your menu/food ideas for....

melodygirl

melodygirl

Cathlete
an 11 yo picky eater, sensitive to many smells/textures who has just been told by allergist to eliminate ALL WHEAT, PEANUTS, AND DAIRY from diet. The dairy really isn't an issue as I had other concerns with cow's milk and have eliminated dairy from all my boys' diets with the exception of that cheese on pizza. Now that's going for sure.

Looking for any and all suggestions.

TIA.
 
Well, you know there's always soy. Can he eat that? It comes in so many shapes, forms and fashions that I'll bet you can find something he'll really chow down on. And don't forget the soy milk! Yum!

My favorite nut butter, excluding PB, is cashew butter. How is he with cashews? Almond butter is okay, but it can be a little bland.
 
Thanks Shannon.

The boys already drink soy milk and have for about 1 1/2 years now. I'm going to "sneak" other soy products at them. I hope it works as well as when I took them off beef. I started by substituting ground turkey in spaghetti sauce and tacos and went from there - as I said they still don't know they're eating ground turkey and not ground beef.:)

OK, still up for suggestions for my picky not allowed to eat lots of stuff DS.
 
Melody, I can't offer any suggestion's that you aren't already doing but I want to ask you, how do you handle what your kids eat when they are at school and other activities? That has to be so very hard to deal with.

Shannon...I live in the middle of nowhere and I've never seen nor heard of cashew butter. But OMG now that I know it exists I want some! Where do you find it?
 
>Melody, I can't offer any suggestion's that you aren't
>already doing but I want to ask you, how do you handle what
>your kids eat when they are at school and other activities?
>That has to be so very hard to deal with.
>
>Shannon...I live in the middle of nowhere and I've never seen
>nor heard of cashew butter. But OMG now that I know it exists
>I want some! Where do you find it?



Well, fortunately, I homeschool my boys so I'm in complete control of their diets. I can't imagine doing this if I had to send them out into the world everyday to eat, although I know many people deal with that.
 
40something -
I live in rural Arkansas, but there's a good natural foods store in the town where I work. I would say most natural foods stores would carry cashew butter, but only one "regular" grocery store carries it locally. It's a truly wonderful creation, let me tell you.
 
Melody- just checking- the eliminations are temporary, in order to diagnose a potential allergy, right? You don't know that he is allergic to all 3?

If you ask your grocery store for "celiac" products, those won't contain wheat. This also means that fritos and cheetos are fair game... }( from www.celiac.com:

Aside from corn and rice, there is a wide variety of other grains that are used in gluten-free cooking. We even use beans and peas (legumes, pulses).

The following can be milled into flour: amaranth*, buckwheat* (or kasha), chickpeas (garbanzos), Job's tears (Hato Mugi, Juno's Tears, River Grain), lentils, millet*, peas, quinoa*, ragi, sorghum, soy, tapioca, teff*, and wild rice. Many of these flours are available in health food stores. Some (like rice flour) may be available in grocery stores. (The products marked with an "*" are listed as grains to avoid by some physicians and celiac societies. See the discussion below about anectodal evidence and possible contamination of flours for more information.)

To improve the texture of gluten-free baked goods, most cooks use one or more of the following: xanthan gum, guar gum (though this sometimes has a laxative effect), methylcellulose, or a new product called Clear Gel. These can be obtained either through health food stores, specialty cook's stores, or some of the mail order sources listed below.

Oils popular in cooking include: corn, peanut, olive, rapeseed (canola), safflower, soy, and sunflower.


ETA: Melody, you say he is "sensitive" to smells and textures... can you give examples of what bothers him?
 
Oh gosh Amy, if I listed what bothers him in terms of food smells, I'd never leave the computer. There really is no rhyme or reason as to what smells and textures bother him. It is really almost impossible to put into words, it works many times in combination of smells and textures. And his sense of smell is unbelievable - he detects odors I never know exist.

As a toddler and preschooler he couldn't even touch play dough without puking. He has overcome most of the texture sensitivities associated with touch to his skin. He is now calmed and relaxed by holding and rubbing silky fabrics. I've adjusted life so much to accommodate his "unusual" aspects that I don't even realize what most of them are until he is inadvertently exposed to them.

He did test with pretty strong reactions to all 3. So apparently there are issues. The allergy symptoms he deals with are congestion runny nose, coughing, headaches and stomach aches. I don't think the oak pollen allergy would cause the stomach aches, but would account for the other symptoms.

Good news, slight reprieve from the doc. Instead of eliminating all these at once and then reintroducing one by one, he said eliminate one for 4 days, then bombard him with it for 2 days and observe. So we are going to do that starting with dairy since it's almost out of his diet anyway. Then after that cycle we'll move on to wheat or peanuts.

