What Do I Feed My Kid?

What Can You Feed Your Kid?

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 This is the question I hear the most when I have to explain to people about my son's allergies. I feed him lots of things!! Like, cheese, rice, chicken, turkey, beef, eggs, grapes, carrots, broccoli, Hershey's chocolate, Life cereal, rice crispy treats, hamburgers... Pretty much anything that a normal child can eat, so can my son... Let me explain.. My son is currently allergic to peanuts, soy, salmon, cashews, and almonds.. In addition to that, I try to keep him away artificial ingredients, preservatives, and colors in his food. I also like to keep much of his diet organic as I can, and as long as it is convenient. I do a lot of my shopping at Target, Trader Joe's, and Fresh & Easy, so it's not hard to find organic versions of pretty much anything I need. Now, I'm not a perfect parent. Not by a long shot. I get lazy, and tired, and I admit, we eat out way more often than I'd like to admit. But, that is life. I'm putting a stop to it now, because it's getting out of control. But when your spouse gets a limited amount of time to spend with family, sometimes it's much nicer to go out and eat somewhere where the food is already created for you, and you have no mess to clean up after. That being said, I'm well versed in all of the ingredients of the local restaurants out here. I know that the fries at McDonald's contain no peanut oil. I also know that Chick Fil A uses peanut oil to fry both their chicken and their fries I believe, but in addition to that, I also know that the traces of peanuts are non-existent after the pressing process in cheap peanut oil... which generally is what fast food places use.. But you cannot always let that be your deciding factor in choosing whether or not to trust a restaurant... Ironically, Chick Fil A happened to be one of the first places my son ate solid foods... But any way, knowing what is in these foods is what decides where I go to eat with my son. But when I'm at home, his meals look like this:

These are applesauce pouches. Nut free. All natural. Yum!

Applegate lunch meat, organic, non-GMO popcorn, sliced grapes, whole wheat quesadilla, and sour cream. 

This is Applegate lunch meat, grapes, organic strawberries, mini organic carrots, and Annie's organic Mac & Cheese.

This is Cheeze itz, grapes, organic mozzarella cheese stick, organic corn, home made ranch dressing, and chicken nuggets from non-antibiotic and growth hormone chicken, and breaded in whole grains. They are made by Earth's Best, and my son loves them. 

Here's some more things made by Earth's Best. It's nice to have a much healthier alternative for convenient meals. 

This is grapes, organic corn, organic colby-jack cheese stick, half a halo mandarin orange, home made ranch, Earth's Best chicken nuggets, and organic brown rice. 

This is just an example of the things that I make for my son at home. I try and hit every food group per meal, and keep as much whole, clean foods and organic. What's nice about eating whole, raw foods, I know exactly what is in it and that it doesn't contain anything that my son is allergic to. Whenever you eat out, you're putting yourself and your loved ones in the hands of absolute strangers. Strangers aren't going to really care if there is any traces of peanut in the food they are making or serving or not. We are the only ones that care. And because of this, I like to make my son food as much as possible. I used to feed my child whatever I bought or was on sale. But with research, you can see what the food industry is trying to feed you... So now I stay away from artificial colors and GMOs, as well as a ton of other stuff. Again, I'm not perfect. But, I am going to try and stay away from so much fast food and eating out from now on. 

Meal Prepping - Ground Turkey, Rice and Corn

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Healthy Made Easy.

Well, that also depends on who you ask about what "healthy" really is.. But for me, and the past five years of my life where I've been eating so much fast food it's laughable, this IS healthy for me.. I've been trying to eat clean for the most part, and having already prepared foods ready to go at my disposal when I need them is FABULOUS. It keeps me on track, and takes the guess work out of my meals, generally for the next four days when I "meal prep". 

My husband works long, weird hours, so our eating schedules are NOT in tune with each other. Meal prepping has also allowed me the ability to make a home cooked meal that both my husband and I can enjoy when it's convenient for us.

Another awesome thing, Grayson will eat the stuff that I prep, as well! This helps out tremendously, and lets me know that he's eating good, healthy, CLEAN food (for the most part) and that I don't have to worry about any allergic reactions! Yay! =D

The meal I'm going to share with you today is just a concoction I like to eat..

