No more white rice

Now that we know Baby E is allergic to corn, a lot of things are making sense in hindsight. For instance, no wonder the cornstarch-based baby powder I used a few times always seemed to make Baby E's bottom worse. No wonder Cheerios didn't seem to settle well. And most of those evenings I had something with caffeine or dairy in it that I was wondering if bothered Baby E, but couldn't quite pinpoint, I'd also eaten corn.

I'm interested to see if cutting out corn in both my diet and hers will make a difference in her sleep habits and frequent fussiness. I know going through a tantrum stage is normal for this age, but is it too much to hope for that she might not have quite such a short fuse if she's not constantly eating foods she's allergic to? Maybe she'll even gain some weight. She weighs only one pound more at a year old than she did around the age of 6 months, although she's considerably taller.

Baby E is finally napping, and the girls are happily playing while I take a moment to catch my breath. I've spent the morning doing housework while on hold, mostly.

All morning I've been trying to contact different food manufacturers to find out whether "iffy" products in their foods are derived from corn and/or soy. So far they all have been.

Here's the clincher: You know those vitamins and minerals that are added to everything? Vitamin A and D in milk, Vitamin C in baby food and canned goods, Vitamin E in everything from cereal to hand cream, the calcium added to rice milk, and so forth? Not to mention the multivitamins you take? Almost without exception, those vitamin additives are usually derived from corn and/or soy.

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The Enriched Rice Dream we've been using has corn-derived ingredients in it. It's the only brand of rice milk I've been able to find that doesn't have soy lethicin in it. Thankfully the original non-enriched Rice Dream doesn't have corn or soy. But it certainly isn't anything close to a nutritional equivalent to milk. Can a baby live on unenriched rice alone?

The baby cereal I'd been giving Baby E--the one brand that actually makes a whole-grain rice cereal with no soy added--has corn-derived vitamins added. All brands of applesauce I've ever seen have Vitamin C added, as do most kinds of juice--Vitamin C which is almost always made from corn.

It's not as easy as just making everything from scratch, either. That bag of flour in your pantry? It probably contains corn. Even if not listed on the label (and it doesn't have to be), bleached flour is almost sure to have some cornstarch, and of course any enriched product is probably going to have vitamins derived from corn. Anything enriched or bleached, such as white rice, probably has undeclared corn in it. So does sugar, baking powder, and salt. Even the cheese and milk in your refrigerator and any alcohol or white vinegar in your cupboard will most likely contain corn in some form. Depending on the sensitivity of the allergic person, these things can be a problem with the corn allergy sufferer, or not. Let's hope for Baby E it's not.

I have a call in to the allergist to ask just how obsessive we need to be about completely avoiding corn, but I'm guessing we'll probably need to try to avoid all traces as much as possible for a few weeks, to let it clear her system and to see if it makes any difference. Then maybe we can start adding some enriched foods back into my diet and see if it makes any difference before deciding whether to add them directly into Baby E's diet or not.