Picky eater or food neophobia

It has been over a week since I broke down and took all the pasta from our house and put it in a big garbage bag and stored it away.  There were about 20 boxes of pasta in that bag. We told Aiden that the mailman took it.   The reason I did this is because he woke up asking for pasta. For lunch he wants pasta. For dinner he wants pasta. I feel like he's getting worse and worse with his pasta addiction so I figured kicking the pasta habit cold turkey would be the best route.

I get so many comments from strangers, friends and family...

                "Just let him be"

                "He won't starve"

                "force it"

                "my kid is the same way"

Well...

                - We tried

                - Yes he will

                - We tried and it back fired

                - really?

Last night I hit a new low.  I tried forcing him to eat pasta with broccoli.  I put him in his little brothers crib every time he wouldn't eat it and only take him out of the crib if he tells me he will eat it.  So after the 6th or 7th time in the crib and many many tears, he fell asleep, hungry.  He lost weight since we took pasta out which made me realize that the comment "he won't starve" is not necessarily true.  I  feel terrible for trying to force him to eat, especially since it didn't work. It only made him resent me.  I'm scared daily that he doesn't eat enough nutrients.   His little brother is starting to pick up his bad habits and he only wants the same food as his big brother, Aiden.   So now we need to separate them during meal time so Aiden can't influence Dylan.  

I did some research online and came across this video "ExtremelyPicky Eaters Fear Trying New Foods" There is an actual name for this -- Food Neophobia.  I'm curious if Aiden has this or if his fear of food is due to his food allergies.  Aiden gags and hits his face when we try to give him something new to eat.  I can tell that he is curious about certain foods but he can't get himself to try it. Even watermelon was an issue this weekend.

Aiden's will only eat the following 10 foods.  I cannot imagine that this little 3.5 year old boy is getting enough nutrients, even while taking vitamin supplements.

Plain granola (most of the time)

pancakes/waffles (rarely)

toast with jelly (sometimes)

chicken nuggets (sometimes)

Alphabet fries (most of the times)

Bagels (every time)

pasta with safe butter (every time)

muffins (all the time)

Cereals (most of the time)

Corn on the cob (all the time)

But his options are endless.

I'm going to step back and let him go back to eating pasta. 

Stressed to the newest level

Having a picky eater is stressful.  Having a picky eater with food allergies is painful.  Having TWO picky eaters can make you go crazy!  My 1 year old (no allergies) is becoming worse than my 3 year old (allergies) and it's making me go nuts! 

We finally realized that my little guy is milk intolerant but it's not the worst news since we don't have dairy in the house anyways and because it's not going to kill him if he accidentally has dairy.  Since he started eating solids we gave him loads of varieties and never held back when it came to feeding him. He ate everything we gave him and we were excited to finally have a child who eats.  That all ended last week and today I couldn't take it anymore and left the house.  I left my two hungry kids with my poor husband. 

My 3.5 year old who is allergic to milk, eggs, nuts (and avoiding soy) only eats chicken nuggets, pasta, plain granola and sometimes toast with jelly.   But out of those 4 items, he usually just wants pasta.  He wakes up asking for pasta. Wants pasta for lunch and for dinner. Can a child survive eating only these foods? No veggies and no fruit and hardly any protein. I wonder how he even has energy.  We try every single day to give him some sort of veggies. Today was the first time I sent him up to his room and into time-out because I made him toast but he didn't want it so he asked for nuggets, I made nuggets and wouldn't eat them so he asked for pasta.  I'm constantly throwing food out.  So I couldn't take it anymore and threw him into time-out and then in his room.  Not my proudest moment but we all at some point just loose it.

My 1.5 year old has a fear of food being hot lately.  I'm pretty sure my nanny burned him sometime last week because this change was very sudden.  She, of course, denied it.   Even when it's something completely cold he will freak out that it's hot. He use to eat everything and since last week he barely eats anything.  Today he only had a smoothie and plain pasta. 

