Adding to Our List: Pecans

I was cooking supper and Witt sat on the couch. (I can see the couch from the kitchen.)  Surprisingly, he started screaming, 

"WHAT IS GOING ON? MY FACE IS ITCHING ALL OVER!!!!!"

As soon as I heard him scream, I grabbed the Benedryl from the cabinet, poured him some, and told him to come to me.  I asked him if he'd just eaten anything and he said, "Yes. Nuts."

I told him to take the Benedryl and he started crying. Shouting, "NO!" and then ran down the hall.  (He hates taking medicine.) I continued to talk to him in a very rushed voice and told him that he had to take it or the itching might get worse and we'd have to go to the hospital to get a shot.

He finally took it and within just a minute he said it was getting better. Small hives started creeping onto his face and I checked his torso. Thankfully there weren't any hives there. I asked about his throat and he said it felt fine. Then he asked what the bump was on his lip.

I asked him when he noticed it. If it had been there all day? He said he didn't know. I asked him if he just noticed it after eating the nuts and he said yes.  I asked about his tongue and he said it was all itchy, but was better now. 

I asked him about the nuts. Turns out he and Nathan were cracking and snacking on pecans. I asked how many he'd eaten and he said, "About four".

I was a little surprised because he's had pecans plenty of times, even recently. Plus, pecans were negatives on both his skin test and blood test.   

Once I was sure the Benedryl was working, I snapped the pictures so I could show Jeff when he got home.  That poor bottom lip.  :( 

I am so glad he was able to tell me what the problem was and I could get the Benedryl in him as quickly as I did.  I've seen pictures of MUCH worse.  

Today, I call the doctor and ask for an epi-pen prescription. 

Skin Test 2013

Witt, age 6, had a skin test done recently.  Poor little guy... 32 individual pricks on the back.  It was not an enjoyable day.  Here is a shot of his back right after the test was administered:

And 20 minutes later there were 6 positive results: Wheat, Soy, Almond, Hazelnut, Peanut, and Cantaloupe.

Thankfully the whelps are not as large as the first time he had the skin test years ago. And thankfully these allergies are not life-threatening!  We are still waiting on the results of the blood test to get a more complete picture of his food allergies.  Please say a little prayer for us as we enter back into the food allergy "club". 

Sad News...Dairy Allergy Returns

Witt "outgrew" his dairy allergy at age 2 1/2. We lived as a dairy-free family from the time he was 6 months old (when we found out about his his life-threatening allergy) until then.

After that, we slowly introduced dairy products into his diet. There were no reactions. He LOVED cheese and yogurt! We switched to raw milk and he drank that fine as well.

Then, about a year ago (around 5 1/2 years old), he started having stomach pains after he ate.  They were random and not every time he ate.  Then after a few months, the pain got worse and more frequent.  He wasn't finishing meals.

I began to narrow things down in his diet and watch what he ate and when the pain would come.  I had it narrowed down to gluten and/or dairy.  Then, one morning before he ate anything, I gave him a small glass of milk to drink and nothing else. I set the timer for 20 minutes to watch for a reaction.

Within 10 minutes he was in pain! He wouldn't eat anything else and went back to bed to wait it out. Poor little guy.

He had a doctor's visit and I brought up the possibility of lactose-intolerance turning up.  Dr. P said given Witt's history, he would not classify it as intolerance, but as an allergy.  He recommended keeping as much dairy out of his diet as possible.

I posted this new information on my food allergy blog, Must Follow Recipes, asking for suggestions. I got a response from Lady Makes It saying that her husband cycles through from allergy, to being able to tolerate milk in small amounts with Lactaid use, and then back to full-blown allergy. This gave me the idea to use Lactaid with Witt... and it worked beautifully!

For awhile.

Now, the Lactaid doesn't even help. He is even having stomach pains from baked-in milk and from cultured milk, like yogurt. :(

So now, I'm back to reading labels for hidden dairy and re-learning how to cook dairy-free for him. It's not as intimidating this time because I know I've done it before, but I am so not excited about this (for him or for me). However, at least now, at age 6, he is able to ask if something has dairy in it and (as of right now) the allergy is not life-threatening.

THAT is a HUGE blessing!!!

