It's been awhile. I wish I hadn't done that. It's going to be harder to keep track of things for myself when I'm not writing it down. I'll have to work on that.
We hit out initial 6 week trial right around Halloween. So there was a little sugar crazy going on, and then Judah got into the only chocolate bar we let him have and ate 15 of them in one day. Halloween size ones, but still the sugar craze looked exactly like a reaction so we had to figure that out.
We decided that it was probably best to stretch the initial time into 8 weeks and try to give the boy some time to calm down hopefully.
When we got to the 8 week point we were very excited to add back in apples. And then Judah had a rough day after we gave him apples. And we stressed out trying to figure out if he was reacting to apples. But then the next day he was throwing up and had the flu. So then we were trying to figure out if he reacted to the apples or if he was just getting sick. We made the decision to just ignore apples for now. We got Judah better and rather then decided to move on to testing other things.
It was nearing the end of November at that point and the stores were full of Mandarin Oranges. So the decision in the house was to test oranges next. I think we are good there. Judah despite all the Christmas extras that have been going on has been fine in the last few weeks. And he's eating a few oranges a week so we know that it's not building up in his system, but that he seems to be handling it fine!!!
So we thought we would try out tomatoes next. The kids missed spaghetti and pizza. So it was Spaghetti one week. Then the next they must have had pizza two or three times. And again he seems to be fine. I used tomato paste with all those things so I think I'm okay with that. Next time I will try canned tomato soup and see how he does.
It all leads us to today. And all of a sudden I have a son that is running all over, walking on the chairs in church, unable to sit still, making constant noise, and not able to listen and respond to simple instructions.
The problem is that I don't know what he ate to set him off. Was is the approved candy off of the gingerbread houses, the approved pizza from Domino's, the approved maple flavouring, or just a crazy response to a busy week?
I don't think that we will ever know. Hopefully he will come down soon and we can try to figure it out. In the mean time I think the next few weeks will be a little rough for him. We will be away from home and eating at other people's houses, and there will be the excitement of Christmas. The plan is to try and control as much as we can and then detox him after Christmas. I hope it works and that we don't go too crazy.
In the meantime I was encouraged today by the fact that I noticed his behaviour. That means that a day like this is not normal any more!! The last three weeks have been fantastic and I have hope that we will get back to that.
Sunday, December 16, 2012
Wednesday, October 24, 2012
Granola Bars
I was going to write about church and friends houses and birthday party and how we are handling these things in regards to food. But let's be honest it's all still being figured out. And to be more honest it's been a rough day emotionally today and I just don't feel like talking about church or friends because I'm frustrated with the first and I'm lonely and miss my friends today. So when one doesn't want to talk about those things I'm left with the other thing I do all the time now. Baking.
I have been contemplating granola bars for awhile. The inexpensive ones I was buying before are obviously not acceptable any more. There are ones around that are Feingold approved but they are not inexpensive. And while I bought some for the first while it was not a long term solution. I had pinned three different granola bar recipes that I thought looked good and decided it was time to try one of them. My friend tried one of the ones I had pinned and said they were good so I thought I would try there. Here is the recipe I tried: http://www.laurenslatest.com/no-bake-chocolate-chip-granola-bars-easy-healthy/
I actually tripled the batch to fill a cookie sheet, then I cut them up and individually wrapped them in saran wrap so that the kids could grab and go with them. The one complaint we have with them is that they didn't stick together AT ALL. Although the taste was great. I did think that if I had cooked the granola it would have been great for breakfast. (without adding the chocolate) I would make them again, but might try one of the other recipes I have pinned to give them a try as well. The rice krispies are a little hard to find for me right now, and also expensive which may be another reason to try a different recipe next time. And I like to try new recipes too. What if I find one that is even better.
Friday, October 19, 2012
Nomato Sauce
Another thing that gets taken out of your diet for the first while is salycilates. These are a naturally occurring acid that is in fruits and vegetables, and your aspirin. Think ASA. While there are many fruits and veggies that contain these the Feingold association has done research into which ones people have the most reactions too. You probably shouldn't Google it because the list I'm finding online is different then the one in my acceptable food list.
It seems that most people who can't handle the artificial in food can also not handle some salycilates. And every person is different. What one person reacts to will not be the same for the next person. So they recommend removing all of them for the first 6-8 weeks or until you see some calming down in your child. Then you are free to test them back in one at a time, slowly, to see which ones your child may or may not react to.
Some of the things that we have had to remove include: Oranges, Apples, Peppers, Cucumbers, Tomatoes, Grapes and Berries.
You know, all the things my kids love to eat.