(Most of these AREN'T recipes, but more of assembling and pairing options.. Clean eating is actually really easy as far as preparing food is concerned.)

Here are the ingredients that I used:

1lb Ground Turkey

1 cup dried organic long grain brown rice

1 can whole kernel corn (or vegetable(s) of your choice)

That's it. Super easy.

Brown the turkey on medium low (I find that temperature helps to keep it more moist). 

Cook the rice (don't forget that brown rice takes a little more tweaking than white rice, at least it did for me.. I end up adding about 1/8 of a cup more of water..).

No need to cook or heat the corn, unless you are eating part of it right after you make it.

I drain the corn, if that was a question in anyone's mind.. When I put it into containers, I layer it: turkey on the bottom, rice in the middle, and vegetables on the top. When reheating, I add a teaspoon or so of water to it, and then heat it. It adds a little moisture to everything, especially the turkey. 

I do season the turkey while I cook it with just simple salt and pepper. And when I eat it, I sometimes will add a small amount of soy sauce to it, although I generally don't because it's delicious as it is.

This is one of my favorite meals in general, not just favorite healthy meals. 

Generally, I can get three or four meals out of the whole pound of meat, but out of all of the ingredients I listed up there, I got two meals into containers as shown above, my dinner for tonight, as well as my son's dinner for tonight as well. 

When meal prepping, it's important that you pay attention to the expiration dates of everything. When combining everything in a single container like this, it's important to note that the ENTIRE meal now is only good until the earliest spoiling food.. In this case, brown rice. Surprisingly, brown rice only lasts COOKED in the fridge for 4-5 days, where as ground turkey will last COOKED in the fridge for up to 7 days. 

I, myself, won't eat any food "prepped" meals that have been in the fridge longer than 4 days. 4 days is my cut off. However, if the foods are all separated, then I will go to the actual recommended time limit. That's just my own preference, you may feel more comfortable with the recommended time frame. 

This is a really easy combination that I love to eat, and that I use to food prep all of the time. I'm no expert in the matter, but from the research that I've done, it's perfectly safe to cook, put into the fridge, and reheat all of this, even together, as long as it's put into storage and into the fridge right away, and not in the "danger zone" for too long. =)

I hope this helps you! I will have some more "recipes" up for you soon. Thanks for reading!!

Also! DON'T HEAT ANYTHING IN PLASTIC!!! Put it into a glass or non-plastic container when putting food in the microwave! (Plastic releases chemicals when heated! Look it up!)

Much love,

Ashley

And The Research Continues

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No Peanuts for Us, Please!

As I've been doing more and more research about peanut allergies, as well as allergies in general, I've become more and more obsessive about it... I have it in my mind that the more research I do, the more safe my son is going to be and the more protected he will be from a possible reaction. His reactions in the past have been pretty bad.. Below are some pictures of his soy bean allergy. Just for your information, they rate a severity of an allergy on a scale from 1-5 (at least on this particular test we had, sometimes it's 1-6) and Grayson's soy allergy is a 1 (the lowest, but still an allergy) and his peanut allergy is a class 5 (high highest or worse..).

These allergy reactions happened with ranch dressing and.... Something else... I think barbecue sauce? Both of these contained soy bean oil, but NO NUTS. This is the reaction that happens with A CLASS 1 reaction with my son. My son has never actually EATEN a peanut, or a nut, or anything with peanuts at all. Ever. The only two times he's had a reaction to peanuts have been my fault.. Checking his mouth after him brushing his teeth (I had just eaten a PB sandwich, and I DID wash my hands) and another time, his FIRST reaction to peanuts, I had residual Reese's on my hands, and touched his face. I don't have pictures or documentation of those reactions, because honestly, I was freaking out, and driving to the ER. After showing the allergist the pictures of the reactions above, (the one on the bottom left, particularly) he said that he is having an anaphylaxis reaction to the soy bean oil, and that I was "lucky" it wasn't worse. Next time, he could go into anaphylactic shock JUST FROM THE SOY. (Because he has a rash above his neck, AND he's swollen.) Supposedly, if this were to happen now that I have the EpiPen, I would have o give it to him if he presented with this allergic reaction again. That is insane to me, and terrifying. Terrifying because that is just a class 1 allergy, and his peanut allergy is a CLASS FIVE. 0.0

