley isn't allergic to everything!" folder.

Last night we went to my in-laws' house for dinner and they decided to grill shrimp. I had never given Ainsley shrimp even though (based on her skin and blood tests) her allergist said he didn't think she was allergic to it. The biggest reason I avoided it was that, when we did the skin test for it a long time ago, she had a tiny hive to it, and even though her blood test showed no allergic reaction, I was scared to have her try it because shellfish are a common cause of deadly reactions. It has taken me years to get to the point when I was ready to have her try any shellfish.

I decided that last night was THE NIGHT. To see if she could tolerate it, I first rubbed a piece of shrimp on her arm to see if it caused a skin reaction. After we waited 20 minutes and there was no reaction, I let her eat a microscopically small piece of it. After another 20 minutes of no reaction, she ate an eraser-tip's worth of it. After another 20 minutes of no reaction, I let her eat a whole shrimp.

She loved it! She will be eating more for dinner tonight. I am very excited to add this food to our repertoire and we can tell she is happy to be able to eat something different.

Honestly, the biggest part of the experience for me was just confirming that, although she is allergic to several things, she isn't allergic to every major allergen. Now I'm going to make her eat shrimp on a regular basis so hopefully she'll never develop an allergy to it.

First 504 Plan meeting

2010-05-10T14:21:00.005-05:00

Today Dave and I went to the public elementary school Ainsley is set to attend in August to meet with the staff about formulating a Section 504 plan that will list the specific accommodations the school will make for her food allergies. I was not that nervous about the meeting because the school has already made accommodations for a severely peanut-allergic first grader and I have already talked with his mom several times and Dave and I had agreed that almost all of those accommodations would work for Ainsley.

We met with the nurse, counselor, principal, and the teacher who had the peanut-allergic child in her class last year, and who will be Ainsley's teacher this coming year (it is great to know in advance who her teacher will be). They were all very nice and wanted to know all about Ainsley - what her personality was like, where she had any other issues (allowing me to tell them she was in occupational therapy for slight motor skills delays), and how we first learned about Ainsley's food allergies.

We then talked about the accommodations the school is currently making for the peanut-allergic first grader. I told them that I wanted all of the same ones implemented for Ainsley except that I wanted to discuss "the peanut-free table issue." Currently, the school has a peanut-free table that the first-grader sits at. He can have a couple of friends sit with him if the teacher checks their lunch and determines that it's peanut-free. I was worried about that because Ainsley is a very shy kid and it's hard for her to warm up to other children. I felt that any social isolation like that would be detrimental to her developing social skills.

Prior to the meeting, I expressed my concerns to family and friends knowledgeable of school procedures (I am lucky that my sister-in-law is an elementary school counselor in the same district and that my mother-in-law is a retired third grade teacher) and came up with an alternative that I felt good about: having Ainsley sit at the same table as the other kids but in a designated spot at the end of a row. The cafeteria staff will clean off her spot before she sits down (this will be easy in kindergarten because the tables will have all been cleaned before they sit down) and her teacher will check the lunches of the two kids who sit closest to her to ensure they don't have any peanut/treenut products.

Everyone in the room this morning seemed happy with this plan. I am sure that, in practice, there will be hiccups. I guess I am comfortable with it because Ainsley's been eating at the same table as her preschool classmates for the last three years and she has never had an allergic reaction because of it. Of course, her preschool is peanut and treenut-free, but she's still been surrounded by kids eating dairy and egg products and hasn't had a problem. Because of this experience I have determined that she seems far more likely to have an allergic reaction if she accidentally ingests a food she thinks is safe rather than if her skin comes into contact with residue of an offending food. Therefore, my highest priority is making sure no one gives her a food to eat that isn't safe - I am less concerned about residue issues.

Thoughts? Ideas? Once I receive a written copy of the 504 plan I will post it here. I am still in shock that my baby is old enough to be getting ready for kindergarten!

Fall/winter babies more prone to food allergies

2010-04-23T09:53:00.002-05:00

A recent study found that children born in the fall or wintertime were much more likely to have food allergies. Ainsley was born in late November so she certainly falls into the higher-risk group. She was also born by c-section, which raises the risk that a child will have food allergies. My second daughter, Leighton, was born in the spring and I avoided a c-section that time - she has no food allergies. Can you guess who will try her best not to have another fall/winter c-section baby?

Best banana pancakes

2010-04-20T19:19:00.004-05:00

Tonight my five-year-old begged for pancakes with banana in them. I am a pro at making blueberry, strawberry, and chocolate chip pancakes, but have never added banana before. I experimented a little and came up with this exceedingly yummy recipe ...

Banana Pancakes

1 C white flour
1 C whole wheat flour
2 Tbsp white sugar
2 Tbsp brown sugar
3 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1 1/2 Tbsp water, 1 1/2 Tbsp vegetable oil, 1 tsp. baking powder, mixed together
2 C plain or vanilla soymilk
3 Tbsp vegetable oil
3 tsp vanilla
1-2 Tbsp ground flax seed (optional)
1-2 Tbsp wheat germ (optional)
3 bananas, sliced into 1/4-inch pieces

Combine all dry ingredients. In a separate bowl, mix together the water/oil/baking powder mixture. After a few seconds, add other wet ingredients to mixture. Combine wet and dry ingredients and stir until just blended (mixture can still be lumpy). Add sliced bananas.

Heat griddle or skillet, spray with vegetable oil. Spoon batter onto griddle/skillet to make small (approx 4-inch) pancakes. Cook until slightly browned on each side. Serve topped with dairy-free butter and pure maple syrup.

Makes approximately 12 pancakes.

We added a few slices of bacon and voila - a perfect brinner (breakfast-for-dinner)!

A marathon post to make up for my marathon absence - and three new desserts!

2010-03-13T06:57:00.013-06:00

Wow, it's been a long time since I've written anything. The initial cause of my absence was a terrible flu-like virus that my five-year-old caught. She was sick for several days with a really high fever and coughing. Then my almost two-year-old got it, of course, and it hit her even harder - it drained her of energy and eventually caused severe wheezing.

After an entire day in the pediatrician's office, where they gave her repeated breathing treatments and steroid doses, we ended up in the emergency room the next day because it turned into pneumonia. Thankfully, we only spent two days there, although they were a very uncomfortable/miserable two days - have you ever tried to keep a 23-month-old happy while she has several wires attached to her and has to stay in a metal crib?

The first night was particularly miserable because they gave us a tiny room and both my husband and I wanted to stay with her (okay, I begged him to stay - I still have terrible memories of the week we spent at the hospital last year when she had RSV and I had to stay with her by myself each night). The problem was there was no adult-sized hospital bed in the room like we've had before so Dave ended up sleeping on the couch while I had to sleep in the crib with her (I got about 1 hours' sleep the entire night). We wised up the second night and brought our sleeping bag so Dave could sleep in that while I took the couch.

Anyway, after a week and a half off from work due to these illnesses, I had a lot to catch up on at work and at home and didn't really do much cooking or baking for a few weeks. But now we're all healthy and happy and my cooking/baking craze has been reignited. So here are the recent fruits of my (and my mother's) labor ...

First, the other day I wanted to bake something sweet but was feeling pretty lazy. I looked in my pantry and discovered that I had an old box of Cherrybrook Kitchen chocolate chip cookie mix and a box of Cherrybrook brownie mix. Hmmmm, I thought, chocolate chip cookies and brownies, my two favorite things - why don't I combine them? The result: Brownie chocolate-chip cookie muffins. And wow, are they good! Here's the how-to:

Brownie Chocolate-Chip Cookie Muffins

Prepare 1 box of Cherrybrook Kitchen brownie batter according to package directions. Fill 22 muffin cups with the batter. Bake at the temperature indicated on the package for 7 minutes.

While brownie layer is baking, prepare 1 box of Cherrybrook Kitchen chocolate chip cookie dough. Add a little bit of extra water (about 1 tbsp) to the dough to make it more liquidy and spreadable like batter.

When brownies have baked for 7 minutes, take muffin tins out of the oven and put some of the chocolate chip cookie "batter" on top of the brownie layer in each of the cups. Then put back in the oven for an additional 7-10 minutes (begin inserting toothpick after 7 minutes, take muffins out when top layer looks like a baked chocolate chip cookie and is still moist but not gooey).

The second yummy dessert we've had lately is something my mom made after seeing the recipe on the back of a box of ice cream cones. It basically involves filling an ice cream cone with cake batter, baking it, and then putting icing on top. The finished product was so cool that I think I'm going to make these for Leighton's second birthday.

Cupcake Cones

Prepare 1 box of Cherrybrook cake mix (any flavor) as directed. Open 1 box of safe ice cream cones (my mother used Keebler cake cones, but I have found many different brands of safe cones). Don't use the sugar cones, though - you need to use cones that have flat bottoms so they can stand up on their own.

Spoon batter into each cone. Do not fill the cone completely with batter - instead, leave 1/2-3/4 inch of space at the top of each cone because the batter will rise while baking.

Wrap bottom of each cone in aluminum foil (to help them stand up better on the baking sheet) and set cones on baking sheet.

Place baking sheet carefully in the oven and bake at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes (start checking after 15).

Take out of the oven and allow to cool completely. Then frost with your favorite safe frosting (many Pillsbury icing flavors are safe, or you can make your own frosting if you're feeling particularly energetic). Put colorful sprinkles on if desired (and what kid doesn't desire that:).

Here is a pic of one my mom made:

Finally, this last treat is for those times when you don't feel like doing any mixing or baking (in a real oven, that is - toaster oven is required for this next treat). One of my old stand-by desserts is Smores. Yes, your allergic child can have Smores! We use safe graham crackers (Honey Maid or Kroger brand), marshmallows (Kraft Jet-Puffed), and chocolate (I find that chocolate chips melt the fastest. I use either Kroger FMV or Enjoy Life). As always, check to make sure these brands are still safe before using!

Smores

Break 1 large graham cracker into 2 squares. Put several mini-marshmallows or 2 large marshmallow halves on one of the squares; put several chocolate chips on the other. Carefully place each piece directly on the rack in a toaster oven (or place crackers on a baking sheet and put the sheet in a real oven if you don't have a toaster oven). Some of the chocolate chips might fall off when you put the squares on the toaster oven rack - just pick them up and put them back on the square. Toast until marshmallows look puffy and chocolate chips look glossy. Take out of the oven and put the 2 pieces together to form a sandwich. Let cool and enjoy!

Super yummy, healthy smoothie

2010-02-06T11:39:00.002-06:00

My husband is on a health kick. He resolved to be more active this year, so he's been working out with the Wii we got for Christmas. He has also been eating much better. One of the things that he most needed to revamp was his breakfast routine. He used to skip breakfast entirely or grab a bagel or McDonald's on the way to work. Now I make a batch of (Ainsley-safe!) healthy muffins every couple of weeks and he eats those for breakfast. He has also become our Smoothie King - I showed him how to use our new food processor and he has really taken to it! Normally he is very uncomfortable trying to cook anything but apparently if it involves a loud, pulverizing appliance he's right at home. Every morning he gets up and makes enough for all of us, and we drink every drop.

Dave's Yummy, Healthy Smoothie Recipe

1 C orange juice

1 C So Delicious strawberry coconut-milk Kefir (can substitute vanilla or plain Kefir or strawberry, blueberry, vanilla, or plain soy yogurt)

2/3 C frozen strawberries

2/3 C frozen blueberries

1/2 C or 1 individual-sized container no-sugar-added applesauce

1 Tbsp honey

1 Tbsp ground flax seed

1-2 bananas

Put all ingredients into blender or food processor and blend until smooth. Makes 4-6 servings.

Little girls and tea parties

2010-02-01T16:13:00.002-06:00

I've mentioned before that I rarely take Ainsley to birthday parties - it's a lot of trouble for me because I have to bring all of her food and it's usually a bittersweet experience for her because, although she loves most of the usual party festivities, she gets sad that she can't eat the party food, especially the beautifully-decorated cake.

But this weekend one of her best friends is having a party so we're going. It's a tea party - the third one we've been to in the last year. If Ainsley didn't have allergies, tea parties would be great: little girls in princess dresses sipping tea and eating little sandwiches - is anything cuter? But the problem for us is that these parties revolve around food, much more so than a normal birthday party.

Thankfully, the moms who've organized these have been wonderful about sending me the menu beforehand and asking about safe ingredients. I try to bring a safe version of everything they're having. Last time I had to make iced blueberry scones because that was one of the menu items. It's a lot of work, but obviously worth it to see Ainsley having fun with her friends. So if, like me, you're the mom of a little girl who is attending lots of tea parties these days, I empathize with you!

Hankering for peppermint hot chocolate

2010-01-19T13:00:00.003-06:00

One of my favorite food things the past two holiday seasons has been Westsoy's Chocolate Peppermint Stick beverage, which I discovered last year among the other shelf-stable soymilk cartons at Whole Foods. Before that I spent way too much money on peppermint hot chocolate at Starbucks, so I was so happy to discover a cheaper - but incredibly tasty - replacement. This year, Ainsley got addicted to it too, so we doubled our purchases from last year. Well, all good things must come to an end - we went to Whole Foods yesterday and, alas, it was no longer there. But thanks to my recent purchase of peppermint extract for a recipe I have yet to try, I decided to concoct my own, which Ainsley declared to be "just as good as the kind we get at the store!" Here's the "recipe":

-Start with 1 mug of soymilk (plain or vanilla).
-Mix in enough liquid chocolate Nestle Quick or Hershey's syrup (both are free of Ainsley's allergens!) to make the milk very brown ("hot chocolate brown").
-Add 2 drops peppermint extract.
-Microwave for 1 min. to 1 min. 30 sec. (I microwave Ainsley's for just a minute because I don't want it very hot for her).
-Add safe marshmallows (like Kraft Jet-Puffed) if desired.

Fun food allergy Christmas gifts

2010-01-09T10:05:00.002-06:00

Before I had Ainsley, I never knew what to say when people asked what I wanted for Christmas or my birthday. I am not one of those people who enjoys collecting purses, jewelry, perfumes, shoes, DVDs, CDs, or anything like that (believe me, Dave is quite happy that he married a girl like me! I have saved him a lot of money over the years). So I have always had to think of random things for them to get me - but it was never anything that I really had to have.

Since we discovered Ainsley's allergies and I began (slowly) learning how to cook and bake from scratch, however, I have discovered the fun world of cookbooks, kitchen gadgets, and appliances, and all of a sudden I had things I really, really wanted - or even needed - that I could put on my Christmas and birthday list.

This Christmas I got a great haul of these items, including: the Food Allergy Mama's Baking Book, a new food processor (old one died), a new hand mixer (Leighton threw away one of the beaters to my old one, and a one-beater mixer is not very effective), an immersion blender (I saw this on someone else's blog and thought it looked really cool), and a Belgian waffle iron (I looooove Belgian waffles).

So far I've used all of them except the immersion blender, which I plan to break out next time I make soup. I've even combined gifts: I used the waffle recipe from the baking book to make waffles using my waffle iron and have also made her berry breakfast smoothie in my new food processor (I have resolved that our family will eat a healthier breakfast in 2010 so I've been feeding them bran muffins and smoothies every weekday morning; I break out the waffle maker on weekends).

The fact that Ainsley's entire family, including the grandmothers, is cooking more means that I also have more ideas for gifts for them than I did before. This year I got my mom a new cake pan and cookie sheet because the ones she uses now are really old, and she was really excited.

Any cool kitchen gadgets/appliances you love? I am always interested in hearing what gets used a lot in other kitchens.

Some ideas for people who must also eat soy-free

2010-01-04T11:36:00.005-06:00

Last week I had a cooking/baking challenge that opened my eyes to how difficult it is to live with a soy allergy - especially when it's coupled with a dairy allergy. We threw a little New Year's Eve dinner party for friends who, like us, have small children (and thus can't do the traditional stay-up-til-midnight drinking thing). One of the moms who came is eating dairy- and soy-free because her baby has a suspected milk and/or soy allergy. She has been having a really difficult time finding recipes that don't contain one of these allergens as an ingredient. I always knew it would be hard to have both allergies - because most dairy substitutes are made with soy - but buying ingredients to make food that was safe for her made me thankful that we do not have a soy allergy in our house. I have been taking for granted that almost everything I make for Ainsley has soy in it.

I finally landed upon a few recipes that turned out wonderfully. One was the plain cupcake recipe from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World (see sidebar, "My Favorite Cookbooks", for link to this book). The only substitutions I made were to use rice milk in place of the soy milk and soy-free Earth Balance in place of the regular Earth Balance I usually stock at home. I also made the icing from that cookbook using soy-free shortening (Spectrum, which is 100% palm oil), soy-free Earth Balance, and rice milk (in place of the soy milk).

In addition, I made cookies using this recipe from Kelly Rudnicki's new baking book: http://www.foodallergymama.com/2009/06/02/another-treat-idea-for-end-of-school-year-parties/ . As with the cupcakes, I used soy-free Earth Balance and rice milk.

Both the cupcakes and cookies turned out wonderfully. I got many compliments from non-food-allergic people about how yummy the cupcakes were (one said to me that it was the best cupcake she'd ever tasted).

I also made a dairy- and soy-free pizza for my friend (and Ainsley - for the other people we ordered in from a local pizzeria). I used this pizza dough recipe: http://www.foodallergymama.com/2009/03/08/the-fastest-allergen-free-pizza-ever/ , which contains no soy. For the sauce, I combined 1/2 can of Muir Glen Organic pizza sauce (available at most Whole Foods) with 1 small can tomato paste. For the topping, I browned ~1 lb. of ground chuck in a skillet. When the meat was still a little pink, I added 1/2 chopped green pepper and 1/2 chopped onion. I also added liberal amounts of salt and pepper. After the meat was browned and the veggies tender, I put the mixture on top of the sauce and baked the pizza according to the above recipe's directions. (Note that if you're okay with soy, you could also use Pillsbury refrigerated pizza crust.)

I have to say that this was probably the best dairy-free pizza I've made, and our soy- and dairy-free friend loved it. I sent the leftover pizza and desserts home with her to enjoy. If any of you have any easy soy- and dairy-free recipes you'd like to share, please post them or post links to them and I will be sure my friend gets them!

Easy Christmas goodies

2009-12-22T19:53:00.008-06:00

Have you noticed that I still haven't gotten around to posting about our Disney vacation? I have been lazy the past few weeks, just enjoying the holiday season, baking up some yummy things, and spending time with our family. But I had to post about a couple of things I did lately that are so incredibly easy to make, and are safe for kiddos with Ainsley's allergies.

First, I made peppermint bark for the first time, and it was a hit. The directions are as follows:

Dairy-free, Egg-free, Nut-free Peppermint Bark

Ingredients:

2 bags safe chocolate chips

About 5 mini-candy canes or 2-3 full-sized ones (I used Spangler brand because the box said the candy canes do not contain any of Ainsley's allergens and are made on dedicated equipment)

Directions:

-Put candy canes in a gallon-sized plastic ziploc bag and crush them with a rolling pin until they are in very small pieces.

-Line a 9x13 baking pan with parchment paper.

-Pour the two bags of safe chocolate chips into the pan, making sure to spread them out pretty evenly.

-Put pan in the oven at 375 degrees for about 5 minutes. Check after five minutes - if the chips appear to be melting, take pan out and tap on the counter to spread out the chocolate so that it gets (relatively) flat and smooth. If the chocolate chips haven't melted enough to do this, put in the oven for a minute or two more. Be sure not to overcook the chocolate chips, as they will eventually dry out in the oven and not be spreadable.

-If the tapping doesn't completely smooth out the melted chocolate, you can use a spatula to smooth the top of it.

-Sprinkle crushed candy canes on top of chocolate. Cool pan in refrigerator until chocolate is solid. Then break into pieces.

Here is a pic of the LAST piece of ours!

I also took a reader's suggestion and, for the first time, made chocolate pudding using Jell-O instant pudding mix and coconut milk (we are loving being able to use coconut!). We were completely enamored with the result.

Dairy-free Instant Chocolate Pudding

Ingredients:

1 can (about 13.5 oz) regular coconut milk

1 box Jell-O chocolate instant pudding mix

Directions:

-In a medium-sized bowl, mix together the 1 can of coconut milk and 1 cup of water.

-Refrigerate bowl for about 20 minutes or stick in the freezer for about 10 minutes to make sure mixture is cool (you could also chill can of coconut milk before opening it and mixing it with the water).

-Take bowl out of refrigerator and add the Jell-O instant pudding mix. Whisk for ~2 minutes. If you can wait, refrigerate for 15-30 minutes before eating. If not, eat right away!

I don't feel so bad about Ainsley not being able to eat school lunches ...