What's New In Our Food?

Does someone you know have Food Sensitivities? Food Allergies? Cancer even?  Have you considered that it might be your *FOOD*? 

Check out these stats:

1. Today, 1 out 17 kids under the age of 3 has a food allergy.
2. From 1997 until 2002, peanut allergies DOUBLED.
3. 9 out of 10 of breast cancer cases in the US are not genetic; they are environmental.

Robin O'Brien is so smart! She is the Horton who heard a Who. I've got her book but haven't started it yet. Can't wait! Watch this video. She is so eloquent & passionate. You WILL be inspired! (copied from Cheeseslave)

 This video has some FABULOUS information and is well worth the time. PLEASE take the time to watch and learn more about our food supply.  There are changes that NEED to be made!

One Year Ago (PART I)

One year ago, our lives changed.

I want to say something dramatic to portray the relief of living without food allergies, but I just don't think it's possible - there are no satisfactory words. It's like those moments when you wish there were better words to describe "I love you" to someone. Sometimes those words just don't seem enough to express the emotions, ya know? Same idea with the removal of food allergies.

Weird comparison, I know, but it works. :)

I'd like to remember some of the differences between 2010 and the 2 1/2 years prior (where we lived as a dairy free, egg free, and almost peanut free family).

In no particular order, here are the first things that pop into my head:

• no special ordered allergy-free chocolate for the holidays
• no wondering about what the previous child ate in the grocery buggy
  
• he's going to preschool this year (2 days a week) without a care in the world
  
• no major prep-work for church gatherings (always with food)
  
• ate his first Reese's Peanut Butter Cup (oh yeah! Imagine that day!)
  
• we ate out more as I family and I personally gained 12 pounds this year! UGH!
• Unfortunately, I did not keep up with my allergy recipe blog: Must Follow Recipes.

As this will most likely be my final series of posts on food allergies, I find it will be easiest to list by month the changes we experienced. This will be the first of three posts (each containing a quarter of the year.)

JANUARY

Each month we have a fellowship birthday meal with our church congregation. It was so hard to "not worry" because my brain was accustomed to watching every bit of food that everyone ate, making sure they didn't have dairy on their hands. We usually sat in a corner, keeping Witt away from everyone and I had to bring prepared food (including dessert) from home for him.

Imagine how free this little boy felt when he was allowed to run around the fellowship room with the other children. To run around the food table and grab a cookie when no one was looking and to dip under and hide below the food table (amongst scraps that had surely fallen) so he could eat that cookie (that someone else had made). Imagine how free his mama felt, too! :)

Jeff and I were also able to take a mini-getaway to his parents' lake house for a weekend. The boys stayed with my MIL. Although she, too, had gotten very proficient at reading labels and preparing food for Witt, there were some things she just didn't stock at her house because they'd go bad. For this trip to Gran's, I didn't have to do extra shopping or prepare special food. She didn't have to do any special cleaning in the kitchen or removal of food he couldn't be near.

To be able to just "drop him off" without preparation... wow... again, there are no words.

Of course my brain went through the usual checklist and I had to continually tell myself that I didn't have to worry about that anymore. It was a bit of mental drain, honestly.

FEBRUARY

In our house, Valentine's Day brings it's own fun little tradition of buying a huge box of chocolates and sharing it. This is the one time you are allowed to take a bite of something and put it back for someone else to eat if you don't like it. LOL!

With a dairy free child, this tradition is an expensive one. However, at least it is still a plausible one. There are some great allergy free chocolate makers out there. For Valentine's our favorite was Chocolate Emporium. They have traditional valentine's boxes (during February) and out-of-this-world chocolates! I highly recommend them!

This year, I think we bought 2 huge boxes of chocolates from a local store and bought each of the boys their own small box. The chocolates were, of course, not as good as the gourmet ones and we did go over board on the buying of (cheap) chocolates, but it was just the principal of it all.

The principal being that we could.

Oh, and Witt had his first dairy filled chocolate milkshake!

MARCH

March is Jeff's birthday. Jeff likes a homemade cake, so really the amount of work isn't any different - it's just the ingredients. And sometimes, well let's face it, the texture. Although I have a favorite DFEF chocolate cake recipe, baked goods generally don't have the same texture and strength (non-sinking centers) when made without eggs.