Thanks, Amy, for all your suggestions. I suspect the wheat as being the culprit with him having stomach pain/difficulties. Don't most people with true peanut allergies have severe symptoms?
 
I thought the same thing about peanut allergies, until DH came home and told me a coworker of his was just diagnosed as having a peanut allergy!! This guy used to keep a jar of peanuts on his desk and eat them throughout the day...

I think it's like all alergies- the sensitivity is along a spectrum. I'm keeping my fingers crossed it's peanuts or wheat, since those are pretty common these days and I'm convinced he could still make room for chocolate chips in there somewhere... }( :9

Thanks for explaining, Melody. Let me know if my questions are bugging you!!! I tend to ask so many questions it sounds like I'm prying... but in reality, I'm trying to see the big picture and go from there. Know that your entire family is in my thoughts.
 
Amy, I don't mind questions. I really appreciate your concern. This is really no big deal in the scheme of life, just something to deal with - you know, like law school.;-)
 
Melody,

I can't be of any help, but if you ever find out, I'd be interested to know what the doctors say about taste/smell/texture sensitivities. My DH's family seems to have a lot of that going on. My SIL is so picky, it's almost impossible to choose a restaurant she will be happy at. Creamy textures are abhorrent to her. My DH is somewhat particular, though not as bad as SIL.

Wishing you all the best with this new challenge,
Nancy
 
Is it wheat in particular that he can't have, or gluten?
If it's just wheat, then you can make baked goods for him using barley flour.
 
Melody,

Read labels. You may think you are eliminating dairy when it is in so many things. My 11 year old has been allergic to dairy sense birth. I find it in many products I would not think it is in. I make a lot of things from scratch to avoid it.

Cheese,yogurt and of course ice cream are the obvious ones. Look for dairy protein such as whey,casein and lactose as the sugar.

Some soy products claim dairy free but contain Casein.

Good luck,


Elaine

edited to say: you can PM me
 
My three sons were sensitive/allergic to corn, wheat and dairy growing up. We used lot's of the soy products instead of cheeses,yogurts,etc., rice milk instead of milk, and spelt bread products instead of the wheat. They make spelt everything now, rolls, breads,pastas,cereals and wraps. Some brands were better than others and they all had their own likes and dislikes. Trial and error I'm afraid. My guys are 21, 19 and 15 now and they have outgrown all of this - hopefully yours will also. Good luck!
 
Question, do barley flour and spelt contain gluten? I have to keep him away from wheat AND gluten.

I am pretty up on labels and what is what because there is so much I already keep out of their (and my) diet. Actually the removal of the final bit of dairy like in the cookies now and then and cheese on pizza will not be difficult and the milk products that are the hidden ones, of course. I've pretty much gotten all my boys on soy and rice milk products during the past year because of issues I have with cow's milk. Also, red meat is gone.

You are right about dairy where you wouldn't expect it. I read an article about casein being in McDonald fries (we do NOT eat McDonalds or fast food, yuck). I've learned all the "words" for milk products.

I've got to learn to substitute for stone ground whole wheat flour which is what we use and look for in products. And he just loves peanuts and peanut butter, but I'm going to try some of the other nut butters. He did not test positive for any other food allergies and of these 3 there could be false positives. We just have to go through elimination and reintroduce individually to find out.

I cannot remove the oak pollen from the forest around us, so he'll end up with medication for that. I just so dislike adding one more issue to his issue-filled life.

I appreciate everyone's response and your suggestions are helpful.
 
I think I got the information for this site here under a lunch food topic, but I thought some of her ideas were great. I don't know if any of them will help you, but just passing it on just in case it can give you any help. http://veganlunchbox.blogspot.com/ She has some very creative healthy ideas.

Good luck!
Lindzebird
 
Lindzebird,

Thanks for the link, there's some good stuff there! My DS is so "weird" I probably can't get him to eat most of it - but I will eat it.:)

It did provide a link a a promising book "Food Allergy Survival Guide" which seems a good source for those dealing with food allergies and vegans.

All of you have been wonderful to jump in and help, thanks.:D
 
>Question, do barley flour and spelt contain gluten? I have
>to keep him away from wheat AND gluten.
>

Yes they do, that's why I asked if he had to avoid just wheat or gluten in general.

You could try sprouted grains. Some people who have problems with regular grains are able to tolerate sprouted grains.

Take a trip to a health food store, where they will most likely have a section set up with gluten-free alternatives. Use it as an educational session, and check out what options are avaialable.

There are gluten-free breads available, but another option is just phasing breads out of his diet (since some of the gluten-free breads look pretty untasty to me!)
 
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