2009-12-09T11:29:00.004-06:00

I know it's been a long time since I've posted. I was busy at work, then with Thanksgiving, and most importantly, with planning and going on our huge Disney trip, which we took last week. It was WONDERFUL, and I am currently working on a long post that describes our adventure, complete with pictures.

But for now, I wanted to post this disturbing news blip that I read this morning. It is an article that says the meat served at fast-food chains is from better-quality animals, and is the result of far higher testing standards, than the meat served in public schools. This makes me feel a little better about the fact that Ainsley won't be able to eat school lunches next year in kindergarten, and relieves some of my parental guilt about allowing her to eat about once a week at McDonald's and Wendy's (pretty much the only two restaurants I allow her to eat at, because their limited selection and use of dairy-free buns means it's a safe alternative to my cooking).

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs - 6 thumbs up

2009-11-08T22:10:00.003-06:00

This afternoon Dave and I finally got to take Ainsley to see this movie, after Dave's parents graciously agreed to watch Leighton, who, at 19 months, cannot be expected to sit through anything longer than 5 minutes. Ainsley had begged for weeks to see the movie, so we were glad to have a couple of hours to be able to do that. Ainsley loves movies - she memorizes the trailors she sees on TV and then asks in very specific terms to see whatever movie was advertised (as in, "Mommy, I saw this movie called Planet 51, and it's about an astronaut who goes to another planet and all of the aliens call him an alien! It's coming to theaters on [fill in date].").

So anyway, we saw the movie and it fully captivated us the entire time. It was equally entertaining to kids and parents and wasn't scary at all to Ainsley (although I must say that she's pretty tough and rarely gets scared in movies).

The best thing about the movie (to me, anyway) was that the main female character, a "weather girl" named Sam, had a severe peanut allergy, a fact you learn relatively early in the film. Later, the allergy becomes part of the story line, when Sam comes into contact with some peanut brittle and suffers an allergic reaction that requires an epi-pen. The reaction part was done in such a way that it wasn't scary or traumatic, just matter-of-fact.

I loved Sam and her allergy because (a) it allowed Ainsley to connect with a character who has the same challenges that she does, and (b) it reinforced that having allergies is just one aspect of a person. Indeed, Sam is a fully developed character, and her peanut allergy is only a small part of who she is (in other words, you wouldn't walk out of the theater thinking that Sam was "that food allergy girl"). I really appreciated that.

So, for all of you food allergy parents who haven't yet seen the movie with your (4 yrs +) kids, I highly recommend it. You better believe that Ainsley will be getting a DVD of this movie whenever it comes out.

Until next year, Candy Witch

2009-11-02T03:15:00.002-06:00

This year, as with last, the Candy Witch made an appearance on Halloween. The Candy Witch is a good witch who brings toys to children who can't eat all of their Halloween candy for one reason or another. Related to the tooth fairy, she exchanges the toy(s) for the kid's unsafe candy. Last year, Ainsley got a Tinkerbell DVD in exchange for her candy. This year, at her request (you can ask for certain toys, as with Candy Witch's good friend, Santa), Ainsley received a stuffed kitten (okay, she actually got two - Candy Witch made double appearances Saturday and Sunday night). Because Leighton also had to give up candy that was unsafe for Ainsley, Candy Witch brought her a book.

So how does this Candy Witch thing work? First, I or another trusted grown-up, sorts the Halloween candy Ainsley and Leighton have just raked in, and then all of the unsafe candy is put in a bag. A call is then placed to the Candy Witch letting her know that the parcel is ready for pick-up, and we place the bag on the front doorstep and close the door. After a minute or two (she has a fast broomstick), we hear a knock, and we know the Candy Witch has just made the exchange. We open the door and, low-and-behold, the toys are on the doorstep where the candy bags had been sitting.

Ainsley LOVES the Candy Witch. This year, after collecting her fair share of safe candy, she purposefully began picking out unsafe candy from her trick-or-treating destinations just to give to Candy Witch (I suppose her idea is that the more unsafe candy we collect for the Candy Witch, the better the prize will be ... so the unsafe candy is sort of like Chuck E. Cheese tickets).

You might think it's bad that Ainsley purposefully took a lot of unsafe candy this year, but I learned long ago that she likes to collect a variety of candy in her Halloween bag even though she knows some (okay, most) of it is unsafe. Basically, she thinks an entire bag of Starburst, Skittles, and Twizzlers is boring, so she likes collecting a few M&M bags here and there (and, yes, even the dreaded Reese's peanut butter cups ... who can resist the bright orange packages?) to create a colorful array in her bag.

So what happens to the unsafe candy the Candy Witch picks up? Well, she eats it, of course ... like me, Candy Witch has a remarkable sweet tooth (and also bears a striking resemblance to yours truly). She takes it to her office and shares it with her coworkers. She also gives some (the stuff she doesn't like) to her husband for him to do the same.

I love Candy Witch because she makes Ainsley feel special at Halloween time. Other kids just get candy; she (along with other food-allergic children, as well as diabetic children) gets candy and a fun surprise. This simple concept has transformed Halloween from a rather sad affair that revolves around treats my child can't eat into an exciting time of anticipation that allows Ainsley's imagination (What does the Candy Witch look like? Where does she live? What does she do with all that candy? What will she bring me?) to run wild.

Hooray for Halloween lollipops!

2009-10-24T13:52:00.003-05:00

I am glad to say that over the years I've found a wide array of Halloween candy that Ainsley can have, including Dum Dums, Smarties, Sweetarts, Twizzlers, Starburst, Laffy Taffy, Mike & Ike, Dots, and Act II Popcorn Balls, just to name a few. The one thing missing from this list, you might notice, is any chocolate candy ... which is my favorite type of Halloween candy.

In the past, I've spent a fortune buying safe chocolate from places such as Amanda's Own, but in the past year I've begun making my own because it is so much cheaper and is very fun and easy. As I did with our Easter chocolates, for Halloween I bought a couple of candy molds (you can get them online from a place like this or from a craft store like Michael's or Jo-Ann's) and a bag of safe chocolate chips (normally I use Enjoy Life, but this time I went cheap-o and used Kroger Value chocolate chips, which contain soy but none of Ainsley's allergens). The molds I got were for lollipops, so I also purchased a bag of lollipop sticks. Total cost of this endeavor was about $5, and it made about 20 pops. Not bad!

I made the pops in the same way that I made the Easter candy - by pouring the chips into a glass bowl and microwaving them for 1 minute, then stirring, then microwaving and stirring for 30-second increments until the chocolate was melted and smooth. I then spooned the chocolate into the molds, tapped the molds lightly on the counter to get the air bubbles out, and stuck in the lollipop sticks. I refrigerated the molds for about an hour and then pulled the pops out of the molds and put them in a plastic bag in the refrigerator to store (you can also wrap the individual pops in small strips of saran wrap or press & seal before putting them in the bag - this might protect them a bit more).

Here are pics of the lollipops, of Leighton's face after eating one, and of us at a pumpkin patch this morning. I love this time of year!

Italian extravaganza!

2009-10-20T21:27:00.006-05:00

Lately I've had a hankering for italian food - not the fancy pastas, but the pizza/calzone/breadstick-type food. As those of you dealing with a milk allergy know, italian food is particularly tricky because almost all popular italian dishes contain cheese or cream. I have tried a couple of vegan recipes that substitute tofu for cheese, such as in calzone and lasagna, and they've come out okay, but those recipes typically take a lot of time.

These last couple of weeks, I haven't had time for recipes like that, so instead I whipped together two very quick, very easy, and very yummy dishes: (1) cheeseless pizza with sliced tomatoes and olives and (2) pepperoni roll-ups. Both, of course, involve some sort of quick-baking Pillsbury canned bread (and by the way, did you know that if you pay attention, you never have to pay full price for those things? My Kroger frequently runs sales on the crescent rolls and pizza crust, and I've also found oodles of coupons for them).

Anyway, here is #1, the pizza:

All I did was unroll some Pillsbury thin-crust pizza dough onto a cookie sheet, put 1/2 can of pizza sauce on it (I like Muir Glen brand) and cover it with some thinly sliced tomatoes and sliced black olives (straight from a can). I also threw some ham on it too. Pepperoni would have also tasted awesome on it.

And here is #2, the pepperoni roll-ups:

The secret recipe is this: I rolled 3 slices of pepperoni up in each crescent roll and sprinkled some garlic salt, basil, and oregano on them. After baking them according to the package directions, I used the 1/2 can of leftover Muir Glen pizza sauce for dipping. As you might note, I tried to counterbalance the relative unheathiness of the pepperoni roll-ups by adding broccoli to the plate. I used a lemon sauce for the broccoli, the recipe for which is in the Vegan Lunchbox cookbook (see sidebar for cookbook details).

Given their ease and yumminess (not to mention that it's fun for the kids to dip them!), these roll-ups are probably going to make a regular appearance at our dinner table.

Camping trip - a success!

2009-10-20T09:00:00.010-05:00

I am so sorry it's been so long since my last post. For the past couple of weeks, my husband has been working crazy hours so I have been trying to hold down the fort while he's been basically unavailable.

Dave did manage to take an approximately 28-hour-break to take Ainsley on one night of the first Adventure Princess campout, which was at a large campground 2 1/2 hours away. He had to bring so much camping-related stuff that I seriously didn't think he was going to be able to carry it all. Add to that the safe food he had to bring for Ainsley and I realized how difficult it was going to be to pull off this camping thing.

Thankfully, we did manage to figure out a camping-food strategy that is perfect for short trips to places where we're not expecting much of the food to be safe. We organized the food by meal and put all of the meal bags in a giant, soft-sided freezer bag. As an example, we put in Ainsley's Saturday lunchbag a soybutter & jelly sandwich, sweet potato chips, and a chocolate-soy-milk drink box. We put in her Sunday breakfast bag a covered bowl of her favorite cereal, a bagel, bacon, a drink box of rice milk (for the cereal), a drink box of apple juice, and a spoon. For the meal bags, we used gallon-sized ziplocs, but you could also use paper bags or large Glad/Tupperware containers.

Dave called ahead and made sure he could use the dining hall's refrigerator and microwave. After he arrived, he put the whole freezer bag in the refrigerator and would grab a meal out of it at mealtime. He kept a separate bag of snacks in his backpack and gave those to Ainsley while they were out during the day.

Because all of the other dads were very understanding of Ainsley's allergies, they were more than happy to supply safe foods for the big Saturday-night cookout (Dave had sent a safe list in advance). She ate hot dogs, chips, and smores just like the other kids, except her smore was made with an Enjoy Life chocolate bar instead of Hershey's. Her favorite part, of course, was roasting the marshmallows over the fire.

All in all, a successful campout and wonderful daddy/daughter bonding experience. The only unfortunate part was that, within an hour of their arrival back home, Dave had to go back up to the office. Hopefully he'll actually be able to enjoy an entire weekend of camping and relaxing next time.

Camping with food allergies

2009-10-05T21:59:00.004-05:00

Ainsley and Dave are doing the YMCA Adventure Princess (dad/daughter) program for the first time this year, and it involves a lot of camping. Dave is not exactly the camping sort (we have gone camping exactly 0 times in the 13 years we've been together) but Ainsley is quite excited about it so he is being a good sport and planning on taking her to all of the campouts. Much to his relief, Adventure Princesses is really "camping lite" - they will get to sleep in air-conditioned cabins with normal bathroom facilities. So there's not a lot of roughing it involved.

The first campout is coming up soon so Dave has started to communicate with the other dads about Ainsley's allergies and safe foods for her. He and I have also talked about accommodations he needs to check on at the various campsites, including whether there's a refrigerator or microwave available to prepare her meals.

So far Dave has done a wonderful job of making sure the other dads in the group know about her allergies, and we were quite pleased that, at the group's first meeting, the host family provided fresh fruit as the snack so that Ainsley could eat it. Likewise, the dad in charge of buying some "camp food" (hot dogs, smores) for the upcoming campout was very understanding when Dave emailed him the safe-food list. It turns out that that dad's daughter has a tree-nut allergy, so he is quite familiar with food-allergy issues.

It is actually a really nice change having Dave coordinate Ainsley's food-allergy issues with regard to a special event. So much of the time, the burden falls on me as the mom to take care of everything like this. I have years of experience in coordinating food-safe playdates, packing safe foods for vacation, and dealing with preschool food-allergy issues. Dave has gotten used to me taking care of these things, which is fine, but it's nice that he's now learning all that is involved in making sure Ainsley (a) stays safe and (b) enjoys the event. Now if only I can get him to volunteer to be the room mom for Ainsley's kindergarten class next year ...

Anyway, since this group camping thing is all new to us, does anyone have any specific camping-with-food-allergies tips?

Matzo ball soup 2.0

2009-09-25T16:23:00.000-05:00

Last night I was making matzo ball soup again (it's one of Ainsley's favorites) and I decided to try adding a few "healthy" things to it to make me feel better as a mother (matzo ball soup is good, but there's not a lot to it besides flour, spices, and chicken broth). I had read an article in Real Simple magazine earlier that day while in the waiting room of Ainsley's occupational therapy clinic that suggested dressing up chicken soup by adding kale and cannellini beans. I bought some of both at the grocery store later that day and added them to the matzo ball soup after the matzo balls had been boiling for 25 minutes. The result was so yummy that I had to mention it here. I have also added my suggestions to the original matzo ball soup recipe in the sidebar, "Easy Main Meals."

Here's what to do: Add 1/2 to 1 cup of kale (torn into small pieces), 1/2 to 1 cup of whole wheat angel hair pasta (broken into ~3-inch-long pieces) and 1 can cannellini beans (drained) after the matzah balls have boiled for 25 minutes. Let the soup boil for another 5-8 minutes and serve.

Ciao, coconut allergy!

2009-09-22T13:08:00.005-05:00

As you might have noticed, I took "coconut" out of the list of allergens in the subtitle to this blog, because Ainsley's repeated consumption of So Delicious "coconut milk beverage" and coconut-milk-based ice cream produced no reaction. I am very happy to have struck one thing off the list. Baby steps, I guess. I had never feared that her coconut allergy was life-threatening - her hive to it was quite small when the doctor did the skin testing and her number to it has always been low. Still, I was happy to have her avoid it for these last few years to be on the safe side.

Since we discovered Ainsley can tolerate coconut, we have been thoroughly enjoying the coconut beverage and ice cream. I now make a mean chocolate milk by adding 1/2 coconut drink and 1/2 soy milk to a glass and then mixing in Hershey's chocolate syrup. It is chocolate-y, coconut-y, and yum-y! And I have to say that, to me, coconut-milk ice cream tastes a thousand times better than soy ice cream.

I haven't yet purchased any shredded coconut to use in baked goods, but I did stumble upon it in the grocery aisle the other day, so I know where to find it. When I picked up a bag of it to read the ingredient label, Ainsley asked, "Is it safe for me?" The only allergen listed was "coconut." I was very happy to reply, "Yes, honey, it is."

Mmm ... Mmm ... Minestrone

2009-09-14T19:34:00.011-05:00

Last week my friend Elena asked if I could watch her kids for a little while in return for her bringing over dinner. That was not a hard decision! She was taking food to a family with a new baby and had made them Minestrone, so she made extra for us. It was delicious, healthy, and Ainsley-safe, so I had to have the recipe. I made some of the sweet cornbread from the Kid-Pleasing cookbook (see sidebar) to go with it - that cornbread is soooo good, by the way.

Elena's Minestrone

1/4 C safe margarine or olive oil
1/2 C carrots, sliced
1/2 C celery, sliced
1/2 onion, diced
1/2 pkg frozen peas
1/2 Tbsp parsley
1/2 tsp basil
1 1/2- 2 cans chicken broth
1 can (28 oz) tomatoes
1/2 C shredded cabbage
1 medium zucchini, sliced
1 can kidney beans
1/4 C spaghetti, broken in pieces
1 tsp salt and pepper

One hour before serving: In a large pot over medium heat, in margarine or oil, cook peas, carrots, celery, and onion for 10 minutes. Stir in remaining vegetables, broth, and spices and cook for 30-45 minutes or until all vegetables are tender. Add broken spaghetti and cook until tender.

Fun Food-Allergy Family Vacation: Charleston, SC

2009-09-07T08:43:00.026-05:00

This year our big vacation is Disneyworld in November. But not wanting to go the whole summer without traveling anywhere, a couple of months ago we hastily threw together plans for a beach trip. At first we thought about driving down to the Texas coast, but that's about 8 hours away. We thought, if driving there will take that long, why not just fly somewhere? After looking at a map of all of the southern beach destinations (and excluding Florida, since we'll be there later this year), we decided to investigate Charleston. I had always heard it was a beautiful city, and was happy to find that lots of affordable beach accommodations were available there. Finding direct flights to the Charleston airport through American Eagle for cheap sealed the deal.

We went last Wednesday and returned on Sunday, and had a blast. It was probably the best family vacation we've ever had, with a perfect combination of beach/pool time and sightseeing/other fun activities. Plus, it was affordable and an excellent destination for those with food allergies: We were able to rent a very affordable condo that had a a fully furnished kitchen and we found a regular grocery store and a Whole Foods that stocked our food essentials, both of which were conveniently located.

There were also a Wendy's and a McDonald's nearby so that we could occasionally treat Ainsley to a meal out (we do not allow her to eat food from "real" restaurants because I don't trust what they tell me in terms of ingredients, but we do allow her to eat certain kids' meal items from Wendy's and McDonald's because the ingredient list is standard throughout all of their locations and is easily accessible on the internet).

Because we had such a great time, I am listing our daily itinerary so that I can show exactly what we did every day.

Wednesday: Arrived in Charleston after a 2-1/2 hour flight from DFW. The Charleston airport was small and had porters available to wheel our luggage out to the rental car, which was right outside the terminal. We headed to our resort, Wild Dunes, which is on the Isle of Palms, one of Charleston's barrier islands. On the Isle of Palms connector road, we spotted a grocery store (Piggly Wiggly! I haven't shopped at one of those since I was a girl and lived in Louisiana) and I ran in to get a few staples, including soy milk, bread, and some snacks. I should mention that I also packed a lot of food in my luggage, including sunbutter and jelly.

We checked in to our resort, which is a huge development of houses, condos (called "villas"), and a hotel, and were very excited to see this view from the balcony of our 2-bedroom condo/villa (which was beautifully decorated - it was room 209 in the Summer House building):

After unpacking, we headed down to the beach. I haven't been to a ton of beaches in my life, and generally have so-so memories of them. I have been a couple of times to the Texas coast, which seems to have lots of things washing on shore (jellyfish, seaweed). A couple of years ago, we went to San Diego and played on a clean beach, but the water was cold and there weren't many seashells. The Wild Dunes beach was better than any other beach I've been to - nothing weird washing on shore and clear, warm water. Plus, the kids loved that there were tons of seashells. Within one minute of walking onto the beach, Ainsley found a sand dollar. Also, because Wild Dunes is a giant, private resort, the beach was very uncrowded. As you can tell from the pictures, the pool was also right outside of our room. We spent almost as much time in there, and it too was warm, clean, and uncrowded. It also had a beach ball and noodles available for guests' use.

Leighton's first steps in the ocean.

Collecting seashells.

Walking from the condo - a short trip!

Thursday: The next day, we had more beach time and then went into Charleston. We did the carriage tour through the historic area - apparently a "must" when you're visiting - and then walked through the Market, which is a series of covered buildings where people set up tables to sell various things. There were lots of women selling "sweetgrass baskets," a Charleston tradition, but we didn't buy any because they were really expensive.

After exploring downtown, we drove to Charles Towne Landing, a state park that had an "animal forest" - a natural habitat zoo featuring various animals that English settlers would have encountered when they first came to what's now South Carolina.

Friday: It was rainy that day so we decided to go to the South Carolina Aquarium in downtown Charleston. I frankly wasn't expecting much, but was pleasantly surprised - the aquarium specialized in native South Carolina fish, amphibians, birds, and reptiles, and really tries to educate its visitors on the different parts of the region. It also had one of the most varied "touch-tanks" that I've seen - Ainsley was able to pet sea urchins, sea stars, snails, some sort of fish that lived in shells, horseshoe crabs, hermit crabs, and stingrays. She also got to pet a baby alligator (supervised, of course)!

Petting an alligator.

The harbor, right outside the aquarium.

Saturday: We decided to head out to one of the many plantations in the Charleston area. We read about each of them and settled on what is perhaps the most popular - Magnolia Plantation. We wanted to go there because it advertised a guided tram ride through the grounds, a petting zoo, and an unguided walking tour through its gardens. Here are some pics:

Making friends with Bambi inside the petting zoo.

A peacock joining us for lunch.

