egg free – Page 2 – Food Allergies Mom

The Anxiety Returns

February 13, 2020February 13, 2020 foodallergiesmom

My son turned 6 months old about a week ago. He’s the final piece of the puzzle to our little family and has been such an amazing blessing! He’s rolling, laughing, and sleeping in his own crib in his own room. He’s growing up and it’s so fun to watch. Every milestone he hits makes me proud and emotional. But there’s one milestone that I’ve been secretly dreading…

I’m terrified of starting to try foods. Up until this point he’s been solely breastfed. As we begin to try solids, my nerves about food allergies start to rear their ugly heads.

We didn’t discover his big sister’s food allergies until she was almost a year old. (To see how we discovered her allergies, click here.) She had also been exclusively breastfed for the first 6 months and she had a hard time learning to eat solids at the beginning. She was a little behind physically for awhile which made eating harder for her. (We got PT for that and it was AMAZING! But that’s a different story…) Because of that, we didn’t introduce allergens super early on. I also had basically no understanding of food allergies at the time so I had no idea about the research about how introducing early can help prevent allergies.

This time, I’m a little more well-informed. There is a lot of research about the benefits to introducing top allergens like peanut and egg earlier rather than later. (For some great links and articles, check out this page of the Food Allergy Research and Education’s website.) When we took Ezra to his 6 month appointment this week, his doctor recommended that we try peanut butter soon.

On one hand, I’m thankful for a progressive doctor that is trying to watch out for him! On the other hand, I’m terrified. I know that we need to do it. And in some ways, I feel more prepared this time around, but I can’t shake the anxiety and fear that comes with it. I’ve wondered since I was pregnant if he would end up with food allergies just like his sister. I’ve wondered what it would be like to have to worry about BOTH of them daily. I’ve wondered what we would do if he ended up with different allergens than Asa and we had to change our lifestyles once again.

Food allergies are one of those things that you don’t really understand until you’re faced with them. As least, I know I didn’t. I knew about them, but only in a hypothetical way. I didn’t know the reality of them. And the reality is plagued with lots of fear, frustration, inconvenience, and sometimes even anger. You wonder why this is happening to your child. You deal with the fact that not many people will understand the daily struggles you face. You pray that one day your child with grow out of their allergies or that a cure will be found.

I will most definitely update after we begin to try foods with him, but in the meantime, please be praying for us as we face a fear!

Vegan Chocolate Chip Banana Bread Muffins

January 30, 2020January 30, 2020 foodallergiesmom

People often think that cooking with food allergies is daunting. But it doesn’t have to be! I have a super yummy banana bread muffin recipe that I love to spruce up with things like chocolate chips or blueberries! Today I’m going to share the chocolate chip banana bread muffin recipe that is totally vegan! (So it’s perfect for dairy and egg allergies!)

Ingredients:

3 ripe bananas (mashed)
1 tsp vanilla
3/4 cup sugar
1 1/4 cup flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup vegetable or olive oil
1/2 cup applesauce
3/4 cup dairy-free chocolate chips (I used Nestle Simply Delicious semi-sweet morsels this time!)

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F
Mix dry ingredients and wet ingredients separately (minus the chocolate chips)
Combine the two bowls together
Add in chocolate chips
Put batter into baking cups in a muffin/cupcake pan. Bake for 23-25 minutes. (You can also make as a banana bread loaf for 55-60 minutes, but I think the muffins cook a little more evenly!)

Like I mentioned above, I love to make these with blueberries as well (this is how my husband prefers them), but my oldest daughter and I LOVE the chocolate ones for a sweet treat 🙂

I wanted to highlight the vegan chocolate chips we used! They are Nestle Simply Delicious Semi-Sweet Morsels. We bought these at Target. There are a wide variety of dairy-free chocolates out there now so I encourage you to go seek them out! I highlighted another one of them on a different blog here. You seriously can’t tell the difference between “real” chocolate chips and these!

If you try this recipe, let me know how you like it!

