sethrak

I went to the Langley Hospital's Dietician Center yesterday to discuss ways to avoid Mark's key food allergies. It's going to be every bit as tricky to avoid wheat as I thought.

Hell, even more than I thought. One of the worksheets I got from Col. Harback said that 'natural flavoring' in a breadlike product can mean there's wheat or a wheat derivative. Jesus Mary and Joseph... There's more innocuous appearing ingredient names, that I certainly never associated with wheat, or with cow milk derivatives, or with eggs.

The worksheet says they sometimes put wheat in salad dressing. Yes, I know, Mark's nine months old, he won't be eating salad for a while. It just makes my eyes cross to see all the places wheat is used.

I'm grateful that Col. Harback said he'll outgrow the wheat allergy eventually. At least cow's milk products have a pretty wide range of soy substitutes now. (Or we could try him on goat cheese, eventually... That might prove expensive. Sigh.)

I'm also grateful that I'd been dragging my feet on starting him on finger foods - because my first idea for finger food was cheerios. That would have been a mistake. The col. said there's rice-based cereals out there that dissolve easily in the mouth I can try. She recommended we go to the Trader Joe's on Jefferson Ave. for wheatfree breads and crackers. Supposedly they're cheaper than some of the local health food-only stores that sell wheatless products. I am dubious, having poked my nose in Trader Joe's once with

davner soon after they opened. But it's worth a try. Her other suggestion was, since I am a stay-at-home mom, I could try baking my own wheatfree breads and such for Mark. "There are lots of wheatfree cookbooks for bread machines!"

I was talking to a colonel. I may be a civilian, but I felt it best not to laugh merrily at the idea of me and baking large portions of my family's diet from scratch. ^_^; I do cook, but.... let's just say this isn't going to happen. There's readymade wheatfree breads already on the market, and anyway he's a bit young to be eating PB&J sandwiches four times a day. If he doesn't outgrow the allergy by the time he's eating a fair amount of bread... Well, here's hoping I'm back to work by then, or Dav's out of the AF and in a pretty good civilian job.

I asked her about the beef allergy, because I'd never heard of such a thing. She said it's a brand new allergy test, and all it shows is that Mark's blood reacted to beef. It doesn't mean necessarily that beef will cause his eczema breakouts. He's never had it before, so that's good. She suggested, when he's older and used to other kinds of meats, we try giving him an ounce of well-cooked lean beef, and see how he responds.

Col. Harback very much encouraged us to start Mark on strained meats. ::wistful sigh: Just last week I was all excited because he figured out how to push himself up from his tummy to a seated position; then he learned how to stand up. (Hasn't done it since, although he's tried very hard.) Now he's going to become a carnivore? And my baby book says I should try him on a cup or sippy cup??

My baby is growing up too fast.... ::sniffle::