Sunday, December 28, 2008
Whoops, daddy is still learning too
This morning Dave got up and worked on making a double-batch of pancakes so we can freeze a bunch for easy toasting. He followed a multi-flour recipe, used unique ingredients, everything was going SO well.....until, I happened to notice the OLIVE oil on the counter. I said, "Ummmm, Dave, why is this out?" His eye popped out of his head and he said, "I THOUGHT THAT WAS GRAPESEED OIL!" Grayson can't have olive, it's one of the foods he is allergic to. Soooo, we will try them once in a while, but they cannot be eaten often and if he has a reaction, well, then WE eat them I guess, ha ha ha. He learned his lesson, READ everything you use!! Grayson ate the mistaken pancakes today and he did well so far, tomorrow is another day, we shall see!
Wednesday, December 24, 2008
Recipe - Nut milk yogurt
I am so proud of the results of this recipe, because everywhere I look for nut milk yogurt says it can't be done, that it is watery, it separates, and shares no common traits with yogurt. Well my dear readers, it CAN be done. There are two tricks to it: don't use commercial nut milk and don't heat it prior to incubation. I used to make cow's milk yogurt regularly, that is, until we could no longer tolerate cow's milk. Grayson also gave up on liking yogurt about a year ago, so it wasn't really a big deal. I like yogurt as a snack, it reminds me of our honeymoon....eating Greek yogurt under canopied patios by the sea with honey and fruit on top. That was the best yogurt I have EVER tasted. Well anyway, back to reality....nut yogurt. It's not Greek yogurt, but it sure is tasty. It even looks and smells like yogurt! It IS watery and separated when it's done incubating, but the additional step to drip it through a cheesecloth makes it the perfect consistency. So try it, you'll like it!! Even Grayson did. We added some honey and strawberries, what a tasty treat. Oh and be warned, it is slightly labor intensive with the blending, straining then straining again, and it won't be ready for a day, so don't plan to make it and eat it right away. Anywhoooo, here is the recipe, thanks to "Marjan", the only author of a successful nut-based yogurt I could find!
Ingredients:
1 1/3 cup whole, RAW blanched almonds or RAW blanched hazelnuts (filberts) or RAW macadamias (we used cashews which have a very mild flavor)
2 TBL clear honey
Water
Yogurt starter (ProGurt by GI ProHealth) We got this same starter online, highly recommended for dairy free yogurts
Step-by-step instructions for making nut yogurt:
1. Put all things you need on a tea towel on the kitchen table:
blender, a fine sieve/mesh strainer, some tea towels, the nuts, honey, two tablespoons, whisk, water, yogurt maker + yogurt container. Get the probiotics out of the freezer only when you need them.
2. Put nuts into blender
3. Add enough cold water to get a total of 4 to 5 cups / =1 litre
4. Add 2 tablespoons of honey (the bacteria need the sweets to feed off of, cow's milk is naturally sweet)
5. Blend for 10 minutes (use a stopwatch)
6. Pour about 1 cup of the nut milk through the fine sieve (I saved the "solids" from this process and made a mock cream cheese with a little added vanilla)
(You can squeeze out more liquid if you use a teacloth/cheesecloth and twist it firmly.)
NOW take your probiotics out of the freezer
7. Add 1/8 tsp of ProGurt yogurt starter to the milk, per 1 quart of yogurt.
8. Stir well with whisk, add the rest of the milk, with back of spoon press out all liquids
9. Stir well and place container in yogurt maker
10. Ferment for 8 hours.
11. Place in the fridge overnight or at least for 5 hours (overnight is better)
12. Get a bowl, put the sieve on the bowl, put a cheesecloth in the sieve
13. Pour the yogurt in the cheesecloth so that it can drip
14. Drip for about an hour, or longer if you'd like the yoghurt thicker
15. By pressing the dripped yoghurt further, you can make something that resembles cheese
The fermentation process takes place at about 105 Fahrenheit.
As you see, I do NOT cook or heat the milk. After blending, the milk should be lukewarm, not warmer than 105F. If you heat more, the milk will separate and the fermentation will not take place.
