Baby with Food Allergies - Any Advice Appreciated

My daughter's classmate has similar allergies. Her mom now has her own bakery www.sweetalexis.com. Even though it's mainly "treats", you might check it out. I'm pretty sure she'll even correspond with you to answer questions. She's a wealth of knowledge as she has two children with food allergies (Alexis' are quite severe).

there is a noninvasive method of removing allergies throug a process called NAET (www.naet.com)
i used for my infant to get rid of food allergies that caused his eczema.
i see an amazing practioner - she is an M.D. - practices holistic medicine:
www.doctorvan.org

My son has food allergies and is anaphalytic w/nuts. We have epi-pens everywhere (my purse, stroller, diaper bag, kitchen cupboard). There is no such thing as having too many in my book :) I have thankfully never had to use one, because I avoid the foods that are highly allergenic. My son was severely allergic to eggs at 14 months, but outgrew it (he's 4 now). He also has milk, soy, citrus, etc, etc. It was VERY hard at first figuring out what to feed him. But, I eventually found a menu that works for him. We will be testing again to see if he's overcome some of the other things he's allergic to.

Good luck, he seems to be in very good hands!

Hi! my mom said when I was a baby, i was extremely allergic to eggs and dairy..she said she just avoided the eggs and gave me soy milk instead. I'm 24 now, and i still get terrible stomach aches to eggs (but only the yoke) but its not nearly as bad as when i was a baby. I have to carry an epi pen for other reasons, but I would say have two...one at home, and one you can carry around with you in your purse! hope that helps! good luck with your son!

Hi M.,
You received several great responses. Just wanted to add a support group called FOOD ALLERGIES and ANAPHYLAXIS NETWORK (FAAN)I think their website is www.faan.org They are a good source of information in regards to how to deal with an allergic child. I have attended one meeting here in San Diego, and I learned a great deal about the use of EpiPens and other issues like dealing with kids food allergies in school. My 22 month old son has allergies to peanuts and eggs. I carry an Epipen Jr. in my purse and also liquid benadryl. Having at least 3 epi pens (one at home, one with you to carry w/ your child, and one for the day care) should be good. They sould also give you a trainer pen to train other members of the family and whoever is taking care of your child. Protect the pen from light as it is light sensitive. Wrap it in a dark colored cloth or pouch.
For food items your child can have--look for rice pasta(without wheat or gluten free) at the grocery stores. My son likes to eat rice;sometimes I would mix rice with shredded cooked chiken. Give lots of fruits. Blueberries, cut up strawberries, raspberries, grapes. Tofu, Soy milk. They have soy yogurt now at the stores. Vegetables--once he can efficiently chew, you can have more choices on what you can give him. Steamed cut carrots, corn, broccoli, cauliflower. Shredded cooked chicken or ham. You have to just read all the ingredients when you do your grocery shopping. Also, I found a cake mix called Cherrybrook Kitchen that is gluten free, dairy and egg free. You can find them at Albertsons at the diet section. They are delicious. I hope this helps.

Also if yoiu have insurance, ask your allergologist how young or how soon or at what age he could be treated to overcome this condition. My sister has two kids with asthma and she was told a chihuahua dog inside the house helps with the problem. it is something hard to accept in my way of thinking but she swears by it. at one point she had four of those dogs. they got mauled and killed by a large dog and she is seeking to replace them.

Allergies run in my family and both my daughter and niece had dairy/soy/egg/nut allergies. Just wanted to let you know that they did outgrow these allergies, but my sister and I kept our kids away from any allergens from the minute we found out about their sensitivities. My daughter outgrew hers by age 12 months and my niece by 3 years. There is a great website with tons of recipies and menu ideas for children with allergies...
www.eatingwithfoodallergies.com.

We had to go on Elecare until one year and it worked great! They make a follow up formula too vanilla flavored. It sounds like you already had your little one tested, but usually if dairy is a problem, soy can be a common allergy as well.

