Success . . . well, for half a day anyway.
Yesterday was the first day I am close to 100% certain that we actually managed to avoid all corn products. There's such a huge learning curve with learning to identify all corn-derived ingredients.
I've been getting frustrated, thinking that it hasn't seemed to make much difference, but it's been hard to actually make sure there's no corn-derived anything in any item we consume. I think we're finally getting it figured out.
Baby E is sick with a cold--runny nose, stuffy head and cough. But she slept through the night last night. She even slept right through the coughing spells, which is unheard-of. She never sleeps through disturbances. She wasn't tossing and turning, either. She slept well.
This morning she woke up cheerful, sat on the potty and had a very normal-looking BM (first time she's used the potty in a long time), and wasn't ravenous for breakfast (of course, she probably got more milk than usual with nursing since I'm not used to her sleeping through the night). She didn't panic when I left the room, leaving her alone for a few moments, which she usually does if she's not feeling well.
I'm trying not to get too excited prematurely, but it really does seem that going corn-free is making a difference for her. Hooray!
#############
DH dropped off the older two girls at the Vacation Bible School going on this week, led by his sisters. They had a great time, and I went to pick them up when it was over.
VBS will give me a few hours to myself each day this week while the girls are in care we trust, learning lots of great Bible stories, songs and verses. I'm hoping to be able to get some things done like catching up on housework and planning out the coming school year. But if all I get done is getting a handle on our new allergen-free lifestyle, taking care of Baby E and getting some extra rest, that will be okay.
The girls and I went with DH's sisters and their families to Chuck E. Cheese's this afternoon, which was a lot of fun. Normally I try not to take the kids out anywhere when they have even just a cold, but that's not always practical when it's a minor illness. Their kids have colds too (we probably all caught them together at the reunion last week), so I just kept Baby E with me in the back of the restaurant where our group camped out. She mostly coughs when she's sleeping, so I just kept her away from other groups as much as possible.
She had a lot of fun trying to walk around near our table, and playing with her cousins. I checked the floor in the area carefully and watched closely to make sure she didn't eat anything. She'd stand up and wobble for a tentative step or two before falling--bump--on her bottom. Even with the cold, she seemed to be feeling well and in a good mood.
When we got home, I gave her some lunch. Shortly after that she had explosive watery diarrhea. Then she was starving again. I'm pretty sure it was a reaction to something she ate.
I don't know what would have caused it. The only options I can think of are if she somehow picked up a crumb at Chuck E Cheese (even though I was watching her like a hawk and made sure the area around her was clean), if the paper napkin she chewed on had something in it, or lunch--a few crumbly sweet potato chips from a bag of Taro chips, plain goat milk yogurt with no added vitamins or anything, plain applesauce, puffed rice, and a tiny taste of bread in which the only ingredients were whole-grain wheat flour, water and salt. I wonder if there could have been crumbs of non-safe bread in the butter I put on the bread I ate?
Everything Baby E and I ate, except the puffed rice (which I'm certain is safe), was from Trader Joe's with very minimal ingredients and nothing that should have contained soy or corn. Most of the items she had eaten previously with no noticeable problems, and I'm sure they were all corn-free unless they were cross-contaminated or had undeclared allergens. The bread and the yogurt seem to be the most likely culprits.
It could be that she has a problem with dairy or wheat even though she tested negative for those, or maybe she does have issues with gluten. She didn't react to the few bites of safe ice cream I gave her last night and hadn't reacted noticeably to any of the dairy products we'd tried before, but I did give her quite a lot of yogurt today.
I'm having some kind of allergic reaction myself, I think. But I'm pretty sure mine is because I've been experimenting with dairy products the last few days, hoping my intolerance had gone away.
True, the intestinal symptoms are better than they used to be with dairy. But now I have a nice itchy rash on my back and scalp, and that "lump-in-the-throat" feeling that makes it hard to swallow. I've never gotten an actual rash from milk before, though--I've always seemed to be just lactose-intolerant and not truly allergic. So I don't know what the issue is.
I really need to remember to call and make an appointment with the allergist tomorrow.