Try to find RAW nuts that have been through minimal processing. Deep frying them may be very tasty, but it will negatively affect the outcome and it is also a bit unhealthy.
The sieve is such, that if you pour orange juice through it, there's no pulp in your glass.
Ingredients:
1 1/3 cup whole, RAW blanched almonds or RAW blanched hazelnuts (filberts) or RAW macadamias (we used cashews which have a very mild flavor)
2 TBL clear honey
Water
Yogurt starter (ProGurt by GI ProHealth) We got this same starter online, highly recommended for dairy free yogurts
Step-by-step instructions for making nut yogurt:
1. Put all things you need on a tea towel on the kitchen table:
blender, a fine sieve/mesh strainer, some tea towels, the nuts, honey, two tablespoons, whisk, water, yogurt maker + yogurt container. Get the probiotics out of the freezer only when you need them.
2. Put nuts into blender
3. Add enough cold water to get a total of 4 to 5 cups / =1 litre
4. Add 2 tablespoons of honey (the bacteria need the sweets to feed off of, cow's milk is naturally sweet)
5. Blend for 10 minutes (use a stopwatch)
6. Pour about 1 cup of the nut milk through the fine sieve (I saved the "solids" from this process and made a mock cream cheese with a little added vanilla)
(You can squeeze out more liquid if you use a teacloth/cheesecloth and twist it firmly.)
NOW take your probiotics out of the freezer
7. Add 1/8 tsp of ProGurt yogurt starter to the milk, per 1 quart of yogurt.
8. Stir well with whisk, add the rest of the milk, with back of spoon press out all liquids
9. Stir well and place container in yogurt maker
10. Ferment for 8 hours.
11. Place in the fridge overnight or at least for 5 hours (overnight is better)
12. Get a bowl, put the sieve on the bowl, put a cheesecloth in the sieve
13. Pour the yogurt in the cheesecloth so that it can drip
14. Drip for about an hour, or longer if you'd like the yoghurt thicker
15. By pressing the dripped yoghurt further, you can make something that resembles cheese
The fermentation process takes place at about 105 Fahrenheit.
As you see, I do NOT cook or heat the milk. After blending, the milk should be lukewarm, not warmer than 105F. If you heat more, the milk will separate and the fermentation will not take place.
Try to find RAW nuts that have been through minimal processing. Deep frying them may be very tasty, but it will negatively affect the outcome and it is also a bit unhealthy.
The sieve is such, that if you pour orange juice through it, there's no pulp in your glass.
Learning, learning and more learning...
It's amazing to me how many layers can be unraveled in the process of treating food allergies! The more I dig, the more I learn, the more I learn, the more convinced I am that we are going to cure Grayson of his food allergies!! With time, of course, and anyone who knows me also knows that I am an immediate gratification kind of girl! I am also learning to be patient here! (wink)
By getting to the reason for Grayson's allergies, we are going to eradicate his intolerances. The food allergies are not the problem, they are a result of the problem. And speaking of problems, the problem for me is the time it takes and the experimenting to find the right course of treatment.
I am convinced that Grayson's "problem" is yeast. Currently we are using 500mcg of Biotin which is in the B-complex family, it fights yeast, but 500mcg only equates to 1mg!! I think we need to up the dosage to get results, but starting slowly reduces the yeast die-off effect. Yeast die-off is not fun for Grayson or us, because it results in many of the behaviors that got us to this point in the first place: self-stimulating behaviors, humming and repetitive sounds, jumping, bumping and crashing, extreme irritation from clothing and pretty much everything around him, severely emotional outbursts, rubbing and swatting at his head (which has been constant some days)....you get the picture. BUT, we are also seeing improvement at the same time: better sleep, more speech improvement, clear and thorough communication, attention to detail, focus. Anyway, the point is that by seeing improvement even while experiencing negative effects, it is a sure sign that the yeast protocol we have adapted is working. It could take a good 6 weeks to get through the negative effect of yeast die-off. I did however just learn that there are ways to help reduce his reaction. I can increase his protease enzymes 3-4 times a day, increase vitamin c, give more epsom salt baths and if it gets really bad, we can add activated charcoal to his regimen.
