So Caleb was Bob the Builder for Halloween. I didn't buy him a pre-designed costume because they just looked so cheap. Plus, Caleb's cousin had already loaned him a cute checkered shirt (from my favorite children's store Janie and Jack!) and a pair of overalls that would do the trick and were way cuter anyway! Thinking of Halloween, however, with a child allergic to milk, wheat, eggs, oats, nuts (as we just recently found out from Caleb's 2 year check up with his allergist) and likely peanuts isn't really a whole lot of fun. Taking him trick or treating would mean that Jeremy and I would most likely have to eat the candy (yeah, HAVE TO) and that just seemed kind of cruel. So we did what seemed the easiest and most logical, we trick or treated at Grandmama's and Grandmama's only because she had
allergen free cookies for Caleb's treat. Caleb seemed to enjoy it although he would not wear his Bob the Builder hat, which I did actually splurge on Ebay for. So here he is at our stop at Grandmama's.
Since we're on the subject of food allergies, let me just take a moment to share some of what I have learned being a food allergy mom. In my previous 7 years as a dietitian I had little and I mean little experience with food allergies and the education dietitian's receive related to the topic is little at best, from what I remember. The one instance I remember having a patient who had a food allergy was on a weekend at the hospital when I just happened to be the dietitian on call. So I receive this call from our diet clerk, "Hey, we've got a lady here allergic to wheat. What do you want me to send her for her dinner?" My response, "Well, what did you serve for dinner?" After several back and forth conversations including one with the diet clerk reading me off the ingredients to the cottage cheese and a conversation with the patient herself in addition to a consult with a previous food textbook, we sent her a cottage cheese fruit plate- no muffins, no crackers. If the diet clerk had called and said to me, "We have a patient here allergic to milk, eggs, wheat, oats and nuts," I have no idea what I would have done! Likely the patient would have received plain, raw fruit and vegetables. The problem with food allergies, especially those like wheat and milk, is that other foods you do not traditionally associate with those food may in fact contain them and food labels and ingredient lists are not always clear on what is actually in the food. Casein (milk), for example and ingredients derived from wheat may be found in lunch meat, but they are not always specifically stated. Plus, the ingredients "natural flavors" may include ingredients derived from milk. So, as a food allergy mom, I have become an even more thorough food label reader and have even called food manufactures to be sure a product was free of Caleb's allergens. Cooking at home and taking food for Caleb when we eat out or visit other's people's homes has become a way of life for us. I am thankful that I enjoy cooking and have an interest in knowing about cooking (i.e. what purpose certain ingredients serve in specific recipes), because some of the products I use to bake for Caleb are of course different than just your regular baking ingredients. And how truly thankful I am that Caleb is such a terrific eater! I don't know many 2 year olds that love cole slaw and squash and ask for seconds on those foods, but he does. He loves all different kinds of vegetables and fruits and really and truly doesn't act that interested in sweets, which was one of my big concerns in having a child with food allergies. My mother made him a delicious fruit cobbler (yeah, wheat, dairy, egg, oat, nut free if you can believe it), which he thoroughly enjoyed his first bowl of (pictured below), but then was not interested in the next day.
Jeremy and I wound up finishing it for him, and believe me, it was delicious (thank you Bob's Red Mill biscuit and baking mix and pancake mix- both which are wheat, oat, dairy and egg free- and thank you Mom for being able to cook allergy free for him!). Which reminds me of how completely and totally thankful I am for the convenience items he can consume that seem to make his eating a little more normal and make meal preparation a little easier for me. While they are sometimes difficult to find and often pricier, these items are great! Since Caleb is allergic to both wheat and oats, most of these items are gluten free, so I somewhat feel like I know what the person with Celiac disease must go through. Anyway, having lived for a year avoiding Caleb's food allergens, if I ever return to work I will be much better equipped at working with people who suffer from them. Here is a picture of some of our favorite "convenience" food items that meet Caleb's allergen list.
Since we're on the subject of food allergies, let me just take a moment to share some of what I have learned being a food allergy mom. In my previous 7 years as a dietitian I had little and I mean little experience with food allergies and the education dietitian's receive related to the topic is little at best, from what I remember. The one instance I remember having a patient who had a food allergy was on a weekend at the hospital when I just happened to be the dietitian on call. So I receive this call from our diet clerk, "Hey, we've got a lady here allergic to wheat. What do you want me to send her for her dinner?" My response, "Well, what did you serve for dinner?" After several back and forth conversations including one with the diet clerk reading me off the ingredients to the cottage cheese and a conversation with the patient herself in addition to a consult with a previous food textbook, we sent her a cottage cheese fruit plate- no muffins, no crackers. If the diet clerk had called and said to me, "We have a patient here allergic to milk, eggs, wheat, oats and nuts," I have no idea what I would have done! Likely the patient would have received plain, raw fruit and vegetables. The problem with food allergies, especially those like wheat and milk, is that other foods you do not traditionally associate with those food may in fact contain them and food labels and ingredient lists are not always clear on what is actually in the food. Casein (milk), for example and ingredients derived from wheat may be found in lunch meat, but they are not always specifically stated. Plus, the ingredients "natural flavors" may include ingredients derived from milk. So, as a food allergy mom, I have become an even more thorough food label reader and have even called food manufactures to be sure a product was free of Caleb's allergens. Cooking at home and taking food for Caleb when we eat out or visit other's people's homes has become a way of life for us. I am thankful that I enjoy cooking and have an interest in knowing about cooking (i.e. what purpose certain ingredients serve in specific recipes), because some of the products I use to bake for Caleb are of course different than just your regular baking ingredients. And how truly thankful I am that Caleb is such a terrific eater! I don't know many 2 year olds that love cole slaw and squash and ask for seconds on those foods, but he does. He loves all different kinds of vegetables and fruits and really and truly doesn't act that interested in sweets, which was one of my big concerns in having a child with food allergies. My mother made him a delicious fruit cobbler (yeah, wheat, dairy, egg, oat, nut free if you can believe it), which he thoroughly enjoyed his first bowl of (pictured below), but then was not interested in the next day.
Jeremy and I wound up finishing it for him, and believe me, it was delicious (thank you Bob's Red Mill biscuit and baking mix and pancake mix- both which are wheat, oat, dairy and egg free- and thank you Mom for being able to cook allergy free for him!). Which reminds me of how completely and totally thankful I am for the convenience items he can consume that seem to make his eating a little more normal and make meal preparation a little easier for me. While they are sometimes difficult to find and often pricier, these items are great! Since Caleb is allergic to both wheat and oats, most of these items are gluten free, so I somewhat feel like I know what the person with Celiac disease must go through. Anyway, having lived for a year avoiding Caleb's food allergens, if I ever return to work I will be much better equipped at working with people who suffer from them. Here is a picture of some of our favorite "convenience" food items that meet Caleb's allergen list.
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