An alligator sunning himself in the swamp - one of the many we saw on the tram tour.

On the walking tour.

Sunday: We had a late flight that day, so we decided to make the most of it - we spent a lot of time on the beach and at the pool that morning. Then we headed into town and toured the Exchange, a historic building that advertises a scary dungeon in the basement (I have to say, this was the one let-down on the trip - it was pretty boring). We then went to Waterfront Park, which is beautifully shaded and has fountains that the kids can run around in.

Notes:

(1) As I mentioned above, there was a Piggly Wiggly on the connector road that led from Charleston to the Isle of Palms. It sold all of our staples, including Silk soy milk and Nature's Own bread. There was also a smaller grocery store called the Red & White on the Isle of Dunes. The Whole Foods was also between the Isle of Palms and downtown Charleston, in a town called Mount Pleasant.

(2) If you have a seafood allergy, Charleston might not be the best place for you, because seafood is its specialty. Also, for those with peanut allergies, one of the most famous places to eat is Hyman's - we loved it so much we ate there twice, but note that the waitstaff brings a bowl of roasted peanuts on the table as soon as you sit down. Of course, we asked not to have the peanuts, and carefully wiped Ainsley's hands before she ate the food we had brought for her to make sure she didn't ingest any peanut residue.

(3) Ainsley did have one slight allergic reaction while we were in Charleston. Our carriage tour began and ended in a large barn that housed many different farm animals. Apparently the food the animals were eating had some nuts/peanuts in it, because after we finished the carriage ride and were walking around the barn looking at the animals, Ainsley started breaking out into small hives on her arms. We left the barn and I gave her Benadryl and the hives went away - it was clear she had gotten them from some residue she'd breathed in.

(4) If you are unfamiliar with the Charleston area, be sure to have a GPS! We would have gotten lost constantly without the one in our rental car.

(5) Here are some websites we used in planning our vacation:

http://www.charlestonfamilyfun.com/

http://family.go.com/travel/vacations/south-carolina/charleston/best-charleston-vacation-for-children-282128/

If you have any questions on traveling to Charleston with food allergies, please let me know. We had such a good experience that we are definitely planning on going back again!

Another article attacking food allergy groups

2009-09-01T14:19:00.005-05:00

There must be some playbook that news outlets use that instructs them to print something nasty about the food-allergic community when there's nothing else interesting going on. Every couple of months, one of these articles appears and makes me want to throw my laptop against the wall. Here's the latest, on Slate.com, entitled "Nuts to That: The People Profiting from Food Allergies."

Its title would lead you to believe that it's meant to expose some secret consortium bent on bleeding food-allergic parents dry for the sake of its members' own greed. However, all it really does is criticize, yet again, all the "hype" surrounding food allergies. Why, its author asks, are people pouring all of this money into food-allergy research and education when only 100 people die every year from a deadly food-allergic reaction? (This 100 number is thrown around a lot, but I've never been able to find its source. In fact, I can't find any reliable source to tell me the number of food-allergy-related deaths that occur each year.)

The article impugns two of the champions of food-allergy awareness and research, Dr. Hugh Sampson, head of the Food Allergy Institute at Mt. Sinai Hospital, and Anna Munoz-Furlong, past head of the Food Allergy & Anaphylaxis Network. It suggests that, in a 2004 article, they may have overestimated the percentage of the populace suffering from a seafood allergy by having pollsters call random households and ask whether any household members were allergic to seafood, rather than whether anyone in the household had been diagnosed with a seafood allergy, possibly in a conspiratorial attempt to scare people into donating more money to food allergy research.

This suggestion is laugh-out-loud ridiculous. But that's not the end of it. The article also lambasts the Food Allergy Labeling and Consumer Act, which required manufacturers to list - in bold type and plain English - the common allergens in a particular food. The article states:

"In 2004, FAI [Food Allergy Initiative, another food-allergy advocacy group] hired a consulting firm to devise a plan to include specific ingredient information on food labels. Tax forms show that those expenses "included mailings to the public to help support the proposed legislation." Food allergy legislation was soon proposed by Rep. Nita Lowey, D-N.Y., and passed into law. We experience it now as the Food Allergy Labeling and Consumer Protection Act, the law that requires cream cheese to bear the label 'contains milk.'"

Yes, that evil act, the one that allows me to look at a package and know within 10 seconds whether my child can eat it instead of having to pull out my food-allergy dictionary and magnifying glass to sift through the product's ingredient list to find out if the product contains, say, albumen, one of the many ingredient names that mean eggs, or caseinate, one of several names that mean milk.

Finally, the article, like all of the others of this genre, suggests that parents of food-allergic kids are a bunch of hypochondriac alarmists who like nothing better than to worry themselves and everyone else about their child's "allergies."

Seriously, would this author write the same thing about diabetic children and their parents? No, because diabetes seems like a real disease - there are daily injections involved, after all - while food allergies are invisible unless the child ingests (or touches, or breathes, in some cases) the offending food.

For the 1,000th time: Our children's allergies are real, not imagined. The reason you aren't hearing about loads of food-allergy deaths happening every day is because we are diligently and tirelessly protecting our children from the food you are eating. It's a fact that I hate to put into writing, but if I allowed my daughter to eat whatever she wanted or whatever was available to her at a certain location (like a school lunch room, etc.), she would almost certainly die. Perhaps not the first time she ate, say, a sliver of a pecan (a nut she's especially allergic to), but almost certainly by the 5th or 6th time she ingested it (allergic reactions build the more a person consumes the allergen).

The same is true for thousands upon thousands of other children, who are kept safe only through their parents' diligent efforts. We are our children's safety belts. So pardon us for seeming overprotective.

What's more, we would give ANY AMOUNT OF MONEY for a cure. Please, Dr. Sampson, continue doing your research. We will gladly continue contributing to FAAN to have our funds passed along to you to find a cure, as well as to have FAAN and FAI continue their advocacy efforts to get more helpful legislation passed to ease the too-heavy burdens on food-allergy families.

And writers, please stick to what you know - politics, global crises, etc. Just leave us alone and stop kicking food-allergy parents when we're already down.

[Note: If you want to write a response to the author, you may do so here.]

Dinner review: Honey mustard pork chops

2009-08-25T18:51:00.012-05:00

Today's review is of the honey mustard pork chops from the Kid-Pleasing Cookbook (see sidebar for link to cookbook). Last week I bought 4 boneless chops on sale for $3 so I decided to try this recipe for the first time. I paired it with my easy asparagus and some fresh tomatoes.
Ease of preparation: 3 out of 5 stars. The pork chops were pretty simple, and yet surprisingly elegant - all the recipe required was that I sear the pork chops in a skillet for a couple of minutes on each side and dip them in a mixture of mustard and honey and then in a mixture of bread crumbs (homemade - it took some time to tear the bread into tiny pieces), wheat bran, and some seasonings (note that I halved the recipe since the recipe calls for 8 chops and I only had 4). Then I put them in a baking dish and baked them for 20 minutes (I actually found that I needed to bake them another 10 minutes or so to eliminate all the pink). The only things I would change in the recipe are (a) to salt the chops after coating them in the honey mustard mixture and (b) to skip the step that calls for you to drizzle melted butter on the chops right before baking. I love butter as much as anyone but I didn't think the butter added anything to the recipe and succeeded only in making the breadcrumb coating soggy. Also, as far as substitutions, I did not have wheat bran so I used wheat germ, and I did not have the grainy mustard the recipe called for so I used Dijon mustard instead - both seemed to work fine.

Price: 4 out of 5 stars. The entire meal cost around $5. I got the pork chops for $3 and the asparagus for $1. The tomatoes I got for free from my mother-in-law, but if I had bought them they would have cost about $1 too.

Taste: 4 out of 5 stars. The pork chops were really good. I'm not really a pork person but I enjoyed them. Ainsley seemed to really like them. She also loves asparagus and tomatoes (I know - I am so lucky to have a kid who loves most vegetables), so she pretty much cleaned her plate.

Dessert was a So Delicious Neopolitan ice cream sandwich - I gave Ainsley most of it but cut a small part off for Leighton. I think that was a bad idea ...

Happy birthday to me ...

2009-08-23T21:53:00.005-05:00

Today is my 33rd birthday. After much chiding from me about how he never bakes anything, Dave agreed to try to bake me a birthday cake. Of course, Ainsley assisted him - she knows her way around the kitchen amazingly well for a 4-year-old and I trusted that she'd be able to help him find the right ingredients in our shelves and prepare the cake correctly.

Much to my delight, after I woke up from sleeping in this morning (my first present from Dave!), I found a chocolate cake baking in the oven for me. I had chosen the recipe myself because I knew it was the easiest birthday-type cake he could make - it was the Upside Down Fudge Cake from the Kid-Pleasing Cookbook. It requires very few ingredients and makes it own fudgey icing on the bottom of the cake pan, so that it looks like an iced cake when you turn it over onto a cake plate.

Here is my beautiful cake after Dave turned it over onto the plate and I smoothed the icing with a knife and Ainsley and I added some sprinkles and a candle (no, it was not my 1st birthday; the only birthday candle we had in the house was the one I had saved from Leighton's party!):
And here is my beautiful family, with whom I felt so lucky to be celebrating this birthday:

Dairy-free cheesy broccoli rice

2009-08-20T18:03:00.004-05:00

Tonight we ate some of the leftover chicken drumsticks from Tuesday. I was craving a broccoli/rice sort of thing to go with it, so I decided to experiment, and it came out really wonderfully. What was interesting to me is that the mix of ingredients resulted in a dish that looked and tasted remarkably cheesy. I hope you like it as much as we did!
Easy non-dairy broccoli & rice au gratin (aka cheesy broccoli rice)

1 1/2 C instant rice (I used brown rice)
1 C frozen or fresh broccoli florets
1/8 C plain soymilk
1/4 C flour
1/4 C dairy-free margarine (I used Earth Balance)
1 dairy-free chicken bouillon cube (I like Knorr's)
1/4 tsp tumeric

Mix rice, 1 1/2 C water, and broccoli in a microwave-safe casserole dish, and microwave on high for 8 minutes (microwave another minute or two if the broccoli and/or rice isn't fully cooked in 8 minutes).

In the meantime, combine in a saucepan or skillet the soymilk, bouillon cube, margarine, flour, tumeric, and 1 C water. Heat on medium-high heat until all ingredients are combined and the sauce is smooth.

After the rice and broccoli are soft, and while they are still in the casserole dish, cut broccoli into bite-sized pieces with a fork or knife. Then pour the rice and broccoli into the saute pan/skillet and mix with the sauce until fully combined. Makes 4 servings.

Reviews of recent meals

2009-08-18T20:18:00.009-05:00

I'm not sure what's gotten into me, but I've been cooking a lot lately. Since the original purpose of this blog was to provide meal ideas for families dealing with the same allergies as we are, I thought I'd show you what we've been eating in our house. I also wanted to let you know, in a "review" format, how difficult the meal was to prepare, how economical it was, and whether it actually tasted good.

To start off, last night we had my own invention, Turkey/Veggie Meatballs, with baked sweet potatoes on the side.

Ease of preparation: 4 out of 5 stars. The whole meal took about 30 minutes to prepare. A tip on the baked sweet potatoes - they can take forever to bake in the oven. If you need a shorter cooking time, microwave them (wrapped in a paper towel) for about ten minutes and then bake for 15 - they will taste oven-baked in half the time (you could also cook them just in the microwave, but they don't taste as good). With regard to the meatballs, if you are pressed for time, you can opt to add only veggies that don't require slicing and dicing, like matchstick carrots. If you have more time, you can add other things like diced onions, green peppers, and/or zucchini (last night I used carrots, onions, and zucchini).

Price: 4 out of 5 stars. The meal cost around $5; it helped that I bought the ground turkey on sale.

Taste: 4 out of 5 stars. The meatballs are one of my family's favorites. Ainsley especially loves them. The sweet potatoes tasted awesome with a generous amount of Earth Balance and brown sugar mixed in.

Tonight's meal was Slow Cook Chicken Drumsticks from the Kid-Pleasing cookbook (see sidebar, "My Favorite Cookbooks"), along with the book's recipe for "Aunt Jean's Rice" and Brown Sugar Carrots.

Ease of preparation: 3 out of 5 stars. The easiest was the drumsticks - all the recipe requires is that you brown them in a skillet with some oil and then put them in the slow-cooker with some bottled, store-bought BBQ sauce for 4-6 hours. The carrots were pretty easy too - I steamed them on the stove and then mixed the margarine and brown sugar in. The hardest was the rice. I had to dice an onion (gasp!) and make beef broth with a couple of bouillon cubes (if I had actually had beef broth from a can, I could have skipped this step). After mixing up all of the ingredients (including 1 cup of uncooked rice - I used brown rice), the recipe said to bake the mixture in the oven for 20 minutes. Well, after 45 minutes in the oven, the rice finally soaked up all of the liquid but was still pretty hard. I decided to pop the dish into the microwave for 10 minutes, and that did the trick - the rice was finally soft. So, FYI, as the cookbook suggests, the rice is indeed quite tasty, but you might be in for more cooking time than the recipe says.

Price: 4 out of 5 stars. The entire meal probably cost around $7. I got the drumsticks on sale for $2 and the carrots (a bag of peeled baby carrots) for $1.

Taste: 4 out of 5 stars. Everything tasted really wonderful. Leighton ate a ton of carrots and Ainsley didn't complain when I told her to finish her plate. Dave was especially impressed with how good everything tasted. Note that the drumsticks are messy - I found that I needed to wrap the end of the drumsticks with aluminum foil when I was serving them to the family so they could eat them easier.

In one year ...

2009-08-18T15:17:00.002-05:00

I will be preparing for Ainsley to start kindergarten at our neighborhood public school two streets over. I get anxious even thinking about it. Nervous for all the reasons that any mom would be - Will she do okay in kindergarten with all those other kids? Will we be happy with her teacher and the school? - and worried about doing everything I need to ensure the school accommodates Ainsley's allergies and keeps her safe. I will officially begin that process in the Spring when I notify the principal, school counselor, and school nurse that a seriously food-allergic child will be starting in the Fall and that we need to begin formulating a 504 plan for her.

I am so lucky that my sister-in-law is an elementary-school counselor in the district Ainsley will be attending; she has already been an invaluable source of information and advice and her assistance will be even more important in the next year. I am also thankful to have connected with the mom of a peanut-allergic child at our elementary school who is a real trailblazer in terms of making the school food-allergy friendly.

Additionally, I am very relieved that Ainsley is now able to take some responsibility for keeping herself safe. I know that when I send her to school I can count on her never sharing food with her classmates or eating anything I haven't sent for her. It's not easy having a Type-A kid like her but for purposes of her food allergy her tight-woundedness and attention to detail comes in really handy.

I am sad that this year is Ainsley's last in her wonderful preschool, which has bent over backwards to take care of its food-allergic kids. It has been such a nurturing, sheltered environment and I am so grateful that I stumbled upon it. I wish every food-allergic child had access to such a careful, safe place.

Disneyworld & food allergies - need advice!

2009-08-14T15:44:00.000-05:00

Okay, any food-allergy moms out there who've been to Disneyworld - please give me your tips! We're going in November and it's almost time for us to book our dinner reservations. Any Disney restaurants you recommend or don't recommend for a food-allergic kid? Am I crazy for thinking I might allow Ainsley to actually eat the restaurant food there (if the chef specially prepares it according to her needs, of course)? What do I need to know to get through this and hopefully even have a good time?

The almond/coconut experiment - Day 1

2009-08-12T12:56:00.000-05:00

Yesterday I went grocery shopping and picked up some coconut milk ice cream (Purely Decadent vanilla flavored) and almond milk (Almond Breeze chocolate flavored). Although Ainsley was nervous about the impending at-home food challenge, when I explained that I would be putting it on her skin first and would only feed it to her if her skin showed no reaction, she felt more comfortable with it.

After we got home I smeared some of the coconut ice cream and almond milk on Ainsley's arms (where her elbows bend in - I picked that place because her skin gets a little cracked there and the food can seep under the skin slightly, which usually produces a bigger reaction). After 20 minutes, the coconut arm looked exactly the same as when I had smeared the ice cream on, and it did not itch at all. The almond arm, however, looked slightly irritated (it was a little bit red and bumpy where I had smeared the almond milk) and Ainsley said it itched. So I decided not to do anything more with the almond milk until I called the allergist to see what he thought (I honestly don't care to give her almonds anyway - there is so much cross-contamination between different tree nuts that I'm afraid to).

Since the coconut seemed like a go, I gave her the tiniest taste of the ice cream. No problem whatsoever. An hour later, I gave her a bigger spoonful. This time, after a few minutes, she said that nothing itched but her tongue hurt a little "like someone was poking it." I had no idea what to make of it. As I have explained before, Ainsley has turned into somewhat of a hypochondriac so I wasn't sure whether to take this complaint seriously. She went to the bathroom mirror to look at her tongue and then came out and explained that her tongue "was red in the middle." I inspected the tongue and said it looked normal to me. I then stuck out my tongue and she noted that it looked "just like" hers, so apparently that made her feel better, although she decided she didn't want to have any more of the ice cream that night.

I think I'm going to give her a couple of spoonfuls of it tonight. If she has no symptoms, I will proclaim victory over coconut.

I have to say, on the subject of the ice cream, that I had never had any made with coconut milk before. It was soooo tasty! I ate quite a lot of it during our experiment. It's pretty expensive, though - $5.99 a pint (good thing I had a $1-off coupon). Not something we'll buy every week, but still, it would be nice to be able to get it as a special treat.

Ainsley's allergy numbers - good news!

2009-08-10T20:14:00.002-05:00

I finally heard from Ainsley's allergist today about the results from her annual blood test. First, he said her # to almonds is 0 and her # to coconut is really low so he feels comfortable with me introducing those foods in tiny amounts to see if she has a reaction to them. He didn't even think I needed to come into his office to do it. I think I'm going to buy some almond milk and coconut milk and rub them on her skin and, if that doesn't produce a reaction, let her have the tiniest taste of them to see if she tolerates them. I am nervous but excited!

Other good news: her egg and milk numbers went down by a lot! Here's the breakdown of her numbers to these over the last three years:

Egg: 2007 - 34; 2008 - 22; 2009 - 14!

Milk: 2007 - 14; 2008 - 12; 2009 - 6.6!

In other words, her egg and milk numbers are going in the right direction. This gives me hope that she might actually outgrow both on her own in the next several years.

Other numbers ... her peanut number went down only slightly (from a 7 in 2008 to a 6 in 2009, but that's still good) and her numbers to all of the tree nuts except almonds were still very high (they are all around 50 - yikes). She also still has a "slightly elevated" number to sesame seeds.

All in all, good news. I am especially encouraged by the egg and milk numbers. How great would it be if she were only allergic to peanuts and tree nuts!

Get your coupons!

2009-08-08T23:05:00.006-05:00

On my quest to save more money in the grocery budget, I discovered that I could get coupons for most of our favorite food-allergy products on the products' websites. Some of the sites require signing up to be on the product's email list to get the coupon. I got multiple coupons by signing up myself and Dave separately and by asking my other family members to do the same and give us the coupons. Below are websites where you can get coupons for Silk soy milk, Rice Dream rice milk, So Delicious/Turtle Mountain soy ice cream and other treats, Enjoy Life products, and Smart Balance margarine (Smart Balance LIGHT was dairy-free last time I checked). Happy coupon clipping!

http://www.tastethedream.com/promos/coupon.php

http://www.silksoymilk.com/user/register

http://www.turtlemountain.com/products/coupon.html

http://enjoylifefoods.com/

http://coupons2.smartsource.com/smartsource/index.jsp?Link=E3ZRDETDN4L3O

Chefs walking in our shoes

2009-08-06T09:42:00.003-05:00

Did anyone out there catch the Top Chef Masters episode on Bravo that aired last night? The show is a competition for master chefs where (as in the original Top Chef) they are given various challenges and scored on the results. Last night's challenge was to prepare food for a dinner party for the actress Zooey Deschanel, who is vegan and who also avoids soy and gluten. You should have seen the chefs' faces when they found out about her dietary restrictions! They clearly had little to no experience cooking for food-restricted individuals. Still, the results were pretty good, all things considered. The winner made quinoa pasta with roasted tomatoes and basil - it looked divine. The loser was the guy who made the dessert. I knew he got off on the wrong foot when he decided to use store-bought rice ice cream. Not that rice ice cream isn't good, but come on, what vegan ice cream is better than coconut milk ice cream (which is why I'm so excited that Ainsley might have outgrown her coconut allergy)? His inexperience in this arena certainly showed. On the other hand, that challenge was right up my alley! For once I felt more qualified for a Top Chef food challenge than the chefs themselves.

