children with food allergies

indianamom4

Mon, Mar 07 2005, 7:47 pm

I have 4 children, 6, 4 1/2, 2 1/2, 10 1/2 months. My 2 middle children both have food allergies that are becoming increasingly difficult to deal with. The most difficult is that my almost 5 yr. old cannot have any gluten and when she is in school or playing with friends or even at home, she sees all of the things that she cannot have. We discovered this very recently and she tries to be good about it but she gets very upset. She is also not supposed to have dairy, although that she is okay with since my 2 yr old is allergic to dairy and peanuts. I am having a hard time explaining to her why we need to be so strict. Plus, finding decent gluten-free recipes is IMPOSSIBLE Exclamation

Any advice Question

hadasa

Tue, Mar 08 2005, 11:53 am

indiana - that sounds really tough. I have a friend with three kids, and each is allergic to something else, and she can't eat anything her nursing baby is allergic to, either. Does rye have gluten in it? Her baby is allergic to wheat, so she substitutes rye flour in all regular flour recipes, and she said it comes out fine.

Pickle Lady

Tue, Mar 08 2005, 12:40 pm

Currently we are finding out my sons allergies too. They thought he might have a gluten allergy but B"H it doesn't. So far we found out that he is highly allergic to dairy. B"H I breastfed or it would have been much harder on him. Allergies in kids is so hard. Since my son is still young we made the house totally dairy free. Even the smallest bite and he has a bad reaction.

There must be celiac web site that has recipes. I also heard that they make gluten free matzah from barley ( I think it was barley). I guess over time it will become more managable for her. Do you know if he can every grow out of the gluten allergy?

One of the most annoying things about figuring out that my son had an allergy was that people kept saying that he looks fine and he doesn't have weight issues so he must be fine. Also doctors thought it was relfux for about a year and kept telling me that it couldn't be an allergy especially that it couldn't be dairy. WRONG well it was. Now my poor son has been off and on sick for a year.

Rivka

Tue, Mar 08 2005, 2:17 pm

My sister is allergic to gluten and dairy and load of other stuff. It is tough. You can get gluten free flour to make cakes, but you can also use corn flour.
In the UK there are a lot of "free from" foods in supermarkets and my sister has to chase them up all the time to find out if they are kosher. So she can buy pasta, bread, crackers, certain biscuits (they import an Israeli one here which are pretty nice) and she stocks up on soup from Pesach to use the year round.
Rye has gluten and so do oats. In the UK everything on it says if it has gluten/milk/peanuts/nuts in it coz these allergies are getting more common.
Oh and the gluten free bread according to my sis tastes best toasted and marge spread on it to soften it. With some recipes you can use corn flour or gluten free flour instead of real flour, when it is used as a thickner.

queenie

Tue, Mar 08 2005, 3:39 pm

Rivka, what does your sister do on pesach?If you can buy gluten free flour can you buy gluten free matza?

I use spelt a lot and a lot of people I know do. You can buy spelt cookies and flat breads and a lot of bakeries carry spelt flour and breads. But, it is not totally gluten free. It has a significantly lower amount but it still has some. My friend's mother has an allergy and she uses spelt but her allergy is not too severe and it doesn't seem to bother her.

Henya

Tue, Mar 08 2005, 5:26 pm

Allergies......the story of my life. I'm deathly allergic to beef and I'm lactose intolerant. I have terrible eczema & I know it's cuz I'm sensitive to sugar, wheat & yeast but I don't have enough willpower to go off sugar, wheat & yeast. Although there have been times when I did go off these foods for months & my eczema did clear up loads.
My daughter is allergic to corn & is lactose intolerant as well.
When there are allergies in the family, you learn to cook different & it eventually becomes a part of the way you cook, shop & eat.

indianamom4

Tue, Mar 08 2005, 6:07 pm

Gluten is in all of the grains, wheat, oat, rye, barley and spelt. some grains have a higher gluten content than others. we are still trying to see what she is most sensitive to. so far she is off of everything with gluten. shabbos is hard because she cant have challah or cake.
I am trying to just have parve ice cream or fruit to avoid dessert, but we often have company and I always feel like I need to have somthing else. the rolls that I made her are okay, but because of the consistency of it I cant form it into challahs.
breakfast is also hard because she wants oatmeal like her siblings. I hope that I am able to find GF matza. it is a little hard here to find things than it would be in NY or somewhere with a bigger Jewish community.
I am trying some alternative medicine to see if that will help her overcome this disease. It is called bioset treatments. My husband thinks that I am crazy to do this voodoo stuff but I figure it is worth a try Exclamation

hisorerus

Tue, Mar 08 2005, 6:13 pm

Have you tried NAET? It is an allergy elimination technique, and I know several people who swear by it! My friend's sister could not go near a slice of bread to avoid triggering anaphylactic shock, but after the treatment, she eats bread without a problem.

klotzkashe

Tue, Mar 08 2005, 8:56 pm

indiana, I feel for you! my son is allergic to fava/broad beans however his allergy is bh not an anaphylactic (sp?) one. however I'm terrified for when he's older, maybe he'll have a bite of cholent that has the stuff in it c'v? with him it's teh G6PD deficiency where his body doesn't make the enzyme that enables him to breakdown these types of things and could lead to a deadly anemia C"V C"V R"L. there are other things he has 2 avoid like certain antibiotics, old-fashioned naphthalene moth balls etc.

I coudlnt imagine though if he was severely allergic to normal, common foods!
my heart is with you indiana! good luck!

sarahd

Wed, Mar 09 2005, 2:01 am

Motek wrote:

is it true that these food allergies are becoming more common, and if so, why?

Based on my own observation, I would certainly say that allergies are becoming more common. As for the reason, I have heard that it's because we live in much more antiseptic environments than previously, and therefore our bodies do not build up resistance to allergens and foreign bodies. This is why I have heard it suggested that one should not bathe babies every single day, nor keep them in too antiseptic an environment.

BTW, "allergy" refers to the body identifying the offending substance as an enemy and reacting in a life-threatening way. Hives, rashes and other non-life-threatening reactions come from an "intolerance" to food. You can avoid your child developing intolerances by refraining from offering him commonly untolerated foods for as long as possible.

Tefila

Wed, Mar 09 2005, 7:20 am

Quote:

8) Sure you are not a professor in hiding sarahd Very Happy

indianamom4

Wed, Mar 09 2005, 7:54 pm

Food allergies are definitly more common these days. there are studies about this done. The Food allergy and aniphalaxis network is a great resource for people with allergies. they have a great website and newsletter and a newsletter for kids as well.
my son has a peanut and dairy allergy. thank g-d they are not life threatening but it is very scary to know that it could become that way. he is only 2 and he does not really understand that he cannot eat certain foods or they will make him sick. he is now talking more than before and if I coach him-"what will happen if you eat nuts or drink regular milk?" - he says- "me sick". he is starting to get it. when he gets to school it will also be difficult that he cant have the same things as other kids. my 5 year old daughter with the gluten problem has a very hard time when the other kids get hot lunches and she has a sandwich!
we are trying some sort of "voodoo" thing to see if it will make them better. it is called bioset and it came from the NAET that Hisorerus talked about before.