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

 

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.

Avoiding Contamination #4

The toasted sandwich maker hasn't had much of a workout since Miss 3's allergies turned up and even less since my diet was restricted. I don't know about you but I tend to just give it a wipe with a damp paper towel and that's the extent of my cleaning of it. Which means I leave lots of things on it like the margarine I used on the outside of the bread to make it golden and the bread itself, and the cheese - you get the idea.

I thought I'd give toasted sandwiches a try since I was looking for an easy Sunday night dinner and I used to love them as a kid. And thankfully allergen-proofing wasn't particularly hard - I used my trusty roll of baking paper and created a lining to put the sandwich in and it cooked beautifully! Pity Miss 3 wasn't that thrilled about a toasted baked bean sandwich. Will have to think about yummier options for her - she's not that keen on baked beans or tinned spaghetti (not that I can blame her!). Any ideas for dairy and egg free toasted sandwiches?

Check out my other posts on avoiding contamination in the kitchen - #1, #2 and #3

Challenge Updates

Spotty forehead

It has been a while since I posted but my household was in the grips of illness. We've had my 2 older children with a terrible flu which had my son admitted to hospital with suspected meningicoccal (when the hospital suggested it I freaked! Thankfully it was only a flu!) and both of them sporting temperatures soaring to 40 degrees celsius without Panadol and Nurofen tagteaming for over a week. Quite stressful. Then we had interstate guests arrive who unknowingly brought a gastro bug with them and that felled half the household in domino form. I was thankful that God granted my prayers for protection of Miss 3 who was still in the grips of the flu and wouldn't have coped with gastro as well. Little Miss 3months was protected too and what a relief that was!

In the midst of the illnesses, we had a visit to our new allergy specialist (since we've moved interstate) and it was encouraging to see Miss 3's allergies diminishing and the promise of a baked egg challenge and maybe even a baked milk or even normal milk challenge on the agenda. We await her blood test results to see when and what will be tested. Master 5's peanut/treenut allergies continue to skin test strongly and we will go for a desensitisation program eventually (to reduce the chance of death, not to be able to eat it) but not for a good few years. I was able to briefly chat to him about Miss 3months and my current diet and what I should be doing. He said that I should not be avoiding anything "just in case" but if it was creating a reaction in her then I could avoid it. When I mentioned the dairy challenge I did, he recommended doing another to confirm a reaction rather than just going off one which could have been caused by something else.

So, I have done a dairy and an egg challenge since I last posted and I am pretty pleased to say that it seems dairy is ok. Her face has coped a lot better and there is no nappy rash and nothing on her torso. So I am going to stay on dairy for a while and see how she goes! (Yay chocolate!) For the egg challenge I had one fried egg (with a runny yolk - yay for not being pregnant!) two mornings in a row and watched how she went. The first day didn't really show much but by the second she had some spots developing on her forehead. It certainly wasn't a big reaction but her skin quality was compromised. So, I've stopped egg to get her skin clear again and then we'll do another challenge. Maybe I'll eat pavlova next time (yum!). It was nice to know that I could potentially eat egg and not get a big reaction from her.

Wheat is the final frontier. Stay tuned.

The Dairy Challenge

When I started removing allergens from my diet this time around I started with dairy rather than getting rid of everything at once. It didn't make a discernable difference so I decided to do a dairy challenge once my Little Miss's skin had cleared completely.

day 4 with me on dairy - see the lumps starting on her neck? The cheek leaves a bit to be desired too really.

 I started dairy 4 days ago and boy it was great to be back on! I enjoyed every moment - full cream milk, chocolate galore, yoghurt, ice cream - yum! And her skin went unexpectedly well but each day her skin didn't seem as flawless as the one before and today she started showing little bumps on her neck that made me remember what her skin looked like before. So I believe that she has a dairy allergy but that she doesn't react as strongly as she does to wheat and therefore I'm going to eliminate dairy from my diet again. At least I know that I can have a little dairy if necessary (eg going out for dinner on a rare occasion etc) and not have it affect her too much. But back to everything free for a little while until we try egg. Looking forward to her skin looking like this again:

Just before I ate the first bite of chocolate!