I wish I was home with them every day than I could work on their eating habits.  Even then I wonder if it would make a difference.  I'm so worn out just trying to feed them.  Even with their restrictions there are so many options which makes it so much more frustrating.  If there were no options than I would understand.

Dinner time

I cook at home almost every day and it's always safe for Aiden. We made our house safe for him so he never has to hear us say "you can't have this because you're allergic to it" since he will have to hear it enough outside of the house.  His school is great when it comes to his allergies and offers safe snacks for the entire class. It is very rare where he is given a "special" cookie and the rest of the class has something else.  Even the parents have been amazing and have made sure Aiden is a part of the birthday or holiday celebrations and made safe snacks which Aiden can also eat.  I thought I would never let Aiden eat from someone else kitchen because he is so sensitive to even cross contamination, but these parents have assured me and dealt with my 100 questions about how things are made.

Our pantry has all safe foods. Our freezer has coconut ice cream.  I bake safe breads, cookies and cakes weekly so he is never limited to what he can have.  Yet, with all these measures he is scared of food.

Last night I made a milk/soy/egg/nut free broccoli risotto that was out of this world delicious! My 14 month old devoured three bowls of it.  But as soon as I asked Aiden to try a little he broke down. I didn't even put the fork near his mouth because I know if I did, he would have one of his episodes.  We learned the hard way not to trick him into trying something new.  You know, pretend you're putting a chicken nugget in his mouth but really it's guacamole.  We did that a few times and it took us hours to calm him down. At times he would start hitting his mouth. Rub his tongue on his shirt as if he's having an allergic reaction. Walk around with his mouth open crying.  It's really heart breaking.  We know guacamole is safe for him. He use to eat it daily but then he just stopped.  Same thing goes for so many other foods. Even simple foods.  He's even scared of fruit.  I know kids are smarter than we give them credit for, but I'm really worried.  I thought this would get easier with time and yes, there are things that did get easier, but so much of it became harder.

I'm hoping with age, he will learn to trust us and start trying new foods.

I can't be any more in love ...

Safe and Healthy Fats

List of some healthy fats...

Coconut butter / oil - It has a strong coconut flavor so I can't really trick Aiden, but my 14 month old seems to love it.  I add it to bread, pasta, smoothies

Avocado - Plain, sushi or guacamole style. Use kid friendly chopsticks for a more fun way to eat them.

Hummus - Aiden use to be allergic to sesame so we started making our own and it's actually very easy.  Too bad Aiden isn't a fan of hummus.

Nuts and Seeds - Obviously nuts only depend on the allergy and if you're allergic to peanuts, it's really hard to find other nuts without the worry of cross contamination so it's always best to avoid all nuts.  But seeds also have amazing fats! flax seeds, chia seeds, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds.

Olive Oil - You can add it to pretty much anything

Coming soon...

Baby number two is almost here -less than two weeks until I see him.  A pregnancy is the most amazing miracle.  There is a tiny human growing inside my belly right now.  I think he's training to be the next soccer champion from the feel of his kicks.  I love the kicks. It's a remainder of life and what we are capable of creating.  I can't wait to meet him.  I have always wanted two boys and two girls (yes, AND) but I think I'm good with just two boys.  I'm looking forward to the years ahead with my three men by my side.

I couldn't have asked for more with Aiden. He's so sweet and lovable. Loves to give me kisses and squeezes and has a huge personality. I heard him reading his "Polar Bear Polar Bear" book yesterday by himself.  I cannot be any more proud!  

I think my life would be almost perfect if food allergies did not exist. I can't wait until he understand what food allergies are so that I can stop having anxiety attacks.  I'm looking forward to the time when Aiden asks... "mommy, is this safe for me?" or better yet, the time he can read his own ingredients.