One interesting thing is that several people on the corn message board read my description of the various symptoms Baby E experiences, and my own symptoms, and strongly suggested that we should both be checked for celiac disease. Celiac is a type of gluten intolerance that is not a true allergy, but is very serious. For a person with celiac, any ingestion of gluten damages the intestinal lining and makes it difficult to absorb nutrients from any foods consumed, as well as causing other damage.
This is interesting because I have at least one immediate family member who has problems with gluten, and a niece on DH's side with celiac disease, so I know the genes for gluten intolerance (it is hereditary) are floating around on both sides of the family somewhere. I didn't realize that celiac can have almost identical symptoms to fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome and IBS, or that the symptoms can vary from "silent" and not really noticeable to severe, as well as varying drastically in what specific symptoms are displayed.
I really hope neither of us actually is gluten-intolerant on top of the other food allergies. I expect we're probably not, maybe just because I prefer to be optimistic. But I suppose it's something I should at least ask the doctor about just to make sure we're covering all the bases, especially considering we've both been having problems maintaining/gaining weight and having lots of intestinal symptoms and symptoms that could be related to malnutrition.
Today I'm feeling encouraged that we're making progress on the journey toward better health. I have a battle-plan, we're succeeding in the parts we're already implementing, and I know what my next steps are going to be. That feels good.
Maybe someday soon I won't have to spend most of my waking energy thinking about food and allergies. Then I'll actually blog about something else. Wouldn't that be nice? :)
I've been getting frustrated, thinking that it hasn't seemed to make much difference, but it's been hard to actually make sure there's no corn-derived anything in any item we consume. I think we're finally getting it figured out.
Baby E is sick with a cold--runny nose, stuffy head and cough. But she slept through the night last night. She even slept right through the coughing spells, which is unheard-of. She never sleeps through disturbances. She wasn't tossing and turning, either. She slept well.
This morning she woke up cheerful, sat on the potty and had a very normal-looking BM (first time she's used the potty in a long time), and wasn't ravenous for breakfast (of course, she probably got more milk than usual with nursing since I'm not used to her sleeping through the night). She didn't panic when I left the room, leaving her alone for a few moments, which she usually does if she's not feeling well.
I'm trying not to get too excited prematurely, but it really does seem that going corn-free is making a difference for her. Hooray!
#############
DH dropped off the older two girls at the Vacation Bible School going on this week, led by his sisters. They had a great time, and I went to pick them up when it was over.
VBS will give me a few hours to myself each day this week while the girls are in care we trust, learning lots of great Bible stories, songs and verses. I'm hoping to be able to get some things done like catching up on housework and planning out the coming school year. But if all I get done is getting a handle on our new allergen-free lifestyle, taking care of Baby E and getting some extra rest, that will be okay.
The girls and I went with DH's sisters and their families to Chuck E. Cheese's this afternoon, which was a lot of fun. Normally I try not to take the kids out anywhere when they have even just a cold, but that's not always practical when it's a minor illness. Their kids have colds too (we probably all caught them together at the reunion last week), so I just kept Baby E with me in the back of the restaurant where our group camped out. She mostly coughs when she's sleeping, so I just kept her away from other groups as much as possible.
She had a lot of fun trying to walk around near our table, and playing with her cousins. I checked the floor in the area carefully and watched closely to make sure she didn't eat anything. She'd stand up and wobble for a tentative step or two before falling--bump--on her bottom. Even with the cold, she seemed to be feeling well and in a good mood.
When we got home, I gave her some lunch. Shortly after that she had explosive watery diarrhea. Then she was starving again. I'm pretty sure it was a reaction to something she ate.
I don't know what would have caused it. The only options I can think of are if she somehow picked up a crumb at Chuck E Cheese (even though I was watching her like a hawk and made sure the area around her was clean), if the paper napkin she chewed on had something in it, or lunch--a few crumbly sweet potato chips from a bag of Taro chips, plain goat milk yogurt with no added vitamins or anything, plain applesauce, puffed rice, and a tiny taste of bread in which the only ingredients were whole-grain wheat flour, water and salt. I wonder if there could have been crumbs of non-safe bread in the butter I put on the bread I ate?
Everything Baby E and I ate, except the puffed rice (which I'm certain is safe), was from Trader Joe's with very minimal ingredients and nothing that should have contained soy or corn. Most of the items she had eaten previously with no noticeable problems, and I'm sure they were all corn-free unless they were cross-contaminated or had undeclared allergens. The bread and the yogurt seem to be the most likely culprits.