Skin update

My little one is 8 weeks old now. She is smiling and starting to sleep longer at night - she is such a delight. She's still learning to get to sleep on her own in the day time - much prefers Mummy's cuddles but at least she has the hang of nighttime.

I am currently not eating gluten, dairy or egg. Her skin is AMAZING. It is so smooth and perfect (well as perfect as possible really) and SO much better than a few weeks ago.Going off wheat made the biggest difference but her skin still had some eczema on her cheeks so I went off gluten completely. In a few days her skin stopped developing eczema and after about a week had healed to beautiful smooth skin. Love those cheeks!

Here are some before and after pics:

12 May

12 May

31 May

The plan now is to challenge dairy and then egg. The reason being that I went off dairy first but it didn't seem to make a difference to her skin. I need to find out if there is an allergy that was just being hidden by the strong allergy to wheat or if she isn't allergic. Same with egg. I hardly eat egg due to Miss 3's allergy and so I will have one once we are through the dairy and see what happens with it.

And so it begins again

Beginnings of her rash

Well, almost to the day that my first daughter started showing her eczema, my second daughter has developed it as well. So instead of waiting for it to get completely awful, I have removed dairy from my diet. Dairy is the worst of my older daughter's allergies and also the one I consume the most (we still have some wheat free meals and rarely have egg but I always add dairy to everyone else's meals if I can). So, by doing that I hope I can reduce her eczema. If it doesn't reduce enough then I'll look to remove wheat and egg completely. Here we go!

Another one to love

So tiny and perfect.

We recently welcomed another little girl into our family and although we are exhausted, we are all in love with her and look forward to getting to know her as she grows.

Lots of people might (secretly) wonder why we'd have another since the risk of food allergy is high but we don't feel it is a reason that should stop us having kids - we are much better at managing it these days anyway. How could you not have more when they are so gorgeous! (that's just my opinion!)

I plan to keep breastfeeding and will restrict my diet appropriately should this little one show signs of food allergy and I'll blog about it as I go. Breastfeeding is a far better food especially if they have allergies. We do pray that she'll be spared of them though!

Wheat, no wheat, wheat, no wheat

Our attempts to get our girl onto wheat continue with a current break from wheat again. It doesn't seem to be causing any allergic reactions now but she just wasn't getting better from a cold/cough that she had so we have gone off wheat again to see if she'll get better. It hasn't been an immediate response but no doubt she'll need time to get it all out of her system again. Then we'll head back to wheat but this time very, very gradually on the advice of the allergy specialist we consulted before going off it again. It is very hard to go very gradually I must say.

On the food front, we had a chicken salad this week that was made up of baby cos lettuce, baby roma tomatoes, celery chopped, carrot chopped, red capsicum sliced, butter beans and grilled chicken (adults had a caesar dressing too!) and Mr 4 declared it to be the best dinner ever! Miss 2 declared butter beans to be the best bit (I wasn't very surprised) but she consumed a lot more vegetables than she normally does. They both helped me prepare it and I think that was partly why they enjoyed eating it so much. I think the best bit was watching them make the little lettuce leaves into beds for their other vegies and gobbling it up! Fun.

I'm still not planning to blog regularly - we are expecting our 3rd child and planning a move interstate - 2 very big events really - but I will pop in every now and then :)

A break is in order

As my regular readers may have already guessed, I'm feeling the need for a bit of a break from blogging about food. So I will take some time off and reassess at the end of it. I hope this blog continues to be a resource for lots of people with food allergies.

We are currently back to wheat free because my daughter's lip started getting it's eczema again and her back was continually spotty so we are giving her body a break. Then we will start again. Probably just with irregular dinners with wheat in them rather than bread for lunch every day like we have been doing. Thankfully she hasn't put up a fuss going back onto the gluten free bread.

I hope you have a good few months.

Menu Plan Monday and our wheat-eating girl

You had to be quick!

 Monday - My Mum made us a sausage casserole served with rice and corn chips
Tuesday - The children had chicken nuggets, chips and vegetables
Wednesday - Homemade Pizza night
Thursday - Beef and Mushroom pie - I used this recipe from Taste.com.au - so yummy but the pastry is puff pastry so has wheat in it. You could use an allergen free version like this one.
Friday - Beef and Sesame stirfry - we enjoyed it so much last week that we made it again!
Saturday - Pea and Proscuitto Risotto - stay tuned to get the recipe :)
Sunday - Popcorn Chicken and vegies - if this works out I will post the recipe!