My favorite person in the whole world (soon there will be two favorite people :)

7 Foods Experts Won’t Eat

Great article..

http://wakeup-world.com/2011/10/06/7-foods-experts-wont-eat/


1. Canned Tomatoes (answer: choose tomatoes in glass bottles)
2. Corn-Fed Beef (answer: don't eat meat! or buy grass fed beef)
3. Microwave Popcorn (answer: use natural kernels old fashion popcorn and make it in a skillit)
4. Potatoes (answer: buy organic potatoes)
5. Farmed Salmon (answer: switch to wild-caught Alaska salmon)
6. Milk Produced with Artificial Hormones (answer: buy organic and make sure the label says rBGH-free, rBST-free, produced without artificial hormones)
7. Conventional Apples (answer: buy organic)

Even though the list can be multiplied by 50! at least.

Fatty foods for kids with allergies

One of the most common worries from moms that have children with food allergies, (other than a reaction) is... is my child getting enough fat. Is he thriving. Is he gaining weight.  We are always looking for ways to fatten up our kids and make sure they are eating a balanced meal.

Even my super picky eater gets enough fat on most days

This list provides healthy fatty foods.

Avocados
Probably Aiden's favorite. He eats about 1/2 an avocado a day and it's made into guacamole (a little minced onion, tomato, salt, lime juice). he eats it in a guacamole dish and on a "safe" chip.

Hummus
It's not really that fatty but I add extra olive oil when making it.  Most hummus has Sesame in the ingredients (aka Tahini), so be careful there is no sesame allergy. Aiden was allergic to sesame for the first year and we were able to find Tahini free hummus at Trader Joes.  It's also super simple to make hummus yourself so you know what's in it.

Sunbutter/Peanut Butter/Almond butter/Pea butter
Depending on the allergy. Sunbutter is probably the safest. Aiden can have almonds so we use almond butter from a fresh grinding machine (no cross contamination).

Yogurts
Depending on the allergy. We are milk/soy free so we use "So Delicious" yogurts. They are rediculously delicious and work great in baked goods (I love to bake with yogurt, makes the cakes much more moist)

Smoothies
You can get so creative with smoothies.  I use almond milk or yogurt, but anything works. I add 1 teaspoon of flaxseed meal to every smoothie.  In the summer I use fresh fruit and in the winter I use Trader Joe's frozen berry mix.

Olive Oil / Safe butter
I put olive oil on everything. Bread, pasta, nuggets... I always cook in either olive oil or the earths best (red container) butter.

Meat
I'm not a fan of this but it is fatening and even though I don't eat meat, I do make it for Aiden. He eats Tyson chicken nuggets almost every day.   There are many lean meats that are super fatening.

Fish
Depending on the allergy. We are suspecting some fish allergies so we avoid all until further testing.

He just turned two!  My "big" man :)

if you think of any other good fats, please let me know 

Summer Meal Plan

Aiden's current meal plan..

Breakfast: Oatmeal with Flaxseed meal

Snack: Cheerios and 5-8 oz Rice milk

Lunch: Almond Butter Chex sandwiches
OR: Almond Butter Rice Crisp Balls
OR: Bagel with jelly

Snack:Fruit

Dinner: Mac & chreese with Dayia cheese. Peas or broccoli
OR: Pasta with red tomato sauce with peas. Peas or broccoli
On occasion, in addition -  guacamole, one Tyson dinosaur chicken finger or turkey sausage.

Dessert: "So Delicious" ice cream

Before bed: 8 oz Rice milk

We came a loooong way from oatmeal for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Allergy friendly BBQ

So far, all I have done on this blog is vent about my son's allergies.  They suck. Really-really-really suck!  But my husband and I recently hosted a BBQ at our house and we made sure that it is completely safe for Aiden. Which means, no dairy, soy, eggs, nuts.  Friendly to a vegetarian and a meat eater. 

On the menu: Hot dogs, Good dogs, Veggie burger, beef burger, turkey burger, corn on the cob, mixed veggies and pasta

Ok.. so there were a few slices of cheese going around, but Aiden wouldn't have an anaphylactic reaction to that.

