Sunday, March 29, 2009

The Baby Definitely Has A Food Intolerance Problem

It is now obvious that Abbie has a problem similar to Barrett's. Her diaper rashes and diarrhea the last week have been sure evidence. Unfortunately I can't pinpoint the exact cause yet. We started giving her more milk products like yogurt and cheese, and I also have been slack on my own gluten-free diet. It's possible the gluten from breast milk is bothering, or the increase in cow's milk has been bothering her, or both. So now we get to start the elimination process with her. Keep those things out of her diet for a few weeks to see if she improves, and then add them back in one at a time and see what happens. I already suspected gluten which is why I don't feed it to her directly, but my current theory is that both are a problem. I know for sure that she can't tolerate eggs at this point. She and Barrett both had a hard time the last time we fed eggs to them. I'm not even going to attempt soy with her if she can't have casein.

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Oops! A Little Cow's Milk

Last weekend we left Barrett with a babysitter. We made the mistake of assuming she would remember from last time that he couldn't have gluten or milk since her sister has the same problem. Never assume anything. We came home to find a sippy cup with the last dregs of cow's milk in the bottom. (It was in the morning). That night at about 2 am Barrett woke up screaming, "poopy diaper!" Now I know how long it takes for a contaminant to affect him. I've changed a lot of diarrhea diapers since then. Today is the first day he hasn't had one...yet. Hopefully it has cleared his system by now. I felt so bad about it. He never complained about his stomach hurting though, and it didn't seem to affect his personality, which is good. Just diarrhea and diaper rash. Those contaminated diapers sure smell bad though!

We have finally ordered the protein drink the doctor recommended. I couldn't find it anywhere in stores and they changed the name to Regence Boost Fruit Beverage so it took me awhile. It also has whey protein from cow's milk and I wanted to make sure that wouldn't bother him before I forked out the dough. I bought some Special K protein water that has whey protein in it to test it out. It didn't seem to affect him so I went ahead and ordered a six pack of the Boost. Hopefully it won't bother him either because he really needs the nutrients. His fingernails are still peeling.

Thursday, March 12, 2009

Gluten/Milk/Egg/Soy Free Pumpkin Bread

Before cooking
After cooking

I just found this recipe and I thought it was really good:

Super Moist Pumpkin Bread


I adapted it a little and I'll post the adaptation here. I left out the nuts and coconut flakes because I didn't think Barrett would eat them. I also added more spice to hide the taste of the flour and reduced the sugar because I use it as more of a meal than a dessert.

  • 3 1/2 cups flour (I used buckwheat, Bob's all purpose, rice, and potato flours)
  • 3 tsp xanthan gum
  • 1 1/2cups packed dark brown sugar
  • 1/2 cup white sugar
  • 2 teaspoons baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
  • 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
  • 1 tsp cloves
  • 1 tsp Jamaican all-spice
  • 2 cups pumpkin puree
  • 1 cup vegetable oil
  • 2/3 cup coconut milk
  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
  2. In a large bowl, stir together dry ingredients. Add the wet ingredients, and mix until all of the flour is absorbed. Spoon batter into cupcake tins (or two greased loaf pans)
  3. Bake 20 minutes for muffins or 1 hour and 15 minutes for loaves.