My Son is Allergic to Air

Well, he’s not. But some days it really does feel like it. I have no allergies. If I want to eat something, never does the thought “Could this cause me to break out into hives?” cross my mind. When I started dating my husband, he told me about the long list of allergies he had. The health nut (and know-it-all) that I was thought to myself, “That’s because you didn’t grow up on organic food and was fed formula as a baby.” The universe was like, “Grace, I’m going to teach you!”

So back to my non-formula/organically fed son, “King”. There are eight common allergies that must be listed by law on any processed food. Allergy tests at one year old revealed that he is allergic to 7 of the 8:  milk, eggs, shellfish, tree nuts, peanuts, wheat and soybeans. Oh, but let’s not stop there. He also is allergic to chicken, turkey, coconut, seeds and beef. For a second there, we thought his beef allergy had disappeared. Nope! So he’s pretty much a vegan who can’t have soy, coconut and seeds but can have fish. Or so we thought!

Yesterday, I decided to try cooking one thing for lunch for me and the kids. The featured protein of the day was salmon since my husband who is allergic to fish wasn’t home. It was a beautiful meal that I proudly posted on Instagram. #bestmomever! King took one look at the food and was like, “I am allergic to fish.” My daughter chimed in, “Lucky, I wish I was allergic!” My response, “King, you are not allergic! You eat fish sticks all the time. Mimi, eat your food.” So they started eating it. All of a sudden, I noticed my son itching his chin once. Then twice. Soon he was attacking his skin like his life counted on it. Oh no! I took a closer look and sure enough, his face and neck were showing signs of a major reaction. I gave him Benadyl and watched him closely with an epipen nearby. Luckily after an hour, he was back to his normal self and the hives/swelling had disappeared. When my husband came home and I told him about what happened, he was like, “Oh hmm. He must have the same allergy I have. I’m allergic to fresh water fish, but I can have salt water fish.” Really? The water the fish lives in makes a difference! Good heavens.

Today, I went grocery shopping. Again I posted on Instagram my meal plan and the cash I was going to use.#bestgroceryshoppingever All was going well until I got to Whole Foods. I practically brought the entire store. Forget Whole Paycheck! Lets just say Whole Store! I knew what I was doing. Feelings of guilt for poisoning my child was materializing into buying every vegan and dairy, gluten and soy-free product the store had to offer. Yet I somehow couldn’t stop myself. What should have been a $35 bill ended up being $137! What the gluten free bread?! I know, I know. CFOmom fail! When I got home, I immediately redid my budget and pulled cash from other envelops to make up for the difference. It’ll be tight but I think we will be okay. I am also going to try to increase our food budget next to make room for this dietary needs.

Have you ever had a moment when you knew you were making a mistake and why you were making that mistake, but still couldn’t stop yourself?

 

Well boo!

I was excited to share that I found a pizza brand my son could eat! Tonight both kids had Daiya’s cheese lover’s pizza. Personally, I feel like the taste is a little bizarre, but they enjoyed it. Add one to the “can eat” pile, I thought! A few hours later, King has been itching pretty bad and his skin looks like its reaction to something. So much for that! Looking back at the ingredients, I am assuming his seed allergy didn’t like the milled flax seed and/or expeller pressed safflower oil. I wish his body would stop thinking food is the enemy!! Grr! One step forward, one step back!

Day #5 of no spending. In fact, my husband came home to eat lunch instead of eating out! How amazing is that?!

Not a gluten for punishment

(Okay, that’s the last of my cheesy wheat-themed titles, I promise)

I can totally do the gluten free business! The other day I decided to google “recipes for kids’ allergic to everything”.  That search led me videos and articles about kids who really can’t eat anything at all. My son might have quite a few allergies, but there are still so many thing he can eat. Definitely counting my blessings.