And then there was Easter... and more chocolate. We have used both Amanda's Own Confections and Chocolate Emporium for our dairy free Easter chocolates. We went with standard chocolate this year and no one noticed (I say this to let you know how good allergy free chocolates can be.)

The exciting part of this Easter though was that it was the first time we have colored eggs since Witt was born! His egg allergy warranted plastic eggs every year prior.

APRIL

In the 5 years that we have been in Alabama, this was the first year we attended the Chicken & Egg Festival and we were able to eat the vendor food without worry! Granted we spent most of our time on the tractors, but just the name of the festival was enough to keep me away in the past.

We also spent some time at a science center in middle Alabama and had to take this picture when I saw this giant carton of milk! LOL!
April is also my birthday. And it is also proof that baking with eggs does not always bring about a perfect cake... as mine fell apart. LOL!

May - August (coming soon)
Sept - Dec (coming soon)

Peanuts! Get Your Peanuts!

After Witt's annual allergy tests came back negative, his allergist said that we could do an at-home trial with peanuts after Witt turned three. Well, he turned 3 in May.

I haven't really had the guts to do the trial as of yet because that does take some planning. There needs to be two adults in the house: 1 to take Witt to the hospital if needed and 1 to watch the other boys. Then, of course, we'd need a few hours to kill at the hospital. And then, to be honest, when there is a day with both Jeff and I home and we've got a few hours to kill... who wants to mess up the day with a possible trip to the hospital? LOL!

So, I decided to take it slow. I already knew that he could be around peanuts because Will eats peanut butter sandwiches. I decided to check for a contact allergy and smeared some peanut butter on the back of his neck so I could see it, but he couldn't. Thankfully, no contact allergy!!

Then two days ago, my MIL had the boys while I ran errands and decided to give Witt a peanut butter cookie. (My FIL was there with her.) NO REACTION! YAY!

So, we know that he can be around peanuts, have peanuts touch him, and ingest small amounts. Next step will be to gradually increase the amount that he ingest, but for now, we are so thrilled!

SO THANKFUL!!!

After the Allergy

Well, it's been a little over a month since Witt's allergy testing came back negative on all accounts. We did the live test for milk at the doctor's office and have been *trying* to introduce eggs to him at home. He's done find with eggs baked into foods, but won't eat straight eggs to save his life! LOL!

I've scrambled eggs, I've sunny-side-uped 'em, I've over-mediumed 'em, I've hard boiled them... I've even green eggs and hammed them! I finally got a very, very small amount in him by putting them in fried rice.

At least I know that he can have them baked in, as that is where the most exposure will probably come in and I know that even if he's offered straight eggs, he won't touch them! LOL! So for now, it's all good.

We'll do a home test for peanut after he is three in May.

Now, even though he is doing beautifully and hasn't had any reactions to speak of, milk is still the first thing that crosses my mind when someone mentions an outing with food. Granted, the response time to that thought is decreasing. It is becoming *a little* easier to bypass that thought; however, I do still watch him when I know he's been given a significant amount of dairy. and I do still carry Benedryl and an epi-pen in my purse.

However, I must admit that I finally had a breakthrough this past Wednesday night. Our congregation was having a pizza dinner before Wednesday night bible study and we joined them. (Of course, we would never have gone before and then I would have verified that all the kids in Witt's class that did eat pizza had washed their hands.)

Joining them for pizza was not the breakthrough. The breakthrough came when I realized Witt had been running around playing for a good 10 minutes with all the cheese pizza eating kids and I hadn't given it a seconds thought.

He was having a good time. He was laughing, giggling, running, and tumbling all over the cheese pizza eating kids. And he was safe.

My baby was SAFE! :)

This is the stuff my dreams have been made of for the last couple of years! For my child to eat a piece of pizza or a chocolate chip cookie dunked in milk, to play with other children and not worry what's on their hands... simply put, for him to be just another kid.

Part of me doesn't want to post things like this because my heart still goes out to all the other allergy moms that dream of the same things. I want to be thankful and grateful without being disrespectful.

