A new blog

My friend, Jess, and I have decided to start a new blog together so I will be winding this one down once this giveaway is done. We are looking forward to making a fantastic resource for families who have kids with a range of multiple food allergies as well as some yummy 'normal' family friendly food. Thanks for following me here and I look forward to seeing you over at the Itchin' Kitchen!

I'll be keeping this blog alive for people to access in the future.

Giveaway - Marty's Nut-Free Party

This giveaway has been drawn. Congratulations to Sue!

I used to love going to parties - yummy food everywhere. Now parties stress me out. My son is anaphylactic to peanuts and quite possibly some of the treenuts he is allergic to. My daughter is allergic to dairy and egg - they are in almost every party food, especially the cake. Going to a party means a lot of work before (I can't just rock up, I have to ensure I bring enough party food to make sure my kids don't feel like they are missing out) and during (I have to watch them - and other kids who like to 'share' - aka put food in other kids' mouths) - exhausting!

My son is 5 now and as he gets older, he will start to take on more responsibility for what he eats. We talk about it a lot but until now we haven't read any books together about it.

A couple of months ago a friend told me about the release of Marty's Nut-Free Party by Katrina Roe. I was quite excited about it because she's Australian and it looked like it would be a great story for my son. I contacted Katrina and asked if she would send one to me to give away and she kindly did. We've had a little sneak peek (who can resist that front cover?!) and found it to be an engaging and fun read for both my 3 and 5 year olds. Seeing Marty end up in hospital because he ate nuts, even just something that had the nuts taken off made for great conversation. I could see my kids realising that it isn't just them who has these food limitations put on them. My husband and I enjoyed the illustrations that reminded us of our childhood birthday cakes from the Women's Weekly Cookbook!

My children are very sad that we are giving this copy away but I plan on purchasing it so that we have it in our bookshelf. I also plan to send it to school for them to read aloud to the class so that we can start helping his friends think about looking after him at their parties too.

Would you like to win this copy of Marty's Nut-Free Party by Katrina Roe? Just leave a comment sharing what party food you might provide for a child with allergies to dairy, egg and nuts at your next party. One entry per person please, Australian residents only, one winner will be drawn at random Tuesday 9/10/12 6pm WA time.

Thanks to Katrina Roe and Wombat Books Publishing for the chance to giveaway this great children's book!

Find Katrina on facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/katrinamacdonaldroe

Or her blog:

www.frommouthsofbabes.com

You can order Marty's Nut-Free Party online at Wombat Books's website:

http://www.wombatbooks.net/martysnutfreeparty.html

 

A Giveaway Is Coming!

Stay tuned this week ... and there's some exciting news to share too!

Keep up with the latest

So glad I made the call!

I had a conversation this week with a friend who's children have just undergone allergy testing which got me questioning my current breastfeeding diet. Today I also had a really helpful chat with someone involved in Childhood Allergy and Immunology Research at Princess Margaret Hospital. Both mentioned the latest research that showed that some exposure to the allergens (this is in the case where anaphylaxis doesn't occur but they are even doing this in a hospital setting more and more now) at an early age is more likely to assist with growing out of the allergy rather than complete avoidance.The other thing was that my friend's baby wasn't able to be skin-prick tested for peanuts because she had never been exposed to peanuts via breastmilk or orally and so the test could have shown a false negative. This got me thinking that it's highly likely Miss 5mths hasn't been exposed to peanuts since I definitely haven't eaten them since she was born and quite possibly not even while I was pregnant. That will mean she won't be able to be tested for it or some other nuts (I have eaten almonds and hazlenuts) unless I expose her to them. The lady from PMH gave me some really helpful advice so here's my plan:

1. I'm going to start having a very little bit of dairy and egg maybe once a week and as long as her eczema doesn't get out of control I will keep doing it.

2. I'm also going to do some stealthy night-time nut eating to ensure she has been exposed to the nuts before we do allergy testing. This will mean I will have to be really careful to get all contaminated utensils etc into the dishwasher and washed before breakfast - not too hard but must remember to be vigilent! I shower at night so should be clear of nuts before I see Mr 5 in the morning. And get the nuts up high and always remind babysitters that they aren't for Mr 5!

3. Miss 3 has also missed out on eating nuts because of Mr 5. I'm pretty sure her skin-prick test negatives to nuts were valid since she would have been exposed while I was pregnant and breastfeeding (we only found out about Mr 5's allergies after she was born) but she should keep eating them semi-regularly and so should Miss 5mths once we have determined she's ok with them. Next year Mr 5 is full time at school so that should give us some easy opportunities to eat them without him around as long as we clean up and brush teeth etc before we see him. This is a bit scary but worth doing I think.

Introducing food to your baby

With Miss 0 now at 4 months of age this is something I am about to get into! Yikes!

Click here to read a recent article by Coles Baby and Toddler Club with information from ASCIA regarding when to introduce allergenic foods. I should make clear that the reason I'm avoiding foods in my diet while breastfeeding is not to try to prevent an allergy in Miss 0 but rather because she reacts obviously to the foods via my breastmilk and when I remove them, her skin doesn't break out. I definitely wouldn't avoid a food if it didn't cause a reaction!

I should also say that if there is a history of food allergies in your other kids then you will need to exercise more caution and ensure that you introduce allergenic foods one at a time and probably not as the very first foods. Vegetables and fruits are a good starting point. Be aware that some rice cereals (eg Farex) contain traces of wheat, milk and soy (crazy! I know! Especially because they didn't use to!).

Wheat!

I finally got around to challenging wheat this week. This means I eat food made from wheat and see what it does to Miss 0 through the breastmilk. I've been putting it off because I thought she would have a strong reaction and who wants to do that to their baby? I waited until the dairy was out of her system - I'm pretty sure she is allergic to that. I started on wheat in the morning so that I could see her reaction rather than eat later in the day and risk her reacting overnight and waking with terribly itchy skin etc. But amazingly, I needn't have worried. I have been eating wheat (rather substantially since the first day...!) for 4 days now and she hasn't reacted at all. She had a bit of nappy rash but that cleared today so I don't think it was related. I'm quietly excited and hopeful that it won't be an allergy for her at all and, in the meantime, am enjoying the ability to eat it. Still keeping an eye on her skin just in case but it's looking hopeful! Very thankful to God for this little mercy.

Yummy pizza topping

I didn't even care that there wasn't any cheese it was so good!

but cheese might have made it look prettier...?

The toppings were:
- BBQ sauce
- chick peas
- pre-cooked cauliflower florets
- leftover chicken from when I used this chinese chicken recipe
- roasted beetroot (from our veggie patch! Just roast with olive oil, salt, pepper and a splash of water all in a closed pouch of aluminium foil for about an hour, peel and slice)
- diced red capsicum
- sliced English Spinach (also from our veggie patch!)

all on a GF pizza base (I used a pre-made one this time)

Enjoy.