I don't have many new things to offer today, except that I thought I might recap some things that I did over the last couple weeks that I think should be publicized...
As my friends and family know, my oldest son, Wally, has had speech problems and while we have been getting him treated we found out that he had a sensitivity to cow's milk dairy products and a wheat allergy. Now neither of these allergies are that uncommon in this day and age, but what's alarming is how common this is in certain groups of children with similar delays and conditions. Wally has been diagnosed with Apraxia, and for a while there were concerns that he was actually Autistic. He also slept very little, and I mean like 4 hours out of every 36. It was horrible, and Melanie and I were in an exhausted state for months because it was all we could do to keep an eye on the little guy. Fortunately, we finally got Wally in to see a neurologist who was able to get Wally screened for a number of things, including toxins and heavy metals in his body, and allergies. The neurologist was able to help us get Wally on a regular sleep schedule using Melatonin. This supplement was a Godsend in itself, because Wally was now able to go to sleep at a decent hour, around 9 PM, and sleep through the night. This meant Mel and I could start getting some rest as well. Of course Wil sometimes has his nights now and makes for a sleepless night for Mel and I, but that's not too frequent like it was with Wally who never slept.
The other thing the neurologist found out was Wally's allergies to dairy and wheat. What this news brought was a whole new set of challenges that we had to face. Wally had his favorite foods, and dairy was at the top of the list. He loves cheese. Milk was next, and together this boy would happily make a meal of a few slabs of cheese and a sippy cup of chocolate milk and that's all he'd care to have. How were we supposed to deal with this, and how does one explain to a 3 year old that his favorite foods were now off limits? Melanie dealt with it first by simply telling him that he could no longer have cheese. Next she told him milk was out too. Surprisingly, he said ok. He just stopped consuming milk and cheese, but we knew he needed some of the nutrients that those foods supply. First thing we substituted was soy milk. Chocolate was a temporary success, but Wally stopped drinking it after less than a week. Now, months later he still doesn't care for it, and simply drinks fruit juice or water. I still use soy or rice milk for cooking, and we're using Smart Balance instead of butter, and all of the family is doing this. After the milk, the next challenge was cheese. Wally couldn't have cow's mil cheese, but goat or sheep's milk was fine. I was aghast at the cost of goat/sheep milk cheese! The local Harris Teeter has both kinds of cheeses, but the goat milk one that Wally has really taken a liking to is
Rosey Goat, and it's over $24 per lb. at Harris Teeter! Thankfully we've since found it at Costco for
only $14 per lb. Finally we just tried the Manchego sheep's milk cheese from the same distributor, also available from Costco at ~$9 per lb., and it's fantastic. Goat's milk and cheese can take a bit of getting used to (I now am a fan myself), but the Manchego is one that I think anyone would enjoy and I highly recommend it if you're finding yourself in the situation of needing to get away from cow's milk products. Costco also has Kirkland brand chocolate soy milk in individual single serving sized boxes that our youngest son, and myself as well, love. They're easily half the cost of the similar products from the health food stores. They pack in a lunchbox fine and don't need to be refrigerated.
As for Wally's wheat allergy, there's a ton of gluten free products on the market these days, and I was only half surprised to find De Boles gluten free pasta in Wal Mart. Wally can have corn chips or corn tortillas, and there's also corn-like Quinoa products out there too, but I'm not a big fan of these just yet. What we have found that is a tremendous success with both kids is
Pamela's Products Pancake and Baking mix. One of my personal favorite foods is pancakes. It's understandably a favorite of both kids as well. Wally had to have pancakes, and I swear, the wheat/gluten-free ones I make with Pamela's mix are every bit as good as any wheat flour one's I've made from a mix. I'll gladly eat the GF ones now anytime.
This last week I found our pantry had 3 nice big bananas that were turning brown and just perfect for bread, and the first place I turned to was Pamela's for a recipe. Pamela, whoever she is, didn't upset. They had a
recipe that called for the powdered pancake and baking mix that I used, but I made cupcakes with the batter and reduced the baking time to 25 minutes to account for that. Holy moly, they're great! In order to satisfy the boys' sweettooths I decided to frost the cupcakes, and I again turned to Pamela's for her Confetti Vanilla Frosting, and it's fantastic too. The kids couldn't get enough.
While we're still trying to find a decent GF bread recipe that will allow some close approximation to basic white bread for PB&J, we're pretty happy with how things are working out so far.
If you find you're told to remove glutens and dairy from your child's diet, don't despair! There's plenty of alternatives to be had these days, and we're building up a small library of cookbooks and magazine recipes that we're yet to try, but I'll post here when we have successes.