I don't know why God blessed us with the removal of Witt's allergies. I'm just so thankful that he did.

Zip. Zero. Zilch. Nada.

(That's homemade mac-n-cheese, folks!)

No reaction what.so.ever!

Itchy Itchy, Sratchy Scratchy

Since Witt's milk challenge last Thursday, we've been slowly introducing dairy.

One night I made homemade beef stroganoff and the next day he had his first two bites of homemade macaroni and cheese. I noticed (like any paranoid mama would) that he would start scratching his tummy, sides, and upper back about 2- 3 hours after having dairy. :(

Granted this could just be his eczema flaring up because he'd been off his daily Zyrtec for about 7 -10 days before the scratch test. (The allergist said to keep him off for 3 days, but I wanted to be on the safe side and kept him off longer.) The morning we went for the scratch test he had mild eczema and was scratching his sides, too; so it's not something completely new that came after the introduction of dairy.

BUT... I'm a paranoid mama when it comes to these allergies.

Last night I got out the steroid creme (which I hate to use) and applied to to his torso and back hoping to calm the eczema. This morning the eczema is gone, he has not had dairy since yesterday afternoon, and he's not been scratching.

My plan for the next few days is to be a stickler regarding his Zyrtec schedule to keep the eczema at bay and also keep him off dairy. Then I will introduce some dairy, keep a food log, and watch for scratching.

Even though there is a possibility that the dairy could be causing excessive itchiness, I can deal with that. Just knowing that milk is no longer life threatening is HUGE! It no longer produces hives... HUGE!

If dairy does in fact appear to cause more itchiness for him, I will probably begin to cook his meals and the rest of ours separately, allowing dairy for the rest of the family. One of the main reasons we chose to be a dairy free family was because the allergy was life threatening. But I don't want to get ahead of myself quite yet! There is still a good possibility that the itches were only from the eczema which was from being off his Zyrtec for so long.

So, anyway, after a couple of days I'll start keeping a food log and watching for the "itchies".

I'm hoping I'm just being paranoid. It's hard turning off the allergy mom "switch". The thoughts and concerns don't just disappear over night and although it's a good transition, it's a hard transition.

Oh, and by a sneaky little accident, Witt had half a cookie last night with baked in egg in it. No noticeable reaction! That's not to say more egg or straight egg won't produce a reaction, but hey... I'm taking what I can get!

Please continue to pray for us during this time. Like I said, although it's wonderful... it's still a hard transition to make.

Thanks!

UPDATE: Followup HERE.

Milk Challenge!

Thursday, Witt and I headed to the allergist for our 9:00 am appointment to do the live milk challenge. I felt so bad that he wasn't allowed to eat before the challenge that I didn't either. I'm so supportive, aren't I?! :)

So we left the house at 7:30, stopped by a gas station to buy our small jug of whole milk and were on our way. The whole way there, he was asking where we were going.

Gran's? No.

Church? No.

Store? No.

etc.

I wasn't going to tell him we were going to the doctor's because he cried so much on Tuesday from the scratch testing. Poor little guy.

When we pulled into the driveway of the allergist's office, Witt started crying, "No doctor! No doctor!" Just sobbing. I felt awful and tried to console him telling him there would be "No hurts" today. It only helped a little. :(

Two nurses came in the room with us and we started promptly at 9:00, which was nice. The only problem was that the nurse that was doing the scratch test on Tuesday was one of those two nurses and Witt wouldn't take his eyes off of her. His bottom lip started quivering every time she moved. Thankfully, she realized this and said she would leave us with the other nurse. We didn't see her for the rest of the day.

So, the nurse that was left was able to get on Witt's good side and took his blood pressure and heart rate. Then I gave him 3.5 ml of the milk we brought. The nurse accidentally spilled some of the milk down the counter and I was like, "Um... some of the milk spilled. We need to get that cleaned up." (Always thinking like an allergy-mom even though my boy just drank some! LOL!)

We waited 15 minutes. The nurse returned, checked his vitals, then took a quick peek at his belly and tongue. Then the milk was increased to about 6 ml. We repeated this process for the next couple of hours. The final two dosages of milk were 80 ml each. Not a single reaction to contact or ingestion!