I'm not sure which they miss the most, Apples or Tomatoes. Actually most of them don't miss tomatoes because they don't like them. But they miss things that you make out of tomatoes like pizza and spaghetti and lasagna. So last night I decided to try a new receipe on them and see what they thought.
There is several receipes out there for a Nomato sauce using beets. I'm actually wanting to try this one too but didn't think it would be the best for pizza. I think I'll try it with spaghetti or lasagna. On the Feingold website there is one though that uses Pomegranate juice instead of beets.
You know what. It both tasted and smelled like pizza sauce. We very happily ate our pizza last night and am encouraged to do it again. I'm not sure how long the leftover Pomegranate juice will keep in my fridge though so I'm wondering about making more of this and canning it in pint size jars. Or not, juice keeps forever doesn't it?
Oh-I also just used fresh carrots. I cooked them and then mashed them. Are canned carrots mashed or whole? I've never bought them before.
And then later I thought hey, I have some leftover sauce why don't I try to make some 'ketchup' out of it. That was an epic failure. It actually tasted more like BBQ sauce then ketchup, and only if you weren't expecting your normal BBQ sauce. We put it on burgers for lunch today and it wasn't horrible. It just wasn't what our taste buds were expecting. I definitely thing I would do it different next time though.
Is it bad to pray that Judah or Aslynn don't have a reaction to tomatoes though and that I can just avoid this whole thing and cook like I use too?
It seems that most people who can't handle the artificial in food can also not handle some salycilates. And every person is different. What one person reacts to will not be the same for the next person. So they recommend removing all of them for the first 6-8 weeks or until you see some calming down in your child. Then you are free to test them back in one at a time, slowly, to see which ones your child may or may not react to.
Some of the things that we have had to remove include: Oranges, Apples, Peppers, Cucumbers, Tomatoes, Grapes and Berries.
You know, all the things my kids love to eat.
I'm not sure which they miss the most, Apples or Tomatoes. Actually most of them don't miss tomatoes because they don't like them. But they miss things that you make out of tomatoes like pizza and spaghetti and lasagna. So last night I decided to try a new receipe on them and see what they thought.
There is several receipes out there for a Nomato sauce using beets. I'm actually wanting to try this one too but didn't think it would be the best for pizza. I think I'll try it with spaghetti or lasagna. On the Feingold website there is one though that uses Pomegranate juice instead of beets.
NO BEETS UN-TOMATO SAUCE
2 15-oz. cans carrots, drained
3/4 cup chicken broth
3/4 cup pomegranate juice
2 Tbsp. lemon juice
2 tsp. salt
2 tsp. oregano
1 tsp. garlic powder
2 tsp. basil
2 tsp sugar
Put all ingredients in blender, and blend until smooth. Serve. (Or proceed to use in another recipe, such as for BBQ sauce).
2 15-oz. cans carrots, drained
3/4 cup chicken broth
3/4 cup pomegranate juice
2 Tbsp. lemon juice
2 tsp. salt
2 tsp. oregano
1 tsp. garlic powder
2 tsp. basil
2 tsp sugar
Put all ingredients in blender, and blend until smooth. Serve. (Or proceed to use in another recipe, such as for BBQ sauce).
You know what. It both tasted and smelled like pizza sauce. We very happily ate our pizza last night and am encouraged to do it again. I'm not sure how long the leftover Pomegranate juice will keep in my fridge though so I'm wondering about making more of this and canning it in pint size jars. Or not, juice keeps forever doesn't it?
Oh-I also just used fresh carrots. I cooked them and then mashed them. Are canned carrots mashed or whole? I've never bought them before.
And then later I thought hey, I have some leftover sauce why don't I try to make some 'ketchup' out of it. That was an epic failure. It actually tasted more like BBQ sauce then ketchup, and only if you weren't expecting your normal BBQ sauce. We put it on burgers for lunch today and it wasn't horrible. It just wasn't what our taste buds were expecting. I definitely thing I would do it different next time though.
Is it bad to pray that Judah or Aslynn don't have a reaction to tomatoes though and that I can just avoid this whole thing and cook like I use too?
Thursday, October 18, 2012
Bread
BHA, BHT and TBHQ. 10 letters that use to mean nothing to me. Now.....
Well now we avoid these things at all costs. They are preservatives that are used in food and packaging and some of the big things that have to be pulled out when on the Feingold program. At first I thought that it couldn't be that hard to eliminate three preservatives. I was wrong.
As a preservative companies often use these ingredients in their packaging, and if it's in the packaging it doesn't have to be listed as a ingredient.
I was a little thrown when I realized that most shortening contains TBHQ. And judging from Judah's reaction to Dairy Queen last month I'm pretty sure that he should never consume TBHQ again ever if we can help it.