What I found most amusing about the episode was how the judges seemed shocked that the chefs made vegan dishes that actually tasted good. Now, all of us who have a lot of experience cooking vegan recipes (especially vegan desserts) know how good vegan cooking can be. It was fun to see the judges realize that as well.

Reducing your food allergy family grocery budget

2009-08-02T09:23:00.006-05:00

One of the biggest downsides to dealing with food allergies is that families are very limited in the types and brands of foods that they can buy. We become very loyal to our "safe" brands and thus cannot bargain-shop like most other families.

I remember laughing to myself last week when I heard another mom say she limits herself to $50 in groceries a week. Ha! My weekly grocery budget is over twice that amount, mostly because I can't save money by feeding Ainsley peanut butter & jelly and grilled cheese sandwiches and having her drink cow's milk that's on sale for $1.99/gallon. Instead, she eats sunbutter sandwiches (sunbutter is normally $4.99 a jar) and drinks soy milk, which is $2.99 per half gallon. Other things, like her soy ice cream, is about $4 a pint, and the dairy-free margarine we use (Earth Balance) is $3.99 for a small tub. The only brand of bread my grocery store sells that's safe for Ainsley is Nature's Own, which is $3.59 for a small loaf. We also buy things like Tofutti Better Than Cream Cheese and Better Than Sour Cream, which are much more expensive than the real thing.

As we all know, these extra costs add up quickly. To try and limit our expenses, I have decided to reduce my grocery budget as much as I can without sacrificing out staples or eliminating shopping at my favorite store, Whole Foods. I successfully did this last week by going to Whole Foods and planned our family meals around the meat that the store had on sale. I bought four large chicken legs for $3 and that, coupled with a $2 bunch of asparagus I bought at my regular grocery store, was a great meal one night this week - for $5! I also bought $4 of chuck roast there and plan to make a slow-cooker meal out of that and some potatoes and carrots.

In the future, I am going to look online at the weekly circulars for Whole Foods and my local grocery store (Kroger) every week and plan all our meals around the sale items. I just went on both stores' websites and found not only that the circulars are readily available either on the stores' websites (here's Kroger's and here's WF's), but also that the sites provide coupons and other neat features to help families like us save money. Whole Foods has a webpage on saving money at its stores and a newletter called "The Whole Deal" that includes coupons and has meal ideas for cheap, healthy dinners. Kroger had links to several different coupon websites that allow you to download coupons electonically onto your Kroger frequent shopper card. Additionally, Kroger also offers a no-fee credit card that allows you to build up points you can redeem for free groceries - this is enticing to me because it awards double points any time you use it at a Kroger store and it also gives you $25 in free groceries the first time you use it. I also noticed when looking at this week's Kroger circular that the store is offering $25 in free groceries if you transfer a prescription to its pharmacy - so right off the bat you can get yourself $50 in free groceries!

As only other moms can appreciate, I am very excited about these features and interested to see how much money I can save. If anyone else has money-saving tips on grocery shopping, please share!

Easy asparagus

2009-08-02T08:45:00.003-05:00

The other night I ventured out of my food comfort zone and baked some chicken. I know ... sad when baked chicken is an adventure. As often as I cook with chicken, I have never cooked chicken that had bones in it - I always stick to boneless chicken breast and tenderloin. But Whole Foods had a big sale on chicken legs this week, so I bought some and made the Orange-Glazed Chicken from What Else Is to Eat? (see cookbook sidebar). The chicken was incredibly easy and quite yummy.

As a side, I made baked asparagus in the way that my mother-in-law usually makes it - I bought a bunch of it, spread the spears on a cookie sheet, sprayed them with olive oil and threw a little kosher salt (course sea salt would also work) on them, and baked them in the oven at 375 degrees for ~20 minutes. Mmmm ... they were good. Ainsley kept eating them right off of the cookie sheet. Both the baked chicken and the asparagus were such a hit that I will be making them quite often in the future.

Allergist's appt.

2009-07-30T18:15:00.003-05:00

The appointment today went just as I expected - no big deal. The doctor suggested I should be hopeful that Ainsley has outgrown her coconut allergy. Last year the hive to coconuts during her skin test was very small and her blood-test number to it was only 1.5. He thinks that given how mild her allergy was to it before, she may very well not have it now, so I guess I will cross my fingers that she's outgrown that one. It would be great to incorporate coconut into Ainsley's diet. I have a lot of dessert recipes that call for coconut, and the So Delicious brand of allergy-friendly products (yogurt & ice cream) has a whole line of foods made with coconut milk. In fact, I just saw today in my supermarket that that brand has come out with a Coconut Milk beverage - it was on the same shelf as the soy and rice milk.

The doctor also encouraged me to incorporate shellfish into Ainsley's diet. I needed extra reassurance on that because, although Ainsley's blood-test numbers to shellfish were 0 last year, she had a tiny hive to the shellfish mix during the skin test. Given the severe reactions shellfish can provoke in allergic individuals, I have been too afraid to give any to Ainsley despite her good test results. Now I guess I'll just have to be brave and give her some shrimp next time my in-laws grill some (believe me, I will give her the tiniest bit of shrimp imaginable). I have to admit, I am not a fan of fish or shellfish so I've never been particularly motivated to incorporate it into my cooking, but I guess I'll have to.

Anyway, after the appt. I took Ainsley to have her blood drawn at the lab. She was a trooper. She kept saying, "Mommy, I don't want to do this, and the only way we can get out of it is to leave right now." Still, when I explained that we couldn't leave and we had to do this to know if she had outgrown any of her allergies, she didn't fight or throw a tantrum. As the nurse took the three vials of blood (!) needed for Ainsley's many tests, Ainsley sat there calmly, and only whimpered a couple of times. Afterwards, a Daffy Duck bandaid made it all okay.

Ainsley's blood will be tested for all of her known allergens, including milk, egg white, peanuts, coconut, sesame, and the tree nuts (pecans, cashews, pistachios, and some more I can't remember).

We should have the results by next Tuesday.

Happy birthday to a great food-allergy dad! Plus a request and some easy recipes

2009-07-29T10:50:00.001-05:00

First of all, happy 35th birthday, Dave! We celebrated with his parents Sunday night by eating a birthday cake his mom made using a Duncan Hines German chocolate cake mix and Pillsbury vanilla frosting with sprinkles (she used egg replacer so the cake would be safe for Ainsley, and it turned out great).

Yesterday, I took the kids up to his office in the afternoon and we gave him a bag of his favorite candy, most of which was also safe for Ainsley (they share a particularly strong love of Twizzlers). He enjoyed walking the kids around his office and showing them off to his coworkers.

Then this morning Ainsley and I made him breakfast in bed, with bacon, toast (from some challah bread I made this weekend), and wholewheat/applesauce/strawberry/blueberry pancakes we made this morning using the pancake recipe in the Kid-Pleasing Cookbook (see sidebar, "My Favorite Cookbooks"). He loved it!

Second, I am sorry I haven't posted more lately. Honestly, until today, I haven't had anything much to say. Things are going really well but I haven't done many new things, especially on the food allergy front. Instead, the last couple of weeks we've been taking it easy and enjoying the summer.

Today, however, I do have an important request: Ainsley's annual allergist appointment is tomorrow so I would appreciate any good vibes you could send us. Specifically, we are hoping (but not particularly optimistic, given our past experience) that some of Ainsley's allergy numbers have gone down.

For those of you not familiar with food allergy appointments, once a year, we meet with Ainsley's allergist and tell him about any significant food-allergic reactions she's had within the past 12 months (like the now-infamous yogurt incident) and whether we think she's allergic to anything new (thankfully we don't). Then he gives us a lab form and we go get her blood drawn to test her immunoglobulin E ("IgE") numbers for the foods we know she's allergic to (a food-allergic reaction is caused by the body's creation of IgE antibodies to the food; when these antibodies react with the food, histamine and other chemicals are released, causing hives, asthma, or other symptoms of an allergic reaction).

About 5 days after the blood draw we get a call from the allergist telling us what her numbers are and what he thinks they mean (for example, last year Ainsley's number for peanuts went from a 12 to a 6, suggesting she might be outgrowing the peanut allergy. Boy, wouldn't it be great if that number were a 0 this year!).

I've learned over the last three years not to get my hopes up too much about this appointment, because so far she hasn't outgrown any of her allergies and the studies I've read suggest that she may not outgrow any until her teens at the earliest. Still, there's always that little flame of hope in my heart that this will be the year .... I can say her eczema has gotten markedly better since last year, so perhaps that means something in her little immune system is correcting itself. As I've said before, if I could choose an allergy for her to outgrow, it would be milk, so COME ON MILK I say as I kiss the dice and throw them on the table.

Finally, I have collected a few more excitingly easy, safe dishes that I wanted to share below. I found the chicken couscous recipe in Family Circle magazine in an article on dinners ready in under 20 minutes. It was, indeed, quite easy, and the family really liked it (the kids gobbled theirs up and Ainsley said more than once, "Mmmm, this is good!").

The vegetable skillet and cobbler recipes are from my wonderful friend Elena, who is so considerate when it comes to Ainsley's allergies. We've eaten over at her house several times and she always keeps safe snacks and prepares safe foods for Ainsley. She is also careful to note when something she prepares for her family looks safe for Ainsley and sends me the recipe. Thanks so much, Elena - every food allergy mom should have a friend like you!

Chicken Couscous with Grape Tomatoes

2 chicken breasts or 3 tenderloins (to make things easy on yourself, you could use a package of safe, precooked chicken - I often use Hormel Natural Choice oven-roasted chicken, found near the refrigerated deli meats)
1 Tbsp olive oil
2 C safe chicken broth
1/2 chopped onion (okay, you do have to chop one vegetable, but I promise that's it!)
2 C thinly sliced carrots (I use fresh matchstick carrots so I don't have to do more cutting)
1 C uncooked, plain couscous
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp cinnamon
3/4 tsp pepper
1 tsp salt

If chicken is uncooked, saute in the oil until fully cooked and then remove chicken from saute pan. Cut chicken into bite-sized pieces. Add to the pan the chicken broth, onions, carrots, spices and seasonings and simmer for 10 minutes or until vegetables are tender (also add the oil if you didn't add it before while cooking the chicken). During that 10 minutes, cut the grape tomatoes into quarters. After vegetables are tender, add the chicken, tomatoes, and couscous to the pan and let stand, covered, for 5 minutes before serving (time enough for the couscous to fluff up). Makes about 4 adult servings.

* * * *

Hearty Vegetable & Rice Skillet

1 15oz can black, garbanzo, or kidney beans, rinsed and drained
1 14.5oz can stewed or diced tomatoes, cut up
2 C loose-pack frozen mixed vegetables
1 C water
3/4 C quick-cooking brown rice (if you use instant brown rice, use only 2/3 C water)
1/2 tsp dried thyme or dillweed, crushed
1 10.75oz can condensed tomato soup (optional - still tastes good without!)

In a large skillet, stir together beans, undrained tomatoes, vegetables, water, uncooked rice, and thyme or dillweed. Bring to a boil; reduce heat. Cover and simmer for 12 to 14 minutes or till rice is tender. Stir in soup; heat through. If you are not allergic to cheese, you can add some shredded cheese on top. If not allergic to almonds, you could also top with slivered almonds. Makes 4 servings.

* * * *

Ultra-Simple Fruit Cobbler

4 Tbsp safe margarine
3/4 C flour
3/4 C sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 C soy milk
2 C sliced fresh peaches or nectarines, or whole blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, blackberries or a combination of fruits (or a 12-ounce package of frozen berries)
1 Tbsp sugar

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Put margarine in an 8-inch square or 9-inch round pan; set in oven to melt. When margarine has melted, remove pan from oven. Whisk flour, 3/4 cup of sugar, baking powder, and salt in small bowl. Add soy milk; whisk to form a smooth batter. Pour batter into pan, then scatter fruit over batter. Sprinkle with remaining 1 Tbsp of sugar.

Bake until batter browns and fruit bubbles, 50 to 60 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature with a dollop of safe whipped cream (Soyatoo, available at Whole Foods, is safe for some) or soy ice cream, if desired.

Ahhhh ... now I can breathe a bit

2009-07-13T19:48:00.002-05:00

I have not posted in a while because I've been really busy at work. Finally, I have gotten almost back to normal in terms of my schedule so I can spend a little more time at home.

Let's see, what's been happening with us ... well, to start off with, Ainsley's hypochondria has certainly lessened. She has pretty much stopped with all of the worrisome habits, like washing her hands every two seconds and refusing to swallow something she's already chewed up because it might have germs. I guess it was from food allergy camp. I will still send her next year but I think I'm going to mention to the teachers that this happened so they can be more aware that this is a possible side effect.

We had a wonderful Fourth of July - went to Fort Worth for a concert in the park and fireworks with some good friends who have kids the same age as ours. We went to the zoo the next day, which was great but H-O-T (if you don't know, the Dallas area is having record-setting temps these days ... these are the times I wished we lived up north!).

Ainsley's OT continues to go well. She seems to be improving in practically every area of physical development. She can ride a tricycle better, she can write her letters better, she can climb on things better - it seems to really be paying off these days. She continues to go twice a week but we'll scale back to once a week when school starts again. Funny story - on Saturday, she came up to me and said, "Mommy, I need to do a little work today" (I think she might have heard that phrase come out of Dave's mouth one too many times). So she took a marker and three pieces of paper, sat in a chair in her playroom, and proceeded to draw letters all over the papers, which she then taped up on the wall. Very hard work indeed! One thing that's gotten her into letters these days is the Leapfrog DVDs on letters and words. These really do help kids learn their letters.

Finally, my recent workload has caused me to create even more "ridiculously easy" meals. Tonight we had yummy, ham & veggie hash browns and pancakes. Here's the "recipe":

Dairy-free, egg-free hashbrowns

1 package safe frozen hashbrowns (I have used Kroger and Alexia brands)
1 package ham chunks (you can find them pre-cut in the refrigerated meat section)
Optional: if you feel like chopping, you could add green peppers, onions, mushrooms, or whatever other veggies you like with your hashbrowns

Pour about 3 tbsp vegetable or olive oil in saute pan. Pour frozen hashbrowns in pan. Heat over high heat for approximately 20 minutes, stirring often. Add ham chunks and optional veggies after the first 10 minutes.

Although I did make the pancakes tonight from scratch, I often just toast safe frozen waffles (many brands available - buy at Whole Foods or Sprouts), throw some fruit (blueberries, cut-up strawberries, etc.) on them, and then serve them with syrup. Pancakes or waffles make a great accompaniment to the hash browns.

I've created a hypochondriac

2009-07-01T12:41:00.002-05:00

I don't know if it was the recent yogurt/epi-pen incident or that Ainsley just attended food allergy camp for a week, or both, but in the last several days she's gotten really scared over small things and it's been pretty difficult to calm her down. It started with frequent complaints, after eating foods that have never before produced a reaction, that her throat itched. At first I would give her Benadryl, but after she started complaining about this every night I finally stopped and adopted a "wait-and-see" approach (if the throat itching didn't get any worse and there were no other symptoms, I didn't give her Benadryl). She also (rather comically) asked for Benadryl once after my mom sneezed near her, because she worried about the germs my mom could have transmitted.

Then she started worrying whenever she ate something after playing outside without washing her hands. She worried both about the possibility that she could have ingested a small bit of an allergen and that she was eating germs. One time, she got scared after she broke a stick in half and then stuck one of her fingers in her mouth because the stick had hurt it. She was afraid that something on the stick had gotten onto her finger and then into her mouth and would hurt her.

This morning was the worst - she ate a piece of toast and then refused to swallow it because she was afraid her hands weren't clean when she was eating it. I tried unsuccessfully to get her to swallow it and finally made her spit it out in the toilet.

I have no idea what I can do to ratchet down this newfound anxiety of hers. I'm not sure if it's some sort of developmental stage or whether it's because of recent events.

Occupational therapy update

2009-06-20T08:55:00.004-05:00

Some people have asked how OT is going, so I thought I'd give my thoughts on it now that Ainsley's been having two 1-hour sessions each week for about the last month. She really hasn't been going that long, but already we think we've seen enough of a difference to keep with it. Her very sweet therapist, Theresa, has been working mainly on getting Ainsley used to/comfortable with movement and developing her ability to do complex tasks (like putting blocks in certain containers) while moving. A couple of weeks ago Theresa discovered that Ainsley is especially uncomfortable with things that involve rolling on wheels and moving in a circular direction. They were doing an activity that required Ainsley to lie, stomach-down, on a board with wheels and all of a sudden Ainsley got very upset and started crying. Theresa tried it again a few days ago but at a slower pace/for a shorter time and noticed that Ainsley started to get very irritable after a short time. Theresa thinks she's definitely found a sensitivity in Ainsley to this type of movement, so she plans to work on slowly building Ainsley's tolerance to it. Theresa also suggested that, at home, I have Ainsley ride her tricycle more so she can get more used to that movement. Ainsley does not like riding tricycles and refuses to touch her scooter. She absolutely hates the idea of riding a bicycle - when I've suggested that we could get her a bicycle for her next bicycle she has vehemently refused to consider it.

Based on my own observations of Ainsley, I agree completely with Theresa's suggestions and am hopeful we can improve Ainsley's tolerance to movement. We have planned a Disneyworld trip for November and I worry that she won't want to ride any of the rides (particularly the flying Dumbo ride and the Teacups) because of her sensitivity. In the past we've noticed that she's particularly sensitive to carnival-ride-type movement (even the carousel upsets her sometimes) so we are hoping to see some improvement in the next few months.

The other thing Theresa has been concentrating on is developing Ainsley's fine motor skills. Theresa has concluded that Ainsley's muscles, including her hand muscles, get tired very easily and that interferes with her ability/willingness to do activities involving coloring/drawing/writing. Theresa has worked with her a lot in practicing coloring with a large Crayola marker and has taught Ainsley how to hold it the right way. At home we've been drawing and coloring a lot with the markers and I've also been having her do "sewing" with these Melissa & Doug lace-up animals to help her learn to control her hand muscles. I can tell she's improving in the fine-motor-skills area - she is doing much better with her coloring and writing.

In sum, so far so good with the therapy. Ainsley loves the sessions (we still call them "gymnastics") and Theresa and we feel that we've seen progress even after this short time.

No power for over 48 hours!

2009-06-15T12:32:00.002-05:00

We had some severe storms in the area on Wednesday and our power was knocked out until Saturday morning. I had no idea it would be out so long, so I did not move my important food from my freezers, and, as a result, lost all of it. This was sad for me because I had a fair amount of homemade Ainsley-friendly food, including cupcakes, sorbet, etc. in there. Because we had no power, for those two days we had to feed Ainsley almost exclusively at McDonald's and Wendy's, where there are a few things she can eat. I'm sure she didn't mind, but I didn't feel like her diet was very nutritionally complete during that time.

Thankfully, this weekend we were able to clean our the refrigerator and freezers and have begun restocking what we lost. All of our soy ice cream went bad so I am planning to make some with Ainsley today - for the first time! I finally bought a small ice-cream maker last week and want to break it in. I think we'll do strawberry ice cream using a recipe from the Kid-Pleasing cookbook (see sidebar - my favorite cookbooks) - I will let you know how it turns out.

Food-allergy paranoia, and a totally unrelated interior decorating whine

2009-06-10T10:41:00.003-05:00

First thing - last night, while Ainsley was at grandma's, we gave Leighton part of an Almond Joy (not the almond part, but the chocolate-covered coconut part) and several minutes later she started vomiting. I got so scared - was she allergic to coconut (she had been tested for almonds but not coconut)? Had she developed an allergy to something else that was in the bar? I also lamented that I did not have Benadryl or the Epi-Pen - they were with Ainsley.

Immediately I checked for hives, breathing difficulty, etc. - nothing. My husband sheepishly admitted that she had started vomiting after he gave her a bite of the meat from his taco and that he thought the food activated her gag reflex; apparently it was too spicy for her. What a relief. Still, this experience demonstrated to me that, even after Leighton's allergy testing, I've never quite believed that she's 100% allergy-free, and have been waiting for "that moment" when I find out she's allergic to something.

* * * *

On a totally unrelated note, I have discovered that I am the world's worst at picking paint colors. We are having some minor work done on our house, including having a few of the walls painted (mostly two hallways that were a very boring shade of gray). I decided I wanted to warm up the hallways with a nice shade of beige/tan. Big mistake - the color looks okay in the back hallway, but the front hallway looked horribly dark and the color clashed with the colors in all of the bedrooms, which are off of that hallway. Since the painters were coming back the next day to do some other work, after spending at least an hour pouring over color samples I decided upon a much lighter shade of beige and had the painters repaint the hallway that color. While they were working I took Leighton to Dave's office to have dinner with him and escape the paint fumes. We arrived back to find the hallway completely done - and the color was bright yellow! Oh no! I swear it looked beige on the sample. Now we have a cheery, bright yellow hallway that clashes with the entryway and basically every other color in the house except Ainsley's yellow room.