Then we sat there for another hour. Witt took a little snooze in my lap because it was nap time. I was hungry.

Finally at 1:00 PM, his vitals were taken again, the allergist looked him over and cleared us to leave. She said he can have milk just like a non-allergic person would, just not to bombard him with dairy products right off the bat.

Wow!

That's all I could say over and over and over again. How does one thank God for such a blessing?

We left the allergists and went to McDonald's as it was the closest place and we were a good hour from home. AND...their fries contain milk. Little steps, right? :)

So Witt enjoyed his plain double hamburger with milk fries from McD's.

That night we went to my in-law's for supper. She made biscuits (with milk) to go along with our supper. It was on Witt's plate, but he didn't want it. LOL! He did enjoy a finger lick of frosting from a cake, though! :)

Friday I opened a bag of mint melt-away candies and shared with all my boys. When William was getting his handful of them, he asked, "Is there milk in these?" My response, "Yes, baby, there sure is!" We both smiled so big!

Will was so pleased to hear that Witt's milk allergy is gone! He was jumping up and down he was so excited!!! It's amazing for me to think that Witt will not remember this part of his life. He will only know about it from what I've written.

It's all just so hard to comprehend and wrap my brain around!!

I am just in constant thanks to God.

God is so good!!!

Allergy Test Results 2009

Witt's annual allergy testing was today. Here's the shot of his back 20 minutes after administering the "scratch test".

Top Left: Negative Control

Top Right: Positive Control

Also tested for cow's milk, egg white, egg yolk, peanuts... but wait... I don't see any of those!

THAT'S BECAUSE THEY WERE ALL NEGATIVE!!!!!

Can you believe it? I am beside myself. I really haven't been able to wrap my mind around this yet. I'm totally amazed. God is SO GOOD!!!

The next step is a live trial. First "scratching" with actual milk and then a food challenge. If the scratching with actual milk produces a hive we would not continue to the food challenge. Luckily, someone in the office had milk with them, so we just used a bit of it, scratched him again and waited.

NOTHING!

NOTHING AT ALL!

We're blessed beyond measure!

The plan now is to go back Thursday morning to do the food challenge for milk. (They only do one food challenge at a time so we'll look into the eggs and peanuts later.)

He can't eat for 4 hours before the test and we bring our own whole milk. We will spend most of the morning there and they will administer small amounts orally working up to larger amounts over a period of time.

Even if there is a reaction on Thursday, at least we know that he no longer has the contact allergy like when he was younger. That improvement alone is wonderful! (Here is the picture of his back from the 2008 test for comparison.)

Thank you all for your support and prayers! Please continue to pray as we're not through yet. I appreciate you all so much!!

UPDATE: Milk Challenge Results HERE.

UPDATE: Egg Allergy

UPDATE: Peanut

This post is linked to Gratituesday.

Allergy Testing Day!

I'm heading to Witt's allergy testing this morning. Jeff will be meeting me there after flying in on a red-eye flight from California.

His test is at 9:00 AM.

Please remember him in your prayers.

I hope to post the results as soon as possible, but be patient with me if it doesn't happen. I might be too upset to post or we might be too busy celebrating to post or we might just be going about our daily lives and enjoying the fact that Jeff is finally home for good.

Lots going on. I'll let you know when I can.

Thanks for the encouragement and the prayers! They are greatly appreciated!! And so are YOU! :)

Coupon Winners and Q&A

Random.org gave the following numbers: 1, 3, 4, and 5. Congrats to Chef Penny, Cara (x2), and Asian Jamaican! Please email your mailing address to missbecky75(at)yahoo(dot)com before Wed @ 7:oo PM CST.

On to the questions! :)

6 comments:

Chef Penny said...

What? No comments yet?? hey, does that count as my question? Just kidding!

How do you manage to turn the tv off all the time?

Honestly, we have such a struggle with this one. There are times when we do so well and other times (like lately) where I have so much going on that I really do use it as a babysitter. Sad, I know. With that said, though, the boys know that when I say turn it off, I mean it and they do it. When we're in our routine well, we don't turn the tv on until after naps (around 3:00 PM).

Chef Penny said...

Is your whole family dairy free or just Witt?

