For anyone in the Milwaukee area, I saw that Children's Hospital of Wisconsin will be having a seminar about food allergies on August 3rd. See
http://www.maxishare.com/conferences/#allergy for more information.
It's $5, and you can register right on the website.
Monday, July 27, 2009
Allergic to soy!
My not-quite two-year old daughter was diagnosed with a soy allergy a little less than two months ago. Although it doesn't seem to be be life-threatening, accommodating her allergy has really changed the way we shop, cook, and eat. We had initially thought that she was allergic to dairy. Here's something that I wrote a couple of weeks before we found out that it was actually soy:
Tracking down allergies
For a while we've been thinking that my younger daughter, almost 21 months, was allergic to dairy. When we cut out dairy her eczema seems to improve. When we were on vacation she didn't have much dairy the first few days, and her skin got better. Towards the end of the trip we discovered where to get chocolate milk, and then her skin got bad again.
So, we've recently begun making a concentrated effort to eliminate dairy. I was surprised to find dairy in some food items, like some french fries (McDonalds) and chicken nuggets. She was looking a lot better, but she was still itchy and scratching. So before bed the other night I covered most of her body with Cetaphil cream in the tub. The next morning, she looked like heck. Her face was all red and blotchy, as were her legs and arms, and she had dark circles under her eyes again. I checked the label of the Cetaphil to make sure there wasn't any dairy product in it, and saw that it has "sweet almond oil", among other things. It definitely seems like she is allergic to something in that, so now we're trying to figure out if is is the sweet almond oil, and what that means.
I was very wrong about the dairy. We were doing things like giving her soy milk, and I got her some soy cheese so that she could once again have pizza. (I didn't realize that some soy cheeses do contain dairy also, and I didn't even think to check the label. I was new at this!) I also gave her lots of eggs, since scrambled eggs were something quick and dairy-free that she enjoyed and I could make quickly. Her skin just kept getting worse and worse, though. Her face was especially bad. In addition to really bad eczema, she had big dark circles under her eyes. She really looked like heck. One morning when she looked especially bad, my husband and I decided that a doctor needed to see her looking like that. Our regular doctor wasn't in that day, so we saw someone else who immediately agreed that she was having an allergic reaction to something. She referred us to an allergist and to a dermatologist, if necessary. This doctor also suspected an allergy to dogs, since we have 3 and had been away from them when we were on vacation.
A couple of weeks later, we saw the allergist. A skin test revealed that my daughter is allergic to soy, egg, and dog! We had been giving her exactly the wrong things -- "here, have this soy milk with your scrambled eggs!"
When we left the allergist, the first thing that I did (after dumping out the cup of soy milk that we had brought for her), was start searching. I read everything I could find about soy allergy and soy-free cooking. I was amazed and shocked to find out how many things have soy in them! When we got home, we started checking the labels of items in our pantry. Almost everything has soy! The hot dog buns we use - soy! Some of the cereals we have - soy! The spaghetti sauce we had - soy! The powdered lemonade mix - soy! Even the chocolate chips - soy! I had no idea that we were eating so much soy.
Initially, we ate a lot of pasta. She likes hers plain anyhow, so sauce wasn't so much of an issue. She does also like to eat whatever I'm eating, though, so I've been avoiding soy also. We'd eat plain pasta, pasta with vegetables, pasta with butter and cheese, pasta with tomatoes. Our first time trying to grocery shop was a real eye-opener.
Since she is too little to understand why the other kids can have something that she can't we try to avoid soy in pretty much everything, other than things that she doesn't eat anyhow (hot dog buns, although she did yesterday almost eat one, and I almost had a close call of giving her one). I've learned about what items have soy, which ones don't, and how important it is to read the labels each time. I've tried a lot of recipes for various things, either recipes I found or things we made up. I've done a lot more cooking than I had in the past. We've learned a lot about eating out, and where we can go (not many places).
She is also allergic to eggs, but that has been far less of a challenge. I knew that there was some sort of egg replacer available, so I tracked that down. (Ener G Foods - Egg Replacer - 1(16 Oz.)
at Amazon.com
if you can't find it in a store near you.) For recipes that require eggs we use this, but not for any egg-based dishes like quiche or anything.
Within a few days of stopping the soy and egg, she looked like a different girl. It was really amazing. She was also giving a few prescription creams for her eczema, and an antibiotic since part of it was infected from her scratching so much. We do also "minimize contact" between her and the dogs, got a HEPA air filter for her room (something like Hunter 30090 QuietFlo HEPA Air Purifier with 3-Speed Fan
, we got ours at Target), and give her Zyrtec (Zyrtec Children's Allergy Relief, Grape Syrup, 4-Ounce Bottle
) or its Target-brand equivalent daily.