I have finally thrown in the towel and called an interior decorator, who can hopefully help me dig myself out of this hole. Thankfully, Dave was not mad that I had just wasted our money in having the hallway painted the wrong color twice, but he is relieved that I called the decorator, if for nothing else so that he will not have to listen to me whine about the hallway anymore. I have always fancied myself a good decorator, but there is definitely a limit to my skills.

Quick & easy cherry-bottom chocolate cake

2009-06-07T13:09:00.004-05:00

Apparently I'm into chocolate-and-fruit combinations (really, I'm into chocolate-and-anything combinations - I am such a big chocoholic it's ridiculous). This week was my sister-in-law's birthday and I was commissioned with making the birthday cake. I listed some of the things I could do and she thought something with cherries sounded good. So I decided to make a cherry sauce, top it with cake batter, bake it, and frost it - and it turned out as good as it sounds. Here is how I did it in ridiculously easy fashion:

Cherry-bottom chocolate cake

1 box Cherrybrook Kitchen chocolate cake mix or other allergen-free chocolate cake mix (some varieties of Duncan Hines are milk-, egg-, and peanut/tree-nut-free)

1 can safe premade icing (I used Pillsbury reduced sugar chocolate fudge - lots of Pillsbury icings are safe) or 1 box Cherrybrook Kitchen chocolate frosting prepared as directed

1 16-oz bag frozen, pitted cherries

1 Tbsp arrowroot powder

3 Tbsp grenadine, pomogranite juice, or water

2 Tbsp sugar

2 Tbsp water

Prepare cake mix as directed on the box (mine called for 1/2 C oil and 1 C cold water). Set aside. Make cherry sauce by combining frozen cherries, grenadine, arrowroot powder, sugar, and water in medium saucepan. Cook and stir on medium/low heat until thick sauce forms.

Spray 9x9 pan with nonstick spray. Pour cherry sauce on bottom. Pour cake batter on top and spread batter to completely (or as close as possible) cover the cherry sauce. Bake at 350 for ~25 minutes or until tester for the cake comes out clean.

When cake is cooled, spread chocolate icing on top and enjoy.

Note: You can also use this cherry sauce instead of the strawberry sauce for the brownie mini-cakes described in the previous post. You can also add safe chocolate chips to the cake batter if your mix doesn't have them already (my Cherrybrook mix did have them). This cake is messy but oh so good!

Medic Alert deal

2009-06-05T10:44:00.004-05:00

Today I enrolled Ainsley in the Medic Alert system. I had been meaning to do this for a while but our recent ambulance incident finally spurred me to action. In case you don't know, Medic Alert is a system that provides a bracelet or other piece of jewelry with a special medical symbol printed on one side that alerts medical personnel to the fact that the wearer has a health condition. The other side of the tag lists information about the health condition and a number to call for more information. The company was started by a man whose child had a serious allergic reaction, so the program is tailor-made for food-allergic families.

When I called to enroll Ainsley, I was happy to learn that Medic Alert just started a KidSmart program for children that is a reduced-price program and contains certain kid-specific features. In total, I paid about $35 for the enrollment fee and bracelet and will need to pay only $10 per year to continue the membership until Ainsley turns 18 (the price will increase then). Additionally, I am also enrolling my dad (who has Type I diabetes) and he will get a discount on his membership and Ainsley will get a $25 credit for "referring" him. What a deal!

Easy chocolate chip brownie mini-cakes with strawberry sauce

2009-06-02T15:40:00.004-05:00

We are going to a friend's house today for dinner (you know who you are!) and I volunteered to bring the dessert. I wanted to try something different, but was in a lazy mood, so I decided to do something using the Cherrybrook Kitchen chocolate chip brownie mix that was in my pantry. I made the batter and put it in a cupcake pan with cupcake liners (1 box of the mix makes 12 brownie cupcakes). After I took the brownie cupcakes out of the oven (I baked them at 350 for about 18 minutes), I cooled them on a wire rack.

While the brownies were baking, I made the sauce from a recipe I saw on the Fat-free Vegan blog: cut up a pint of strawberries (excluding the stems, of course!) and cook them in a saucepan with 1/4 cup water, 1/2 cup sugar, and 2 tbsp cornstarch until the mixture is boiling and forms a sauce.

After the brownie cupcakes are cool, take the paper wrappers off and place each one on its own plate. Spoon sauce on top. Voila - fancy-looking dessert in no time!

Missing Reese's peanut butter cups? Here's your solution ...

2009-05-31T15:41:00.005-05:00

Before Ainsley was diagnosed with allergies to (among other things) milk and peanuts, my favorite candy was, hands-down, Reese's peanut butter cups. In fact, I loved any combination of chocolate and peanut butter, including chocolate/peanut-butter fudge and ice-cream and chocolate pudding with peanut butter mixed in. Since Ainsley's diagnosis, out of "protest" (to peanuts? To food allergies? I'm not sure) I have not eaten a Reese's peanut butter cup since ... and I've missed them.

Yesterday I unexpectedly found a recipe for my new favorite candy ... homemade no-bake soy butter & chocolate bars that (if memory serves) taste nearly identical to Reese's. It was on a box of Kroger chocolate graham crackers that I recently bought. Of course, the recipe calls for peanut butter but I immediately thought about substituting soy butter. We gave it a try, and let me tell you, the entire family is in love with the result. Without further ado, I bring you my version of soy butter & chocolate heaven.

Dairy-free, peanut-free (and vegan) soy butter & chocolate candy (compare to Reese's peanut butter cups)

1/2 cup safe chocolate graham crackers or Oreos, crushed into crumbs
1/2 jar (about 7 oz) soy butter or sunbutter
6 tbsp dairy-free margarine, softened (I use Earth Balance)
1/2 lb powdered sugar
1 cup safe chocolate chips (such as Kroger's FMV brand or Enjoy Life)

To make graham cracker or Oreo crumbs, place crackers/cookies in plastic ziploc bag and crush with rolling pin. Using electric mixer, cream together soy butter/sunbutter and margarine until soft and smooth. Beat in powdered sugar and cracker/cookie crumbs. Beat until well-blended and moist. If mixture looks dry (if it looks like breadcrumbs instead of batter), add 1-2 tsp. of water to bring it together and make it smooth and creamy. Spread mixture in 9x9 pan. Melt chocolate chips in a glass bowl in the microwave (heat for 1 min., stir, heat for 30 sec., stir, etc. until completely melted). If melted chocolate is too thick to spread easily, thin with ~1 tbsp of soy milk. Pour chocolate over soy butter/sunbutter butter mixture and spread in a layer over the mixture with a spatula or spoon. Refrigerate 3 or 4 hours or until set. Cut into small bars and refrigerate any leftovers.

* * * *

Some comments: (1) I doubt you really need to add the crushed graham cracker crumbs or Oreos, but since that's what's in the original recipe, and how I prepared it, I included it here. Also, as one reader has pointed out, you could use regular graham crackers instead of chocolate ones. (2) If you had more time, you could also shape the soy butter/sunbutter mixture into balls and coat them in the melted chocolate for a fancier look. (3) This candy would make an awesome mix-in to vanilla soy ice cream. In fact, I might finally buy an ice-cream maker just to make soy ice cream with this in it. (4) As is obvious, this is not a low-calorie treat. But my food-allergic kiddo is as skinny as a beanpole so she could use the extra fat. Now, me, on the other hand ... I have no excuse for how much of this I've eaten in the past 12 hours!

Not our best day

2009-05-28T21:55:00.002-05:00

My plan was to post about the vacation we just took and how it went pretty well, especially due to the hotel being very accommodating in giving us a mini-fridge for free and the reception people being very nice in heating up some of Ainsley's food in the staff microwave. But that good experience has been overshadowed by the events of the last night - the day after we returned from vacation - when I had to administer the Epi-Pen for the second time in my poor little 4-year-old's life.

The day started out great. I went to work, the kids had great fun with their new babysitter, and after work I took them to a music class. Driving home from the class, Ainsley noticed (as she always does at this particular intersection) a giant TCBY sign shaped like a yogurt-filled cone. For the first time, I told her that I had heard from the family of another food-allergic child who has the same allergies as her that the sorbet at the TCBY was safe and asked if she'd like to try it. Ainsley immediately got excited and wanted to try the sorbet. I turned the car around and we decided to make a go of it.

When we got into the yogurt shop, I immediately located the owner and asked him about the sorbet and he assured me it had nothing in it that Ainsley was allergic to and that the soft-serve machine that dispensed it was used only for sorbet and not also for yogurt. He showed me the machine and said there was no risk of cross-contamination. I told him that I had been referred there by another food-allergic family and he said, "Oh, yes, the Smiths, they've been coming here for years." That made me feel good. The kid had been eating there for years with no reaction. Everything was gonna be okay. Not so much.

I ordered two kid-sized cups of sorbet (strawberry-kiwi flavored) and watched the owner put the sorbet in two completely clean paper cups. We sat down at one of the tables and began eating. I asked her at least every 30 seconds whether her mouth itched or anything hurt. She repeatedly told me "No Mommy" and kept gobbling up the sorbet.

I began to exhale. Everything was okay. No problem. We'd be able to bring her back again and again and this would be the one ice-cream-type place she could actually eat at - whoo hoo! But my fantasy quickly began to evaporate as she began coughing after finishing the last few bites. Probably just environmental allergies, I thought. As I was buckling her into her car seat for the ride home (after wiping her hands with a wipe to get any residue off that she might have picked up from the table - which had looked very clean - or chair), I noticed some slight red blotches above her upper lip and on one cheek. I thought hopefully, "Maybe it's just coloring from the sorbet," which was red.

Then she told me her throat hurt. Uh oh. That was a new symptom. In all of her reactions, she'd never mentioned that before. It scared me silly because I knew that anything involving the throat could mean her throat was swelling shut. So, even though she had not exhibited any of the other big signs indicative of her previous reactions (vomiting, large patches of hives), I gave her 2 teaspoons of Benadryl and pulled out the Epi-Pen.

I'd like to say I immediately gave her the Epi-Pen, because that's what I'd want anyone to do in this situation, but the truth is I hesitated. As soon as Ainsley saw me pull it out, she began wailing and begging me not to use it. She even lied, telling me "No Mommy, my throat really doesn't hurt!" to get me to put it away. Finally, I had to explain to her, "If your throat really does hurt and I don't give this to you, you could die. So you need to tell me the truth about your throat. Does it hurt or not?" To this she admitted, "Yes, my throat hurts - give me the Epi-Pen!"

I finally got my courage up and shot her with it, patiently counting to 10 before pulling it out of her leg to ensure all the medicine got in her. After getting that over with, I decided I should get her some medical attention in case the Epi-Pen didn't work (even though I had two extra Epi-Pens in my bag, I have read stories of how children needed more than just epinephrine). So I had to decide whether to drive her to the hospital or call the paramedics. Because there was no hospital nearby (the closest was at least 15 minutes away), I did the latter. Thankfully, within 5 minutes the ambulance arrived and two wonderful guys began very sweetly tending to Ainsley -checking her breathing, blood pressure, and pulse - and reassuring her very freaked out mommy that I had done everything right and that because of what I did, she was going to be fine. They even gave her a stuffed dalmation puppy, which has barely left her side since.

While the paramedics were tending to Ainsley, my husband arrived, and was able to hold Leighton, who was completely oblivious to the situation, while I continued to concentrate on Ainsley. After about 30 minutes, we all agreed that Ainsley seemed fine and didn't need to go to the hospital or any further medical attention, so the ambulance left. As soon as it pulled out of the parking lot, though, Ainsley began crying and saying that her throat still hurt and she wanted them to come back. We asked her if it had gotten worse and she said no, but wanted the paramedics to stay with her until it stopped hurting.

Because she had checked out okay, we decided that, in lieu of taking her to a hospital (where they would likely make us wait a long time in the waiting room), we decided to to take her to an after-hours pediatric clinic we have used before where we knew we could get in quickly. We drove there and the kind doctor - who told us he empathized with Ainsley because he was allergic to eggs and beef - checked her and assured us she seemed fine. He told us to give her another dose of Benadryl 4 hours after the first but that we didn't need to do anything else.

After we got home, I watched her for several more minutes and then put her to bed. Dave gave her the Benadryl as directed and, by this morning, she was as chipper as ever and showed no indication that she had endured a massive trauma the previous night.

As is probably obvious from my telling of this experience, we are unsure (a) whether Ainsley actually had an allergic reaction (she had coughing and some red splotches, but that could have been environmental, and the throat hurting could have been because the cold sorbet aggravated it) and (b) if she did, what caused the reaction (Was it the sorbet? Was it something she touched on the table or chair that she got in her mouth? Was it from simply being in a yogurt shop, where milk and nut protein might be present in the air and she breathed it in?). Her symptoms were so different from her previous reactions that I think it might not have been a true reaction, but I know that I did the right thing by giving her the Benadyl and Epi-Pen anyway - when one of the complaints is throat or mouth pain, it could be a life-or-death matter and the safest course is to give the medicine.

Still, I have been beating myself up a fair amount today. Why on earth did I think it was a good idea to take my milk-, egg-, peanut-, and tree-nut-allergic kid into a yogurt shop? To tell you the truth, I had known for over a year about the other child and his mom's recommendation of the sorbet at this place, but had been too afraid to try it with Ainsley. But during our vacation this weekend, Ainsley felt left out when Dave and I and our friends ate certain restaurant foods (e.g., pizza at one place, waffles at another), and so I think I pushed myself to try the TCBY out of guilt - I wanted her to have a treat that normal kids eat because our vacation highlighted so much of what she can't have.

But the TCBY experience reminded me why we must sacrifice Ainsley's emotional well-being to some degree for the sake of ensuring her safety - it's just not worth it to me for her to feel included if that means risking her health like that. It left me a total wreck and Ainsley has some pretty awful memories of her first trip to "the ice-cream store," as she called it. Needless to say, I am not stepping out of our comfort zone again in the foreseeable future.

Are you ever jealous of people allergic to just one food?

2009-05-18T11:34:00.002-05:00

I ask this because I'm embarrassed to say I am. Now, I know that, to the mom of, say, a peanut-allergic child, the idea that anyone would be jealous of their situation would seem completely ludicrous. But I have to admit, so many times I have longed for Ainsley to "just" have a nut allergy or an egg allergy or even a milk allergy (although milk is, in my opinion, the most difficult allergen to avoid in our culture so that is at the bottom of my list of allergies to "want").

I have noticed this feeling among a lot of moms with kids who have multiple food allergies. I don't want to characterize it as a divide between the single-food-allergic and multiple-food-allergic; it's more like the feeling of, "Wow, it would be so much easier to prepare for/order food for/protect a kid allergic to just one thing." I think moms of kids with multiple food allergies are very aware of the difference, even if the moms of single-food-allergic kids aren't. For example, once, when I was talking with a mom of a child allergic to milk, eggs, and fish, and mentioned something a mom of a peanut-allergic child had said to me about dealing with allergies, the mom replied, "Leigha, don't you think it's just a lot different (read:more difficult) for us since we have kids with multiple food allergies?"

Even some food-allergy products are marketed toward children who have just one allergy. See, for example, here (cards to show kids what they can and can't eat if they're allergic to peanuts) and here (Alexander the Elephant books - he is allergic to peanuts only; to my knowledge, FAAN doesn't have books with any characters allergic to more than two foods). Some restaurants like Chili's and Burger King also very unhelpfully group their foods into separate allergy menus based on whether you're allergic to peanuts, tree nuts, eggs, milk, wheat, OR soy - meaning you have to look at several of these special menus and compare the various foods listed on them to determine what your multiple-food-allergic kid can have.

I certainly don't mean to alienate any of you whose children have just one allergy. Food allergies are tough whether your kid is allergic to one food or all of the top 8, and there have been many times I've just been thankful that Ainsley isn't allergic to any other foods, such as soy or wheat, which we live on.

But I have often fantasized about the options that we would have if Ainsley were just allergic to one (or even two) foods. Each time we go to the allergist for her yearly appointment, I pray that Ainsley will have grown out of at least one of her allergens. When your kid has so many allergies, it's really hard sometimes to imagine that she'll ever lead a normal life ("Yes, she may grow out of milk and egg, but she'll still likely have the peanut and tree nut allergies"; "yes, her peanut number was much lower this year, but her egg number was still through the roof ..."). It frankly seems nearly impossible that she will overcome all of her food-allergy hurdles.

That said, I sincerely appreciate the advocacy that all food allergy moms undertake on behalf of their children - it benefits the multiple-food-allergic and single-food-allergic alike. The mom who has transformed our local elementary school into a food-allergy-sensitive environment has a son allergic to "only" peanuts and almonds, and I am forever grateful to her. I just hope that one day we can narrow down Ainsley's allergies into a comparable list.

Turf battles over food in the classroom

2009-05-12T17:32:00.006-05:00

After an entire school year of no real issues in dealing with parents of Ainsley's classmates over party food, etc., I have had two difficult circumstances lately, both of which felt like I was in a tug-of-war with the other mother in terms of trying to assert control over a particular food-related event.

The first was last week, when I was attempting to coordinate food for a party the kids are having for the last day of school. Ainsley's class is celebrating with another class, so I was emailing back and forth with the room mom for the other class about the food. Evidently Ainsley's teachers had already told the mom that a certain brand of chicken nugget was safe for Ainsley and the other food-allergic child in Ainsley's class. Asserting control rather early-on, the other room mom emailed me with a menu that she had already decided upon and told me that she had already solicited volunteers from her class to bring all of the food items for that class and that I should do the same for my class. The list included the safe brand of nuggets and also ice cream pops, which obviously aren't safe. I emailed her back and told her I would get the safe nuggets for both classes (I mean, if it's a joint party, wouldn't it make sense to have one person bring enough of the food item for both classes?) and that since my daughter was allergic to milk I would get safe popsicles for the party instead of ice cream pops.

Surprisingly, her response insisted that we stick to the "two sets of the same food" plan for the party, with the exception that I could buy the popsicles for everyone because I knew which types were safe. Okay, fine. Whatever.

A couple of days later, I get an email from this mom saying she is at the store and it no longer carries the safe nuggets the teachers told her to buy, so would this other type do. I emailed her back and told her I had no idea whether that brand was safe and insisted, for a second time, that I buy the nuggets. Her response: "I bought the other kind and will email you the list of ingredients tonight." Before she could even get the ingredient list to me, I corresponded with the other food allergy mom in our class who confirmed that the brand of nuggets the other room mom had bought was indeed unsafe. The other food allergy mom took matters into her own hands at that point and emailed the room mom, telling her that those nuggets were unsafe but that she (the food-allergy mom) had just bought enough safe nuggets for both classes. Problem solved. The room mom wrote back insisting that she reimburse the food allergy mom the $3 or whatever it cost to supply her class's nuggets. Nice gesture, I guess, but what would have been even nicer would have been to allow us to buy the nuggets for both classes in the first place.

The second moment of awkwardness happened yesterday. I should mention that, at the beginning of the school year, I emailed all of the class parents to let them know about Ainsley's allergies and offered to make something myself for their children's birthdays should they choose to have their child's birthday celebrated in class. I explained that, otherwise, Ainsley (and the other food allergic child in the class) would have to eat a separate treat and would feel excluded.

I got no protest and everything worked well all year, until last week, when the teachers told me that one of the other moms wanted to celebrate all of the summer birthdays (including her children's) by bringing cupcakes from a local bakery to school. Trying to be polite, I decided not to push the issue and talked with the other food allergy mom about sending separate cupcakes to school for our two kids. Then, yesterday, the summer-birthday mom sent an email to all of the class parents saying that "We" had decided on ice cream sundaes instead of cupcakes and asking whether that would work for Ainsley and the other food-allergic child. "We" meaning she and the teachers? She and her kids? I certainly wasn't included in the "We."

Obviously, sundaes do not work well for my milk-allergic child. More than that, Ainsley especially covets other children's ice cream - it's like her food-allergy Achilles heel. She doesn't mind when people eat most things, like cheese, around her, but if someone pulls out a fine-looking, forbidden ice cream treat, her face immediately falls and she stares at it with a heart-wrenching look of both wonder and jealousy.