The Dreaded Accident…

January 23, 2020 foodallergiesmom

The past two weeks have been rough. We spent a week in the hospital with my son who had RSV. Thankfully, he is all better now, but that week was hard. There’s not much worse than watching your child in the hospital and feeling like you have no control. The day after we got home from the hospital, I got a call that my grandpa (PawPaw) was in the hospital. It quickly progressed to a critical situation. I was able to visit him in the hospital just hours before he passed away. Our new year was off to a really rocky start.

Right after learning that he had passed, we had to take the kids to the doctor so that my son could have his follow-up appointment from the hospital stay. I didn’t want to miss it, so we sucked it up and went even though I wasn’t in the best place mentally. After we returned home, I loaded up my arms and unbuckled my two-year-old daughter like I always do since she sits on the passenger side of the van like me. I had her in my left arm while I also tried to balance my purse, her diaper bag, and my coffee cup from that morning. All of the sudden I heard her say, “I take a drink of Mommy’s cup!” I looked over, and she was sipping from my straw!

I immediately jumped into panic mode. I had coffee in the cup but I also had creamer in it – creamer that contains traces of milk – milk that she is allergic to…

I yanked the cup away as fast as I could and started talking loudly… “No! Asa you can’t drink that! Oh crap! Ryan, help me! She drank from my cup! No!” I ran up the stairs and into the house as fast I could while still balancing everything in my hands. I threw everything down and started examining Asa immediately. I knew that I had finished my coffee already before the appointment, but it was iced coffee, so the ice had melted leaving some watery-coffee at the bottom of the cup. I asked Asa if she actually took a drink. She said yes. I asked her is she actually tasted it in her mouth (trying to clarify is she REALLY took a drink). She said yes. My husband ran for the Benadryl as I stripped off her clothes so I could keep an eye out for hives. I started asking if she felt itchy and she said no. Then I started lecturing her. “Asa, you can’t drink out of people’s cups, baby! Remember that you have allergies? Remember? Like the BugaBees?” (see my previous blog post to understand what this is…) She could sense my fear and tension and she started crying. She didn’t understand what she had done. Why was I lecturing her? While I did want to explain and help her understand why she can’t just grab someone’s drink, I shouldn’t have acted mad at her. It was myself I was mad at…

After we gave the Benadryl, I held her close to me. I felt bad that she was crying and then went into Mama Bear protective mode. I wanted to comfort her. I held her close and apologized for scaring her. I kept asking if she felt ok and she said yes. I kept watching her skin but it stayed clear. I asked if her throat felt ok and she said yes. Once I started to settle down, I began crying…

How could I let that happen? How was I so stupid? Why did I have that cup anywhere near her? How could I have put it right by her face without thinking? Why wasn’t I more careful? Why was I so irresponsible? How could I do this to my baby? I couldn’t even think about another hospital visit – not after the week we had just had. Two hospital visits were enough. The thought of another one was enough to make me cry. But the thought that I would have been the one to send her there was so much worse. The thought that she could need an epipen because of me was horrible. And the thought that she could die… well… I couldn’t even let myself go there.

After the shock and severity wore off and after I knew she was ok, I had time to think. I was still beating myself up pretty hard. The anxiety and fear that parents of kids with food allergies face is so real. It’s hard to explain to anyone that’s never had to deal with it. The pressure that a parent feels when they have a little one with food allergies is so intense. Your child relies on you for everything. They rely on you to feed them, and they rely on you to keep them safe. One small mistake can be catastrophic to a kid with food allergies. You have to be vigilant at all times, and that can lead to constant anxiety. The fear is tangible all the time. It never goes away. Even those of us that are really cautious, and yes – even those of us that run food allergy blogs and long to help educate others – even we make mistakes. The problem is, it only takes one mistake to possibly end in tragedy.

We were lucky this time, but not everyone is.

To those of you that navigate this food allergy world like we do, I see you. I feel your pain. I know your anxiety. I feel your fear. And I’m here if you need to talk, vent, cry, or complain.

To those of you that have never had to worry about this before, I hope this helps you get a glimpse of the pressure and anxiety that we feel every single day. We aren’t crazy. We are just scared – and you probably would be too if faced with the reality that we are daily.

