Where has the time gone?

It's been three months since I posted here last. Mostly things have been good.

My daughter's Kindergarten teacher has been awesome about her food allergies, and another girl with nut allergies joined our Girl Scout troop, so now I'm not alone.

My son's progressive dairy challenge has been going so well that I think by July I will have to close this blog. It's been a wild ride. He finished up his baked dairy trial the last week of January, and we're on to cooked milk.

The end of this week he'll be doing straight melted cheese in a few foods. I have to admit that I'm still pretty scared. So far he's had milk, butter, and even cheese mixed into things baked, or cooked in a recipe. I will own up to the fact that the first time I sat and watched him like a hawk. It is very surreal to see him eating this stuff.

So, we'll be doing this until his 5th birthday in July, and then move on to regular milk, not-melted cheese, yogurt, ice cream, etc. Scary!!!

Movin on up...

DS has completed the first step of his baked dairy challenge- home edition! We're now moving on to 1/2 cup baked dairy per day. What does this mean?

This means he may have cheddar goldfish. *shudder* He may have storebought items where a dairy ingredient is listed in the middle of the ingredients list. He may have up to three servings per day!

So that would be like, a serving of cheddar goldfish and two slices of break with whey in the middle of the ingredient list. Or two servings of cheddar goldfish and two pieces of bread with whey in the bottom 1/4 of the list.

If he does well at this, in FEBRUARY he can try MACARONI AND CHEESE OR PIZZA. (Or doritoes/cheese curls, lol!)

Ok, so I am excited, can you tell?

Cashews- Passed! (and a mini Halloween vent)

I should have posted this a few weeks ago, but it's been hectic!

We trialed both kids with cashews, and it went perfectly!

It seems we're rapidly running out of allergies, but not fast enough. Halloween is right around the corner and I'm gearing up for more tears and frustration and disappointment, especially from my daughter now that she's old enough to care more about what the other kids are doing.

There is a costume party, with food, at Girl Scouts. Plus probably some party at school, and of course traditional trick or treating. I hope those nice elderly people still live in town. Every year they give out apples, chips, and pretzels. Things the kids can eat!!

This is probably the first of several Halloween vents. Tune in next time!

"That's milk."

My son has a knack for repeating things, and it makes it hard to figure out exactly what he understands.

As far as I can tell he can't tell the difference between soy milk and cow milk, rice cheese and cow cheese, etc. He doesn't ever think to ask before eating anything either. This really frightens me, especially with kindergarten a year away.

The other day we were in a parking lot and he looked down and pointed to a abandoned (litter!!!) coffee cup. He said "That's milk."

My husband happened to be the one holding his hand and he stopped, looked at it for a moment and said "You're right buddy, that cup could have milk in it."

Now...was this a reaction to my constantly telling him not to touch/eat things? Or did he actually recognize that people routinely put milk in coffee? Was he even aware it was a coffee cup? The world may never know, but I feel like it's progress.

It's HIS dream

So, my son passed his baked in dairy challenge. I have not been here to post about it because he was diagnosed the day before the food challenge with Asperger's Syndrome, and it has been keeping me busy and throwing me for a loop.

Anyhow, now that he's passed he can have up to 1/4 cup of BAKED dairy per day. And he should be able to move up to 1/2 cup in October if everything goes well.

One of the foods that Dr. Wood suggested to us was original (not cheese flavor) Goldfish crackers. I cringed, I made a noise of protest, and Dr Wood looked at my son, then back at me and said "It's HIS dream."

Ok, now I'm a little emotional as I write, because I really shrugged it off and I didn't go out and buy the goldfish right away. I hate the little things. They're ground into waiting room carpets and slimed onto playground equipment in most of the developed world. They've turned my world, and my son's world, into a literal minefield every day for the last three years. And now I'm supposed to feed them to him?

I broke down and bought them yesterday. Dr. Wood's admonishment was tugging at my heart. Are some little fish shaped crackers REALLY my son's dream?

As it turns out, yes. They're his dream. I pulled them out of the cupboard 20 minutes ago and measured out exactly the serving he can eat. As I was doing that he saw them and started screaming "I LOVE THOSE CRACKERS!!!". He was jumping up and down. I served him his lunch with the side of fish-shaped crackers I've learned to hate, and he is in the kitchen right now swimming them through his plate and into his mouth as I sit at my desk listening, crying, and blogging about how my son has finally gotten to have one thing he's always wanted, always watched other kids eat, always wondered about. Tiny fish-shaped crackers.

Excuse me while I find my tissues *sniff*

An Update on Preschool Crafts

The craft thing went well. At least health-wise.

Unfortunately I shouldn't have offered to let the class share my kids' supplies. My kids made their crafts first, and then the other kids were allowed to use their food supplies by scooping from the bags with little scoops. This created serious cross contamination issues. The teacher at least did warn me when I cam eto pick up the kids.

I couldn't take that food home, so I tried to get the other parents to take it. None of them wanted any of my "weird" food, which kind of made me laugh because it was in their kids' crafts! The teachers couldn't keep it because they hadn't purchased it, but somehow it was alright to let everyone use it for the craft.

I ended up having to throw it all away, even though it was mostly full boxes of perfectly useful food. I was nauseated and had nightmares about it all that weekend. The guilt was eating at me big time, I do NOT like wasting food.

Preschool Crafts Anxiety

So, my kids are in preschool. They go full day 5 days a week. My daughter's been at this preschool 2 years, and my son one year so far. The teachers are WELL aware of their food allergies. They have "scary" food in the classroom every day, but adding in more to do a craft just seems crazy to me. I know I'm probably over-reacting.

They're doing a Father's Day craft using chocolate chips (nut, milk), butterscotch chips (milk), cheerios (oats, possible nut cross), and M&Ms (nut and milk). The teacher asked if I could supply the kids with their own stuff, and I can. I told her this is completely outside my comfort zone, and she asked what I would do if I were doing this activity, and I told her I wouldn't do it, but if she was confident about it and felt she had a good plan that was up to her.

Meanwhile I'm going to be freaking out at home all day long. Which might be overkill since I know they have milk and dairy stuff and things crossed with nuts and oat-based things every single DAY in the classroom.

BTW- I am sending mini marshmallows, pretzels, raisins, and little teddy bear shaped crackers. If ELF products were sold closer to home I would have picked up their chocolate chips and maybe their "trail mix" if it was safe, I'd have to check.