Our whole family is dairy free when Witt is around. Our house is a "safe zone" for him. I would say that 97% of the time there is no dairy in the house. That 3% is the chocolate stash that Jeff and I have hidden in our bedroom every once in a while and the cream cheese for Jeff's bagels that are locked inside a Tupperware container on the back of the top shelf in the fridge. :)

If I'm out with the other two boys, we will stop for ice cream or pizza or something like that. We are very careful to wash hands and sometimes even change clothes if necessary when we have special treats like that.

I cream my coffee with soy or coconut milk creamers. If I have bagels, I use Tofutti cream cheese (Jeff will take his bagel to go, as I stay in the house with my food). Those of us that will eat yogurt enjoy coconut milk yogurt. The only "cheese" in the house is soy cheese.

So for the most part, we are all dairy free, yes. :)

Cara said...

Ooo I could use just one coupon. We are trying tree nuts soon. How does it taste? He drinks soy milk now.

I answered a similar question the last time I gave coupons away. Here is my copy-n-paste answer:

I like it's taste and texture. I like the way it cooks, too. It doesn't have that strong twang soy does. To me, the initial taste (of the original) is somewhat plain (kinda like cow's milk... nothing exciting) which is followed by an aftertaste of almond. If you don't like almonds you probably won't like the almond milk.

Cara said...

Which would be better, Almond Milk or Nutrella for a food trial?

Do you mean Nutella, the nut spread? From what I can find, Nutrella is a soy based something-or-other. If you do mean Nutella, then my next question is, is your child allergic to milk? There is milk in Nutella.

If you don't have a problem with milk and are just testing almonds (which are tree nuts and not related to a peanut allergy as I see your child does have based on your blog title {grin}) then personally I would choose the product that has almonds listed further down in the ingredient list so he's not getting a huge dose of them.

Start with a small skin test by rubbing it on his skin. Then if you don't have a reaction, give him some to eat/drink.

Those are my PERSONAL OPINIONS. I am NOT A DOCTOR. The best suggestion I can give would be to do a supervised test at the doctor's office.

Asian Jamaican said...

I am supposed to ask a question. I haven't seen the gallons of almond milk. Where can you buy these?

I've never seen a gallon of almond milk. The coupons are for half-gallons and that's the largest I've seen. I get mine at Publix or Kroger (About $3.29 - $3.59 a half gallon). I know Whole Foods also carries this brand for the coupons.

kelli said...

i love almond milk! have you tried making your own? i have and its delish!

ps there's an award for you at my blog! check out my latest post. =)

No, I haven't tried making my own, but I would LOVE to!!! My concern is the calcium. The store bought almond milk already has calcium in it. This is almost the only way I can get calcium into my pickiest son. He doesn't eat any dairy (or dairy substitutes) and no green veggies. Calcium is a big concern for me with him and I haven't had time to do the research on a good calcium supplement yet. Any suggestions?

Do you have your almond milk recipe on your blog? If so, I'd love for you to leave the link in my comments, please!!

Thanks so much for the award, too! How very sweet!! Hopefully I'll be able to pass it along soon!


Thanks everyone for the questions!! If you have more, just let me know!

Call for Food Allergy Cooks

If you have a desire to share your food allergy recipes, I'd love to include you as an author on my recipe blog, Must Follow Recipes. Head over there for the details.

Thanks!

Allergies and God's Plan

This morning when I logged in and saw my ticker showing less than 1 month before Witt's allergy testing, my heart just about jumped out of my chest!

No matter how hard I try not to get worked up over this testing, I always do. I'm hopeful and prayerful, but yet realize at the same time that although God could take away these allergies, He may not... ever.

I realize that we've made it through another year without any major issues regarding these allergies and I'm so very thankful for that, but I also realize that we may have to struggle with dietary issues for another year... possibly longer. But I really don't want to.

It's hard having this testing at the end of the year when my thoughts are lead to remembering what 2009 held for us and what direction I want 2010 to go in. I know where I want to go, but I need to follow God's lead. Thankfully, this is an all or nothing situation and I will clearly know God's plan regarding our diet for 2010 once these test results are in.

