Yikes!!

Job interview tomorrow at a special needs school. Who knows what will come of it...better go find something presentable to wear...That's as prepared as I'll be! Did I mention, "Yikes!"

Allergies and Such

A week ago we went to the Naturopath to get the results of Keller's recent allergy testing. The good thing is that he's not "immediately" allergic to anything...so no epi-pen needed. He does however have several "delayed" allergies or IgG allergies which can cause skin irritations (his eczema), behavioral changes (hahahaha! I laugh because there's days when he's just cookoo and I always think to myself, he must be getting sick or his allergies must be bothering him), or can pretty much manifest itself in any body system (diarrhea, ear infection, itchy eyes, etc.) No environmental allergies showed up which I was sure there would be because there's days when his eyes are so puffy and watery and he's so blehhhh. But the doc said that while there's no clinical confirmation of them she'd still treat him as an "allergy kid" when it comes to treating him. So because he has other confirmed food allergies, his immune system is already taxed which makes him more vulnerable to other allergens even at lower levels. Make any sense?

He is most allergic to egg whites (we eat eggs probably 3 times a week if not more whether it's in an omelet, an egg sandwich, or pancakes, or hard-boiled...ugh!) and beef. Yes, beef. Which I'll say that just prior to him being most recently sick and ear-achey, he had a 100% beef hotdog at a bbq and then he had one a few days later here at home in an effort to get rid of the leftover hotdogs in the freezer. So perhaps that is why he ended up with an "acute" reaction? Luckily the beef thing doesn't truly affect us/him though since hot dogs are a special occasion kind of thing. He'll just have to skip Bee Bee and Grandpa's meatballs when we go to their houses. No biggie. Pineapples are the only fruit that is on the high/avoid list. Also fine with us. We don't buy them usually and he generally only has them when we're out and about. SOY...ugh! We eat tofu at least once a week, in stir fry or in wraps. We eat tempeh. We eat veggie burgers which contain soy. We eat (ashamedly) "fake meat" that is derived from soy. Ugh! This one is tough because now we (I) really have to figure out what our "meat" is going to be in our meals. I mean, beans can only get you so far! And the last biggie is Gluten. He is not technically allergic to wheat though, which is confusing to me, or oats, just gluten so I need more info on this because can he eat oats then? And so bad enough that we have to figure out how to avoid these foods on our mostly vegetarian diet (Trav is the only die-hard in the house) but to top it off, because Keller is an allergy prone kid, it is also recommended that we ROTATE his (our) diet so that he does not become allergic to more foods. So pretty much I've been trying to work out some kind of a rotating meal schedule on a four day plan.

So Day 1 might be "Rice Day" so that is our grain....breakfast can be rice cereal with rice milk, lunch can be a rice tortilla with turkey and cheese and veggies, snack can be veggies and rice crackers/cakes, dinner rice stir fry (with no tofu:( Day 2 Might be Corn day...corn cereal, corn tortilla-wraps, polenta...a little tricky especially since there should be a different "milk" each day too and different veggies. I think that we're going to try to stick just with the grain/starches on a 4 day and maybe aim for every other day on the fruits/veggies? Still working out the logistics because this is NOT easy. And I hate to cook.

So I need to explore buying fish. Which I've been meaning to try but I've always ended up coming home with the pre-breaded frozen kind (ie. processed) so I need to get myself to a fish counter and buy some. I have a request in to my mom to guide me through the process. I had a frozen wild-caught flounder filet in my hand the other day but then all I could picture was the funny looking fish with two eyes on one side of his body floppering around the bottom of the big aquarium tank at the Maritime center. Didn't take floppering flounder home. But anyway. That's where we're at with Keller and his allergies and our family food planning.

The doc does think that if we keep his allergic foods out for 6 months, he'll be able to tolerate them again. And if we maintain a rotation type diet that will help too. She also gave us a homeopathic tincture for him to take each day along with some "Larch" extract. These supplements will essentially boost his immune system to be better able to handle his allergies. I'm hoping for less ear infections and less "miserable" type days this year. Not that he had a ton, but if there's something natural that can be done to keep him feeling better than we'll give it a try. Now how do I handle tomorrow being "Pirate's Booty" snack day at school when that is corn-based and tomorrow is not a "corn" day? I think I'll have to let that one slide...