Cookie - Butterscotch Biscuits - from the Failsafe cookbook done with GF flour. Very sugary and very yummy. They only have 4 ingredient so it was super easy as well.

Regarding Miss 2's wheat eating - she is eating some each day (she was very unhappy when I gave her GF bread for lunch today in an attempt to finish it off: "want normal bread!") and just has a couple of spots on her face that aren't normally there. I think lots of kids have spots on their face and parents wouldn't be worried about them but since she normally had a clear face, I know that they must be related to the wheat. Still they are very small and the eczema hasn't returned so we will continue. Usually I just do one meal with wheat and the other two are wheat free apart from every now and then (like having puff pastry on the pie!). We make sure that it is pretty plain wheat food - like white bread or things with little other ingredients so that we know if she gets another reaction it will be wheat related, not some preservative etc.

Allergy Testing - what to take with you

image from here

An allergy test takes a long time. At a private allergy specialist you arrive, wait, meet with the Doctor and take a history, go out, wait for the nurse, have skin prick tests, wait for 10mins for the reactions to occur, go back into the nurse, she measures the reactions, then you wait for the Doctor again and then they see you and tell you what everything means. It's a long time for kids especially if they are the one with the itchy arm. You will need to take a good amount of food, special treats, comfort items and anything that will keep them sitting still or happy waiting. Here's what we took to our latest allergy test with Miss 2:

- morning tea snacks - corn thins, fruit
- special treats - itsy bitsy bears, mini chuppa chup lollypop
- comfort item - her muslin wrap that she likes to snuggle
- my iPhone with Dora episode and Justine Clarke on it

I knew that the Doctor's waiting room had a decent amount of toys and books so I didn't need to take any but if it's your first time, I would take a couple of books at least.

We had morning tea while we waited to see the Doctor the first time. The chuppa chup lollypop was the best thing for having while we waited the 10mins for the reactions to occur - it kept her hand busy and you could cope with keeping an eye on the other one and making sure she didn't scratch. Her wrap really helped her deal with the pain of the skin prick test. I used the itsy bitsy bears to keep her quiet while the Doctor explained the results to me.

I also took her out for a special lunch afterwards and that was something she could look forward to.
Do you have any allergy test tips?

A change is as good as a holiday

I've been trying to think of a more concise name for this blog and I think I'm happy with this one. Does anyone get what I'm trying to do with the name? My husband thinks it's a bit of a stretch :) Oh well, even if you don't, I think it rolls of the tongue better than the sentence that was my blog name before!
I had a great week away with my family and am looking forward to getting back into blogging proper on Monday.

Ideas for picky eaters and more

I watched this interview and thought Kelly's suggestions for introducing foods to picky eaters quite useful. Similar to what I said a while ago but more specific. There are some other good tips as well. Kelly's focus isn't feeding children with allergies but I think there are lots of useful things. Our Gluten Free Family will probably have the rest of the interview up soon or you could follow the links. Apologies for the way the video goes on the screen - I haven't designed the blog for wide screen! And you'll probably need to turn it up.

Never leave home without it

I have rarely forgotten our kids' medication when we have gone out and, thankfully, never been in a position where we had a reaction and couldn't do anything about it. I want to encourage you to never leave home without your child's medication because you never know if or where a reaction could occur and sometimes even unpredictable reactions occur. A couple of examples from our life:

- I was buying a few things at the supermarket with my Mum. We had the 2 kids in the pram - they didn't get out/touch anything/eat anything - all of a sudden I noticed that there are itchy welts appearing on my son's face and they were spreading by the second. Antihistamine in and the reaction slowed and stopped. We have no idea what caused it - was it an airborne reaction or did he touch the pram wheel that had something on it and rubbed his face? Very thankful for meds then and although he had a reaction, I appreciated that it was very educational for my Mum to see how quick, real and mysterious reactions can sometimes be.

