October 16, 2011: Food Allergies

Hola, All! Almost every morning I make fruit smoothies in the Vitamix: pears, peaches, and mangos.........all fruit that we know that Austin is not allergic to. He loves his fruit smoothie! I don't know if it's because he likes the taste so much or because he gets to drink it in a big-boy cup. Either way, he downs it pretty quickly. Last Monday morning we gave Austin a raw cut-up strawberry to see if he would have any reaction to it; we repeated this on Tuesday and Wednesday. If he is life-threatening allergic to a food, his throat will close within an hour; Kim keeps an epi-pen with her at all times. If he is mildly allergic, he might break out in hives or have runny poop, or get random bumps on his body. Luckily, the strawberries passed with flying colors; now I get to add strawberries to our morning smoothies!
This week Kim is going to test him on olive oil by putting a little in his oatmeal or some other food. She sometimes will try one new food a week, in the morning for 3 days in a row, watching him carefully. Sometimes I think that having food allergies is a blessing in disguise. The main foods that Austin eats are fruits, vegetables, some chicken and turkey, and cheerios. No candy, cookies, cake, ice cream, french fries..........all that stuff that tastes good but isn't very good for you. He is 13 months old, and his diet consists of foods I never even thought to feed my kids at that age; foods like mangos, blueberries, turkey meatballs, black beans, avocado. Good grief; K, K and B didn't eat avocados until they were nearly grown! (They didn't eat them earlier because avocados are green and that made them undesirable!)
Austin still drinks a bottle 3 times a day, before his morning and afternoon naps, and before bedtime. Since he turned a year old, his bottle has 1/2 vanilla rice milk and 1/2 EleCare, a formula for children with severe allergies. It is dairy free, soy free, wheat free, etc, and not very tasty, according to Kim, but it contains the vitamins, minerals and fat that babies need for proper growth. Because of that, he may be on a bottle longer than other children, but who really cares. I am so thankful that there are so many choices for people with allergies than ever before.
Be thankful,
Dawnie