For desert we had Enjoy Life's brownie cookies and So Delicious chocolate ice cream with an allergy friendly cone.  All the kids LOVED the ice cream and my son is the biggest fan.

The best part of it all, I was able to relax and enjoy watching my son run around with other kids while having an ice cream cone in his hands.  And to make things even more exciting, seeing all the other kids with ice cream cones in their hands near my son and I'm not a mama-bear going on an attack.

Some photos of this fantastic day!

Aiden having an ice cream cone for the first time. wow, it's cold! 

This is how the summer days should be.

My reality

The reality is that at any moment someone can slip.  Every time someone forgets to wash their hands when they walk through our door I cringe.  Every time someone touches Aiden's face I want to go on an attack.  Just recently a little girl kissed Aiden and as cute as it is, it is also scary. This particular mom understood since her daughter cannot eat wheat but most parents don't understand.  I usually have to interview the mom with what their child ate that day, just incase there was some sort of lip contact.  Eyes start rolling and the dirty looks start coming.  Unless you are a parent of a Food Allergic kid or if you witness someone you truly love go into an anaphylactic reaction, you will never totally understand it.  But please at least have the compassion to not roll your eyes when I'm standing right in front of you.  I get it, it's rude to tell you not to touch my son or not to give him that cookie.  I mean, what kind of a mother does not let a grandparent touch their own grandchild? or what kind of a mother does not let a stranger give him a cookie?

At the end of the day I have a child that is sleeping in his own bed and not in the ER.  Until he himself understand food allergies, it is his fathers and mothers duty to protect him. I have cried too many tears because of these stupid allergies and I want nothing more than for my son to be free of them and to have a normal life. To play with other kids without worry. To go out to dinner and enjoy having desert that is ordered from the menu, not from what mom baked couple days or weeks earlier.  I want nothing more than for a little girl to give Aiden a huge kiss and a hug. 

I wonder how will these allergies affect Aiden as an adult?  Will he be like Sloane Miller and still enjoy life? Will he develop some sort of a compulsive disorder and wash his hands every time someone or something touches them?  Will he lock himself in his room and never come out?  Will he travel the world?  Will he be smart and cautious or rebellious?  I catch myself thinking about the future much more frequently than I probably should.

I just hope and pray that he will always be as happy as he is now. 

Summer time

Summer is almost here and this is the time to jump up and down with excitement because this means more play time at the park.  This means waking up Sunday mornings and going to the restaurants and sitting outside while having those yummy pancakes for brunch. It's time to grab our beach towels and head towards the water for some fun in the sand.  This means it's time to barbeque every weekend.  Visiting friends and having lots of play dates on the green grass.

The ice cream truck will make its way onto our block while the kids scream Ice Cream! Ice Cream!  I couldn’t wait for Aiden to be big enough for the Ice Cream truck. I pictured him running to us for money so that he can get a rainbow pop. 

But this is not our story, just a dream we once had.  I tear up just thinking about how many restrictions we have. How much planning goes into a simple trip to a friend's house.  Making sure everyone around us is aware Aiden has food allergies to avoid any accidents. Educating everyone and ourselves every second of the day. Going to the park scares me because the child next to him could have had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich ten minutes ago and now he's touching the swing set my son is playing on. Do I wipe everything down before Aiden touches it? It’s impossible. 

I should have the luxury of just watching Aiden play and savoring every moment, every smile, every “look mom!" comment.  Instead I worry every second he is not at home.  I will do my best to focus on fun, not food this summer.

This is my awesome family. Me--my brother--my husband--Aiden--my mom--my step-dad. 

Is it possible that everyone here is looking at the camera? wow.. impressive.

Bye bye sesame!

Farewell! Bye! Adios! Ja ne! Bis Dann! Ciao! Dowidzenia! Peace! 

oh wait!  Good bye sesame and hello sesame, we can actually have stuff with tahini and not freak out now.

Hello, Hi, Hola, Czesc, Welcome, aloha..