- At playgroup last week I was about 30 seconds behind my daughter to the morning tea table but by the time I got there another mother had set her up with a bowl of fruit and crackers - she is allergic to all the crackers that were in her bowl and had already had a bite out of two of them. Thankfully she barely reacted (her reactions are pretty mild compared to my sons's) and I didn't need to medicate her. But she became very distressed that I took the food away (I think she thought she was in trouble, rather than the loss of the food - I need to work on not showing panic!), poor thing, and it took about 5min to console her. Funnily enough, I had to give my son some antihistamine because he had a reaction - big itchy welt on his chin and cheek. I have a feeling coconut could be the problem (we have had 3 possibly coconut related reactions). It's not a nut and he hasn't been tested for it due to no concerns in the past, and what I've read tells me that there isn't actually a test for it...
Most of the mums at our playgroup are very aware of my kids' allergies and always ask before serving my children anything. Unfortunately this mum's English is pretty limited and it seemed like she didn't know. It's possibly time for another announcement about my kids.

I pack our medications in the bag pictured above - it is a formula bottle bag so is insulated - good for temperature control and protection for the glass antihistamine bottle, it's also red and therefore easy to locate. We have the antihistamine, epipen and asthma gear in there. It's easy to carry on your shoulder or pop in the nappy bag.

How do you carry your medications?

Avoiding Contamination #3

The Microwave.
It tends to be full of crumbs doesn't it? I used to just pop our bread in on it's own to defrost it. Now I have to be regular in cleaning the microwave and always use a plate. This helps to avoid contamination.
I had better clean my microwave...!

So your child has allergies...

Here's a few suggestions of what to do first
- Follow your allergist's advice. Eg - remove allergens from their diet, buy medications as required, such as antihistamines and epipens and make sure you always have them with you, tell everyone who cares for your child the action plan for when an allergic reaction takes place.
- Meet with a dietician who is experienced in children and allergies. It's worth paying for if you can afford it. They will go through your child's current diet, make suggestions for changes and give you ideas for substitutes.
- Meet with your GP if you think your child is lacking nutrition somewhere and work out if there is anything you can do - like going on vitamins with iron, like we did.
- Work out what substitutes there are for your child to help you cook more eg No Egg, GF flours, Milk, Margarine etc and buy them.
- Find recipes that help you cook good food for your child - your local library should have a good selection, look online (you are here already!) and speak with friends who might have ideas.
- Something I've yet to do, but is a good idea, is join up to your local allergy support network such as Anaphylaxis Australia. They will keep you up to date with the latest information about allergies.

Feel free to contact me if you want to chat personally about anything. It's a tough road.

Soy Milk

I have finally taken my daughter (Miss 2) off formula. The allergist had recommended putting her on formula and staying on for a while so that it could provide more vitamins and minerals etc. My decision to take her off was my own since we can't see the allergist until June and it was made easier by the discovery of this soy milk by Vitasoy - Soy Milky Kids. It has added vitamins (D, B6, B12, folate) and minerals (calcium, iron) and iodine. It is also made from non-GM ingredients.

Woolworths is making improvements

excerpt from the newsletter announcing a new frozen foods section in the stores

3 months ago I had the opportunity to speak with a manager at Woolworths supermarkets about their allergen-free range. I received an email from them 2 weeks ago announcing a lot of their changes and new products. I was excited to see such quick results and impressed with how many new products they have added to their range, especially some things that I suggested! Hopefully I will see it played out in store when I next go.

Easter time

Photo from here

As we get ready to remember Jesus' death and resurrection at Easter time, it becomes all too obvious that my daughter will miss out on the sweet treats that Easter tends to bring with it. We normally prepare for Easter using Resurrection Eggs with the kids and this year my daughter will be old enough to sit and listen to the short bible readings. Last year we gave my son a mini chocolate egg as he sat and listened so this year he is looking forward to the same. I think that sultanas might be the way to go with my daughter since I don't think she will be that keen on faux-chocolate. Still, just in case, I have found some eggs that are made with rice milk and are even fair-trade so I will blog about them when they arrive and we've tried one.

In the mean time she will be eating Choices' Hot Cross Buns to celebrate Easter. Yummo!