I responded as nicely as possible, explaining that if by "sundae" the mom meant she'd bring a gallon of vanilla ice cream, some Hershey's syrup, and some sprinkles, I could probably concoct a suitable substitution by sending our soy ice cream, our syrup (Ainsley can have Hershey's but I planned to send our bottle to limit the possibility of cross-contamination), and our safe sprinkles. I couldn't help myself, though - at the end of the email, I explained that fancy ice-cream treats are substantially more difficult to imitate than other treats like cupcakes, but if that's what she really wanted, I'd do my best to create a good replacement for Ainsley.

Thankfully, the mom took pity on me and ended up nixing the sundaes in favor of cake - not quite as good as cupcakes, but I guess I'll take it. Now, of course, the other food allergy mom and I are emailing back and forth about whether we should send slices of safe cake for our kids or cupcakes.

I really can't wrap my head around why other parents have a hard time ceding control over the food in classrooms. I mean, maybe it's just me, but if my kid wasn't food-allergic, I wouldn't care in the least what the menu was for class parties or who would be providing the food. I would just be thankful it wasn't my problem. But apparently it is a big deal to some people, and they don't like food allergy moms dictating the menu even when we have legitimate medical and social reasons for doing so. I wish I could put at the end of every one of my emails to these people how much I hate coordinating the food and I'm only doing it because I've seen one too many times the look on my daughter's face when she can't have something yummy that other kids are eating.

If there's one thing I'd love those of you non-food-allergy moms to take away from this rambling post, it's this: Please don't plan the food for a class event in a manner that is sure to leave out one of the kids in the class. The kids are who you're doing it for, right? Then please include all of them. If it's your kid's birthday and you want to bring something to celebrate, fine - but please ask the mom of the food-allergic kid what would be safe for that child instead of arbitrarily choosing something and forcing the food-allergy mom to try and come up with a substitute for her child. I mean, why should we have to make a cupcake/cake/sundae for our child to celebrate your kid's birthday?

And if the food-allergy mom, in her generosity, offers to bring or buy something safe for the entire class, don't turn her down because you don't want to impose. Let her bring the food if that's what she is most comfortable with. It's her child's safety and mental well-being at stake, for goodness sake. The rest of the kids are not going to remember whether they had sundaes or cupcakes or cookies or sugar cubes to celebrate little Billy's birthday, but I can promise you that the food-allergic kid will remember (and be able to describe in disturbing detail) the yummy unsafe treat the other kids were given and that she had to eat something different.

Edited to add: My comments by no means apply to birthday parties. When we RSVP "yes" to a party, we know what we are getting into. We happily bring along a safe cupcake for Ainsley. We know that we are there to celebrate another child's birthday and it's totally up to that kid's parents what to serve at the party and what kind of cake to have, and we do not expect them to bend over backwards to accommodate Ainsley's allergies.

But this is why we only go to about 3 birthday parties a year - it's not a completely pleasant experience for us and we find ourselves constantly on guard in terms of monitoring the food around Ainsley at the party. In this day and age, however, avoiding birthday parties doesn't get us out of the trap of "party food." The whole deal about celebrating birthdays and other holidays/important days via a class party (e.g., Thanksgiving Feast, last day of school, etc.) is a foreign experience for me as I did not grow up with that. I think it's an unnecessary part of today's school routine and would be over the moon if most schools banned party celebrations involving food.

Crazy Simple Tortilla Soup

2009-05-08T16:23:00.000-05:00

Here is my tried-and-true recipe for Tortilla Soup. It requires only a stovetop, big pot, can opener, and five minutes of free time to throw everything in the pot. I get rave reviews for this soup whenever I make it - and this is from Texans, who know good tortilla soup.

Dairy-Free, Egg-Free, Nut-Free Tortilla Soup

1 can whole-kernel corn, drained
1 can black beans, drained
1 can pinto beans, drained
1 can chopped green chiles
1 can stewed tomatoes
1 can safe chicken broth
1 packet safe taco seasoning
Optional - 1 cup bite-sized pieces of chicken (I recommend Hormel Natural Choice carved chicken, which is precooked - you can quickly tear it into bite-sized pieces and throw it in the pot)

Combine all ingredients in a large pot, along with one can-full of water. Simmer on medium heat for at least 20 minutes.

Eat as-is or top with crushed tortilla chips and/or guacamole. If you are not allergic to dairy, you can also top with shredded cheese.

Ridiculously easy meals

2009-05-08T15:51:00.002-05:00

When thinking about the subjects of most of my posts, I realized that I am apparently an expert in "lazy cooking." I don't create real, certifiable recipes. Instead, I create, and have amassed from other sources, a heap of easy meal ideas for food-allergy moms who are tired from all of the real cooking they have to do. So I'm going to add to the sidebar of this blog a list of Ridiculously Easy, Allergy-Friendly Meal Ideas. I hope it helps those of you who have 20 minutes to get something relatively healthy and dairy-, egg-, peanut-, and tree-nut free on the table without having to brown, grate, or chop anything.

Enjoy!

Sensory integration update

2009-05-07T12:22:00.002-05:00

We went for the follow-up meeting at the sensory integration clinic and met with the occupational therapist (OT) who did Ainsley's evaluation. She concluded that Ainsley does indeed have Sensory Integration Disorder (SID) - specifically, she has difficulty processing signals from her vestibular system, the system that is related to balance and spatial orientation. Basically, she can't control her body really well and it makes her frustrated, which can cause emotional outbursts and has caused her to avoid doing certain things that require a lot of coordination and balance.

We - my husband, and my sister-in-law (the counselor) and I - agreed with the therapist's observations and not much of what she said was a surprise. In fact, most of the things she pointed out were things we had noticed in our own interaction with Ainsley.

So, we're going to start OT sessions twice a week. The therapist was very optimistic that the sessions would help Ainsley improve her coordination, balance, and spatial orientation enough to where she would be able to feel comfortable engaging in more complex physical activities. I am excited because I think these sessions may encourage Ainsley to become more physically active - right now she doesn't like to play on playgrounds or do other physical things like that too much. I always like having a "game plan" so I am glad we're done with the evaluation phase and can finally move on to the treatment phase.

Another ridiculously easy "recipe" plus Ainsley's yucky day at school

2009-05-06T18:53:00.003-05:00

Do you like Rice-A-Roni? When I was a kid, I LOVED it. But I don't eat it very much now because I don't like preparing side dishes. Instead, my preference is always to make a casserole-type dish that mixes the protein, starch, and vegetables/fruit all together. (I'm not sure why that is; it might be because I like eating vegetables more when they're mixed with other things; it might be because I'm lazy and like to throw everything into one big pot/skillet/casserole dish.)

Well, I have found the solution: Rice-A-Roni + mixed vegetables + bite-sized pieces of chicken = yummy skillet meal! I got the idea from The Dairy-Free, Egg-Free, Kid-Pleasing Cookbook, which has a section on easy meal ideas for tired mothers (that would be me alright). Basically, it suggested adding bite-sized pieces of chicken and some mixed vegetables to the Rice-A-Roni and preparing according to package directions. So that's what I did, using pre-cooked chicken (Hormel Natural Choice Carved Chicken Breast - you can find it near the deli meats) and frozen vegetables. Here is the "recipe" for those of you who like to follow directions:

1. Melt 2 Tbsp dairy-free margarine in a heated (deep) skillet. (I added another Tbsp or so because Ainsley is a skinny minny and could use the extra calories.)

2. Add rice-a-roni noodles/rice, chicken (torn into bite-sized pieces), and about 2 cups or so of mixed vegetables (I used a mix of green beans, peas, carrots, and corn).

3. Saute for 3-5 minutes.

4. Add 2 1/2 cups water and packet of seasoning. Mix well and bring to a boil.

5. After mixture starts boiling, cover and cook for 10-15 minutes more.

It was so good that I'm already looking forward to having the rest for leftovers tomorrow!

Now, on to my second topic - Ainsley's yucky day at school. Short story - she started throwing up around lunchtime so we had to pick her up. We still aren't sure why. It didn't seem to be an allergic reaction because she didn't have any other signs (no itchy mouth, no hives, etc.) and she didn't seem to have eaten anything to which she is allergic. On the other hand, it doesn't seem to be a stomach virus because she has no fever and, after that initial bout of vomiting, she has been fine. So I'm wondering if it could have been food poisoning, but I don't think she ate anything this morning that would have caused food poisoning.

In any event, she is acting completely normal now. She's actually had a pretty good appetite all afternoon and has been very active in the last few hours (she is currently chasing her baby sister around the house, in fact). But that's one thing about having a kid with food allergies - you never know for sure in times like this whether your kid had a reaction or whether it was something else.

Easy-peasy dairy & egg-free matzo (matzah) ball soup

2009-04-29T19:21:00.007-05:00

Yes, it would have been more appropriate to post this during Passover. But I had not perfected this "recipe" (if you can even call it that) at the time. When Ainsley's preschool teachers first sent him a box of Streit's Matzo Ball & Soup Mix the week before Passover with the note, "How do we make this safe?" my task began. I immediately discovered, to my relief, that the mix itself doesn't contain dairy or eggs - only wheat (which Ainsley can eat). However, the box calls for you to mix two large eggs, 1/4 C of vegetable oil, and the matzo meal together. Instead, I added the equivalent of 3 eggs' worth of Energ-G egg replacer + water. The matzo balls initially turned out okay (a little puny) but dissolved within 1/2 hour of me taking the soup off of the stove. The teachers used that amount of egg replacer with similar results.

So tonight I finally had time to try it again. This time I added the equivalent of 4eggs' worth of egg replacer + water. That, along with making sure the soup was boiling well when I plopped the balls in one-by-one, did the trick. This time they held together really well and were pretty plump. So here you go, all those in search of a really easy, eggless matzo ball soup recipe:

Ingredients:

1 box Streit's Matzo Ball & Soup Mix
Ener-G egg replacer
1/4 C vegetable oil

Fill pot with 2 1/2 quarts of water; cover and cook on high heat until boiling. In the meantime, begin to prepare matzo balls by mixing 4 eggs' worth of egg replacer and water (the Ener-G box says to use 1 1/2 tsp of the powder and 2 Tbsp water for each egg) in a medium-sized bowl (I know the Streit's box says to use "two large eggs," but trust me - you want to use 4 eggs' worth of egg replacer). Then mix in the matzo meal from the Streit's box and the vegetable oil. After mixing the ingredients thoroughly with a spoon or your fingers, put the bowl in refrigerator for 15 minutes.

When water starts to boil, add the soup mix from the Streit's box. After 15 minutes have elapsed, take matzo mixture out of the refrigerator and form walnut-sized balls. After you have made all of the balls, delicately plop the balls one-by-one into the boiling water, covering the water after each set of balls so as to keep the water as hot as possible. After placing all the balls in the pot, continue to boil covered for 1/2 hour - do not check on the soup during this time, just let it be. After 1/2 hour, remove from heat and enjoy!

Note: I recently discovered a quick & easy way to make this soup healthier. Add 1/2-1 cup of kale (torn into small pieces), 1/2-1 cup of whole wheat angelhair pasta (broken into ~3-inch-long pieces) and 1 can cannellini beans (drained) after the matzah balls have boiled for 25 minutes. Let the soup boil for another 5-8 minutes and serve - it's yummy and healthy!

Closest analogue to severe food allergies = Type I (juvenile) diabetes?

2009-04-28T14:17:00.003-05:00

Occasionally, when I explain to someone the precautions we must take with Ainsley at school and elsewhere, he or she will say, "It's kind of like she's diabetic, huh?" Given that my dad is a Type I (aka juvenile or insulin-dependent) diabetic, I have quite a lot of experience with this condition to be able to compare the two.

As I have mentioned before, my dad has been diabetic most of his life. He acquired the condition at the age of 27, after becoming very ill with a virus that he believes attacked his pancreas. He didn't know for a while afterward that anything was wrong, but after he began having symptoms (abrupt mood swings, sweating profusely, needing to urinate really often), he went to a doctor and was finally diagnosed. As I am sure most of you know, being diabetic means your pancreas doesn't produce insulin (or, in the case of a Type II diabetic, enough insulin), which converts the sugars circulating in your blood stream into usable energy.

So a Type I diabetic must take insulin to live, and must constantly monitor his blood sugar level to ensure it stays within a normal range and to determine how much insulin to take. If he or she doesn't take enough, the blood sugar runs too high and it overwhelms the body (as I have learned, this is usually a slow process - dangerous, but very slow and with several warning signs, such as sweating and urinating a lot and becoming very tired).

If he accidentally takes too much insulin, on the other hand, his blood sugar runs too low This is usually a more acutely dangerous problem. Someone's blood sugar can dip too low very fast, and the person can lose all awareness of the problem (acting drunk or otherwise out of it) or even pass out.

Ever since my dad learned he was diabetic, he has had to severely limit his sugar intake, take 2-3 insulin injections per day, and checks his blood sugar about 5 times a day. Currently, he lives in a retirement community and we have someone check on him twice at night because he is a "fragile diabetic," meaning he can have low-blood-sugar episodes without warning. I dread any late-night phone calls because I know they probably mean my dad has had such an episode. Thankfully - and knock on wood - we have only received two of those phone calls in the past year.

I have thought a lot about the similarities between severe food allergies and insulin-dependent diabetes and agree that they are very alike in terms of (a) the chronic nature of the conditions (they are both conditions that can be managed but not really treated), (b) the fact that both require the person to diligently avoid certain foods and (c) both can result in the person having a serious/life-threatening medical incident with little warning. Sometimes I actually think it was serendipitous that I had a diabetic father because it preprogrammed me to be vigilant and careful with Ainsley's food-allergy condition.

I must say that, of the two - Type I diabetes and severe food allergies - I think that, generally, food allergies are the easier condition to live with, because a food-allergic child doesn't have to take insulin injections (or have a pump or anything else to administer insulin) and there is more hope on the horizon for a "cure" or at least good treatment options for food allergies than for diabetes. Of course, a food-allergic person also has the hope of growing out of all or most of her allergies.

In my mind, the only thing worse about food allergies than diabetes is that a food-allergic person can die within just a few minutes of eating an allergen, whereas if a diabetic person eats sugar, his blood-sugar might go above the normal range, but it would be a relatively slow process and the only treatment would be to take extra insulin to bring the sugar back down. Additionally, although low blood sugar can result in an acute medical emergency, even if a person goes unconscious from low blood sugar, there would usually be enough time for someone to give the person glucose (in the mouth or under the tongue) or for the paramedics to arrive to administer it intravenously (at least I believe this to be true - my dad has had incredibly low blood sugars several times in his life, resulting in him being basically comotose, and has still been brought back to normal after we have waited several minutes for paramedics to arrive).

In any case, my knowledge and experience with both of these conditions means I feel deep empathy for any parent of a diabetic or severely food allergic child. I would give almost anything for my dad to have a working pancreas and for my daughter's immune system not to attack her body when she eats otherwise benign food items. Sometimes I marvel at how far medical treatments have come, but then I think about how there still isn't a cure for either diabetes or food allergies and realize how far we still have to go.

Occupational therapy evaluation

2009-04-23T14:17:00.002-05:00

Not a lot to report. I filled out a ton of paperwork and questionnaires while Ainsley was in the back of the office with one of the occupational therapists. Ainsley won't tell me what they did (she is this way with preschool too - very tight-lipped, and it drives me crazy!). I scheduled a follow-up appointment with the therapist for two weeks from today so we can discuss the results of the evaluation. My sister-in-law, who is an elementary school counselor, will be going with me to the appointment. She knows more about these types of issues than I do so her presence and questions will be invaluable.

Recent pics

2009-04-21T16:35:00.009-05:00

A few pics ... Ainsley and Dave at her preschool's Purim party, Leighton on her birthday, and Leighton's birthday cupcakes. For the cupcakes, I used the white cupcake and buttercream icing recipes from Vegan Cupcakes take over the World, and they were sooo good.

Summer camps

2009-04-21T16:08:00.002-05:00

Since summer is fast approaching, I have been thinking of whether to enroll Ainsley in any summer camps (little 2-hour things that she can attend for gymnastics, dance, theatre, etc.). Of course, the first thing I consider with regard to a particular camp is what the risk is that she will come into contact with one of her allergens. For instance, her ballet school has a week-long camp that goes from 10-12am. The brochure says, however, that "a nutritious snack will be provided." Now, I know some kids might get hungry during that block, but is a snack really needed? Can't they ask the parents to just load the kids up on food right before the camp starts? Why do they want to serve food in a dance facility anyway - I would think that would cause quite a mess.

Anyway, so now I have to contact the school to ask exactly what snack they plan on serving. I'm sure it'll be something Ainsley's allergic to. Perhaps they will be okay with me suggesting a particular snack, like Teddy Grahams. I have been through this drill before, but just thinking about doing it again makes me want to not even bother.

The one camp I will definitely be sending Ainsley to is a camp specifically for food-allergic children. It is run by the same teachers who do the bi-monthly food allergy classes during the school year. It goes from 9-11am for one week and no food is allowed. The teachers also require that you leave the child's emergency medication and a food allergy action plan with them during the class.

I am so excited about the camp - Ainsley loves the school-year classes so much that I know she'll enjoy it. She has become so good at knowing what she can and can't have and I know that her self-awareness comes from the things she has learned in her class (like how she should always ask me what she can and can't have and should be very careful to only eat things she knows are safe for her).

Just the other day, Ainsley was at my office with me and a well-meaning fellow employee offered her some hard candy that was cookie-and-cream flavored and pecan-praline flavored. I took a piece just to be nice but planned to throw it in the trash as soon as I got into my office. Before I even had a chance to do this, though, Ainsley (who had heard the employee describe what the candy was) looked at me and said, "Mommy, that candy isn't safe for me." She was so matter-of-fact about it - not even a hint that she was sad she couldn't have it.

Another anecdote that made me proud: This weekend we went to a craft show, and one of the booths had a bowl of candy set out for anyone who walked by. Ainsley saw the candy bowl, which was filled with unsafe (mostly chocolate) candy, and within two second managed to mentally sort all of the candy and find a Starburst, which she knows is safe for her. She asked whether she could have it and I very happily said yes. What a responsible girl!

Never mind

2009-04-17T14:56:00.001-05:00

Well, the occupational therapist needed to reschedule today's appointment, so we'll be seeing her next Thursday instead. Oh well.

Occupational therapy evaluation on Friday

2009-04-15T11:35:00.007-05:00

Not much has happened on the sensory-issues front since I last posted. I ended up finding an occupational therapist who specializes in sensory issues AND takes my insurance (yay!) and we have an hour-and-a-half evaluation scheduled for Friday. After that, she will write up a report and we'll meet back with her on a later date to discuss the results.

I'm nervous about this but have been feeling progressively better about it all since my meeting with the preschool director. I have been watching Ainsley much closer in the last week or so and have reached my own informal, completely uneducated conclusion that (a) she does seem to have more difficulty with motor skills, gross and fine, than the average kid but (b) otherwise, her behavior seems pretty normal, and well above-average in certain areas, so I really shouldn't be too concerned that these issues, if present, would, say, cause her to be a high-school drop out a decade from now even if we were not to put her in occupational therapy. But, as one of my close friends said, I will nonetheless throw myself full-force into the sensory-issues/occupational therapy arena because I am a Type A mom and Type A moms are used to putting forth a gallon of effort if only to effect a teaspoon of change. So here's to the teaspoon.

Happy Easter, food-allergy style

2009-04-12T09:46:00.006-05:00

Ainsley is on Day Three of her Easter holiday weekend sugar overdose. Thanks to our family and friends, who love to buy safe candy for Ainsley, she has had no shortage of sweet treats to eat this Easter season. She has already consumed her weight in Peeps (courtesy of my mom and mother-in-law) and eaten about 100 Starbursts (courtesy of her wonderful Godmother, who hosted an Easter egg hunt on Friday using plastic eggs that were filled with that candy, along with Sweetarts and Smarties).

As you might remember from my prior post on the subject, Ainsley's one request this year was for the Easter Bunny to bring her a chocolate bunny like the ones you see in the grocery store. So a while back I ordered some Easter-themed candy molds (including one for a large bunny). On Thursday we put those molds to use and, with very little effort on my part, created a ton of Easter chocolate.

My "recipe":

1. Put candy molds on counter.

2. Take out a bag of vegan/nondairy chocolate chips (I used the Whole Foods brand). Pour chips into a glass bowl and melt in the microwave (heat on high for 1 minute, stir, heat on high for 30 seconds, stir, heat another 20 seconds if needed).

3. Spoon chocolate into candy molds. Tap the molds on the counter after you've filled them with chocolate to get air bubbles out of them and make the chocolate smooth/even on the top.

4. Put filled molds in refrigerator for at least 1 hour to set.

5. Take molds out of the refrigerator and pop the candy out of the molds. Put candy in ziploc bags and store in the refrigerator.