Aiden outgrew his sesame allergy! yay!  and we are slowly kicking milk and soy in the butt too.  I am so happy!  For a long time we though he was allergic to tomatoes, chicken, beef, fish, beans and so many other things.  It still doesn't explain the breakout he had when he tried Pollack fish but we'll give it another try again soon and hopefully it was just his Polish skin being super sensitive (as my Polish allergist said).

We found this awesome allergist and finally had new tests done. He was tested for almost everything we could have thought of and the results were.. Drum roll..

Sesame -gonzo! 

Milk - super duper low levels

Soy - soy who? Almost gone

Eggs - you mother f*cker! Hate you more than you can imagine.  (Levels almost quadrupled)

Peanuts - Die die die die die! That’s all I have to say to you! 

No other allergy found -yay!  So we only have to worry about egg and peanuts.  Hopefully by next year his egg allergy will start disappearing and we are only stuck with one, which hopefully will one day disappear also -a girl can dream.

So what's up with the gagging whenever he has meat, beans and other things? Or the rashes that he gets from some foods?  He's Polish and ridiculously sensitive. In other words -he has my skin.  Someone will touch me and I get a black and blue. If I get mad, I look like I'm a tomato and I get this awesome looking rash all over my chest.  The gagging is because he hates meat. I don't blame him -it really is gross. That's my boy!!!!!!!!! 

Since getting the results we have expanded our food options for him. He eats veggies!!!!! I realized he will eat probably any vegetable if it's mixed in with avocado and offered on a chip. In a guacamole dish ONLY.  yeah, he's weird like that.  But who cares, he's eating and loving every bite. 

Here is my little boy being completely awesome. 

And yes, his ears ARE this big! Again, after his mommy

Children with allergies and their vegetarian mothers

I have such mixed feelings about this.  I keep having the mommy guilt that I gave Aiden these allergies by being vegetarian and not having enough protein in my diet during the pregnancy. I wasn't a healthy vegetarian during the pregnancy and probably that's the main cause. But it just stinks. 

I want to get pregnant again and I want to make sure I'm doing everything right. I need to make sure I have enough zinc, enough calcium, enough protein and so on.  All of these things were not on my mind during my first pregnancy because I had gestational diabetes and my main concern was carbs and sugar intake.

The chances of me having gestational diabetes during my next pregnancy are high so I need to find a healthy balance for being a diabetic vegetarian.

A recent photo of my super awesome kido

Fish, Chicken, Beef, Beans, Avocados..

...Those might be Aiden's new allergies. I am not a happy Mommy right now..  He has these two massive blisters on his head which is a result of a reaction.  I have been giving Aiden Bisque pancakes for a while now and I guess I forgot to check the ingredients after we realized he's also allergic to Soy because there are Soybeans in the ingredients. I've been getting the yellow box, instead of the white box which is soy free.  I don't know how that's possible because I check EVERYTHING and I have no clue how I missed the ingredients on that box.  He didn't eat much and I always though he just didn't like pancakes, but what kid doesn't like pancakes? Well, it probably bothered him. 

As soon as I offer meat to him he acts like its poison so I stopped since it possibly IS poison to him. When I give him beans he spits them out, sometimes gags, and makes weird faces.  Again, might be bothering him.  Avocados just seem to always give him tummy problems and a rash.  I am pretty sure that he is allergic to fish, maybe not all fish, but definitely Pollack fish.  We offered it to him this past weekend and he had a rash on his face, neck and body. Lovely.

Can this child catch a break and just have a regular slice of pizza like all the other kids? Fine, he doesn’t need pizza, but damn it –stop it with all the new allergies. 

We are going to see a new allergist on March 4^th and I am super anxious!  An hour doesn’t go by that I do not think about the appointment.  I imagine having his blood work come back and the results all show that he outgrew everything and then I snap back into reality and realize that he has these massive blisters on his head which is a confirmation that he still has reactions.