Let's go off topic, it's Christmas Eve, I am home with all three of my favorite guys in the world, dinner is in the crock pot cooking, what more can one ask for? Grayson is currently cleaning his playroom with daddy to make room for new toys. I told him that I would e-mail Santa when he's done, so he knows that there is room for whatever he plans to bring. Grayson's face lit up, he said, "IN THE NORTH POLE?" as he literally ran to clean his playroom!! Oh the innocence of youth, can we keep this forever....and ever?? Merry Christmas to all who celebrate this special time of year.
By getting to the reason for Grayson's allergies, we are going to eradicate his intolerances. The food allergies are not the problem, they are a result of the problem. And speaking of problems, the problem for me is the time it takes and the experimenting to find the right course of treatment.
I am convinced that Grayson's "problem" is yeast. Currently we are using 500mcg of Biotin which is in the B-complex family, it fights yeast, but 500mcg only equates to 1mg!! I think we need to up the dosage to get results, but starting slowly reduces the yeast die-off effect. Yeast die-off is not fun for Grayson or us, because it results in many of the behaviors that got us to this point in the first place: self-stimulating behaviors, humming and repetitive sounds, jumping, bumping and crashing, extreme irritation from clothing and pretty much everything around him, severely emotional outbursts, rubbing and swatting at his head (which has been constant some days)....you get the picture. BUT, we are also seeing improvement at the same time: better sleep, more speech improvement, clear and thorough communication, attention to detail, focus. Anyway, the point is that by seeing improvement even while experiencing negative effects, it is a sure sign that the yeast protocol we have adapted is working. It could take a good 6 weeks to get through the negative effect of yeast die-off. I did however just learn that there are ways to help reduce his reaction. I can increase his protease enzymes 3-4 times a day, increase vitamin c, give more epsom salt baths and if it gets really bad, we can add activated charcoal to his regimen.
Let's go off topic, it's Christmas Eve, I am home with all three of my favorite guys in the world, dinner is in the crock pot cooking, what more can one ask for? Grayson is currently cleaning his playroom with daddy to make room for new toys. I told him that I would e-mail Santa when he's done, so he knows that there is room for whatever he plans to bring. Grayson's face lit up, he said, "IN THE NORTH POLE?" as he literally ran to clean his playroom!! Oh the innocence of youth, can we keep this forever....and ever?? Merry Christmas to all who celebrate this special time of year.
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
Happy Holidays and all that jazz
We love the holidays, but this year being the first on Grayson's new and challenging diet makes things a bit harder to manage. We have to bring foods with us that he can eat, if there isn't something available. We try to mirror the foods we have for dinner so he doesn't feel completely different. Luckily by just removing the food before sauces are added, etc, he can usually just have the fresh and simply cooked foods, but it certainly does make it hard for whoever is cooking. He watches prepared dishes go by at the table while telling us he wants to try it. Of course, NOW he wants to try everything that passes him by, not before the diet, ha ha ha. That brings me to another topic, variety. I can't believe what a 180 he has done since removing the culprit foods. He used to limit himself (which, accompanied by other symptoms, can be a sure sign of food allergy) to breads, cereals, crackers, pretzels, pancakes, waffles, milk, cheese....all the highly allergenic foods he is reactive to. Since we have rid him of the foods he craves, he eats and ENJOYS an amazing variety of foods. How many three year olds ASK for salmon and brocolli for lunch?? Mine does! That is the full side of this half empty glass!
The hardest part of the holiday dinners is sweets. Every holiday dinner comes complete with an array of desserts that he can't even come near with a ten foot pole. He earnestly watches everyone enjoying their yummy treats while he eats whatever experimental dessert mommy can make and pack up for the night. He's a trooper though, he handles it like a champ! I think it hurts me more than it hurts him. Isn't that always the way?