Product Review: First Aid Beauty!

December 22, 2019December 22, 2019 foodallergiesmom

Not only does my daughter have food allergies, but she and I both have extremely sensitive skin, and now my newborn son seems to be following suit. Dry, itchy skin is one of the most annoying things to have to deal with every day. I’ve always struggled with a dry face and finding a lotion that would actually help moisturize without making my face oily was hard to come by. I’ve tried everything – things from the aisles in Target, things my friends were selling through multi-level marketing, home remedies – but nothing ever really worked the way I wanted it too. Then I had my daughter whose skin was even more sensitive than my own and I really struggled. She’s had eczema since she was a baby and even creams, washes, and lotions labeled for eczema seemed to irritate her skin more. We saw a dermatologist and have basically stopped using everything except Vaseline and medicated prescriptions from her doctor. It’s been rough. Add in the food allergies, and the often unclear ingredient labels that are found on cosmetics products, and I felt hopeless that I’d ever find something for her to use besides sticky, messy, Vaseline.

I was talking about my own skin at work one day and a coworker (who used to manage a Sephora store) recommended a product to me. She told me that she even had some extra and she’d bring it for me to try. Thankfully, she followed through and I was introduced to First Aid Beauty.

One of my favorite things about it is that their ingredients are VERY clearly labeled and they have even more details about each product on their website. The product that I first used was their “Ultra Repair Cream”. You can use it in your face and body. After using it myself and LOVING it, I finally decided to try it on my daughter’s hands. Her hands are always one of her worst places for dry, itchy patches, but I don’t like using the steroid cream from her doctor on her hands for fear she’ll put them in her mouth. I had been wanting some sort of lotion to use on them, but again… almost everything contains fragrances and alcohols that actually just make her skin worse. I finally decides to give the First Aid Beauty a try and to my delight – it worked! Not only did it not cause extra irritation, but it actually got rid of her rough, dry patches of eczema!

All of First Aid Beauty’s products are animal cruelty-free and have over 1,300 ingredients in their “no-no” list. The Ultra Repair Cream I mentioned above is Gluten-Free, Nut-Free, Soy-Free, and Vegan! It does, however, contain oat, so if that it an allergy for you, you’ll want to avoid this product!

A few days ago, I decided to buy one of their kits so I could give a couple other products a try. It came with their Ultra Repair Cream, Facial Radiance Pads, Ultra Repair Hydrating Serum, Pure Skin Facial Cleanser, and their Ultra Repair Lip Therapy. My face has seriously never felt this good. I’m always leery of exfoliating pads because sometimes they seem to make my dryness worse, but in this case, they really helped to get rid of the dry flakes and the serum and lotion helped to keep my face moisturized throughout the day. I’m officially hooked!

As with anything, I’m not naive enough to think that this product will work for every person. But if you’re like me and you (or your kids) struggle with eczema and overly dry skin, this may be something to try – especially if you also have to contend with food allergies and get scared of cosmetics products that don’t REALLY tell you what is inside them. Knowing that this lotion is vegan and nut-free means that I can feel safe letting my daughter use it despite her milk, egg, and peanut allergies! I always recommend reading labels for yourself and doing some research before trying something new, so I’d encourage you to head over to firstaidbeauty.com to check it out for yourself if you are interested.

*This is NOT a paid advertisement. This is strictly a product review of something I’ve actually found useful. 🙂

Brand review! Oat-ly Ice Cream!

December 15, 2019 foodallergiesmom

Today is my daughter’s 2nd birthday! Unfortunately, we had to cancel her birthday party because the flu has hit our home HARD and 3/5 of us are sick (including her and me). We still tried to celebrate a little with some Asa allergy-friendly ice cream! She absolutely loved the Oat-ly chocolate, non-dairy, vegan “frozen dessert”! Asa is allergic to dairy, egg, and peanut which makes most ice creams impossible for her to eat – but this was perfect.