I thought all of this would get easier.  Feeding him does gets easier but everything else does not.  Having family over is overwhelming. Last time we had a few family members over, one of them took out a peanut butter sandwich while my son was a few feet away. I was lost for words. I know kissing him is not allowed but I still see the same person that had the peanut butter sandwich kiss him way too close to the lips.  It sounds so selfish and rude to tell people NOT to kiss him and not to bring food into our house, but I would rather be the bitch of the family than have a dead child.  Sometimes I just want to scream. Sometimes I do.  I have seen people roll their eyes at me and make faces, but they just don’t get it. I don’t think they ever will.  We are making new rules and they will be known. No one is allowed to feed our child, this way he will learn that all food has to come from Mommy or Daddy. No kisses on the face. I am teaching him how Eskimos kiss and how to blow kisses.  I just don’t want someone else's lips on my child’s face.  I can see how that can sound to a person that never dealt with allergies, but to me, it sounds like a I’m saving my sons life. 

My oh so yummy Rice Puddiing

 

Aiden hates anything fancy. If i add some delicious spices to his food he will not eat it. But if it's plain and yummy, he will devour it.

This rice pudding cannot be any simpler to make and it has NO added sugar -oh yeah.

1 1/4 cup of (rice) milk
1 cup of white minute rice
(may need to add a tad more milk)
Sprinkle cinnamon

That's it. yup. now that's simple.

Yesterday I went even further. I added 2 Tbs of Almond butter, crushed rice krispies, steamed pureed broccoli and carrots. Mixed together.  Made little balls and coated them in rice krispies (semi-crushed). Baked for 10 minutes at 300. 

He has a ton of protein (almond butter), calcium (broccoli and milk) and a ton of vitamins.  Can I get a gold star now?  Days like this makes me want to dance around the house screaming he ate it! he ate it!

milk and food

I'm done :(  I can't believe the sadness I feel. I didn't think it would be this hard to stop giving him my milk but it is.  I do give myself credit for being able to hang on for 13 months and most of that time was mainly breast milk.  But now Aiden is only on Rice Milk and I'm not happy about that.  I don’t have a choice since he wants nothing to do with coconut milk and I’m just unsure about hemp milk.  So Rice milk is our only alternative.   I feel like he’s drinking carbs all day long though. 

I have an appointment with his nutritionist next week to help me figure out a way to feed him better.  I feel kind of silly calling his pediatrician and telling her that he’s not eating –HELP! Because after talking to a bunch of friends and co-workers it seems that a lot of 13+ month old children do not like to eat or are very picky. One co-workers child eats bread and cheese all day long. Another eats only pretzels.  The list goes on.  Aiden on the other hand eats. Sort of. He loves his edan pasta which has protein.  He loves his pizza (with rice cheese). He loves oatmeal . That’s about it.  He has oatmeal for breakfast, pasta /pizza for lunch, pasta/pizza for dinner and sometimes oatmeal again if dinner isn’t finished.  So he does eat. But I don’t think there is much of nutrition in there so I want ideas.  He doesn’t eat meat, which I am happy about but he also doesn’t eat beans or other protein substitutes.   I want to prevent him from becoming anemic but at the same time I hope I’m not over reacting and sending him to the nutritionist but in the mean time he’s doing great.

Here is my gorgeous baby.. yeah, I'm lucky!

My meal plan

Finding food that is Milk, egg, peanut, wheat, sesame and soy free is nearly impossible. It has been two days and these are my meals...

Breakfast: oatmeal with banana
Snack: fruit
Lunch: no-lettuce salad with cucumbers, tomato, onion, corn, avocado, kidney beans
Snack: skittles (yeah, my weakness)
Dinner: Gluten-free pasta with mixed vegetables (onions, peppers, mushrooms, broccoli (loads of), spinach, asparagus.

I'm completely addicted to my no-lettuce salad and can't get enough of it. I wish my lunches were a bit more fun so i need to search some new recipes.