We are struggling with trying to figure out the cause of his food allergies. Once we get that figured out and dealt with, there is a VERY good chance he could eat normal again. He progressed by leaps and bounds when we first took him off the allergenic foods, a HUGE leap forward. But now, we are seeing some other things that were probably masked by the effects of the foods in the first place. He continuously swats and rubs at his head, face, ears and nose. I noticed these habits since he was learning to walk, but thought he was just teething. Obviously he isn't teething anymore, but continues to do this. He tells me he is itchy. For many, this is a sign of yeast overgrowth so he could have chronic yeast and/or viral issues. Yeast doesn't have to be in the intestines either, it can be in organs and in the brain. So we will be experimenting with natural yeast treatments. A sure sign of this is an overactive immune system, sensory issues, sleep disturbances, an increase in symptoms when he has viral die off from being ill with a virus....like now. We found a wonderful product made by BioRay Inc. which has fabulous reports from other parents. It's all natural and completely safe. We will start by detoxing his liver and balancing his PH levels, if need be. It's safe enough for a breastfeeding mother to take and I personally am considering trying it, as well! Liver detoxification would benefit anyone who is effected by every day life.
The hardest part of the holiday dinners is sweets. Every holiday dinner comes complete with an array of desserts that he can't even come near with a ten foot pole. He earnestly watches everyone enjoying their yummy treats while he eats whatever experimental dessert mommy can make and pack up for the night. He's a trooper though, he handles it like a champ! I think it hurts me more than it hurts him. Isn't that always the way?
We are struggling with trying to figure out the cause of his food allergies. Once we get that figured out and dealt with, there is a VERY good chance he could eat normal again. He progressed by leaps and bounds when we first took him off the allergenic foods, a HUGE leap forward. But now, we are seeing some other things that were probably masked by the effects of the foods in the first place. He continuously swats and rubs at his head, face, ears and nose. I noticed these habits since he was learning to walk, but thought he was just teething. Obviously he isn't teething anymore, but continues to do this. He tells me he is itchy. For many, this is a sign of yeast overgrowth so he could have chronic yeast and/or viral issues. Yeast doesn't have to be in the intestines either, it can be in organs and in the brain. So we will be experimenting with natural yeast treatments. A sure sign of this is an overactive immune system, sensory issues, sleep disturbances, an increase in symptoms when he has viral die off from being ill with a virus....like now. We found a wonderful product made by BioRay Inc. which has fabulous reports from other parents. It's all natural and completely safe. We will start by detoxing his liver and balancing his PH levels, if need be. It's safe enough for a breastfeeding mother to take and I personally am considering trying it, as well! Liver detoxification would benefit anyone who is effected by every day life.
Friday, December 19, 2008
Getting started
Backing up a bit, I thought I would explain how to get started on a diet that is often greeted with hesitation and fear. When I opened the envelope from the lab and saw the list of 23 foods we needed to avoid (half of them were his favorite foods) I just about choked! When you take it one step at a time, it isn't as daunting as it appears from the overall perspective. So let's break it down:
Breath first
Big deep breaths!! It CAN be done and it WILL become habit.
Research
Go online and hit all the websites that detail recipes and alternative foods. Read, read, read!
Lists
Make lists of all the foods the child CAN have and there really are still a lot of foods available. Make lists of the foods the child cannot have, including and even more importantly the list of hidden foods/ingredients to avoid and keep those in a bag that is with you always, for the sake of shopping. You will need to refer back to these on many occasions. Make a copy of them to give to close relatives and care givers who interact with your child.
Recipes
Find recipes online, from friends, and in books that address special diets, make grocery lists from there initially, eventually you will just be replacing those items as you run out. It becomes second nature to shop for these foods. In the early days I found it helpful to keep a running list, as I ran out of a food, I would write it down. Now, I have a generic list that I typed up and I just check off the foods I need as I run out, since so many are the same every time we shop =)
Talk with your child through it all.
I am amazed at how well a three year old can really comprehend what this is all about. He knows he cannot eat foods from the "red list" (the color of the reactive foods on the test, lol) and how they effect him. I believe that by feeling better on the good foods, he also gets a true life lesson about the foods he can and can't have. When he has an infraction, he feels the effect more than we do. His outward behaviors are just a sign of what is going on inside.
