New cookbooks

I ordered new cookbooks and am excited as all get out. I bought three:

• Vegan Lunchbox - she amazing at how she makes vegan lunches look fun and appealing and he loves it.
• Baking with Agave Nectar - watch me now I'm going to start being a punk-chef
• Gluten-free Quick & Easy - my favorite author Carol Fenster.

I've just leafed through them so far because its been busy since then, can you say soccer season on two leagues? Plus we're painting the house - so much prep to do...but GF Q&E has a great section that lists weeks of menus and planned-overs (I like that term better than leftovers). I struggle with knowing what to do and how to have planned-overs. So every night is what's new to fix for dinner or have exactly what we had before. Are other cookbooks out there that actually give you menus with planned overs? I know lots of people TALK about it, and I saw a show on HGTV or Food Network that did give some ideas but I never wrote it down and couldn't find it online anywhere following it. I remember one recipe that was great but not now with little ones food issues. Hmm....

Our test results & ADHD meds

Wow I see its been a bit since I've posted. Ah, the life of working in catering in the summertime; 6 days a week almost all of August. Tammi working 6 days a week makes for a grumpy unwilling participant in life in general.

So we met with our ND and the results confirmed Leaky Gut Syndrome and an overgrowth in yeast among other things I can't even begin to grasp. Lots of imbalance. We decided, among the specific vitamins that he was lacking and extra special probiotic along with a yeast aid. Now the next step for him would be a heavier duty anti-fungal for the yeast. This will help the yeast faster than the yeast aid she put him on. A few weeks as opposed to a few months. I'm way beyond waiting to see an improvement.

But I have to say once we found his vitamins from the other ND had rice protein (a big no-no for little one) and it really didn't have enough iron for his skin, he's been tons better. So much so I can say best I've seen his skin in probably years. Almost perfect at times! And if we have a special occasion day with food, I can see the difference within a few days. Much better than the 3 weeks it took to recover last time. I really like the trend we are seeing.

So I started reading up on Leaky Gut. Man! does it have a whole lot of symptoms like what we are dealing with and the ones that stands out - attention deficit problems and kidney/liver problems, skin and eczema, allergies - all issues for little one. A small miracle is noticed - I'm with him as he requested a story book before bed one night; he's not really interested in the book, more in talking to me and has this wonderfully profound comment about liking to discover how things work, all the added curiosity. Can he really not have all these issues, just leaky gut? Intestinal permeability would be the technical term but it turns out many western medicine docs don't usually diagnose it. Too bad because I could have gotten his anti-fungal paid for by insurance.

On to the meds we decided to try. It was getting down to under 2 weeks until school and we figured he'd need the help. We decided on Adderall. The last of the stimulant choices that aren't based on what we already tried. BAD! BAD! Within 3 days his skin was itchy, scaly, and irritated beyond what the vitamins would help. So he's off again. The non-stimulants don't present much choice either, Strattera can exhibit signs of depression, something not good in our family history, or Tenex has side effects of skin rashes or issues, not good for him. So school starts in 2 days and he'll not have medication to help. Perhaps the yeast will die down fast enough to help him further...

ADHD, medication, and naturopathy

I read a new book, well skimmed through it called Kids Without Ridilin. They authors talked about natural ways to help kids with ADHD without using the traditional medication that western medicine seems to jump towards. The authors also have some studies to assist the reasoning and lots of families talking about their experience.

So I'm stuck in the middle. We know he needs help. The doctor said, well its sounds like ADHD and he definitely falls within those ranges and if we try a series of medication and it works, we'll know. How can trying medication really be the best way. IF it helps then its fixed. The middle part seems to be that we have an appointment on Monday with his new naturopath and she says all these food allergies, his bedwetting, and ADHD are all rolled into one. And that we are already on the right path to making it all better.

But what, what's the piece we'v been missing. I'm anxious to find out. The book listed a few things but couldn't give us anything to really try because it said each child it so different.

I'm hoping my Monday it will be 3 full weeks since we sent in his samples and hopefully the results from the tests will be back. I think its great to have a ND says she's there to help me straddle both worlds because right now I'm feeling that where I'm at. How do I give him the best benefit of both worlds?

I'll keep you all posted. I'm off to make wheat-free tortillas. I've been putting of baking and cooking some of his specialty items in hopes the test results would come back and all my horrors could go away. Too big a hope I know but you've always gotta have hope!

Camp

Little one went to cub scout camp and came back less of a mess than I was thinking he would. What a relief! And the camp seemed not nearly as against it as I thought they would be. The cook said they have that a lot. The nurse was fine with all his meds but I still got the kind lecture about him having to learn his meds. Would be fine had I not added several new things to the repitoire just prior to his leaving in hopes it would all help him get through better. Which obviously it did. All's well in the 4t's camp.

