so much to write about...

so little time! I'm really excited about this blog and am thinking of new posts and topics all the time. I've learned so much over the past year and a half about living with food allergies that I am happy to share. However, with the limited time I have I've promised myself and my DH that in most cases I will only write one post per day. I feel like my posts so far have been woefully inadequate. Like the milk substitutes post from yesterday, there's so much more to be said! I have yummy recipes for "cream" soup and "cheese" sauce, great alternate sources of calcium (brown sugar!?) and more ideas for dairy-free alternatives. Alas, sitting down with a nice cup of coffee and writing away the hours of the day just isn't an option.

As my daughter (and whole family for that matter) have been having pretty bad flare-ups of eczema recently I'm wondering in the back of my mind if it's just the weather (likely) or if we are facing the onslaught of another allergy. We go back for a checkup mid-February, so I'll be interested to see what her numbers are. The last time she was tested, the allergist ordered as RAST test. It showed that her allergy to milk did not even really make the charts, while egg and peanut and tree nut was off the charts. Though she had never really consumed eggs or peanuts, I was very surprised that her milk numbers were so low. Though thankfully we have never faced anaphylaxis (we always carry our trusty Epi-Pen, though), her reactions to milk and dairy were pretty quick and severe. The doctor informed me that the testing is not really, in her words, "scientific" and that high numbers do not necessarily indicate an allergy while low numbers do not necessarily indicate absence of allergy. Great. So, why did we pay to have the test done? Why did I put my toddler (and myself) through the whole drawing-blood thing? Ah, the wonders of modern medicine! I used to think that some doctors knew everything and it was simply a matter of have-this-symptom-take-this-medicine-to-fix-it. It turns out that Mom might not be so bad a judge of her children's medical issues. I notice that she's reacting to milk, don't give her milk. This kind of method, the "elimination diet" method works well, though it does take time and perseverance. This is where you would eliminate a food or group of foods for several days to see if the symptoms stop or decrease. Then, if the symptoms are not life-threatening, re-introduce the food to see if the reaction occurs. We did this with our first-born son when he started having major hives one summer. It took a couple of months of going through different foods, but we finally figured out that eggs and tomatoes were the culprits. Interestingly enough, he had never been crazy about tomato products. Still (about 2 1/2 years later), though he seems to have outgrown these allergies, he still does not like tomato products. I notice this in my daughter as well. When we have given her foods in the past that we did not think contained her allergens, she would often refuse to eat it. This would be a shock because it was usually something she loved, like crackers. Come to find out, we'd double-check the ingredients and there would be milk or eggs present. We've come to learn - especially when eating out or away from home - not to insist that she eat any food. Many times, we've learned later that she's been right to avoid an offending food.

For more information about allergy testing, FAAN has produced this helpful document.