The past three annual testing times have consisted of going for the skin test and the blood test on the same day. The skin test results are in within 15 minutes, but it takes another 2 - 3 weeks for the blood test results. Then it's just a follow-up call from a nurse telling me what was positive and what wasn't. I really haven't been satisfied with that.

This year I'm doing things differently. Yesterday, I called and requested the doctor's orders for the blood test so we can go ahead and get that done before the skin test. This year I'm going to get his IgE numbers in person from the doctor instead of over the phone from someone that doesn't really have all the answers I want.

I requested testing for

• cow's milk
• goat's milk
• egg white
• egg yolk
• peanuts

We have never tested Witt for goat's milk. I understand that the proteins are fairly similar between the two milks, but that some people that are allergic to one are not to the other. Might as well give it a shot. We could at least improve our cheese situation if we could include goat's milk! :)

I can't help but wonder if the trials of this allergy were partly to lead me to stop feeding my family the SAD (Standard American Diet). Our diet certainly has improved over the last few years. I know the direction I would like to go in, but again... I just have to wait for God's answer on that one.

*** We interrupt this post with a call from the allergist's office!

Apparently, since Witt's blood test came back negative last year (although he's not at exactly 0.0 with his IgE numbers) they are not going to do the blood test this year. Hmmm.... I'm not really sure what I think about that.

I almost got in an argument over the phone with whomever I was talking to. I almost cried. I've heard of tests results spiking back up after they've gone down. I think I'd really like a second year of "negative" just to be on the safe side. But she wasn't budging on "The doctor's orders were to stop the blood testing once they came back negative."

Looks like I'll be talking with the doctor about all this at the appointment and possibly doing the blood test that day as well... if I can talk her into it... and assuming there are positives with the skin test.

AGH! I hate this! (And I rarely use the word "hate".)

I hate the not knowing.

This is where I have a hard time just submitting to God's will. I have to believe that part of this is not only so that I feed my family better, but that I learn to submit better as well. It's just so hard and emotional for me.

I gotta go before I start rambling... my thoughts are going in a million different directions now with this new information.

Please just pray for Witt. Pray that these allergies will be taken from his body and that he will be 100% allergy free. To enjoy an egg, a glass of milk with a chocolate chip cookie, to sprinkle cheese on whatever he pleases!

Pray for me that I'll submit to God. That I'll be accepting of his answer and thankful for all the many blessings that I have been surrounded with. That I will focus on the positive and be strong for my children.

Just please pray. That's what I'm going to do.

Thanks for listening.

Food Allergy Moms: HELP!

Nathan turns 4 this Friday! He wants a green cake with green frosting. My standard birthday cake is chocolate... which I can't turn green! Thankfully, I can handle the frosting.

I checked our local grocery store today for boxed mixes, but all the white cakes have milk and/or eggs listed as ingredients. None of the local stores sell Cherrybrook Kitchen mixes.

Do you have a DFEF WHITE cake recipe? I'm usually up for just substituting in a regular recipe, but I've heard that doing that with white cake mixes doesn't make for a good cake.

Maybe I should make a yellow cake and add blue?

Suggestions... PLEASE! :)

Halloween 2009

We went to the church building Halloween night for the annual chili supper and candy grab. Basically, the adults sit in a circle in our fellowship room and the kids walk around that circle gathering up their goodies. It's the most efficient Halloween I've ever seen. LOL!


Nathan isn't really opinionated about most things, but when I asked him what he wanted to dress up as, he immediately said a fireman. Will do!



Witt's costume came down to what they had left at the store in his size. I think he makes a pretty cute cowboy! Complete with "Ka-tee" (Canteen).

And yes, those green frog boots were his own personal addition to the outfit. We just went with it. LOL!


Will has been Thomas the Train for the last three years! Oh, but not this year! Let me explain.

He said he wanted to "Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle" with his old costume. He wanted to cover up the face and add a lantern... creating a locomotive. So, that's what we did. ;)



Grabbing candy:



Eating candy:


We had a great night!

As an allergy note, we had no hives or scratching. I thought for sure we would end up with something having sour cream and cheese on the tables for the chili and all the chocolate going around that room. But there was not one sign of anything on Witt. Maybe that's a good sign?! Keep praying for him, please!

Hope everyone had a happy and safe Halloween!