Today we are going to try a recipe from one of the other bloggers Simply, Healthy, Tasty. She has a cheese recipe for Nachos I think we'll try and have make your own tacos with the recipe for wheat-free, rice free tortills.

Gonna clean house and try to get a hold of the duck egg farm to see if we can get a hold of some eggs. Scrambled eggs would be nice.

I found some great new ideas from other bloogers here. Check out Shmooed Food/Vegan Lunchbox and Simple, Healthy, Tasty. Shmooed was the first web/blog I found with great ideas on actually building a lunch he may like. Simple, Healthy, Tasty gave us a tortilla recipe that I could modify and get wheat-tasting tortillas. We are in heaven again!

With my modifications, my tortilla recipe is wheat-free, corn-free, and rice free.

1/4 cup each arrowroot powder, tapioca flour, potato starch
1/2 cup millet flour
1 tsp salt
1 1/4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp xanthan gum
2 tbsp oil
1/2 cup water

Mix all the dry ingredients and cut in oil with pastry blender. Add the water, mixing with a fork. Let rest 10 minutes. Roll small balls about 2-3 inches between 2 sheets of plastic wrap. Cook on medium in dry skillet or cast iron until cooked. Cool in gallon baggy or tortilla warmer.

I knew these would be a hit so we bought a tortilla press right away but we need a larger one because the typical corn tortilla size is not big enough when we want to make burritos.

I do have a few kinks to work out because 1/2 cup water from the original recipe seems to make it too gooey and I have to knead in additional flours. Just now I used millet flour for the kneading and that worked well before placing into the tortilla press (before I used buckwheat flour). Now I wonder if I should knead the whole batch after only adding 1/3 cup water. If anyone is experimenting, let me know what you find.

Next I'm going to try the nacho cheese sauce on Simple, Healthy, Tasty after purchasing my food processor and using this tortilla recipe to make chips for my little one. Yipee, life is good at the moment!

So let's talk about ND and western medicine

Anyone ever run into a regular doctor that treats you like you don't know what's best for your child or that you can't possibly be seeing a change. I talked to our naturopath today (ND) and let her know we would be seeking a second opinion or at least someone to see if we've been missing something. I let her know she's been great and how much I apprecited that she respected my decisions especially since we've put him on Zyrtec. And that we'd be back to discuss all my other findings.

I know someone may read this and think Zyrtec is not the end of the world but as an antihistamine is suppresses the system and keeps the eczema at bay. You see in her eyes the skin being an organ of the body has been obviously expelling toxins from the body. If those toxins weren't allowed to flush from the system those toxins would find a way out. And that way out could manifest in another worse disease like asthma or Crohn's or something we don't want. So by putting him on Zyrtec I'm not letting the toxins out but I have to let his skin heal. Let his body have a break from dealing with all the environmental abuse its taking from the airbourne allergens. We see him come in after 10 minutes of palying outside and he's itching like nobody's business.

Ever felt like you were straddling two worlds. Kinda happens when we frist have kids and want to go out like before we had kids. You don't know how to do it at first and have to feel your way around... that's what it feels like for me when I'm dealing with the ND and regular Docs. My peds great, we met a nurse's physician that was great but another urgent care doc that wasn't. I feel like in many cases I end up teaching and sometimes I get tired of that job. My older son has Asperger's and we've run into many a teacher thinking, oh, we've dealt with ADHD, and since that's a component of Asperger's we can deal with it. Suffice to say, i've spent many a time thinking, okay, here you go, time to learn under fire. You'll call me when you don't know what to do and I can then turn and say, that's why I wanted to you listen to what I've learned. Thus the teaching part.

Well maybe I;m a teacher at heart and that should have been my calling. I'll keep youj posted on my teaching efforts!

Happy Birthday to me!

Yep, today's my birthday. We're heading out for dinner so I don't have to cook. Hopefully they boys will like Outback Steakhouse's gluten-free menu. If I can keep them away from the mac & cheese all will be well. Perhaps I get littlest one to have a salad. He actually eats it and at 9 yrs old. I forgive the dressing because I figure he's at least eating it. Not like older brother.

Our BBQ went well. The cheesecake was great. Everyone likes it except my Aunt who swore she could taste the goat cheese and had been forced to have goat cheese as a child and hates it to this day. Very little cheesecake was left over and today I know we've had a successful event without messing up little ones skin. What a relief. We'll see what happens at dinner.

Well off to the movies, the other thing I wanted to do as a family - Wall-E. Yeah!

Big BBQ

Today I spent 2 or 3 hours sourcing foods we will be serving at our Fourth of July BBQ. I wanted to do a BBQ with my family since it feels like forever since we got to talk or spend any time together. I've been dealing with my son's allergy flair-ups since Memorial Day weekend when we ended up at the emergency department to get a steroids - Prednisone plus another course since then. Many nights of waking with him itching and itching, tossing and turning and waking us up to help him because he's been so uncomfortable. Man you feel bad when all you want it for it to stop so you can sleep. But that's a different story.