Food for King can be divided easily into three categories. The first are the food that my son either spits out or just refuses to swallow. The main victims in this category are veggie and fruits. We have had a quite a few moments of those recently. Then, there are the food he’ll only eat if I spoon feed him. Today we discover a new addition to this list: Amy’s kitchen lentil soup. He ate about 1/4 of cup of it before he realized he “didn’t” like it. I was pretty surprised since I myself thought the taste was a bit odd. Last are the things he loves and will ask for seconds and thirds. Tonight, he kept asking for more gluten free fish sticks and ketchup. It thrills me to witness my son happily eating. This truly has become the highlight of my day when it goes right. King’s appetite has been incredible. In fact, his teacher asked me today to pack more for him to eat during lunch. The shock of the new allergy has worn off and we are in the thick of it. I’m finally feeling like its going to be alright.

Wheat, I can barley hear you?

My husband is a wonderful person. (I am either reminding myself or trying to convince myself at this point.) On most areas we agree. But when we disagree, it seems like we are light years apart. Topic of today’s disagreement: my son’s allergies. He is upset that I am trying to remove gluten from his diet. He doesn’t understand why I updated his allergy chart at school. In his words, “We can’t keep him away from all the foods that he’s allergic to!” Umm, yes we can! Why as a mother would I purposely give my child food that I know makes him miserable?! My husband said that I am babying him and he needs to get use to the itching. Excuse me!?! I don’t even know how to respond to this foolishness. I realize that he grew up with allergies which makes him feel like he’s an expert (and knows more than say a doctor and some lab tests?!?). So, I guess we agreed to disagree with out agreeing really, but just disagreeing. The joys of married life.

Luckily I am the mom in this situation and the one who mostly feeds him. My plan is to get a solid 14 gluten free meals that I can use for lunch and dinner. Here’s where I am at:

Lunch options/good cold

1. Rice and Quinoa mix
2. Quinoa and black beans

Dinner options

1. Amy’s Dairy Free Rice Macaroni & Cheeze
2. Daiya’s Cheeze lover’s pizza
3. Rice pasta and marinara sauce

Obviously, I have a quite a few more to come up with. I can do this, even if it’s all by myself.

Finance Saturday: My February Challenge

I have been mentioned on several posts that I wanted to do an amazing money challenge for the month of February. Now that it is the first of the month, I am revealing how I will be challenging myself. Drumroll please! My goal for the shortest month of the year is *to end the month with a zero balance on my credit card*! Mind-blowing I know.

So here’s the deal. My husband is traveling to Vegas next weekend and I still need to buy those plane tickets for his folks. With my son’s new allergy revelation, I will be trying (and hopefully not wasting) some new food in order to get his diet right. All of that amounts to quite a lot of money that isn’t in our normal budget. Instead of creating strict rules (cash only, no spending), I am going to give myself a little break and just try to keep up with the outgoing cash flow. Trust me, it will be a hardship.

Side note: I have been doing quite a lot of research on his allergies and I am definitely feeling better about it. Since his diet is already so restricted, some of his favorite foods are already gluten free. I freaked out because most of them do have oils made from soy, coconut, etc. But I learned today that in the process of making oil, the protein which causes the allergy is usually removed. My plan is to just remove wheat from his diet and see if it does the trick.

I hope you are having a great weekend!

Say WHEAT?!

“Your son is allergic to everything.” That is exactly what the nurse told me when she read his allergy test results. She then added, “Wait, except for fish” but  I was too busy trying to hold back tears. We get our little King test every year hoping he has started to outgrow some of his allergies, but he keeps getting worse. The first year we learned he was allergic to 1) Milk 2) Soy 3) Chicken 4) Turkey 5) Nuts 6) Shellfish and 7) Egg. Last year, they added was beef. This year, it is literally everything including seeds, coconut and wheat. Yes, wheat. Its ironic because when I would talk to others about his condition, I would always add, “Well, at least its not gluten.” Thank you universe for hearing me and thinking, “Just you wait!”

Seriously, I don’t know what I am going to feed this boy. For the most part, he has a pretty restricted diet as is. But he LOVES pasta. We just found a restaurant that serves dairy free/soy free pizza and now he can’t have it! It is so frustrating, but I know we will make adjustments. I don’t even want to think about what this will do to our already high food budget. I am guessing that rice/quinoa pasta isn’t cheap. Ah….why, why, why! Excuse me while I go in a corner and cry.