Here is a pic of the three kinds of chocolate we made (large bunny, small bunny, bunny-in-basket):

Additionally, for those of you looking for a more complex Easter treat, here is a recipe for Pudding Easter Eggs, compliments of a fellow food allergy mom:

Dairy-Free, Egg-Free, Peanut/Tree-Nut-Free Pudding Easter Eggs

1 (4-serving size) package Jell-O chocolate or vanilla instant pudding mix
1/3 C boiling water
1/3 C nondairy margarine, softened
3 C powdered sugar
8 ounces nondairy chocolate chips
Optional: vegan white chocolate chips or colored frosting

Stir pudding mix, boiling water, and margarine in a large bowl until smooth. Mix in powdered sugar by the cupful, stirring until mixture forms a ball. Form scant tablespoonfuls of mixture into 1 1/2 inch egg shapes (if necessary, refrigerate mixture 10 to 15 minutes for easier handling). Refrigerate eggs until firm, about 30 minutes.

Melt chocolate chips. Dip eggs into chocolate. Refrigerate on wax-paper-lined tray until chocolate is firm, about 15 minutes. If desired, melt white chocolate and drizzle over eggs or decorate with colored frosting. Store in refrigerator.

Makes 30-36 eggs.

Another bump in the road

2009-04-04T08:16:00.004-05:00

I am sorry I've been absent for a while. I was taking time to deal with a new situation that's cropped up. Earlier this week we met with the director at Ainsley's preschool because she wanted to talk with us about some of Ainsley's "areas of development." Dave and I had no idea what this meant and were very apprehensive going into the meeting. It turns out that she thinks Ainsley has exhibited some markers of "sensory issues" (aka a condition called "Sensory Integration Dysfunction") and suggested that we get her evaluated by an occupational therapist and possibly start her in some occupational/physical therapy sessions.

When I describe what she said and her suggestions, it doesn't seem like a big deal at all. But it was a big deal at the time. I was being told that, in some ways, my daughter doesn't act like "normal" children. Then there was the realization that I would have to become well versed in a condition besides food allergies. I had thought my major challenge with Ainsley was her allergies, but I guess my plate wasn't full enough.

Being the proactive mom that I am (after all, I am a veteran food allergy mom, and no one is more proactive than we are), the night after the meeting, I started reading a book loaned to me by the preschool director about Sensory Integration Dysfunction called The Out of Sync Child. The next morning, I started calling the occupational therapists to whom the director had referred me to set up an evaluation. The first place I called was happy to schedule an appointment for a few days from now. The receptionist then nonchalantly informed me that the initial evaluation would cost $750 and that each treatment session (lasting one hour) would cost $140. What she failed to mention was whether insurance usually covered any of this.

When I picked myself off the ground from fainting from the prices, I called the place back and found out that they are a "private pay" clinic - in other words, you pay them in full, they give you the paperwork to file with your insurance company, and you cross your fingers that your insurance company will pay some of it.

Well, my insurance company isn't cool with that. I have a form of insurance that is practically universally accepted among providers who accept insurance, but it isn't a PPO so I can't go out of network, which excludes private-pay places unless I can show that no one else within 75 miles is qualified to perform the services. So my quest began to find a place here that would take my insurance; I guess this is where I should be thankful that I live in a major metropolitan area with some of the best hospitals in the United States. Thankfully, after just a little searching, I found that two major hospitals in the area have very good children's occupational therapy services geared toward sensory issues AND that these programs accept our insurance. But, to schedule an evaluation, I had to first get a referral from our pediatrician. I quickly made an appointment with him and brought Ainsley in. When I told him what the preschool director had said, he looked quite skeptical, but agreed that it wouldn't hurt to get an evaluation and see what comes of it.

So right now I'm in the process of getting the pediatrician's office to get the clinic the information it needs so we can schedule our initial evaluation. Whew ... sort of a busy week for me (on top of an already busy work week).

By this time you might be wondering what Sensory Integration Dysfunction is and why the director thought Ainsley might have a (very mild) form of it. Well, I had no idea until this week, but I quickly found out that basically it's something in the child's brain that inhibits her from processing signals from her senses, including her sense of balance and her sense of her body in relation to the space around her. This can prevent a child from controlling her body in the way she is supposed to.

Some of the markers of this disorder that the director pointed out in Ainsley are her relatively low muscle tone (manifested in her sitting in a "W" position sometimes and sort of having a "wet noodle" body), a lag in her gross and fine motor skills (she has some trouble skipping and climbing, and has difficulty holding a crayon or pencil correctly and cutting with scissors), and sensitivity to sounds and movement (doesn't like loud sounds, really doesn't like spinning in a circular motion).

The director emphasized that Ainsley's issues seem very mild and that they are easily correctable with appropriate play therapy (thankfully, this condition is not treated via medication so we don't have to open that can of worms). But she wanted us to know now because, as with other conditions, the earlier we get her into therapy, the more improvement we're likely to see.

I have come a long way in this past week. I began as really upset and confused, and am now in a place of peace and have realized this really isn't something to stress too much about. Ainsley probably does need the therapy and hopefully it can remedy some of the anxiety she feels when asked to do physical activities (she often refuses to do things like color and draw because she doesn't feel that she can make the picture look good enough). Although I had thought she was just high-strung and sort of unathletic (if you are familiar with the movie Parenthood - one of my all-time favorites - Ainsley is a carbon copy of Steve Martin's oldest child, Kevin), it could just be that she is stressed because she realizes that she can't do some of the physical things her peers can.

One final note: The Out-of-Sync Child said that allergies (environmental and food) are commonly seen in connection with Sensory Integration Dysfunction. So I am left to wonder whether Ainsley's food allergies are related to these sensory issues. I will likely never know the answer, but the director did say that, like food allergies, sensory issues seem to be multiplying these days. Whereas she used to only see one child in hundreds with these issues, she now sees children with these issues in every one of her preschool classes. What I would give to know why that is.

Sara Lee Response & Pecan Pie

2009-03-28T11:29:00.003-05:00

First off, I got a "no response" response from Sara Lee. It is clearly a form response and does not address any of the concerns in my complaint:

Dear Leigha,

Thank you for contacting Sara Lee. It is always important to hear from our consumers, and we appreciate your comments regarding the Sara Lee Honey Wheat Bread.Sara Lee is committed to providing quality products and service to our consumers. Please be assured that all comments are helpful in achieving our goal of customer satisfaction. It is only by meeting the needs of the consumers like you that we can continue to be successful. Your feedback will be shared with our marketing department.Thank you for your business! Should you have any comments or questions in the future, please contact us via our website at www.saralee.com or by calling our toll-free number, 1-800-323-7117. Our representatives are available Monday-Friday between the hours of 7am and 6pm CST.

Sincerely,
Mindy
Sara Lee Consumer Affairs Representative

* * * *

Hopefully my complaint will actually make it to someone who will care enough to send me a real response, but I'm not holding my breath.

In other news, yesterday I ate nuts for the first time in about 2 years. I stopped eating nuts when I got pregnant with my second daughter, Leighton, because our allergist advised that doing that might help prevent her from having allergies. I kept avoiding them throughout her first year because I was nursing her and didn't want to expose her to them through my breastmilk. But since she recently tested negative to all of the common allergens and the doctor said it was okay to expose her to whatever foods I wanted, I have been given the green light to eat peanuts/tree nuts again (and fish and shellfish, the other two things I was avoiding) even though I'm still nursing her.

I'm really not that big of a peanut or tree nut eater. I used to eat a fair amount of peanut butter, but being off of it for so long, I've pretty much lost the taste for it (although every once in a while I still crave a Reese's peanut butter cup). One thing I have not lost the taste for, though, is pecan pie. I am a Louisiana native and it was a staple of my diet growing up. My mom's family makes the best pecan pie in the world. Prior to discovering Ainsley's allergies, either my mom or my aunt would make me an entire pecan pie every Thanksgiving and Christmas (and I would eat the whole thing by myself in about three days).

So last night, my husband and I (sans kids) went out with my best friend and her husband, who were in town from Boston. We went to a dessert place that had - you guessed it - pecan pie. So I ordered a piece. For reasons I can't quite articulate, I felt vaguely guilty in doing this, like nuts are some sort of contraband. But after I got over that, I quite enjoyed the pie. It was not as good as my mom's, for sure, but it still satisfied the craving.

One notable thing about the dessert place we went to was that it was the site of Ainsley's worst allergic reaction, which was almost exactly two years ago. We had gone there for a Mother's Day brunch. This was back when I was still stupid and would allow Ainsley to eat a lot of restaurant food. She ate some chicken fingers for lunch, and did fine, but things turned badly when we gave her some pink meringue cookies for dessert (meringue cookies are the signature dessert of this restaurant). In case you don't know, meringue cookies are made of three things - egg white, sugar, and food coloring.

At this point, I'm sure you're wondering why we would ever give an egg-allergic kid pure egg white (the white being the allergenic part of the egg). The answer is simply that we had no idea she was allergic to eggs. Although my husband loves eggs, I don't and so we never ate a lot of egg dishes at home. The most I would use them for is as an ingredient in a baked good. Since Ainsley had had eggs in baked goods before - and had also eaten things with mayonnaise in them a few times - I assumed she wasn't allergic.

Boy, was I wrong. That day, she took two bites of one of the meringue cookies and put it down. I asked if she wanted more and she looked at me seriously and said no. Shortly after that, she told me her mouth hurt. Getting a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach, I hoped she might just have bitten her tongue. But my fears were confirmed when, a minute or two later, she started vomiting. As soon as she stopped throwing up, I gave her Benadryl, knowing she was in the midst of an allergic reaction. Then hives started appearing all over her face - the most I have ever seen. Her eyes swelled almost shut, and she became quiet. We took her out to the car and - seeing that she was becoming somewhat lethargic (but still conscious and talking) - I gave her the Epi-Pen and we quickly drove to the closest hospital. On the way to the hospital, I kept asking her what her name was, what my name was, and what Dave's name was to keep her conscious and talking to me. She was barely whispering the answers. That car ride was, no question, the scariest time in my life as a parent.

Thankfully, a few minutes after arriving at the hospital, the Benadryl started taking effect, the hives started disappearing, and she was acting like herself again. A few days later, I took her to the allergist, who tested her for egg and confirmed that she was indeed allergic. Very allergic. Her CAP-RAST # to egg was 35 (the higher the number, the more likely the chance of an allergic reaction). For comparison, her number to milk was 14 and to peanuts was 12.

In hindsight, there were earlier signs Ainsley was allergic to eggs (for instance, she had a few minor reactions after my mom and my mother-in-law had given her eggs), but I think I had downplayed those incidents because, in my mind, I didn't want to consider the possibility that Ainsley could be allergic to more than just milk and peanuts. I am just thankful that Ainsley's monster allergic reaction happened while I was there so I could administer Benadryl and an Epi-Pen quickly and take her to the hospital.

Update: Complaint letter to Sara Lee

2009-03-23T14:49:00.003-05:00

In case any of you want to complain to the company about its recent (and unannounced) addition of milk to several of its breads, you can do so here. Feel free to use my letter as a template. Here it is:

To whom it may concern:

I am writing because my 4-year-old daughter is severely allergic to milk and, without warning, you recently changed the ingredient labels on several of your breads to say that they now contain milk. Previously, the ingredient labels did not list milk. For years, we (including not only myself, but my mother and mother-in-law) have purchased your bread because it was safe for my milk-allergic daughter. We were loyal customers but, because of the recent change, we have had to switch brands to find a new bread that is safe for her.

Last year, your company began adding milk to its wheat hot dog buns. Prior to this, you notified the Food Allergy & Anaphylaxis Network (FAAN), the leading food allergy group in the U.S., and had it issue a Special Allergy Alert to its members warning that Sara Lee planned to begin adding milk to its wheat hot dog buns. I saw this alert and became aware of the change.

There was no such alert issued before your recent change to add milk to several of your loaf breads, including Sara Lee Honey Wheat Bread and Sara Lee Hearty & Delicious Bread (whole wheat, multigrain, and oat varieties). Thankfully, I caught the change yesterday after I picked up a loaf of the bread to put it in my shopping cart. However, another family may not be so lucky - they might feed the bread to their milk-allergic child and the child might suffer a serious allergic reaction.

I am thus writing to complain about two things. First, I ask you to reconsider the decision to put milk in these breads. By doing this, you have eliminated as consumers a very loyal group of families who are dealing with milk allergies and bought your bread because we considered it safe. Second, I ask you to contact FAAN at (703) 691-3179 to notify it that you have added milk to some of your breads so that it can notify its thousands of members, many of whom have milk allergies, of the change to avoid the potential for allergic reactions from eating your bread.

Thank you for your time.

Leigha

Arghhh - ingredient changes in the brands we use

2009-03-23T10:47:00.004-05:00

So the big event lately has been that Leighton turned 1! I will post about that soon, after I have a chance to upload some pics from her birthday party.

In other news, yesterday I went grocery shopping and was shocked to find that the Sara Lee bread I usually buy now has milk in it. I am really glad I read the ingredient label before throwing it in my cart. I was so mad. Last summer, Sara Lee started putting milk in its hot dog buns. That was the only brand that my grocery store carried that was milk-free. So we resorted to Sara Lee deli rolls, which are like hot dog buns but the top and the bottom are in two separate pieces (not connected) - the fact that the pieces are separate makes it really difficult to eat a hot dog in them, but we make due.

Now I find that Sara Lee has started putting milk in the regular bread that I buy. I checked and I couldn't find any Sara Lee loaves that didn't contain milk. After looking at other brands, I finally found one - Earthgrains - that only contained soy and wheat. It did not have a "May contain nuts" or similar warning so I bought it. Ainsley had a piece this morning and did fine, but I hate having to switch brands. We food allergy families become so dependent on certain brands that when this type of thing happens, it is really unnerving. Lately I have been baking a lot of bread so one day I might just stop buying bread altogether and just make all the bread that we eat (I guess I could even figure out how to make hot dog buns). It tastes better, that's for sure.

Food desensitization studies and multiple food allergies

2009-03-16T11:52:00.004-05:00

Today the LA Times featured an interesting story on food allergy research; you can read it here: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-sci-peanut16-2009mar16,0,3911635.story .

Many, if not most, parents of severely food allergic children are aware of and have been following the study described in this article for some time. The results are encouraging, but some parents have expressed (understandable) skepticism at both the method used in the study (feeding your child tiny amounts of a food that might hurt her) and the projected outcome (do we really know the long-term effects of this? Wouldn't it be better to wait to see if the child naturally outgrows it?).

Those of you who have been reading my posts for a while know that, several months ago, I investigated a treatment option like this that's offered in my city, but ultimately decided not to do it after our allergist advised that it was too early for anyone to be providing this therapy in a clinical (as opposed to research) setting.

I had another hang-up with this treatment ... even if it works as it should, it is still not a quick and easy cure for those like Ainsley who have multiple food allergies. There are research trials like this going on for other foods besides peanuts - including milk and eggs, two of the other foods to which Ainsley is allergic. Aside from those foods, she's also severely allergic to most tree nuts (she is more minorly allergic to sesame and coconut, so we'll leave those aside for the moment).

If we decided to participate in a food desensitization program, she would have to go through it for each allergen ... one at a time. For each allergen, the program would require a hefty time commitment for the first six months (8 hours in the doctor's office on the first day, then 3 hours a week in the office for the next six months or so, and also the time it takes to administer the "maintenance doses" at home 3 times a day on the days you're not in the office). Each program would also cost a lot of money and insurance would not cover all of the charges.

So, as great as this food allergy research is, there are many cons when it comes to applying it to a kid like mine. Ainsley is not only allergic to peanuts, eggs, and milk, but also to about 10 different kinds of tree nuts. I really just can't picture us going through a lengthy and expensive food desensitization protocol for all of those allergens. Don't get me wrong - eliminating even one of them would be great. But since it wouldn't really be able to eliminate all of her food allergies (particularly to the tree nuts), this form of treatment would not give her a life in which we will be able to forego reading ingredient lists and approaching restaurant and banquet foods - particularly desserts - with caution. For that, we will have to keep hoping that she will naturally outgrow all of her allergies and/or that a better option will become available in the next several years.

A final note about the LA Times article ... it states:

"According to reports at the allergy meeting, the stress of managing a child's peanut allergy weighs most heavily upon mothers, imposes a heavy financial burden on families and limits family vacations.

Among the findings: 68% of families with a food-allergic child limit where they will go on vacation, with most refusing to travel outside the U.S.... Compared with the general population, those who care for children with food allergies were more likely to stop working, reduce work hours and incur financial problems."

I can certainly attest that "the stress of managing a child's [food] allergy weighs most heavily upon mothers." With all due respect to her dad (love you, Dave), I wonder about all the things that would fall through the cracks with regard to Ainsley's food allergy management if I weren't around. Sometimes it feels like I am constantly communicating with her teachers about safe foods for school projects or parties, talking with our family members and close friends about what foods are safe for her to eat at their houses, or checking Epi-Pens and Benadryl to make sure the have not expired and are with her whereever she is. I am also so very thankful that we can afford for me to work part-time so that I can have time to do all of these things. Even if it hadn't been in my plan to reduce my work hours, I think Ainsley's condition would have forced me to do so.

Also, on the vacation front, I am glad to know I'm not the only food-allergy parent who doesn't consider a vacation outside of the U.S. to be a realistic possibility for us. Dave and I have talked about it and it just seems next to impossible because we would not be able to figure out what Ainsley could eat that was safe (especially since most other countries don't have the same food allergy labeling laws). As it is, even our domestic vacations require a lot of pre-planning and coordination.

One of the saddest things about her food allergies is that I am afraid it will keep her from exploring the world. Everytime I have one of those thoughts, I make myself take a step back and repeat the mantra I have used ever since we first discovered her food allergies - "One day at a time." Don't worry about whether she'll be able to go away to college and eat in a college dormitory, or about whether I might have to make her wedding cake myself. Just take things as they come and don't try to predict the future.

Thankfully, at this stage of the game, Ainsley doesn't want to go to Paris; she wants to go to Disneyworld, and that's a trip food allergies won't stop us from taking.

Fun food allergy finds - rice cheese & Cherrybrook mini-cookies

2009-03-12T14:23:00.004-05:00

We went shopping at Whole Foods today. I try to go at least once a month. I don't go much more often than that because I always spend wayyyyy more money than I expect to. But, whenever I go, I have such a fun time walking down each aisle looking for any new products we might want to try, and I always seem to find at least a couple of new things.

This time I found two. The first is vegan rice cheese made by Galazy Nutritional Foods, the same company that makes the "Vegan" label soy slices. I had seen rice cheese before, of course, but it had casein (milk protein) in it so I never bought any. The package advertises this rice cheese as "new" so I'm assuming the company just recently made the rice cheese vegan. I got the cheddar flavor because that's the only flavor WF had. I am excited to try it - we are always looking for a better cheese substitute.

The other exciting find was boxes of Cherrybook Kitchen mini-cookies. I am familiar with the Cherrybrook Kitchen mixes, which are allergen-free, but have never seen the mini-cookies before (this is not a mix; it's boxes of actual cookies). WF had snickerdoodle, chocolate chip, and fudge brownie flavors; we snagged a box of the brownie cookies.

The only downsides to these cookies is that (a) a box costs $3.99 and (b) the allergen warning says that the cookies "share equipment with products containing dairy and egg" but that "we have strict manufacturing and cleaning protocols and test for the presence of peanuts, dairy, and eggs." The fact that Cherrybrook markets specifically to those suffering from food allergies and has implemented strict protocols for the factory gave me enough assurance to buy a box for Ainsley (also, she has never really had a reaction to milk and egg when they have been baked in something like a cake or cookies).

We haven't tasted either yet but will post the results when we do.

Could my daughter's milk allergy have caused my husband to become lactose intolerant?

2009-03-11T13:23:00.001-05:00

Funny thing about food allergies ... it causes you to look at your own diet, and your body's reactions to certain foods, much more closely. For instance, after we discovered Ainsley's food allergies, I discovered that I was actually slightly allergic to sunflower seeds (I found this out after I tried some Sunbutter for the first time and my mouth got very itchy. The last time I ate sunflower seeds I got the itchiness plus a bad stomach-ache). I also developed an intolerance to chickpeas/garbanzo beans - I started getting terrible stomach cramps after eating them (my reaction to them grew worse over time, probably because I had really never eaten them until I started cooking with them to give Ainsley more protein; once I started ingesting a lot of them, I started feeling worse and worse each time I ate them).