I can deal with this exact meal plan for the next couple of weeks until Aiden gets a new allergy test but if he is positive for a soy allergy I will probably quit breastfeeding and put him on a prescription formula that is geared towards 12 to 24 month children.

On a side note, Aiden had his first peace of chicken a few days ago. I'm not super excited since it's a food I am not too crazy about but I'm super happy to know he's getting protein since he can't eat Tofu right now.

...soy

Soy is just another thing Adien and I are taking out of our diet.  Today is my first day and so far I only had breakfast which was oatmeal with banana.  I have no idea what I'm going to do for lunch and dinner. This Friday we may also be taking wheat out of our diet.

We took Aiden to the doctor yesterday because he has been having constant diarrhea for the past couple of weeks, anywhere from three to six times a day.   His doctor suspects that he may have developed an allergy to soy.  We also fear that he may have Celiac disease and he'll have to go gluten free for the rest of his life.  It's not the end of the world living with Celiac but when you already have so many allergies, it becomes harder than anyone can imagine. 

Yesterday was a hard day for the three of us.  The doctor couldn’t find his vein so he kept getting poked with a needle, not the best feeling for an 11.5 month old. He had four diarrheas.  He had a terrible diaper rash.  He hasn’t gained any weight in about four months. He was gasping for air from time to time which is a huge sign he is developing asthma.  Another thing we noticed last night was that he’s loosing hair.  Jared actually noticed it a while ago and has been mentioning it to me but I just though he is crazy because he is so nuts over hair.  When Aiden was sitting watching his cartoon’s I finally noticed the bold spots and I got a very uneasy feeling.  But the best part about the day was how much he smiled and laughed and played. I tear up thinking of how strong he is. He really is such a happy baby despite all the diaper changes and needles and food choices.  I know it could be a lot worse since we do have a very happy baby, but I just want things to be normal.

Meal time is going to be so hard. He’s not a fan of meat, actually he gags every time I put a piece of chicken near him so he has been eating tofu daily for the past couple of weeks, which is right around the same time his diarrhea started.   It also seems that he has a “blow out” right after he has anything with wheat, which sounds like celiac symptoms.  He has been waking up three or more times at night crying hysterically, we try to feed him but he usually just eats half an ounce and that’s it.  It seems like something is bothering him and we’re scarred it may be his tummy since that is another sign of celiac.

It would be really easy just to stop breast feeding him and just give him formula since he’s almost one but if he has an allergy to cow’s milk and soy and nuts than that limits him to only rice milk which is not the healthiest choice.  If I continue to breastfeed, he can continue to have the proper amount.

I hope this gets easier.

Here is Aiden a few days ago playing outside. Happy as a pig in mud.

Apple allergy

Because an egg, milk, peanut and sesame allergy isn't good enough, he now may have an apple and tomato allergy also.  He hasn't been breaking out as much since I went vegan but he still scratches from time to time.  Sometimes it's more frequent and other times nothing at all.  My husband has been blaming it on my milk and my diet since the beginning so he decided for us to avoid breast milk for three days.

As much as it all made sense to avoid breast milk I couldn't believe that it was the reason for his reactions because I am so strict with my diet.  So I couldn't do it.  I still fed Aiden breast milk behind my hubs back.  On the second day Aiden's back was much better and that pretty much labeled that it was my milk so I had to fess up that he was still drinking it.  Hubs was a bit ticked off but let it go since at the end all that mattered was Aiden's clear skin.

That night I realized one thing.  He hasn't had apples in three days and we know a few friends that have an apple allergy so we kept it away from him and his skin has been so much better.  Apples! would have never guessed it.

I pray that he doesn't get more allergies.

Doesn't his skin look amazing? I'm such a proud mama!

Mrs. Greens

I have a Mrs. Greens supermarket near my house and I am in love with their vegan section! they have rice cheese, vegan desserts, already made vegan food and everything is organic.

Yesterday I got a BBQ temph and it was delicious! This morning I had their blueberry vegan muffin -yummy!

Being vegan just got better!