At first I thought I'd do it all. All stuff my son can have. But when my family asked about doing potluck, I decided to think about it. We decided I would divvy out the things I know my son won't eat. That way I get some of the bad stuff and most of the stuff we will have that he can have.

Tomorrow I'm trying my hand at cheesecake made from soft goat milk cheese and goat milk plain yogurt. I'm going to strain the yogurt a bit to get it thicker. Think I will use a combination of flax egg substitute and Ener-G egg replacer since I think all flax will make the cheesecake too runny. I found a recipe for "graham" crackers from a cookbook by Carol Fenster - Cooking Free. My son loves these with just peanut butter.

BTW, her book is a WONDERFUL book! Met her at a class at Bob's Red Mill. She talked all about gluten free cooking and her new book, made some breads which were very tasty, and then signed copies of her book. But the best part about meeting her was asking her which cookbook would work best for my family and then asking how do I use her flour blends when sorghum is one of the ingredients. Sorghum is a grain and since we can't do grains when mixed with yeast, was he destined to never have peanut butter and jelly again? She said taking Bob's Red Mill creamy buckwheat cereal and grind it to flour consistency and use that instead will work just fine. That was the best news ever! Although it took me a while to understand my coffee grinder would grind way better than my blender or food chopper. I don't think my coffee grinder has seen coffee now in so long...

I have a whole pile of cookbooks now that I've picked up over the last year. I like The Complete Food Allergy Cookbook by Marilyn Gioannini, and the Kid-Friendly Food Allergy Cookbook by Leslie Hammond and Lynn Marie Rominger. Both offer substitutions for common allergens/ingredients and each has given me ideas on what to cook him. I don't use the Gluten-Free Gourmet Bakes Bread much because I really haven't found a recipe with bean bread that I like. Carol's have worked out better for me. Check them out. Don't know if you've spent hours in the cookbook isle before, but checking each of these out before buying will ensure you've got one that has a couple of recipes you'll use over and over again.

Now that you've read what he can have and what he can't let me finish the story. Most people see that list and say, "What can he have?" We decided to explore the alternative grains. I bought a new cookbook - great one for people new to food intolerance's, Coping with Food Intolerances by Dick Thom. DDS, ND. Funny that he's a DDS (doctor of dental surgery) but now that I search around more I keep seeing his name on lots of naturopathic or food intolerance websites.-- forgive any typos, I was up late last night with my darling child itching and scratching so much I decided drinking was the best way to cope tonight - don't hate me for taking the easy way out.

My other new cookbook was The Gluten-free Gourmet Bakes Bread by Bette Hagman (who BTW is recently deceased). It offered a whole lot of information about the alternative flours. I decide to buy it too otherwise I would have spent the rest of my afternoon in Whole Foods cafe reading it. I thought it best to buy it since Whole Foods is not exactly the library. I did that a lot, just spent hours walking through Wild Oats (Nature's here) and New Season's Market (another locale organic grocer) and Whole Foods. Just wander the isles. I'd be gone for like 2-3 hours just looking at all this new stuff that I didn't know about. Trader Joe's is great too but all these are new brands I've never heard of before. You gotta take time to just read labels.So, we'd been seeing the ND for about 6 months before I think I finally had a handle on all that he couldn't have and got it out of the system. Thankfully I had a daycare provider very willing to offer only food he could eat. She was and is great, as a daycare professional and friend.

Then ND told me to that for every year the body has had a problem, it takes it a month to heal itself. Well at the time we started he was 8 yrs old. 8 yrs = 8 months minimum. 6 months to get all the toxins out, I realize I'm in this for a lot of money. Not including I can't get through Wild Oats or Whole Foods without the bill starting at $40. That's $40 but usually about $60. Depending on your location within the country that may or may not seem like a lot. But to us, our monthly food bill is in the neighborhood of $600-800. Typically I was spending that in 2 visits not almost daily. PB&J's were a thing of the past. So was ketchup, two things that are a staple of most kids' diets. So, now that we are are about 8 months into this and Christmas happens. Lots of eczema that we'd had cleared up. Or as close to normal than we've seen since he was a baby. His skin looked like that of a normal child until Christmas with its sugar, red & green dyes and wheat based cookies. Lots of foods that he's not supposed to have. How can you tell him no? He's just so darn cute?

