Food Allergy Update

I didn't realize how long it's been since I've updated. We've had a lot of breakthroughs the past few months! We are now a low-salicylate family, and much, much happier. We are still working out the kinks and testing out foods, but we are healthier!!!

Lucy had the most dramatic change after removing salicylates. She went from a volatile, screaming, moody child who had tantrums for 30 min or more and locked herself in closets to cry to a calm, normal 2 year old who I am more than happy to take shopping with me. She has gone from pooping 1-2 times a week to pooping 1-2 times a DAY! And no crying when it's time to go. Just a simple "Mama I need to go pooooop!" and a run to the bathroom. It really is a miracle. I no longer supplement her with oral magnesium regularly. I do still give her epsom salt baths, but that is to make sure she maintains good mag levels in her body in general and because they are an excellent salicylate neutralizer. They can literally turn a reaction around. I do try to give her molybdenum and zinc regularly though as they are good for salicylate issues, as well as methyl B12.

The other big surprise, is we have gotten rid of Mickade's eczema for the first time in his whole life! Since he was a few months old, we have been battling his eczema. He used to be so itchy as a toddler that I literally scratched his arms for him as he drifted asleep. He is now eczema-free!!!! It turns out he is super sensitive to salicylates as well, but for him it seems to show up more in his skin. However, we are now noticing it affects his mood as well. He had some ketchup at lunch the other day for the first time in 3 months, and within 30 minutes he had itchy welts, and we also noticed he became very angry for the rest of the day. Mean, glaring looks, yelling, etc. Kind of scary, really.

It's been hard living without so many of our favorite foods, but we are managing. We have been able to add golden delicious apples back into our diet, as they are the variety with the lowest amount of salicylates. It is limiting, though, and I feel we turn to baked goods more often because we can eat so few fruits. At the moment, we are ok with peeled pears, bananas, golden delicious apples, limes, lemons, and mangoes for sure. We still need to retest grapefruit and watermelon, I'm not sure about our first go-round. We eat peas, green beans, carrots, onions, iceberg lettuce, celery, and asparagus. The kids can get away with lemon-lime soda and rootbeer for a treat, but something like orange soda can create a bad reaction. Not that we ever had soda often, but just for a glimpse of our life. We also cannot have tea, except chamomile. Coffee is high in salicylates but luckily I've been able to get away with that one! I still keep Lucy mostly gluten free, so that's another hitch in our eating but we make do.

I bake a LOT and it shows on my hips LOL but I've been working on that one. Luckily she is not direly reactive to gluten so if she has a little here or there we are ok. I'm hopeful since her reaction level to that is so low that she will outgrow it. At any rate, I prepare almost all of our food from scratch, so spend a lot of time in the kitchen (which is now never clean lol). This week I made 2 batches of granola bars, 2 different kinds of rice krispy treats, pumpkin bread, and plan to make pear jelly and nutrigrain bars this afternoon. In addition, I want to make a big batch of tomato-free "tomato" sauce. Yes, you read that right lol! We've been missing tomato sauce so, so, so very much. We've eaten sauceless pizza and been without any of our favorite Italian dishes since the middle of October. No chili either, which as many of you may know is Mickade's all-time favorite. He can eat his weight in chili. I tried out a new recipe last night and it was the answer to our prayers!!!! It sounds weird but it's delicious! It can be found here.