Gestational Diabetes and Soy

I failed my one hour glucose test. Damn.  There is still a chance I don't have diabetes but since I had Gestational Diabetes while pregnant with Aiden, I'm pretty sure I have it now also.   When the nurse called to tell me the news I was eating M&M's, which is what I usually do at 2pm.  I put the rest of the M&M's on my co-workers desk and started my diet.  I came home and I was starving so I made myself a piece of whole wheat toast with butter.

While I'm eating it Aiden runs into the kitchen and snatches my toast and takes a bite.  I could have stopped him but deep down I wanted him to try something with soy since soy is his weakest allergy and I felt like he grew out of it.  The toast was the only thing in our house that has soybean oil in it.  He took a bite and a few seconds later had a full blown tantrum for more.  I guess he like sit.  I gave him the rest of the toast and hide the bread, otherwise he would eat the entire loaf.

I watched him like a hawk for the next 30 minutes. But there was nothing. No reaction. No scratching. No rash. No uncomfortable feelings. Just same ol' Aiden playing with his cars.  I almost cried! Wait, I did. But that could have been due to my migraine.

Saturday morning I gave him another piece of toast and he devoured it.  Later that day another piece of toast.  Saturday night he woke up twice in the middle of the night and cried but went back to sleep.  Sunday he got more toast and later that day I noticed he has an invisible diaper rash.  He's in pain during diaper change but no rash.  Sunday night he woke up crying again but there was a thunderstorm.

Monday my nanny gave him one piece of toast and when I came home the diaper rash was visible, but a little different.  Usually when he has a diaper rash it's a red rash, this time there were little red bumps all over his butt.  So we're stopping toast for a month until his system clears and then next month try again. If he gets another diaper rash and wakes up in the middle of the night than we know he's not ready for soy.

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

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!

{food challenge} Day 1

Two days ago I had a meltdown.  This melt down included crying, sobbing, fighting, and couple of glasses of wine, a long hot shower and an early bed time. Feeding Aiden is a challenge. A hard challenge. I come home from work at about five at night and play with him for about an hour. I put Sesame Street on and start to cook dinner while he's watching his all-time favorite furry animal, Elmo.  I make plain pasta, rice pudding, almond butter jelly sandwich, and heat up leftovers from the night before hoping he will like something from the list.  I turn the TV off and try to put him in the high chair which is a fight on its own. The highchair didn’t go as well so i put him in the buster chair and he draws while i put the pasta in front of him which ends up on the floor. Then i put rice pudding in front of him and he wipes the counter with it.  My husband and i decide to put him back in his high chair and pretend like we are eating the food also but he doesn't budge. He wants nothing to do with anything i put in front of him. We take him out of the chair and he throws a fit, probably because he's hungry. We feed him cheerios and he eats them like it's going out of style. Last attempt to feed him, I make oatmeal. He is super clingy to me and I have to pretty much do everything with him in my arms.  By the end of dinner there is pasta, rice, cheerios on the floor and I'm in tears.  This boy doesn't want to eat anything!  

I post a message on an Allergy-Friendly-Yahoo-Group i belong to and i get an ear full.  I have been doing so many things wrong. I received such amazing tips! First of all, there might be an issue with food and its texture for him because he really doesn’t want to eat anything that is too thick or hard.  If it doesn’t melt in his mouth he doesn’t want it.  I took as many tips as I could and this is how dinner went last night. 

-No TV before dinner

-I cooked pasta (over cooked it until it is mooshy) and added some agave nectar

-I made veggies. A mix of broccoli, carrots, squash and steamed it until it's falling apart and added agave nectar 

-Only those two were offered. 

-Put an Elmo sticker placemat on his highchair 

-Once he tasted it once he wanted more.  The agave nectar made it taste so much yummier. 

-Reward for eating his food.

He sat there and ate the carrots like they were going out of style! He ate all the pasta and barely anything ended up on the floor. 

I was making so many mistakes. I offered too much. I didn't make it fun. I was constantly frustrated. I got him too excited over Elmo before dinner that he just wanted to go back and watch his show.  It was hard for him to trust me with the first bite, but once he did (I had to trick him), he was all game. Once he was finished with dinner he was a different boy. He was super happy and playing and not attached to my hip like he usually is.  I guess every night he was super clingy to me because he was hungry and tired but as soon as he got food in his belly he was all play.  He even got rewarded with a cookie once he was done. For a long time I would just give him a cookie to quite him down but from now on, he will only get a cookie for eating enough food and for potty time (whenever that will happen.)

So i am creating a "food challenge" on this blog where I document what he eats and what works and what doesn’t.

Since Valentines day just passed, here is a special message from a special boy

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!