Journal
Keep a daily journal that not only details foods and supplements, but keep track of good and difficult behaviors, you will start noticing connections to certain things that can further be eliminated. This is also important when choosing to challenge a food. The other great thing about a journal is that you will be able to look back at the progress you are making with the diet. It is easy to forget the difficult behaviors until you are faced with them again. Something that helped me was to use color coding highlighters with one color for improved/good behaviors, one for difficult behaviors and another for the first three times foods were introduced during the diet, so I could watch for patterns. When you have umpteen pages to sift through, this will save your sanity!
Connect
Find a local or internet-based group you can share with and learn from. Yahoo and Google both have great groups you can search through. and Facebook now offers us endless reaches around the globe, instantly. There is nothing better than having a resource like this. When a question pops up, you can gain knowledge from those who are directly effected by the very same issues you are faced with. It's a two way road, you will learn from others who are more experienced than you and eventually you will help others who are newer at it than you. I find this method of learning to be priceless and rewarding in many ways.
And last - make the switch - go shopping
We went cold turkey, but for some, a gradual approach works best. Either way, just go for it and don't look back. When you offer your child a new food, it becomes the ONLY option. The good thing about children is that they tend to have narrow food interests, so once you find a food to replace a favorite, maintaining the diet is actually pretty easy! Imagine that? Comfort and ease come with repetition. We had resistance, and still do, with two favorites - milk and bread. So basically, we have none! I do keep almond milk in the house (mainly for me, since the baby can't handle dairy either) but for bowls of cereal, it really doesn't taste much different. It's also great for baking and cooking. As long as a child is receiving supplements and eating other foods high in calcium and D, milk isn't even necessary. (note - almond milk is high oxalate, which we no longer use now) See my more recent blog entry for pumpkin seed milk, if you need a low oxalate alternative to milk.
Enzymes
At some point, consider researching and adding enzymes to the diet. Generally, food intolerance is related to the lack of an enzyme needed to digest the food(s) which causes a leaky gut, resulting in antibody production. Adding enzymes for a good two months while on the diet may allow you to return some food(s) to the diet, slowly, but possibly even permanently. Check out my enzyme links to the right. There is more information than you could ask for on EnzymeStuff.com.
If any readers have tips or tricks to share here, please do!
**A fabulous GFCF resource is TACA (regardless of whether autism is part of the picture, this source of dietary steps to take are priceless, after all autism is proving to be an autoimmune disease too).
Breath first
Big deep breaths!! It CAN be done and it WILL become habit.
Research
Go online and hit all the websites that detail recipes and alternative foods. Read, read, read!
Lists
Make lists of all the foods the child CAN have and there really are still a lot of foods available. Make lists of the foods the child cannot have, including and even more importantly the list of hidden foods/ingredients to avoid and keep those in a bag that is with you always, for the sake of shopping. You will need to refer back to these on many occasions. Make a copy of them to give to close relatives and care givers who interact with your child.
Recipes
Find recipes online, from friends, and in books that address special diets, make grocery lists from there initially, eventually you will just be replacing those items as you run out. It becomes second nature to shop for these foods. In the early days I found it helpful to keep a running list, as I ran out of a food, I would write it down. Now, I have a generic list that I typed up and I just check off the foods I need as I run out, since so many are the same every time we shop =)
Talk with your child through it all.
I am amazed at how well a three year old can really comprehend what this is all about. He knows he cannot eat foods from the "red list" (the color of the reactive foods on the test, lol) and how they effect him. I believe that by feeling better on the good foods, he also gets a true life lesson about the foods he can and can't have. When he has an infraction, he feels the effect more than we do. His outward behaviors are just a sign of what is going on inside.
Keep a daily journal that not only details foods and supplements, but keep track of good and difficult behaviors, you will start noticing connections to certain things that can further be eliminated. This is also important when choosing to challenge a food. The other great thing about a journal is that you will be able to look back at the progress you are making with the diet. It is easy to forget the difficult behaviors until you are faced with them again. Something that helped me was to use color coding highlighters with one color for improved/good behaviors, one for difficult behaviors and another for the first three times foods were introduced during the diet, so I could watch for patterns. When you have umpteen pages to sift through, this will save your sanity!
