School Trip preparations

yup-- my kid's off to Shelter Island for some rest and relaxation in the form of kayaking and hiking and cleaning up a camp for summer use--Class Trip!

These juniors could use the time off, but the kitchen--although extremely cooperative--cannot feed my son, so I am sitting here thinking of what I can make and pack and put into ZipLocs and label--stuff that won't taste gross after two days, and stuff that at least approximates dinner and lunch. They'll all be too sleepy to care at breakfast.

So I figure lunch on the bus is easy; then steak strips with some sort of cooked veggie and those individual RICE CUPS by Minute Rice--BTW Delicious and EASY and PACKABLE!!

Protein bars (Enjoy Life-- although more like dessert than protein bar) rice cakes, fruit leathers, individual applesauces (thank you Motts)

and .... ask me tomorrow when I finish cooking.

headlines!!!!

headline on the front page of the NewYork Times yesterday(5/12)--
"Doubt Cast of Many Reports of Food Allergies"
I'm REALLY frustrated.
In that one headline, years of hard work getting people to believe that food allergies exist--Zip-- out the door.
No matter that the article says the doubt is cast on SELF-REPORTS, not diagnoses. Nope, most people glancing at the paper will say: "see, all those people complaining about peanuts are really just overreacting, like I thought..."
even though:

• Not one researcher connected with any of the major food allergy medical institutes: Jaffe Center in New York, Duke University, Johns Hopkins... was quoted or even spoken to
• title of original JAMA piece was called "Diagnosing and Managing Common Food Allergies"
• Recent study from PEDIATRICS citing increase in food allergies was never mentioned
• CDC studies which demonstrate statistically signifigant increases in food allergies in children never cited

oh so frustrating!!!

the FAAN conference in Tarrytown was great-- so many people who GET IT and great people to meet and exchange stories with. Didn't hurt that my 17 yr old rocked the place with his presentation on how to eat out at restaurants--even with his laundry list of allergens.

Met people who make the walks happen, support group leaders, funny parents and scared parents, all sorts of folk who want to make this work.

heard about Daiya "cheese" a vegan product which actually melts!

felt great being among friends and community and all the amazing people from FAAN--you know who you are.

look for more on : small packable prepackeaged foods... question I got and wasn't on the top of my game to answer.

FAI(Food Allergy Initiative) food allergy luncheon last week was phenomenal-- lots of money raised and real hope offered for lowering risk of anaphylaxis and food allergies in general. Some items are already in FDA human trials (phase 2 clinical)

So wow --lots of energy and wonderful people to meet-- movers and shakers from the midwest who are getting Epis on the ambulances there. The HUGE Ming Tsai poster-- to be put in restaurant kitchens etc-- so at least servers and restaurant workers will have heard of food allergies!!!

so much great stuff.

This weekend is the FAAN conference in NY area-- again, lots of community and good resources and information abound. More later.

S t r e s s

I realized recently that it is stressful to have a food allergic child. Now, don’t think me naive, I have known this all along as I pack up food to send to our vacation destination. Or wonder if the class trip will provide refrigeration or whether the new packaging of some item means the recipe has changed.

But I am not the type of person who admits stress easily. Nor am I the type of person to catalog my woes to other people. I blindly go where no man has gone before.

Except there are a lot of people out there who have “gone before.” There are others who are in the same situation, who can give you support and vice versa. Maybe it’s an occasional phone call with a new suggestion for packable lunch. Or a friend who notes she’s heard a particular product is good (thank you Rebecca!).

I will never forget when my son was first diagnosed with food allergies and I was in a state. I was probably in many states: denial, shock, panic, Ohio (just kidding). But I will never forget one friend’s advice. She told me: Make a list of the foods you CAN eat. This advice was golden.

Starting off with a positive plan makes everything else flow more easily. Of course I knew what our family had to avoid, but what could we enjoy? Shifting the focus –widening it really—allows the bigger picture to become clear. I think that stress happens, for me at least, when the focus narrows and all I can see is the one droopy flower and not the whole bouquet.

Back then, after I got off the phone with my friend, I picked up a pen to make the “CAN EAT” list. I immediately felt better: More in control. More able to make everything work. More able to smile. Our list grew from baked chicken and rice to a full-size cookbook of Italian favorites!

That’s not to say that I don’t still freak out sometimes. I do. I still stand in front of the refrigerator, feeling dazed, thinking “now what?” I still get anxious when a school trip looms or a favorite product is taken off the market. Stress happens everywhere, and especially around food allergy where the stakes are so high—even forgetting safety, there’s everyday nourishment, new situations, and the everyday challenges of going out with friends..

So I repeat: It is stressful to have a food allergic child. And I vow I will try to practice what I preach: I will ask for help. I will reach out to others—friends, food allergic pals, brothers and sisters.