Now we have discovered another potential food issue in our family: Dave might be lactose-intolerant. He has noticed that, over the past few months, he would suddenly get nauseous and, at times, throw up after eating a meal. He had no idea what was causing it, so he decided to monitor what he ate. He just called to tell me what he thinks the culprit is: cheese. He doesn't ever drink milk or eat ice cream; the only real dairy he consumes these days is cheese, and it's not that often because we eat dairy-free at home. Today he ate a cheeseburger for lunch and felt ill. Lately, he's felt the same way after going to Mexican restaurants, where he loves to order queso. He is going to visit his doctor soon to discuss this possibility and, if it is lactose intolerance, find out how to deal with it.

I am wondering if the fact that we've seriously reduced our dairy intake in the past few years might have caused Dave to lose the ability to digest milk. I know you need a special enzyme to digest dairy; could he have lost it from not eating dairy on a regular basis? I am curious whether, for instance, vegans who decide to reincorporate dairy into their diets have these problems? I will definitely be looking into this further.

Update - okay, I've done a little research on the internet, and it suggests that cutting dairy out of your diet probably won't cause lactose intolerance. But the older one gets, the more likely he is to lose his ability to digest lactose, so it might just be that Dave has reached the end of the road in terms of his ability to digest dairy.

Took the non-food-allergic kid out for a test drive ...

2009-03-11T10:12:00.000-05:00

and she performed as advertised. Meaning, I fed her a food that would have made Ainsley have a monster allergic reaction, and she was absolutely fine. While Ainsley was at ballet yesterday, my dad and I went to eat at a Chinese food restaurant nearby. As those of you with food-allergic children know, ethnic restaurants (like Chinese, Thai, and Indian) are definite no-no's because they cook with basically all of the major allergens and there is a high probability of cross-contamination even if you order something that does not contain an allergen as an ingredient.

Despite my trepidation, I let Leighton eat some veggies from the fried rice I had ordered. I literally held my breath as I gave her the first few bites. After a few minutes, when it was obvious she was having no problem with the food, I started to relax, and began to fully realize what a difference it is to have a non-food-allergic child. It is just so ... easy. No that raising any type of kid - allergic or not - is that easy. Parenting is tough business for anyone. But still, the thought that I can feed one of my children basically anything is so liberating, emotionally and logistically. I don't have to watch her cautiously any time she eats something I didn't prepare, and I don't have to take special food for her when we go out. When she gets into grade school, she will be able to eat cafeteria food without me negotiating with the principal, the counselor, the teacher, and the cafeteria staff!

Please don't interpret my rejoicing at this to be whining about all I have to do with my food-allergic child. It is what it is, and we are more than happy to do whatever it takes to keep Ainsley safe because she is our wonderful, wonderful daughter and we love her more than life. It's just that I've never had the typical parenting experience when it comes to food, and now I'm starting to get a taste of it with Leighton. And it is fantastic to know that I don't have to be anxious, food-allergy-wise, about both of my children.

Mystery hives

2009-03-09T09:28:00.000-05:00

Last night something happened that seems to be really common among those with food allergies ... hives started appearing on Ainsley and we had no idea what had caused them. This happens a few times a year with her. All of a sudden, she will start itching - sometimes it's her stomach, sometimes her arms or legs, and sometimes her face - and little hives will pop up. The last several times it has happened, we have had no idea what the cause was, either because she didn't eat anything around the time the hives started to appear or what she ate was something she's had before or something we're 99.9% sure wouldn't have anything she's allergic to in it (barring the ever-present possibility of cross-contamination).

Last night, while at my in-laws', she ate dinner (brisket, green beans, carrots, and a baked potato) and then my mother-in-law gave her a bath in their big garden tub. After the bath, Ainsley ate some chocolate cake that my mother-in-law had made the night before - it was from a Duncan Hines mix but the only allergen listed in the ingredient list was wheat and Ainsley had eaten some of it the day before without incident.

About 20-30 minutes after the bath and about 15-20 minutes after eating the cake, Ainsley started scratching at her stomach. I looked and saw some red splotchy areas and a little hive, so I put some hydrocortisone on it. I kept checking the area and saw that, over the next few minutes, a few more tiny hives had formed and the red spotchy area had spread to more of her stomach. So we broke out the Benadryl and after about a half-hour or so, Ainsley stopped complaining of the itching and the hives went away.

I wasn't really worried during this time - when Ainsley has had a serious allergic reaction to something she's ingested, the first sign has always been vomiting, and she had no problems like that last night. In fact, she said she felt completely fine except for the itching. The fact that she had no internal symptoms (such as itching in her mouth or vomiting) makes me think that it might have been something from the bath; perhaps residue from a cleaning product that had been used to clean the bathtub. With regard to baths, we are always careful about what soaps we use on Ainsley (nothing with dairy or nut ingredients, which are so common in soaps and lotions); the only thing my mom-in-law used on Ainsley was a very plain Johnson & Johnson soap and, right after the bath, some Eucerin lotion.

One time a couple of years ago she had hives on her legs and the tops of her feet after a bath, but we had also eaten at a restaurant shortly before that and let her have some corn chips that we had ordered, so we were never sure if it was something about the bath or something that had gotten on the corn chip, perhaps when it was in the fryer with other foods.

The frustrating thing about mystery hives is that it so hard to pinpoint their source. You can try to narrow it down but, really, it's impossible unless it happens again and you can see a pattern. I guess I am just glad this doesn't happen very often with her. But when it does, it is a reminder that, even though she's been free of a serious allergic reaction for almost two years, she still has allergies and we have to continue being very careful with her.

Big news: Leighton appears not to have food allergies!

2009-03-06T10:42:00.011-06:00

Because Leighton is almost one, we took her to Ainsley's allergist yesterday for skin testing to determine whether she has food allergies. The allergist told us that siblings of severely food allergic children have 10 times the risk of having food allergies as kids without a food-allergic brother or sister, so we were nervous but still optimistic because she has shown no signs of having food allergies other than her bout with eczema a few weeks ago. He tested her for egg, milk, soy, peanut, almond, cashew, hazelnut, walnut, fish (aka "fish mix"), & shellfish ("shellfish mix"). If you're not familiar with skin testing, the allergist takes a large area of the body - usually the arm, leg, or back (in both my girls' cases, the doctor tested for a lot of things so he used their backs), writes identification numbers (1, 2, 3, etc.) on different parts of the back, and applies a tiny pinprick's worth of the designated allergen next to the appropriate number. Leighton's back looked like this:

1 (prick with egg) 5 (prick with almond)

2 (prick with milk) 6 (prick with cashew)

3 (prick with soy) 7 (prick with hazelnut)

4 (prick with peanut)

Aside from these substances, the child gets two more pricks. Below the numbers, the allergist writes an "H", which stands for histamine, and a "C", which stands for control, spaced several inches apart. By the "H", the allergist pricks the skin with a substance that would cause a hive on everyone. By the "C", the child is pricked with something that would not cause a hive on anyone. These are just to ensure that the child's skin prick tests, in general, are accurate.

So after the kid's skin is pricked with these various substances, you have to sit in the exam room for another 15-20 minutes to see if any hives develop where the pricks are. When we had this done with Ainsley (last August), the pricks and the waiting were a completely miserable experience because she developed large hives to practically all of the ~20 substances (mostly different kinds of tree nuts) she was tested for. She was crying and complaining the entire time about how itchy her back was and how much the pricks hurt. I was so traumatized by the skin testing we did with Ainsley that I made Dave come with me yesterday so I wouldn't have to endure 20 minutes of a screaming baby by myself.

Well, I am thankful to say that with Leighton, it was a completely different experience. She barely noticed the pricks themselves (whereas Ainsley started screaming when the nurse did the pricks, probably because the substances actually did cause pain since her skin is very sensitive to them). She played happily for the next 15 minutes until the allergist and nurse came back in. Her back looked amazing - there was no hive except by the "H", where there was supposed to be one. Everyone was so relieved to see that she had no hive to any of the foods they had put on her. (Had she had a hive to anything, they would have measured the size of it - predictably, the bigger the hive, the more allergic one usually is to something. She would have then had a blood test to determine what her "CAP-RAST" number, a number between 0 - 100, was to the allergen. Generally, the higher the number, the higher risk that she would have a serious allergic reaction to the substance if she ingested it.)

The allergist told us that, based on these results, Leighton can basically eat anything we want to feed her. Interestingly, he even gave us clearance to feed her fish, shellfish, peanuts, and tree nuts. He said that there is so much evidence now that delaying introduction of an allergen does not prevent a child from having an allergy to it, and may actually increase the chances of the child being allergic to it, that he no longer recommends avoiding food allergens until a child is older. He did warn, however, that if we choose to introduce something like peanut butter into her diet, it is a good idea to try and get her to consume the food regularly so her body will stay tolerant of it. Since we told him it's near impossible to guarantee we can feed her peanuts/tree nuts on a regular basis because we don't have it at home and her preschool is nut-free, he said we can just not worry about the nuts right now and she can be introduced to them later, whenever we feel comfortable doing so.

The allergist then talked with us about the logistics of managing a home with a child who is severely allergic to so many things and with a child who appears to be allergic to nothing. To maintain Ainsley's safety, he suggested continuing with our current arrangement of not eating anything at home that she is allergic to, and instead sending foods that contain dairy and eggs to preschool for Leighton so she can eat them away from Ainsley. We will also allow Leighton to eat these foods at restaurants (we can actually feed her off of our plate!) and at birthday parties.

Because Ainsley was our first child, we have never known what it is like to have a kid who is able to eat anything she wants. It is a whole new world and I am very nervous, especially about whether Ainsley will feel jealous that Leighton can eat anything while we have to feed her special food. The two scenarios I am most worried about at this point are (a) when we eat at a restaurant and Leighton wants something Ainsley can't have, and (b) when we're at a birthday party and Leighton can eat what is being served while Ainsley has to have her homemade cupcake. But, on the other hand, I can't imagine denying Leighton these things in the name of protecting Ainsley's feelings, because it is also important for Leighton to have as normal of a childhood as possible and I think that includes allowing her to eat normal foods. If anyone has any advice on juggling food-allergic and non-food-allergic kids, I am all ears.

Despite my worries, I am still over the moon about this news!

Easter candy molds

2009-03-03T15:57:00.004-06:00

I just ordered several different types of chocolate bunny molds from this site. I picked out a large bunny mold, some bite-sized bunny molds, and some chocolate lollipop bunny-head molds. I am so excited to get them (you know you are a mom when things like this excite you). I will show you the finished products soon. Ainsley has been begging for a chocolate Easter bunny and I am so happy she will get one this year!

To make the chocolate, I usually use the recipe from the Kid-Pleasing Cookbook (see sidebar), which includes melting baking chocolate and mixing it with some shortening and powdered sugar (not a difficult recipe at all). However, this time I might be really lazy and just microwave some safe chocolate chips and pour the melted chocolate in the molds.

Storytime take II

2009-03-03T14:46:00.002-06:00

Well, another nut sighting at the library. We went to storytime again today and the same lady brought peanut products for her kids again. This time she gave them peanut butter crackers and trail mix with peanuts and M&Ms to carry around. Like last time, her younger daughter was captivated by Leighton so I had to spend a good part of the program trying to keep the girl from touching the baby or kissing her with her peanut-butter-covered mouth. I was so close to saying something to the mom, but in the end I didn't, because I didn't want to look like the food police.

Then I began to wonder if I was a hypocrite, because I gave Ainsley and Leighton Ritz crackers to eat while we were there. The mother of a child with a serious wheat allergy could understandibly have a problem with that. Now, whenever I give my kids anything that has any allergen in it, I try to make sure they don't drop crumbs everywhere or get it all over some other kid, but it's not like I don't feed them any allergen-containing food in these types of public places. Maybe I should stop. I could always make sure to bring something like Enjoy Life bars that don't contain any of the top 8 allergens. I think I'm going to resolve to do this, because, knowing what I do about food allergies, I don't ever want to make another family feel uncomfortable or unsafe based on what my kids are eating.

Yummy snack/meal: Soy butter & banana crackers

2009-03-01T12:10:00.004-06:00

We are having the yummiest lunch right now and it is so easy: take a reduced fat Wheat Thin, smear some soy nut butter (creamy or chunky) on it, and put a banana slice on top. This is seriously yummy - the flavors really go well together. Tastes even better when you drink chocolate soy or rice milk along with it! This time, Ainsley and I are having a few (okay, I'm trying to stop myself from eating 100 of them) before we go see Sleeping Beauty at a local puppet theater.

In honor of my dad: dairy-free, egg-free, sugar-free birthday cupcakes

2009-02-26T19:00:00.014-06:00

Today is my dad's birthday. For the past two years, I have made him cupcakes on his birthday. The only issue with that is that my dad is a Type I (insulin-dependent) diabetic, and has been most of his life. That means he cannot have baked goods that contain a lot of sugar. Ordinarily, this wouldn't be a problem, because recipes for diabetic desserts abound. However, as you might guess, there aren't a whole lot of diabetic desserts also made to be consumed by someone allergic to eggs and milk, and I wasn't going to make cupcakes that Ainsley couldn't eat too.

So I made up my own recipe. It wasn't hard - the only thing I did was substitute Splenda for sugar in my usual egg-free, dairy-free cake recipe, which I got from another food allergy mom. And you know what? It tastes AWESOME. No kidding - it really does. You can hardly tell that it does not contain eggs, milk, or sugar. Not only that, it's a pretty easy recipe. I don't even make my own icing - I rely on Pillsbury Reduced Sugar frosting (it is sweetened with sugar and with Splenda; my dad can have a little sugar so that icing works for him). Here is my recipe - I hope it helps anyone else out there who is struggling with all of these food restrictions.

Dairy-Free, Egg-Free, Sugar-Free Cupcakes (makes 1 dozen cupcakes)

1 3/4 C flour
1 Tbsp + 1 tsp baking powder
1/2 C dairy-free margarine, room temp
1 C Spenda granulated
3 tsp Ener-G Egg Replacer + 3 Tbsp canola/vegetable oil + 3 Tbsp water, mixed together
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven 375 degrees. Combine all ingredients and beat until light and fluffy. Fill cupcake liners 2/3 full. Bake for 13-15 minutes or until tester comes out clean. Note: these cupcakes are more fragile than normal ones, so do not frost until they are cool and be very gentle when frosting. Also, they do not to stick as well as normal cupcakes to the cupcake wrappers, especially the gold/silver foil ones.

As previously mentioned, for icing, you might try Pillsbury Reduced Sugar frosting in vanilla or chocolate (we especially love the chocolate flavor). The only allergen it contains is soy.

Happy Birthday Dad!

We're stuck on food allergy stickers

2009-02-24T14:42:00.011-06:00

I am always curious as to the measures other allergy moms take to ensure that others who might come into contact with their food-allergic child when they aren't around know about the child's allergies. Because I have worked part-time since Ainsley was four months old, she has been in daycare (I prefer to call it "nursery school," because daycare has a negative connotation in our society) for several years. When we first discovered her allergies, we tried a variety of approaches to try and remind her regular teachers as well as any substitutes she might encounter that she has allergies and should not be fed certain foods.

We first tried a sticker that we put on the table at the spot where she sat for snacks and meals every day. But that didn't work very well for us - once a substitute gave her cheese cubes by putting them right on top of the sticker.

We also put a notice up in her room that informed everyone in big letters that a child in the classroom had allergies and also outlined the emergency procedures that the staff should take if she was fed an allergen or had an allergic reaction. But the staff never seemed to take notice of this (I should mention at this point that eventually we had a not so amicable parting with this school and, for the last two years, Ainsley has been at a much better school in terms of its allergy awareness).

When Ainsley moved to her new school two years ago, I decided to take another approach. I printed out a sheet of stickers that informed whoever read it that she had food allergies and listed what she was allergic to (I know there are stickers like this or this available for purchase, but I decided it was easier, and much cheaper, to make my own). Now, before you say, "Wow, what a great idea!" I have to admit that Ainsley Allergy Sticker 1.0 was neither subtle nor cute. It consisted of a giant white mailing label (I think it was 4" x 6") that used 20-point font (capital letters, of course). Just in case someone somehow missed the sticker on her front, we put an identical one on her back. Thankfully, the kid was just 2 years old and had no idea what we had done to her.

In the years since, we have refined our sticker system. Version 2.0 was a small starburst in snazzy neon pink, yellow, or green (I bought a pack of Avery labels that had sheets of various neon colors). I shortened the statement to say "ALLERGIC TO DAIRY, EGGS, & PEANUTS/NUTS" or something to that effect. Unfortunately, it seems Avery discontinued those sunbursts because, in the past year, I haven't been able to find them anywhere. So now, for version 3.0, I use a small rectangular Avery label (1" x 2 5/8") that comes in the same neon colors. The current one reads,

I HAVE FOOD ALLERGIES

(to dairy, eggs, & peanuts/nuts) --

Only feed me food that my parents have approved!

Now we only put one on her, usually in the same place that someone would put a nametag. Below is a pic of one of the printed stickers. If you want to look for them in a store, they are Avery 5979, "Neon Assorted High Visibility Labels." So far version 3.0 has worked well for us. People seem to have no trouble spotting her sticker but it is small enough to not be distracting. A mom of another child in Ainsley's current preschool class said that she immediately noticed the sticker on Ainsley and thought, "Wow, that mom is serious about her kid's food allergies." Mission accomplished.

I must add, though, that I doubt I'll be able to do the sticker thing for more than the next couple of years. One day, she will (very reasonably) find the stickers embarrassing. But by that time, my hope is that we will have taught her enough self-protection skills that she can keep herself safe by informing others of her allergies and not eating food she thinks might have any allergens in it. Or maybe she'll just outgrow all of her allergies before then so we won't have to worry about them anymore (a mom can dream, right?). Until then, I just take things one day at a time, and at this point in time, the sticker system is working, so we're going to stick with it (yet another bad attempt at humor).

When eczema attacks

2009-02-23T16:53:00.004-06:00

No, the eczema is not on my food-allergic four-year-old. She still has occasional flare-ups, but for the most part, she is eczema-free except in the summertime, when pool water (salt or chlorine) really aggravates her skin. This time it's on my previously-assumed-to-be-non-food-allergic 11-month old, who has it all over her stomach and back :(.

It started a week or two ago - I noticed a little bit of it on her back so I put some hydrocortisone on it and forgot about it. But I saw it again on Friday, and this time there was a lot of it and it covered most of her back. By Saturday morning it covered some of her stomach, and by yesterday it covered even more. I have no idea what is causing it, but am 99% sure it's a food. She has started eating so much lately, and that's really the only condition that's changed.

I think I've narrowed it down to soy or dairy. She has had a few items with dairy in them at school (mac & cheese and regular challah bread) and I had been quietly rejoicing that she had had no reaction to them, but now I fear it was a delayed reaction. But she has also had more soy than usual lately - she ate some casserole with a lot of soy margarine on it on Wed. & Thurs., drank some of Ainsley's soy milk on Fri., and ate some soy yogurt on Sat.

I cannot remain neutral. Of the two, I would VASTLY prefer another dairy-allergic child. Virtually everything Ainsley eats has soy in it. I can cook dairy-, egg-, and nut-free, but I think it might actually break me to try to eliminate soy too. Soy and dairy are like two sides of the same coin. You can be allergic to dairy because there are a lot of soy-based dairy alternatives. But if you're allergic to dairy and soy ... well, that's a tough nut to crack (terrible attempt at food allergy humor).

Thankfully, we have Leighton's first real allergist appointment a week from Thursday. We are doing skin prick testing for all of the major allergens that day. Prior to the last few days, I was confident Leighton would sail through the testing without any positive reactions. Now, I am not so sure.

Fun food allergy find - single cupcake holder

2009-02-19T13:55:00.004-06:00

My mom-in-law gave us a cupcake holder for Christmas and I get compliments on it whenever I take it anywhere. It is perfect for taking Ainsley's allergen-free cupcake to birthday parties or other special occasions. My MIL found it at Bed, Bath, & Beyond. I just looked and apparently you can't order it from BBB online, but perhaps it's still being carried in the stores. In any case, here is another (though admittedly less cute) version you can purchase online.

Yale Daily News food allergy article

2009-02-18T12:08:00.000-06:00

I was impressed to see this article in the YDN. Dave and I went to law school at Yale and we would love for one or both of the girls to go there (yes, I am one of those moms who already fantasizes about what college her preschoolers might go to). I assumed Yale would be pretty good with food allergies, and it sounds like the school is really making strides. I'm sure it will have the drill pretty down-pat by the time Ainsley's old enough to be out on her own. As a food allergy mom, I, of course, worry how she'll be able to manage when she's grown-up and I can't cook every meal for her. I am glad to see that college dining halls are taking seriously their responsibilities in feeding food allergic kids.

*Food Allergy Family Fun*