If you read my homeschool blogger blog, you may already know that David was allergy tested this week and several food allergies came up as positive.  This does not mean that he is necessarily allergic to these foods, but we have to do an elimination diet. Here is the list of foods to which he tested positive:

Eggs

Egg Whites

Oats

Corn

Soy

Now, for two weeks straight we must eliminate all these foods from his diet completely.  Then, each week we can add one food in at a time and see how/if he reacts.  Essentially the testing phase will take 7 or more weeks.

Friday evening for our date night Duncan and I went to Meijers in search of ANY foods that did not have those ingredients.  As you can well imagine, soy, corn and eggs are in so many foods it is mind boggling.  Every bread had soy or corn, every tortillas, etc.  Here are the few things we found that could meet the criteria:

Natural peanut butter (some of these were okay)

Fruit – fresh only

Unsweetened applesauce

Dry, unsalted peanuts

Fresh veggies

Some frozen veggies

So here is what he has eaten so far on the diet:

Saturday:

Breakfast My homemade bread with natural peanut butter and honey

Lunch:  Not sure- daddy was home with him while I was at the eye doctor

Dinner:  Steak on the grill (had to check the spices for forbidden ingredients), grilled zucchini, grilled peppers, basmati rice, unsweetened, all natural applesauce

Dessert:  Strawberries.

Snacks:  Brown Cow yogurt (only certain ones did not have soy or corn) and dry, unsalted peanuts, milk.

Sunday

Breakfast:  Homemade bread with natural peanut butter, sliced bananas, milk

Lunch: Spaghetti (Many of these have oats, surprisingly so I had to check the labels carefully), spaghetti sauce, homemade bread, broccoli, butter on the bread.

Dinner: Turkey, broccoli, milk, boiled potatoes, strawberries.  The turkey was some I had cooked ahead a few weeks ago when I baked a frozen turkey.  I took all the leftover meat and chopped it and froze it in two cup portions to use in soup and pot pie and such later.  I was at a loss as to what to make him, so I just pulled out one of the baggies and gave him some of that as his protein.

Snacks:  Brown Cow yogurt, almonds plain, unsalted) and raisins.  Still not feeling really creative on the snacks here.

As for symptoms, we have actually seen some improvement, which makes me glad and nervous all at once.  Glad because I do want him to get better.  Nervous because if the culprit IS corn or soy, it is in so many foods, it will call for permanent and drastic changes in our eating, and it will not be easy.  But, he is worth it, whatever the cost.  He is such a precious darling and is really trying to have a good attitude about the loss of many of his favorite treats and snacks.

Oh dear!  One of my friends left a comment about supplements and I realized I forgot to check his vitamins for these ingredients, so I gotta do that in the morning!

Monday:

Breakfast:  Brown Cow yogurt, Strawberries and Bananas.  He mixed them all together in a bowl and called it his icecream dessert breakfast.  Hey, whatever kid.  As long as you are not sad because it is not your favorite breakfast:  oatmeal and cottage cheese.

Lunch:  Refried beans.  Apple slices.  Raw carrots, Milk.

Snack:  Homemade Cinnamin rolls made from the same dough I use for bread.  He also had a homemade dinner roll.

Dinner:  Half a dinner roll, refried beans, turkey, carrots, watermelon (Thanks Jessica!), and a cinnamon roll for dessert.

Bedtime snack:  Was offered fruit but said he was not hungry.

Tuesday:
Breakfast: Cinnamon rolls (homemade of course), Watermelon (Thanks, Jessica!), milk
Lunch: Apples, Peanut butter on Homemade bread, Milk, watermelon, carrots.
Dinner: Homemade Mac and Cheese with cooked turkey pieces cut up and put in it. The kids all said the turkey in it was yucky, so next time I will just leave it seperate. Cauliflower.

Dessert: Banana ice cream made in the Vitamixer. Every store bought icecream has high fructose corn syrup or soy in it. Homemade was JUST as good, if not better with no forbidden foods!

Snack: Greek Yogurt- strawberry flavored. He told me it was “too plain” so I let him add a small box of raisins. Sounds yucky to me, but he liked it just fine.

Wednesday: Cinnamon rolls. I only have one left and every family member has been informed that these are off-limits and ONLY for David. He also had watermelon. Not much of that left either- but I have lots of other fruits in the house and he likes those, too. I just want to use up the watermelon before it goes bad.

Lunch: We were going to be out all morning for the chiropractor and OB appts, so I packed him a peanut butter sandwich on my homemade bread, a Brown Cow Yogurt, an unsweetened applesauce. Two small packs of raisins, and a bottle of water. Anne and I decided we wanted Panera for lunch – PICK TWO, baby! I asked David if he would be okay bringing his sack lunch in if we ate there. He said that was fine with him. Once there, I saw their fresh fruit cups. I made sure all the fruit was really fresh and none of it was from a can (with forbidden stuff) and it was ALL fresh, so I asked him if he would like that for his special treat. The look on his face was priceless! He was so thrilled to find something at a restaurant that he could eat. He really savored that fruit cup! I should mention that I specifically asked the folks at Panera if it was acceptable for me to bring in food for him and let them know he was on a special diet. They said they had no problem at all with it. I was glad.

For his afternoon snack I packed a pear and water bottle.

I realize I am feeding him some of the same foods over and over again.  I am a bit tired and unprepared for this.  I pre-froze all these terrific freezer meals and he cannot eat any of them.  They all contain some ingredient he cannot currently have.  I hope to get some new inspiration tomorrow.  But, he is not complaining and making the bread and rolls today went a long way toward making him very happy.

I have been woefully unfaithful at keeping the log going daily on his food intake, so here is a summary of the foods we have been giving him regularly without the forbidden foods:

Spaghetti with sauce (Prego is OK, and only certain brands of pasta).  No meatballs for now.  The ones I have here have soy.

Homemade bread.  I also found that the Health and Harvest food store they have 2 breads he can have:  Regular honey whole wheat and the raisin cinnamon bread.  The rest of the breads have High Fructose Corn Syrup.  This will be good to know if things get too complicated after the baby arrives to make fresh bread with regularity.

Grilled cheese.  Certain bread and certain cheese.

Carrot Raisin Muffins (blogged this recipe already).

Steak – guess what!  Or favorite seasoning:  Montreal Steack Seasoning has stuff in it he cannot have.

Grilled Chicken and veggies.  I modified my homemade marinades to eliminate the soy sauce for him.

Roast, potatoes and carrots made in the crockpot.

I made some cookies called:  Almond Fingers.  He thought they were yummy and a good substitute for the cake that was being served at his AWANA awards.  I would post the recipe, but honestly I did not think they were all that great.

We have made icecream a few times in the vitamix.

Babybel Cheese.

I was thrilled to find out that Amy’s Organics has a cake that is frozen and packed in individual sized serving pieces.  There is nothing in there he cannot have.  THAT will be my solution when we attend parties and celebrations where dessert will be served.

My friend Karla came over and together we made p a bunch of waffles (using Selba in place of the eggs) and these are a delightful favorite.

I made homemade pancakes using Selba instead of eggs.  Also wonderful.

That is all I can remember for now.  🙂