Food Allergies and Intolerances

My six month old has food intolerances. Not allergies--they are usually correlated with anaphylaxis (troubles breathing, hives). She has food intolerances which are characterized by many symptoms that include (but are not limited to) diarrhea, vomiting, mood changes (for instance crying and screaming, crabbiness) and in milk intolerance you often see a constant runny nose and bright red cheeks.

It took me months to figure it out. I has suspected something early on because she always had painful gas where she'd cry and arch her back but it wasn't consistent; some days it was much better than others. Just before she was 4 months old, she and I both got sick with a respiratory infection and she also had a bad ear infection. I had chalked up her terrible green diarrhea to the illness and the antibiotic but when it didn't get better after weeks, I started to get concerned. It wasn't until a friend mentioned her constant runny nose and another mentioned her bright red cheeks that I put it together.

It took 2 days to see a behavioral change (she was sleeping longer again and happier). I started to think she just had a crabby disposition. It took 2 weeks before the green mucousy diarrhea resolved.

Since then, I've had to change my diet drastically. Though I've always shopped at Whole Foods and Vitamin Cottage for much of our family's food, I now rely on those stores to get me though the week. I'm discovering new foods like Baba Ganoush (Ganouj), different Hummus flavors and the only cheese-like product I can have is found at whole foods and made of pea protein. Thank goodness for the variety provided!

The food bill has definitely increased and coping with that is somewhat difficult. I've found there is a balance--I cannot eat out like I used to so it generally balances the increase in food price for me because of the specialty foods I buy. The only restaurant food my dd hasn't reacted to so far is from Chipotle--Chicken or Steak burrito bowl, rice, black beans, green chili salsa, fajita veggies, and guacamole. I can have Chik-fil-A fries, but nothing else so we don't eat there.

I tried eating out at an Italian Market Restaurant last night. The head chef was kind enough to show me around and let me know which foods contained the allergens milk and soy. In the end--and if I had avoided soybean altogether--I would have had grilled chicken, grilled veggies and a custom pizza with no cheese out of the 50 selections available for dinner. Even the salad had soybean in the oil. I did, however, think I was safe with a couple options that were flash fried in soybean oil (fried zucchini, calamari and eggplant). Unfortunately, my dd reacted to it and last night was another one of those "screaming gas and no sleep" type of nights. :( I also had to forego all 25ish of the dessert options for all of them had milk in them.

I have the utmost sympathy for those with severe food allergies. I can't imagine how difficult it is to live with every day. In 6 or 8 months, I'll return to my typical healthy but milk and soy laden diet while continuing to watch out for soy, milk and coconut (for my 6 month old AND my 2 year old).