Now the other turn of events, we'd had to look at ADHA meds. He was having lots of trouble with reading. Reading at kindergarten level or lower at 3rd grade and none of the school's interventions were working - don't even get me started on the interventions he'd been through. And this was all new stuff since our oldest read at 3rd grade level in kindergarten. All the testing showed our youngest the anomaly. No reason why he should be having trouble except that he would fidget and not pay attention. Ah, ADHD on our horizon. We started meds. But looking back, the flare up seems to coincide with the addition of meds or change in meds.I had him tested again with all the foods I was giving him to see if anything I was doing was causing the problem. We found out he also can't have rice or spelt either, two grains I was relying on heavily. Now what?? But those meds still were not thought about.It’s now been 13 months like I said. The ND thinks the ADHD meds are causing a problem. I find plenty of data on the web but of course the regular MD doesn't discredit me but can't confirm even though I bring in some documentation that says reactions include rash, eczema, cracks in the skin and extreme itching. We take him off the ADHD med, put him on Prednisone and alas his skin is clear. Great for steroids.See my son also had this great breakout on Memorial Day weekend where he itched so badly he scratched to bleeding. The doctor at urgent care was worried about secondary infection he prescribed antibiotics, but since I believe it could have started this process why would I go there. I mean hey! Why rob the body of all the good bacteria then take what we and the ND have worked so hard to get back. We have a great length of things we do each morning, acidophilus, cod liver oil, L-glutamine, drops for this or that. Anything to help his body feel better so it can heal.Healing, what a concept.

This is new to me!

So I decide to start my own blog and record the trials and tribulations of learing to deal with my son's food intollerances. I love the internet because it offers people who've been there and done that before me. But for me I've always felt I was a good baker (an my waistline can show those results if I'm not careful) but when it comes to cooking regular food, let's just say, I really good at ordering dinner. I can order with the best of them. Having worked in the food service industry all my life people assume I know how to cook. But NO, I've always worked the service side and had others cook for me.

Then along came son #2. From the very beginning he couldn't eat rice cereal or have water from the tap. Doctor's thought I didn't know what I was talking about when I said he was a crabby baby the day after having unboiled water or that his skin was dry and flaky with the rice cereal, that only the oat cereal would work. They thought I was setting him up for an allergy. Then came all the ear infections. Our doctor's answer was long term low-dose antibiotics. 6 months worth. It was great for me, no more ear infections; we had been getting them every 6 weeks up until then. Then came the eczema, he was probably 3 or 4. At age five we decide to try an allergist and started Zyrtec and a topical steroid cream plus they wanted to do some blood work to test his allergens. That was my first exposure to their so called no-allergen diet. Boy was that a joke compared to where we are now. We did a blood draw that scared the living daylights out of him that to this day, he's petrified of shots. Try getting that one past him when we have well-child visits!

Blood work came back with only dust mites and grasses with a small skew on something else but nothing showed up on wheat, dairy, or eggs. After two weeks on their no-allergen diet we noticed he face cleared up. No more dry skin around his eyes. Wow! But we gave back all the offending foods because, hey the doc said it was all fine! So what could it be? So we ellimated all the stuff again and added back in one item at a time. It was dairy - or shall I say cows milk. But still the eczema was present.

He's 9 now and all these years I was the queen of pasta, red sauce, garlic, and anything containing bread or carbs. I'm a carb addict. More on that later.

A little over a year ago I was talking to a friend and she said she'd had her son tested for allergies without a blood test. I was very interested. VEGA testing using an electrode to see what the body likes or doesn't like. I looked all over the internet to learn more and see who in Portland might be able to help. I talked to ND's to see whom can help, many did not have the testing equipment but recommended one and said to call for an appointment once I had test results. But is was a matter on money. ND are not covered under our insurance. Well, we could get a ND that was supposed to give us discounts but it ended up being like $10 a session. So we decided to stay with the testing doc and see what she can do with the results. Today after over a year with a naturopath I'm struggling even more than ever.

Here's the list the machine said he couldn't have:
wheat
wheat gluten
all dairy except goat milk
refined table salt
refined white sugar
corn
garlic
honey
tomato
anything ending in the word "berry" except blackberry
no kiwi
no citrus - oranges, lemons, lime
no yeast when its mixed with a grain
no caffeine products - cocoa, decaf coffee, tea, carob
eggs
soy
Nutrasweet & saccharin
sulphites
red or green dye
MSG

The list seems to make you think, well what can he have. That's the reason for this blog. I'm trying to make my way from a packaged, processed, eating out mom to a healthy, something that fits in his menu and good for the whole family kind of cook. That's the true challenge.

She believes the months and months of antibiotics robbed his gut of healthy bacteria and probably contributes to leaky gut syndrome. ND's also believe the skin being the largest organ is trying to push out toxins and if we don't let it out, they body will find a way to manifest it and create some other way to get it out. It could manifest into asthma or some other chronic disease. That alone was enough for me to take all the offending foods out and stop the topical steroid; the steroid was suppressing the eczema.

So here we are today, almost 13+ months after the first visit and lots of money later. I'll keep you posted as we try new things and I find my way through what seems to be a next to impossible task. I know I should end up a better cook but hey, it all sometimes seems overwhelming.