Also, I tasted it and it honestly tastes just like chocolate ice cream! I think if I served it to people without them knowing they wouldn’t even know the difference! We will definitely be getting this again! Can’t wait to try other flavors too!

*We bought this at Target for those wondering where you can find it!

Yummy Vegan Biscuits

December 6, 2019 foodallergiesmom

Biscuits and gravy has always been one of the best meals my husband makes. He’s been dying to find a way to let our daughter try them but her dairy and egg allergies have made that difficult. Today he adapted a recipe found on Pinterest to make vegan biscuits and they were DELICIOUS!!! We’ll attempt gravy soon and I’ll share once we find a good recipe. But for now I’ll leave you with the biscuit recipe! PS – they were taste approved by everyone in our house! Once again, I’ll include exactly the items we used for those that may not know where to start with using good substitutes, but feel free to modify to your favorite brands if you want!

Ingredients:

2 cups flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 tbsp sugar
1/2 cup Country Crock Plant Butter (sticks – chilled and cubed)
3/4 cup Oat Milk (we used Silk brand) chilled in the freezer

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F and place the cubed plant butter and oat milk in the freezer.
Combine sugar, salt, flour, baking powder, and baking soda in a mixing bowl.
Use a pastry cutter (or a fork if you don’t have one) to add the chilled cubed butter into the dry mix. This will make the mixture a course ground consistency.
Add the oat milk and work into the flour to form a crumbly, soft dough. Pour out onto a floured surface and knead into a 5-6 inch rectangle. Fold in half and knead a total of 3 times. You should end with the same 5-6 inch rectangle.
Roll the dough out with a rolling pin and cut about 6-8 biscuits using a biscuit cutter or the mouth of a juice glass. Reknead the remaining dough and repeat these steps to cut more biscuits.
Brush with melted plant butter and bake for 11-14 minutes or until edges are golden brown.

**This recipe is dairy and egg free. The Country Crock plant butter, however may contain soy so you’ll want to swap that for a different vegan butter if you have a soy allergy!

If you try this recipe, make sure to let me know how you like it! It’s definitely going to be our go-to biscuit recipe from now on!

The best vegan chocolate chip cookies!

December 4, 2019December 4, 2019 foodallergiesmom

I finally made the best chocolate chip cookies that I’ve ever made! And they’re vegan! The best part – no one would ever know! And I say that not as a crunchy mom who thinks all vegan things taste great. I say that as a sweets fanatic who is skeptical every time I find a vegan baked good. I promise, these won’t disappoint! I’m going to include the exact ingredients I use for those of you that may not know where to start with buying allergen-free ingredients. Feel free to revert to your favorites if you want though!

Ingredients:

1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 3/4 cup flour
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup vegan butter (I used Country Crock Plant Butter sticks)
1 egg equivalent of Bob’s Red Mill Egg Replacer
1/2 cup Enjoy Life Semi-Sweet Mini Chips (or however many you want)
Splash of Oat Milk (if needed to make dough the right consistency)

Instructions:

Set oven to 350 degrees F
Microwave the butter until melted but not hot (about 40 seconds)
In a large bowl, mix the butter with both sugars
Stir in vanilla and egg replacer (after you’ve let the egg replacer stand for 1 minute)
Add the flour, baking soda, and salt.
Mix dough until soft. This is where you will add the splash of oat milk if needed. I feel like it helps the consistency get just right! You want the dough soft and a little sticky but not overly sticky.
Stir in chocolate chips
Scoop out dough with a medium cookie scoop (about 1.5 tbsp) and place 2 inches apart on cookie sheet (I used parchment paper)
Cook for 8-12 minutes. Cookies will still look a little underbaked but that’s what makes them chewy and delicious!

I hope you enjoy these cookies as much as my family did! My food allergy daughter’s birthday is in two weeks and I’m definitely going to be making a big batch of these for her party! If you make them, comment and let me know how you liked them!

***Please note that these cookies are egg, dairy, and peanut free. If you follow this exact recipe they will still contain gluten and have the possibility of containing soy (the Country Crock Plant Butter may contain soy).