Shift your focus. Widen your vision. Open up and let in someone else’s advice and experience.

been a while--on vacation and took a break. am now refreshed and promising myself to be more timely. Have had my preliminary conversation--via email-- with the summer program my son is attending. far far away--the other coast! and while I feel light years more confident than last year this time, I do need to have the real life conversation and see a menu or two before I'm satisfied.

And I need to have the conversation with my son about -- might be broiled chicken and cold cuts with dull salad for three weeks, but them's the breaks!

I think he'll be OK--just as long as he's not hungry. ugh that's what's getting me.

I have sent my friends an email asking for their ideas, comfort, anti-anxiety strataegies and general good wishes for me at the moment, and hopefully most of them will laugh--they do know my stress levels can go through the roof! and help me out.

Any ideas, or suggestions or comfort from my friends in the ethernet will be greatly appreciated as well! :)

There has been so much happening in the food allergy world that I see. possible peanut vaccine; possible connection to what mothers eat in the last trimester effects how allergy prone (and Asthma prone) a child is. Somehow, I feel like--always blame the mom. I am not convinced by the evidence as yet on these studies, and I wish they weren't reported until replicated. That's a lot of guilt for some --I can't even begin to feel guilty since no one knew that there might be a remote possibility of a baby's developing allergies dependent on what the mother ate.

And these studies make connections that seem too direct for the evidence the studies have uncovered. Can one really say, don't eat peanuts and your child won't be allergic? seems almost like science fiction. Like the direction it's all going in, this research, but feel the conclusions are premature.

Other than that, New York is experiencing a bit of summer--which was lovely.

Notes: LOVE the gluten, egg, dairy, nut, and sesame free bagels that ENJOY LIFE makes. They are tasty and stand up when heated (don;t have a toaster so don;t know about that)

and other winners: the Enjoy Life granola-type cereal-- nice warmed up with Rice Dream.

Still looking for good bread that is free of the Big Eight-- any ideas?

Been away from the blogpost for a while-- been down for the count with the usual winter ills-- better now, but still not at the top of my game. What I mean is--don't expect too much!

So the summer program search is in full swing. far flung as well-- from East coast to West-- and I want my son to go for it-- why not. Soon enough be on his own, and this will be good practice. Worked well last summer and although I was a nervous nellie-- it all worked fine.

Looking forward to adding some links to the website and also being linked to some other sites-- take a look at mallergies.com out of Canada. Interesting friendly site that has recipes and lots of other information--esp for the newly diagnosed.

had the funny experience of re-living the words of my home-ed teacher (yes home ec... from a bygone era--I know and I'm not even that old!)

she was always saying that humidity and altitude have a lot to do with making a cake--well she was right. In the midst of a raging snow storm last week, my cakes did not rise as they usually do--hmmgjf and it was birthday cake too!

soon.....

Friday before a supposed big snow in NY--we'll see! I wouldn't mind a blizzard, so relaxing , no responsibilities, no worries, just cook and watch a movie and go throw snowballs.

I have tried a new product-- the company graciously sent me some items-- Mixes from the Heartland. www.mixesfromtheheartland.net They are Gluten Free / Wheat Free for celiacs. Unfortunately some of the items I couldn't try-- too many eggs to substitute or packaged cream of celery soup with milk in it already. But what I did try was:

Italian Bean soup mix: good, a bit strong on the herbs--I think oregano and possibly tarragon-- but it was hearty and made a nice side dish over pasta.

Italian Veggie Dip: Well we can't make dip (no milk or soy products) at our house, but I mixed the packet with about a cup of water and poured it over chicken pieces and baked. YUM it was great! very tasty over the chicken and made a nice little sauce as it mixed with the chicken juices.

Microwave Brownie Mix: As I've said, I'm not a good baker. I mixed up the ingredients and made any egg substitutions--which was one egg I believe. I microwaved, and well, I got gooey delicious fudgey stuff. Not brownie at all, not really liquid, but a gooey goodness that I let harden a bit and then scooped into bowls to serve. Good tasting, just the form of the cooked mix did not --literally-- gel. We enjoyed, but maybe I did something wrong with the microwave... don't know.

I have others to try, and I'll let you know. For those of you out there without milk or egg allergies, these are nicely proportioned and interesting mixes made in a gluten, barely, egg, oat, peanut, rye, soy free facility.

Interesting ... last night my husband had a reaction to a LIME Freezie. You know those little slush sticks you put in the freezer to harden up. I think the brand is Flaovr Ice.

For years we avoided Lime Jell-O because my son said it made his throat itch--although chips with lime in them or even lime in a selzer didn't bother him

Now I'm thinking that LIME flavoring --or whatever makes it green--is the problem. I wonder what it is.

