Wheat, Milk, and Egg Allergy!

[hudson21]

My 17 month old has just been diagnosed with a wheat, milk, and egg allergy! After a day of sulking and wondering what I would do, I have sucked it up and realized, wow...could be SO much worse. I have been shopping a local Asian Market for rice noodles and a few health stores. I do have a 3 and 5 year old, along with a hungry husband!! Any tips or advice on feeding my family without having to make two seperate meals all the time? I really need to find the most affordable way to feed us all...getting tough! I would appreciate any tips/advice from someone who has dealt with this...or knows someone who has.

FYI...I do have a Meijer, Kroger, Walmart, Target, and some Health Food Stores locally...not sure if any of these carry any great bargains at times.

Off to relax and read a Gluten Free Cookbook...(sigh!)

Thanks so much!

:hi7:

[rbunnymom]

Welcome! You will find a wealth of info here. You can do it. The health benefits will be worth it. Check out Living Without Magazine (http://www.livingwithout.com/?p=yhpd&s=yh_pd&st=ppc) (available online or if you are lucky in your store).

I will be back over the weekend with more ideas.

[jujubee]

((hugs)) to you , mama! There are many other mamas on this board that are working through the same issues with their family. rbunnymom is a wealth of information - check out her many posts on living with a gluten free diet.

I also have a Kroger and Meijer, and they have whole sections just for gluten free foods now. It seems like more and more varieties of foods are coming on the market to cater to shoppers with these allergies.

Find where Kroger and Meijer put their mark-down foods. As new items come in, old items must be marked down and cleared out, even if the expiration is still a long way off. I find a lot of gluten free mark downs at my stores.

Good luck!

[Mrs_Koehn]

I feel your pain. I have just been diagnosed with all of those allergies plus more. Of 144 things they tested, I'm allergic to 99. I can mostly have meat except oysters (gross) and eggs, 14 herbs and spices and 10 other things. NOT cool. It's only my hubby and I as yet, but it's hard. I do cook double things sometimes to be honest, but it's a pain. I was talking to my dr's wife the other day, and she suggested trying sheeps milk if you can find it somewhere. She said someone with a severe milk allergy had tried it, and was fine. Or have you tried goat's milk? Most people who are allergic to cow's milk are fine with goat. Unfortunately I'm not one of those and am worse on the goat than cow. Go figure.

There are a lot of gluten free things out there, without milk and eggs will be harder, but they can be found. Asian markets probably are a good start and so is this forum. Julee's right, Rbunnymom's got a lot of great things, I can't wait to see her posts for you. : ) Get on the coupon trains and specify your allergies and any brands you're finding on a wishlist and link it to your signature. People will come up with a lot of help for you there too.

Sounds like you'll need to do a lot of fruit and veggies for the kids as snacks. My hubby's not the healthiest eater by far, and doesn't always like to eat the fruit and stuff I put in his lunches. He will devour a fruit salad. Whatever I have on hand, berries, bananas, nuts, raisins, apples, chop it up and toss. No sugar, no nothing. He loves it every time. When I used to have a Sunday School class of little bitty kids in Oklahoma years ago, they liked a fruit salad better than cookies and candy. Kids also like little lunch meats and even chopped up grilled chicken fingers.

Hang in there Hudson. I'm sure it's so overwhelming. I was in my 20s and in college before I started getting sick and my mom spent the entire summer reading The Maker's Diet and Patient Heal Thyself by Jordan Ruban. Look those up on Amazon and get them used for not much, or from the library. He's got a lot of books and is an amazing help learning to navigate health naturally and go organic. If you have a Facebook, hook up to Garden of Life, which is his company. They have great tips on living green and recipes and so forth coming in all day.

You can get through this, and we'll all be here to help! Hugs and welcome to the OGD!

[kristen.c]

In addition to all of the great advice provided here, you might want to do a blog search. Lots of moms have set up blogs for this very purpose and are really great about sharing recipes and life experiences. Good luck to you!

[hudson21]

Thank you all so much! I can't imagine dealing with 99 allergies...WOW!! I am struggling with just a few (until we have him tested in mid July more extensively.) I have wanted to watch our diet more closely and get rid of the processed JUNK...now I am just given that push. I have to take more time for meal planning and prep until I get a handle on the do's and don'ts for my little one. The local Asian Market was great...able to get rice noodles, etc... for a lot cheaper than other places. Actually, purchased Rice Ovalettes (refrigerated section) and used them in place of dumplings and my kids LOVED them. They devoured their chicken, veggies, and "ovalette" soup. YUM. Luckily, I have plenty for leftovers tonight...no need to cook!

[Mrs_Koehn]

Woo hoo! Who wants to heat up the kitchen in the summer anyway? : )

[kristen.c]

I've caught this show a few times on tv, and while I think the show is a little lackluster, her recipes are great for people who have food allergies/are feeding family members with food allergies.

There aren't a ton of recipes, but hopefully you can find something that will work for you! Gen's Guiltless Gourmet - Healthier for the Planet, Healthier for You! (http://www.gensguiltlessgourmet.com)
(Hover over "recipe club" then choose which category you'd like to look under.)

Also, Bethenny Frankel has some recipes on her site that are wheat, egg, & dairy free so you might want to check those out, too!
Recipes | Bethenny Frankel (http://www.bethenny.com/food/recipes/)

You also might want to check your local library and see if they have any allergen-free cook books that you can check out. I like to check cook books out from the library to "test-drive" them and if there's one I feel like has a lot of great info in it we will go out and buy it.

If I come across anything else I'll definitely let you know!

[hudson21]

Thanks! Missed these...will look into now!