After a lot of research  it seems that you can't just base the reaction levels on the blood tests alone, but you also have to base it off of past reactions, as well as a skin prick test (SPT). We have a SPT coming up at our next visit. We will see how he does with that. We also are testing him for other allergies, and we will have the results of those tests as well. We are also going to come up with our plan of action for when he's being taken care of anyone besides myself. I have been stressing too much about this lately, and honestly I've not been sleeping well just in general, and this isn't making it better. I'm awake at night reading blogs and trying to educate myself as much as I can, trying to keep my son safe and alive. Halloween is tomorrow... Ugh. God, help me stay sane! I just want to go to the house ahead of time and give them stuff to give to my son, so he's not getting Snickers and Reese's in his candy bucket.

I'm beginning to understand the isolation that adolescents with a severe food allergy feel, because I am starting to feel the same way just trying to keep my son safe now, and he's not even in school, yet. And honestly, I'm considering NEVER sending him to school. There are too many stories about kids dying at school from an accidental exposure, even though the school took all the precaution they could. 

This is scary. I'm scared. And Grayson doesn't even know what's going on. Which is even more scary.

I guess it's good that he's so into the EpiPen trainer device. "Try? Try?" Why yes, Grayson. You may try. Get familiar with it.. It's going to be your best friend for the rest of your life. =/




Much love,

Ashley

First Allergist Appointment

Well, Here We Go!

Today we had our first allergist appointment.. It was enlightening, and terrifying. My son has a severe peanut allergy, as well as a soy bean allergy. The doctor decided that since they only did a small panel of allergy tests, that we should test for a few more things.. Mostly testing for all of the rest of the nuts - or as they call them, "tree nuts" just to make sure where those level are, if there are any. According to Stanford School of Medicine, there is "a 35% chance of developing an allergy to another nut" which isn't awesome, in the slightest.. Up to this point, I've been keeping him away from all nuts.. Because they scare me with my son. However, based on the fact that my son outgrew his milk allergy and egg allergy, I assumed that he had outgrown his soy allergy, as well. Unfortunately, I've been giving him some things with soy in it - soy sauce, and ranch dressing, mostly. However, he reacts with soy quite a bit, mostly topically. However, according to the allergist, it isn't good for me to give him soy, because given sporadically, I can exacerbate the allergy and make it worse. 0.0

Awesome. -___-

So at this point, on top of his already pretty strict diet of nothing with artificial colors, preservatives, or flavors, nothing with too much sugar, and no peanuts, I now have to avoid soy as well. I don't know if you've noticed, but in processed and packaged foods, a lot of stuff has either some type of nut or soy in it.

I will have a lot of food changes happening... First one being not keeping peanuts or peanut butter in the house anymore.. It's my favorite. I love it.. But it's too easy to miss a spot or have trace amounts left on my hands.. But anything to keep my son safe.


Much Love,

Ashley

Potty Training - Day 0.5

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May the Pee Be Ever in Your Favor!

I bought my son a potty today, after him showing sighs of interest a few days ago. I let him pick it out (he picked the cheapest one, smart boy, lucky mommy!) and he was so excited about it the whole time we were in the store! And the second I got it home, he wanted it unboxed, and he wanted to be naked, like the child in the picture on the box - I don't know what I'm doing, so I was like... OK!

I have heard that naked is the way to go during the first few days... Well, generally speaking, my son HATES being naked - this is not the case for potty training, I guess! He's perfectly happy sitting on his potty! We got home around 6pm and his bathtime/bedtime routine starts at 8:30. At least it did today, I've been trying to make it earlier. Any whooooo.. We had him naked, and he pointed to the potty and said "poo. pee." and I said, "Yes! That's where the poopoo and the peepee goes! You're right!"

So... He sat down for a little while, and then got up, and said, "PEE!"

He had, in fact, pee'd in the potty!

=D

I was a very proud mama. So we took the peepee to the toilet, and he got to flush while I rinsed it out. At that point, I stuck him in his new underwear. (I didn't want him to be in them, until he had already pee'd, so I can track time.) And I went and got his dinner.