So now I have thrown away all the LIME anythings, and will continue with the NO-Lime flavored items .

Well my Polenta was a smashing B O R E. I certainly can make porridge--Italian or not--that;'s what it was like. Good texture just dull as, well, dirt!

So I think I have to sautee some onions first then mix it in-- or bacon-- or something. I made the whitest meal tonight-- roast chicken (OK skin looked good) stewed cabbage with onions, polenta --which looks like white if with everything else!

oh well, back to the proverbial drawing board.

I did make some great bread today though--Orgran Simple Bread Mix. Water and oil and that's it for ingredients (i use guar gum also to help it stick together). It's rice flour and tapioca and --I threw the box away-- but no corn and obviously no wheat or gluten.

nothing to eat

I can't think of one thing to make for lunch... and a debate weekend coming up--have no clue: chicken breast; steak--fruit leathers.... but then what? a bag of mini rice cakes, rice cakes, apples...ugh I am stumped, probably because just off vacation where the kitchen was my domain and not much had to be carted around and because I, well, just relaxed and served chips with brownies the whole time.

bad mom-- nothing interesting, nothing out there to make, applesauce, cookies, lettuce--I can hear the "again" and it's true--again!

Nutritionist visit well super well-- not enough grains, but on the whole very healthy strong diet. glad to hear it out loud. and got a calcium /D supplement (powedered, Kirkman labs--hypoallergenic) . more grains... tough one for a baking challenged mom-- off to Whole Food tomorrow to find bread mix--or Fairway-- to find bread mix and other Enjoy Life products--bagels, granola(!) and the like--something to spice it up!

Trix cereal, Rice Chex(health valley) and some other things to mix it all up and serve like a grain product... more grains--got polenta too--but not exactly easy to put in a lunch pack!

off to try again, wish me luck!

Happy New Year everyone-- I imagine a great year with lots of new adventures and fun awaiting me and my family. And--let's make a difference this year.

Ours was a lovely New Year's Eve--our house, friends, fun, food and fireworks courtesy of NYC. Very very nice. made my chicken drummys recipe--and hike up the heat to 400 degrees for that first 30 minutes! I will change on recipes, but really need to get it higher faster.

Thinking about the new year and trying to establish the parameters of what makes quality of life so different for food-allergic people: lack of control over environment (as much as we try) loss of choice, ineffability of the allergy--that absolute hard and fastness of the allergy as it stretches across time and into every space...

Well, that wasn't exactly uplifting! enough for now--out into the almost snowy very cold day.

two days after Christmas-- wow had a great one, and now, it's Sunday and back to work, allergist appt and nutritionist tomorrow, and who knows what that brings. I get anxious that the doctors will take away a food or suggest that I don't use something I now cling to. Once I had to eliminate peas from our diets--and once it was chickpeas. the list narrows... --and who am I to talk--i just have to cook. If the list narrows any more, it's my son who suffers.

but perhaps we will find out that the numbers support lesser worrying about accidents--that if he ate a piece of meat that had touched cheese he would be ok.

been baking -- my usual lame baking, a small one layer cake with frosting that tastes really good, even a day or two old. and some Cherybrook Kitchen brownies--that I make as a chocolate cake, which I was just told is "too chocolatey"! oh well

Happy New Year to all- let's make it a good one.

It's Christmas Eve--I love Christmas, growing up I had wonderful Christmases. Family.Big Seven fishes feasts with immediate family and my uncle Peter coming to check what kind of tomatoes my mother was using-- they never used the same type and always mock-argued about it. My mother was a phenomenal cook-- squid sauce, clams oreganata, fried calamari-- my mother could fry like noblody's business. Fried broccolli, fried smelts fried cauliflower... wow

Christmas Eve this year we are going out to dinner at a French bistro in our neighborhood with brothers -in-law--their neighborhood too, since all three of my husband's family lives in a three-block radius. ahh NYC. We love it.

No fish tonight, and probably just as well, since my cooking isn't up to that kind of task. It's in my blood, but not in my heart tonight. Tonight, maybe I'll have a token fish--

the reason by the way for fishes was that in Italain-Catholic (OK I;m not a Catholic, but that;s where it comes from) lore, you "fast" before midnight--hence fish -- and have meat after midnight! ( ya gotta love Italians, where "fasting" means eating fish and not doing without food!)

The city is white with snow and lots of ice, spent an hour in the fabulous grocery Zabars laughing with all the other patrons as we waited for our sliced meats and specialty items. I was number 86 in --and when I got there they were up to number 55! But fun atmosphere.

It's true-- It's a wonderful time of year.

Enjoy everyone--whatever faith you are-- it's a time for happiness and sharing and family and vacation from school--and fun. So enjoy my friends out there !