I know that we are very lucky in that this does not seem to be a life-threatening condition, and that there are many more serious problems faced by others. Even this little thing can be overwhelming at times, though, like when I spend an hour in the grocery story reading labels and end up with one bag of food. I benefited a lot from what other people have written about dealing with various allergies, and I hope that this will benefit someone else, or at least let them know that they are not alone!
Tracking down allergies
For a while we've been thinking that my younger daughter, almost 21 months, was allergic to dairy. When we cut out dairy her eczema seems to improve. When we were on vacation she didn't have much dairy the first few days, and her skin got better. Towards the end of the trip we discovered where to get chocolate milk, and then her skin got bad again.
So, we've recently begun making a concentrated effort to eliminate dairy. I was surprised to find dairy in some food items, like some french fries (McDonalds) and chicken nuggets. She was looking a lot better, but she was still itchy and scratching. So before bed the other night I covered most of her body with Cetaphil cream in the tub. The next morning, she looked like heck. Her face was all red and blotchy, as were her legs and arms, and she had dark circles under her eyes again. I checked the label of the Cetaphil to make sure there wasn't any dairy product in it, and saw that it has "sweet almond oil", among other things. It definitely seems like she is allergic to something in that, so now we're trying to figure out if is is the sweet almond oil, and what that means.
I was very wrong about the dairy. We were doing things like giving her soy milk, and I got her some soy cheese so that she could once again have pizza. (I didn't realize that some soy cheeses do contain dairy also, and I didn't even think to check the label. I was new at this!) I also gave her lots of eggs, since scrambled eggs were something quick and dairy-free that she enjoyed and I could make quickly. Her skin just kept getting worse and worse, though. Her face was especially bad. In addition to really bad eczema, she had big dark circles under her eyes. She really looked like heck. One morning when she looked especially bad, my husband and I decided that a doctor needed to see her looking like that. Our regular doctor wasn't in that day, so we saw someone else who immediately agreed that she was having an allergic reaction to something. She referred us to an allergist and to a dermatologist, if necessary. This doctor also suspected an allergy to dogs, since we have 3 and had been away from them when we were on vacation.
A couple of weeks later, we saw the allergist. A skin test revealed that my daughter is allergic to soy, egg, and dog! We had been giving her exactly the wrong things -- "here, have this soy milk with your scrambled eggs!"
When we left the allergist, the first thing that I did (after dumping out the cup of soy milk that we had brought for her), was start searching. I read everything I could find about soy allergy and soy-free cooking. I was amazed and shocked to find out how many things have soy in them! When we got home, we started checking the labels of items in our pantry. Almost everything has soy! The hot dog buns we use - soy! Some of the cereals we have - soy! The spaghetti sauce we had - soy! The powdered lemonade mix - soy! Even the chocolate chips - soy! I had no idea that we were eating so much soy.
Initially, we ate a lot of pasta. She likes hers plain anyhow, so sauce wasn't so much of an issue. She does also like to eat whatever I'm eating, though, so I've been avoiding soy also. We'd eat plain pasta, pasta with vegetables, pasta with butter and cheese, pasta with tomatoes. Our first time trying to grocery shop was a real eye-opener.
Since she is too little to understand why the other kids can have something that she can't we try to avoid soy in pretty much everything, other than things that she doesn't eat anyhow (hot dog buns, although she did yesterday almost eat one, and I almost had a close call of giving her one). I've learned about what items have soy, which ones don't, and how important it is to read the labels each time. I've tried a lot of recipes for various things, either recipes I found or things we made up. I've done a lot more cooking than I had in the past. We've learned a lot about eating out, and where we can go (not many places).
She is also allergic to eggs, but that has been far less of a challenge. I knew that there was some sort of egg replacer available, so I tracked that down. (Ener G Foods - Egg Replacer - 1(16 Oz.)
at Amazon.com if you can't find it in a store near you.) For recipes that require eggs we use this, but not for any egg-based dishes like quiche or anything. Within a few days of stopping the soy and egg, she looked like a different girl. It was really amazing. She was also giving a few prescription creams for her eczema, and an antibiotic since part of it was infected from her scratching so much. We do also "minimize contact" between her and the dogs, got a HEPA air filter for her room (something like Hunter 30090 QuietFlo HEPA Air Purifier with 3-Speed Fan
, we got ours at Target), and give her Zyrtec (Zyrtec Children's Allergy Relief, Grape Syrup, 4-Ounce Bottle
) or its Target-brand equivalent daily.
I know that we are very lucky in that this does not seem to be a life-threatening condition, and that there are many more serious problems faced by others. Even this little thing can be overwhelming at times, though, like when I spend an hour in the grocery story reading labels and end up with one bag of food. I benefited a lot from what other people have written about dealing with various allergies, and I hope that this will benefit someone else, or at least let them know that they are not alone!
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