It could be that she has a problem with dairy or wheat even though she tested negative for those, or maybe she does have issues with gluten. She didn't react to the few bites of safe ice cream I gave her last night and hadn't reacted noticeably to any of the dairy products we'd tried before, but I did give her quite a lot of yogurt today.
I'm having some kind of allergic reaction myself, I think. But I'm pretty sure mine is because I've been experimenting with dairy products the last few days, hoping my intolerance had gone away.
True, the intestinal symptoms are better than they used to be with dairy. But now I have a nice itchy rash on my back and scalp, and that "lump-in-the-throat" feeling that makes it hard to swallow. I've never gotten an actual rash from milk before, though--I've always seemed to be just lactose-intolerant and not truly allergic. So I don't know what the issue is.
I really need to remember to call and make an appointment with the allergist tomorrow.
One interesting thing is that several people on the corn message board read my description of the various symptoms Baby E experiences, and my own symptoms, and strongly suggested that we should both be checked for celiac disease. Celiac is a type of gluten intolerance that is not a true allergy, but is very serious. For a person with celiac, any ingestion of gluten damages the intestinal lining and makes it difficult to absorb nutrients from any foods consumed, as well as causing other damage.
This is interesting because I have at least one immediate family member who has problems with gluten, and a niece on DH's side with celiac disease, so I know the genes for gluten intolerance (it is hereditary) are floating around on both sides of the family somewhere. I didn't realize that celiac can have almost identical symptoms to fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome and IBS, or that the symptoms can vary from "silent" and not really noticeable to severe, as well as varying drastically in what specific symptoms are displayed.
I really hope neither of us actually is gluten-intolerant on top of the other food allergies. I expect we're probably not, maybe just because I prefer to be optimistic. But I suppose it's something I should at least ask the doctor about just to make sure we're covering all the bases, especially considering we've both been having problems maintaining/gaining weight and having lots of intestinal symptoms and symptoms that could be related to malnutrition.
Today I'm feeling encouraged that we're making progress on the journey toward better health. I have a battle-plan, we're succeeding in the parts we're already implementing, and I know what my next steps are going to be. That feels good.
Maybe someday soon I won't have to spend most of my waking energy thinking about food and allergies. Then I'll actually blog about something else. Wouldn't that be nice? :)
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Posted by purple_kangaroo at 11:12 PM[Permanent link]
5 Comments:
I'm guessing she may have come into contact with some corn oil residue from the tables at CEC.
I hope you both are feeling better soon, it sounds like you're starting to get a handle on it.
Big hugs!
Hi Angela,
I went to a La Leche League (toddlers) meeting this morning and was happy to see friends again. Food allergies came up and a lady said that bathing in epson salt is very helpful in that... The body uses magnesium sulfate to eliminate toxins. She also uses it to help her fall asleep sometimes. Hadn't heard this before so couldn't wait to pass it on to you... and jump in the tub myself (just stopped at Walmart). The kids are getting one, too. Here's a website I grabbed: http://hemp-ear-candles.com/Bath%20Salts.htm There's some book at Vitamin Cottage that discusses this along with digestive enzymes and how they're needed to break down foods. I also forget what she said foods have in them that need enzymes... and chocolate is high in them.
Love,
Colleen
It's possible that the chips had some kind of non-safe flour residue on them from the machinery when they were bagged. Some products are dusted with flour or such to make them work better on the conveyer belts and the last I heard, this did not have to be disclosed on the label.
It's also possible that the microbes in the yogurt caused the reaction. Any change in microbes can cause such, even an addition of beneficial microbes. I would suggest a smaller amount of yogurt next time, and you could work up gradually.
Hugs.
Thanks for the thoughts and helpful suggestions, everyone. I tried just a few spoonfuls of the yogurt this morning, and that was definitly the culprit. Now a nutritionist at Trader Joe's is trying to find out if there's any possibility it could have been contaminated with corn or soy, or if it's just the yogurt itself that's the problem.
Colleen, do you know if mineral salt or sea salt can work, or does it specifically have to be Epsom salt? I want to try that, and I saw bulk mineral and sea salts at the health food store the other day.
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