Allergies

So when Hayden was bit by the mosquito, we ended up taking him to the doctor since his eye has swollen up so bad. While we were there, we mentioned to the doctor that we suspected a nut allergy. After some tests, we found out that he has a TON of food allergies. He is allergic to all tree nuts except pecans and hazelnuts, peanuts, eggs, peas, milk, soy and wheat. We met with an allergist and after meeting with her and a review of his test results, she determined that we need to completely avoid all nuts, peanuts, peas, eggs, milk and soy. Apparently his wheat allergy is not very bad and he can continue to have wheat. Thank goodness because we were seriously wondering what we would be able to feed him!

So we have replaced cow's milk with rice milk since he can't have soy, almond, coconut or an animal milk. We are learning how to replace eggs in many items (which is difficult and gives some things a funny texture). And you would be amazed at HOW MANY items actually have soy in them. It seems like we can find products that have all the allergens removed EXCEPT the soy. Very, very annoying.

I have been experimenting with many recipes on substitutions and so far, most are coming out fairly successful. I also finally broke down and bought a box of egg replacer. It definitely makes a difference compared to using applesauce or some of the other options for egg substitutions I have seen online.

The bad part of this entire thing is that he is pretty picky when it comes to food. He will not eat meat except chicken from Chick-Fil-A. And now with the allergies, he can only eat the grilled chicken from Chick-Fil-A, but thankfully he loves it. However, he rarely eats it reheated. His new favorite thing to eat is Cheerios. He has been going crazy eating only bowls of cereal. Oh and you know he eats whatever is served at school, but of course, not at home. :)

Because of the allergies, we have to ALWAYS carry an epi-pen, benadryl and steroids. We have had to give him the benadryl and a dose of steroids a few times, but luckily we have not had to use the epi-pen and I hope we never have to do it. The allergist told us there was an 80% chance he will grow out of his food allergies by the time he starts kindergarten and only about a 20% chance that he will grow out of the nut allergies.