Well, he decided that he wanted to sit on the potty with his dinner at one point.. Thinking he just wanted to sit on it, I told him no, and to put his plate back on the table. From there, he came back to me, (no food this time) said "potty" and I asked him if he had to go. He told me yes, so I pulled his underwear down, and TADA! He went potty AGAIN!

This happened one more time before it was bathtime, and I am one happy mama. No accidents. He seems to already know exactly what he is doing. He's 2 years and 10 months old, so maybe he does in fact know what he's doing. I'm hoping a full day of potty training goes just as smoothly as these 2.5 hours went. If so, I will be so happy!

This is the potty he picked out: 

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I got it at Target, and so far I just love it. And, it's soooo cute!


Until tomorrow....



Much Love,

Ashley

Baby Teething Relief!

Who Needs Teeth, Anyway?

Everyone goes through teething in their lives at some point or another.. But we don't remember it by the time we go through it again with our own children. When my son went through the teething process, he went through it four times.. One of these times my special boy got all eight of his molars (including his 2.5-3 year old molars) at 18 months.. That was a great time, let me tell you (not.).

My son didn't teethe as often as the average child, but when he did, he teethed HARD. So, I have here a list of remedies that I've found worked the best on Grayson, and other options that I've found or have heard about! I'm not a big fan of Tylenol or Ibuprofen for teething..... I don't even like giving them to my son when he's running a fever. So, that being said, most of these options are organic, homeopathic, and awesome. =)

1) Green Onion
     
Green onion has a natural numbing agent to it. Just let your child gnaw on it for a little bit, and it will numb their gums. If the child is too small to chew or gnaw on it, or you're just worried, you can scrape a little of the outside with your fingernail, and then rub it on their gums yourself.

2) Ice Cubes

Ice cubes have been used for teething relief for ever. I'm exaggerating, of course... But it's been a really long time! It can be messy, though. I didn't mind the messiness of it, because it's just water after all. I also had one of these things:

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These are made by Sassy, and can be purchased at Target, Walmart, and Babies R Us. I bought mine online, and I had a few of them. You can find them here and you can also get replacement mesh parts that you can find here. They are dishwasher safe, and they come with an ice pack type of device built in, which is great if you want to put frozen fruits in there, as well. (My son's favorite was frozen peaches). 

3) Humphrey's Teething Tablets

My favorite and most effective teething tablet for my son was Humphrey's Teething Pellets. They are 100% all natural, and easy to use. Just take a spoon with a few drops of water and let the pellets dissolve. Then give it to your child, making sure that it's rubbed into the gums. These also seemed to relax my son, which made him much happier. 

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I've heard from a couple of people that they are getting harder to find.. I found mine at Walgreen's, but if you can't find this brand, Hyland's also makes a homeopathic version, as well.

4) Teething Rings

Who hasn't heard of teething rings at this point? They make some amazing ones now! My favorite by far, and my son's as well, was the vibrating berry teethers by Infantino. We had several, and they were awesome. Here is a picture of the grape one. 

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I got mine at Toys R Us, but I've seen them at Walmart an Target stores, as well.

My son did really well with teething, and a I only gave him a pain reliever one time (but it turned out he had an infection, which was the cause of the fever, not the teething.) I feel like there are so many ways to help to combat the pain, giving my child a medicated pain reliever just wasn't something that I wanted to do. That's not to say that other parents wouldn't need it for their own child, it just wasn't for us.

I hope this helps! I'm in by no means an expert... But I just wanted to write about what worked for me.


Much love,


Ashley

Home Made Ranch Dressing!

Who Doesn't Like Ranch??

To answer that question, lots of people. However, that's not the point of this post! My son started having adverse reactions to the ranch dressing that we've been using with him forever. I know, weird. But, it happens, so I roll with the punches. 

I came across this recipe earlier today, and decided to give it a try! It turned out really good! I ended up adding twice the mayo, because Grayson likes a sauce to dip in, and the way the recipe is written it's a little on the more liquidy side.

What I love about this is that I know EXACTLY what's in it! I can customize it, and even completely substitute out ingredients if I want to! It's awesome! One down side... It only lasts 3 days in the fridge.. REMEMBER THAT!!! 

In addition to using this in a ranch dressing, you can also use the seasonings in sour cream, as you would a ranch dressing packet!!! Awesome. Two dips in one for a party!!! =)



Much love,

Ashley