This is the face of someone with food allergies. When Isaac was one year old, I began weaning him from breastfeeding. I gave him a cup of cow’s milk and went on preparing breakfast. Shortly after, I noticed that he was very cranky and had broken out in hives from head to toe. I suspected that he was allergic to cow’s milk. I began cutting milk out of his diet. Believe me, it sounds easier than it actually is. I am still surprised by what products include milk. For example a certain brand of turkey breast lunch meat has of all things milk. Anyway as we were trying to adjust to eliminating milk from his diet, we noticed a rough patch of skin on his forearm that would not go away. We reluctantly began suspecting wheat to be the cause.

 Isaac ended up being allergic to three foods and one chemical. He cannot eat peanuts, cow milk, and wheat. We had correctly guessed two of his allergies. He is also allergic to aspartame.

I have to say that Lane and I went through a short grieving period. Isaac could never eat pizza at Pizza Hut. He could not go to Dairy Queen and eat a dipped cone, etc. We couldn’t change it; we just had to adapt. I read all about these allergies. I subscribed to a few gluten-free blogs to get recipes. I found several friends who also suffer from allergies like Isaac.

Since then, we have had the entire family tested. Two of our sons have absolutely no allergy to any pollen, chemical, or food. Our daughter is allergic to cow milk and wheat as well as several grasses, pollens, and dust. Our other son is allergic to aspartame and formaldehyde. My husband is allergic to cow milk and wheat as well as dust and grass. I was allergic to refined wheat and salt of all things. I also am allergic to dust, animals, and weeds. All of these airborne or seasonal allergies don’t work well when you are homesteading everyday, working with the animals, shredding the pastures, and gardening. However with homeopathic drops, these should not pose a problem.

I sometimes wish the doctor had drops for food allergies, but he doesn’t. Having a food allergy is not the end of the world. If anything, you eat much healthier foods because of it. You cannot easily go to McDonalds and order a hamburger and fries off the menu. Your life has been slightly altered, but you could argue for the better.

Food allergies are not very convenient. In fact I find that most days I am having to cook three meals a day, which is time consuming. There is no place for most processed foods in your diet. You have to try new recipes and grains. You have to be creative. The hardest part is when you are out and about and not at home. Panic can strike as you try to think, “Where can we eat and what can we order?”

The panic usually occurs because of lack of planning. I have to not only plan our menu for two weeks and make sure that everything I will need is stocked in the pantry. I have to anticipate other food needs like snacks for church when the smallest children are in nursery school or a 4-H meeting where I need to bring our own snacks.

So if you have food allergies like us, it’s going to be alright. You are going to feel better. You are going to eat healthier. It just take a little planning.

Attached are two recipes that my family really enjoys. I grind my own brown rice flour and use our goat milk. Fortunately the doctor was able to narrow down the cow milk allergy for us. Isaac is only allergic to the whey in the cow milk. So he can tolerate butter and hard cheeses. If you can’t do butter, then try coconut oil as a substitute. Let me know if you try them. I would love to know if you liked them or not.

Tags: Food Allergies, gluten-free recipe, milk allergy, peanut allergy, wheat allergy, wheat-free recipe

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 19th, 2009 at 8:23 am and is filed under Food Allergies. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.