Connect
And last - make the switch - go shopping
We went cold turkey, but for some, a gradual approach works best. Either way, just go for it and don't look back. When you offer your child a new food, it becomes the ONLY option. The good thing about children is that they tend to have narrow food interests, so once you find a food to replace a favorite, maintaining the diet is actually pretty easy! Imagine that? Comfort and ease come with repetition. We had resistance, and still do, with two favorites - milk and bread. So basically, we have none! I do keep almond milk in the house (mainly for me, since the baby can't handle dairy either) but for bowls of cereal, it really doesn't taste much different. It's also great for baking and cooking. As long as a child is receiving supplements and eating other foods high in calcium and D, milk isn't even necessary. (note - almond milk is high oxalate, which we no longer use now) See my more recent blog entry for pumpkin seed milk, if you need a low oxalate alternative to milk.
Enzymes
At some point, consider researching and adding enzymes to the diet. Generally, food intolerance is related to the lack of an enzyme needed to digest the food(s) which causes a leaky gut, resulting in antibody production. Adding enzymes for a good two months while on the diet may allow you to return some food(s) to the diet, slowly, but possibly even permanently. Check out my enzyme links to the right. There is more information than you could ask for on EnzymeStuff.com.
If any readers have tips or tricks to share here, please do!
**A fabulous GFCF resource is TACA (regardless of whether autism is part of the picture, this source of dietary steps to take are priceless, after all autism is proving to be an autoimmune disease too).
Thursday, December 18, 2008
Always learning
One thing for certain is that I have PLENTY to learn still and a prime example is that I just learned that Kirkman Labs vitamin C and the liquid zinc are made with sucralose, which is another fancy name for Splenda! YIKES!! Looks like we will be on the lookout for yet another safe supplement to replace each of these.
Food he CAN eat
So we have seen what he can't eat, and that list is long, but what CAN he eat you wonder? Interestingly, the foods he can eat are very high in vitamins, minerals and proteins. I do, however, understand why the average baked goods are NOT made with the flours he can have in place of wheat, rice, potato and gluten. They are strange, gummy, smelly and if I thought I wasn't a baker before this diet, woah, this has been the true test of all baking tests!! I am impressed with the outcome of many of the cookies we have tried, but breads, I have completely given up. So if anyone reading this post, by chance, has a bread recipe that will work for my free-of-everything kid, PLEASE let me know!! Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches are a thing of the past. I did try making him one on some great thick buckwheat pancakes, but now he is telling me he doesn't like the natural peanut butter anymore, nor the almond or cashew butters I bought for him. Waste??? You think your child wastes food??? Try baking these odd breads, cakes and cookies and THEN you will see what waste is, ha ha ha. Ok, so back to the topic at hand, what he can eat. He can eat any fresh veggies and meats (some may require the accomaniment of a No Phenol enzyme), he can have quinoa, amaranth, millet, barley (although I limit it due to the gluten), buckwheat (a favorite of ours for pancakes and cookies), corn, oat, soy (we limit this one also, since the proteins are very similar to casein and gluten) and all seafood, which luckily, he likes so far! Now if we could just afford to live on lobster and king crab, we would be one happy family!!!
Funny thing, my mother-in-law just called to discuss baking cookies and using flour replacements, ha ha ha. She is experiencing my world! She tried a recipe for gingerbread man cookies and thought they had an "off" taste. YUP Just about everything with these new flours does. It takes some getting used to, but one thing I've learned is that a kid is happy with anything sweet. She is on to recipe number two, attempting to replace flour, sugar and eggs, good luck mom!!
Funny thing, my mother-in-law just called to discuss baking cookies and using flour replacements, ha ha ha. She is experiencing my world! She tried a recipe for gingerbread man cookies and thought they had an "off" taste. YUP Just about everything with these new flours does. It takes some getting used to, but one thing I've learned is that a kid is happy with anything sweet. She is on to recipe number two, attempting to replace flour, sugar and eggs, good luck mom!!
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