Good luck!

hi M.,

I have a 3 year old son who is allergic to eggs, peanuts, and milk. He also has an epi-pen for his peanut allergy, which thankfully we never have had to use yet. I keep one epi-pen in his diaper bag at all times and one at his daycare, which thankfully is a peanut free daycare. The diet for food allergies can become quite challenging and boring to the child, which then makes them picky eaters. My son love chicken nuggets, mcdonalds does not put egg batter in their nuggets. My son's diet consists of whole grain cheerios, bananas, rice, peaches, jello, raisins, chicken, sometimes beef, usually any kind of fruit, french fries and thats about it. He hates vegetables. We get him retested by the allergist in august and hopefully he has outgrown the egg and milk allergy. Also keep benadryl on hand at all times, that is what saved my son when he had a reaction to eggs at 17 months, head to toe hives after one hour of ingesting one pancake that was made with eggs. We still rushed him to the ER, but benadryl is what made him recover so quickly. I hope this advice is helpful.

M.,

My youngest (2.5) is allergic to both dairy and soy. Fortunately he's never had a life threatening reaction. He just screams for days and busts out into eczema (believe me, that is bad enough). So I don't know anything about Epi pens but I've got plenty of experience with special diets. Basically we went with a "whole food" diet because it is just easier. Dairy is in a bunch of things but soy is in virtually everything (just like wheat). My son eats mainly meat, potatoes, rice, veggies and fruit and not much of anything else. It is really a pretty healthy diet. Much better than one made up of heavy processed, crappy convenience foods. But since both my husband and I work full time, different shifts with different days off, it does take a bit of coordination. Generally, whatever I cook tonight will have left overs that will be sent with my son to daycare for lunch tomorrow. Sometimes I'll cook enough to get 2 meals out of something and I "repurpose" my left overs so it doesn't seem like we are eating the same thing over and over again. If we have chicken kabobs on Monday, I'll use the leftovers on Tuesday but serve them with tortillas, refried beans and salsa and call it fajitas... Just in general, if you didn't cook it from scratch, you really can't trust what is in it. Even if you've bought the same thing a dozen times, you have to read the labels each time you buy it because manufacturers constantly reformulate their products and don't necessarily make it obvious on the label. It is hard to give up fast food and convenience foods but once you get into the habit of cooking, it isn't so bad. Dealing with a severely food allergic child is challening. You have to 1. figure out what you can't eat, 2. figure out what you can eat and 3. find enough variety to keep from going nuts. One resource you may find helpful is www.tacanow.com It is an autism resource but many families with kids with autism follow gluten/casein (wheat/dairy) free diet. So you can get some really good information there. I will tell you that the more foods your child is allergic to the harder it is to find foods they can eat. I know in our case most convenience foods, if they don't have dairy in them, they have soy in them and vice versa. As far as gluten free products go, in my opinion, most of them are very expensive and taste like cardboard so you'll have to decide if you are going to buy the subsititues or just pick from other food groups.

Good luck to you, do keep in mind, that hardest part is getting started. Maintaining the diet is not so bad. Figuring it out is the hardest part. I know the begining is really intimidating so just hang in there!

T.

Hey M.,

Our 2 year old son has multiple allergies as well - dairy, eggs, nuts, wheat. Check out amazon.com and look for "The Whole Foods Allergy Cookbook" by Cybele Pascal, it is awesome with lots of various recipes, even one for chocolate cake which is quite tasty! It costs less than $20. Most all of the recipes are fast and easy too which is great if you are limited on time to make dinner. Instead of the EnerG Egg replacement, use ground flax seed. You can easily grind your own too with a coffee grinder - I do. It works MUCH better and is healthier as well and even cheaper. Baked goods rise better and yes, I have used both. If you know any vegan friends, hit them up for some great recipes too, they have lots of short cuts and helpful hints.

We have 2 epi pens in the house and we had the grandmas watch the video on how to use it since they will be spending quality time with their grandson. We keep one pen in the house in his medicine cabinet and always keep one in the diaper bag.

I would never recommend not giving your child vaccines as it protects him/her against a KNOWN disease. We even gave our son the MMR which is grown in an egg shell. We had to spend some time in the MDs office that day due to the method of vaccination (a little bit at a time) but it is so much better to have your child protected as so many parents today don't vaccinate their children for personal reasons.

If you have any other questions I would be very happy to help. We have had to change up our whole cooking menu, but we haven't sacrificed good food.

Good luck!

L. H.
Costa Mesa

We keep one set of pens in the backpacks for school/daycare, one set with Grandma, one set at home, and one set in my purse/diaper bag. You can't leave them in the car when they get hot-- but for us--we needed 4 sets.

We are beginning to look at allergy elimination therapy after dealing with allergies to milk, eggs and all tree nuts for 2 years. Hopefully they'll either grow out of it or we do therapy and it works.

Very possible that your child is having problems with vaccines. Please do not vaccinate your baby any further until you do the research. Many of the vaccines are 'brewed' in eggs and when you inject the solution, the body is suppose to fight whatever is in that injection, hence the egg allergy (easiest laymans terms I can think of). It is a trained response started by a vaccine.

You can contact me about diet and everything as we have been through this. Wheat/gluten and dairy/casein are hidden in SO many foods so you have to get really good at reading labels but here are books and websites for you to start with:

The first one to read is:

Healing the New Childhood Epidemics: Autism, ADHD, Asthma, and Allergies: The Groundbreaking Program for the 4-A Disorders, by Dr. Kenneth Bock

www.909shot.com
www.tacanow.org - Go to this website for information on the diet and remove soy as well as it very well could become a problem.

The Vaccine Book, by Dr. Robert Sears

What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Childhood
Vaccinations, by Dr. Stephanie Cave

Evidence of Harm, by David Kirby

As a family wellness coach I have found that many children outgrow their "allergies". Actually we find that they really just have food intolerances because their litle bodies can not process all the "non food" that goes into the making of the so called foods today. Yes even eggs, the chickens that lay them are not as natural as they were 50 years ago. (please watch the trailer for Food Matters at www.HeyYouGetReal.com)

Having said that, ensuring your baby gets the right nutrients should be your first priority. Focus on what he can have, not on what he can't. Fruits, veggies, soy...there are so mnay choices out there. I suggest you take a look at your family diet and make all changes necessary. Your baby's "allergy" is trying to tell you something about what you are feeding him...please listen.

With our daughter it was eggs and dairy. You have to basically teach yourself to cook all over again. There is a product called Ener-G Egg Replacer that can be used in place of eggs in a lot of dishes, especially baked goods. And plain soymilk can be substituted for milk in most recipes. For sweets like puddings, though, we substitute coconut milk. Check out the gluten-free aisle in the grocery store. They have cake mixes and stuff. I make a batch of cupcakes and keep them in the freezer so that I can take one to birthday parties for my daughter to eat. It helps a lot for her to feel like she is participating in the fun stuff. But mostly we try to eat whole foods. We eat a lot of fresh fruit and rice, veggies, potatoes, etc. If you can go for 2 whole years without eating the offending foods, there is a chance the immune system will kind of forget the allergy and reset itself. So it's worth it to be very, very strict about the diet for a while so you can retested and hopefully grow out of it. My daughter outgrew the egg problem, but we are still suffering through the dairy issues. They put it in everything! Good luck! It's hard at first, but it does get easier with time. The health food stores are a great resource.

http://www.naet.com/
My newborn daughter was allergic to wheat and her allergy was cleared after one, non-invasive NAET treatment. It's kinda like acupuncture.
People with severe nut allergies can be cleared.
I had a friend whose newborn was allergic to cotton and it was cleared with NAET.
Look up practioners in your zip code. Ask for references of families with young babies and children. Good luck! Most of my friends have used this and it has worked for them, whatever the issue was. Most people haven't heard of this.

About i year old I started giving my daughter tofu "savory flavor" from Trader Joes. Just slice it up and server cold. She loves it. I also make her chili. Non-dairy smoothies with flaxseed is a favorite as well. You can't beat Whole Foods for stuff as well. Good Luck!

if i remember right an epi pen isnt just a one time use thing... it has more then 1 shot. my friend has a little girl who is allergic to dairy, egg, and nuts. they have her on a soy diet. also you can look up allergy friendly egg substitue (its like egg but not egg). theres lots of things you can do. google allergy friendly foods. that may help. im sure youll get a lot of great advice.

My daughter cannot tolerate the tiniest amount of dairy. I was very overwhelmed at first as I figured it out. It took a few months. Make a list of everything you can think of that he CAN eat, and shop, bake, eat using that list. It reminds you of all he can eat and that is great. Also, on Amazon they have cookbooks that are vegan and non gluten. There SHOULD be some non egg recipes in there! Good luck! You will do great!

Try products made from brown rice and you may have to invest in making your own baby food. There is a product called egg replacer which can be bought at whole foods that you can use o bake in to breads and muffins. Try Earth balance butter (not Smart balance) which has no dairy in it, but has all good fats.