Unfortunately I realized that my bakery bread contains TBHQ. And so out with bakery bread it is. Although Feingold does give you the names of some approved bread it is almost impossible to find it in stores and it's also quite costly. I have been making my own buns for years and thought it couldn't be that complicated to do bread as well. I was wrong. Again.
Let's just say I didn't even show you my first two batches. They were not pretty, and according to my dad the second one smelled like beer. (Yeast) So when Mom and Dad were here for Thanksgiving we went online hunting for other recipes and tips, then together we made bread. Did you ever notice that things always work better when your mom is around? I thought that I should try this week without her and am happy to report that they turned out great. The texture and size and colour are almost identical to a store bought bread. (I have often found homemade bread to heavy in the past.) The flavour is not quite perfect but Mark and I both think that it could just need more salt ... and maybe sugar. I'll try again next week maybe. Anyways I just had to show them off to someone so here you go. My homemade bread. I'm pretty proud of myself.
Wednesday, October 17, 2012
The package arrives
When our package of material from Feingold arrived I immediently opened the Foodlist and shopping guide to look through what food was acceptable of the program. It didn't take me to many pages to realize that shopping was going to be a new experience. I recognized very few of the brand names.
Part of what the Feingold association does is to be continually contacting companies and asking them to fill out paperwork concerning their products. Feingold wants to know not only the ingredients, but the process and the packaging. Are there any perservatives used in the packaging? In the Processing? It's concerning what companies will try to hide. If something is used in packaging or processing then it is not considered a ingredient and therefore does not need to be included on the label as such.
Feingold recommends that you only shop for items from the foodlist, that way you know that they are a safe food because they have been researched. The problem is that many of the big name companies refuse to fill out paperwork. Apperently they are scared to reveal their ingredients because they don't want people to steal their receipes.
So I faced a book of safe food, but very little of it did I recognize.
I think I did 4 or 5 different shopping trips before I was even close to finding replacement items. It's a good thing that Judah is in school for two days a week because I spent every hour of those days at stores trying to find food.
There are things that I still haven't found and I'm thinking about phoning a 'Nutter's' store to see if they will order products in for me. There is a great company in the states that you can order stuff from. The prices are low and the shipping is free. But only if you live in the States. When I tried to order things I discovered that the shipping would be more than the items themselves. That was a bit frustrating.
And you know it's surprising what things I needed to replace. Like milk. I guess when they add the vitamin B Parmalate to milk they can use BHA to add it. And that chemical can remain in the milk. So they recommend that you only use those kinds that they have researched. As big of a city as I live near I could only find one acceptable brand here. And that's what we are stuck with.
Another thing that I found hard to find was chocolate chips. You know real ones without artifical flavour or fake Vanillin in them. I finally called a friend who owns a candy shop and asked what he used. I discovered that the company he orders from has a factory here in Edmonton. After a few phone calls I drove in one day and picked up some large boxes of chocolate chips. We won't talk about how much they cost.
I wanted to share some links with you for different sites I follow and read.
http://www.diefooddye.com/ - this is a blog by a mother who is doing Feingold for her family. It's pretty informative.
http://www.allergykids.com/blog/seeing-red/ - this is an article written by another mom concerning food dyes.
http://www.feingold.org/ - The Feingold website. It was a little scary reading through some of the symptoms helped and realize how many of them our kids have.
http://coalminecanaries.blogspot.ca/ - This is the blog of the lady who I first heard about Feingold from. I`ve never met her but she has been a big help though e-mail conversations. Although she doesn`t update this blog any more it`s also a good read of their back story with doing Feingold.
http://www.oatmealafterspinning.com/2012/08/19/the-feingold-diet-how-it-changed-our-lives-for-the-better/ -another blog entry
Part of what the Feingold association does is to be continually contacting companies and asking them to fill out paperwork concerning their products. Feingold wants to know not only the ingredients, but the process and the packaging. Are there any perservatives used in the packaging? In the Processing? It's concerning what companies will try to hide. If something is used in packaging or processing then it is not considered a ingredient and therefore does not need to be included on the label as such.
Feingold recommends that you only shop for items from the foodlist, that way you know that they are a safe food because they have been researched. The problem is that many of the big name companies refuse to fill out paperwork. Apperently they are scared to reveal their ingredients because they don't want people to steal their receipes.
So I faced a book of safe food, but very little of it did I recognize.
I think I did 4 or 5 different shopping trips before I was even close to finding replacement items. It's a good thing that Judah is in school for two days a week because I spent every hour of those days at stores trying to find food.
There are things that I still haven't found and I'm thinking about phoning a 'Nutter's' store to see if they will order products in for me. There is a great company in the states that you can order stuff from. The prices are low and the shipping is free. But only if you live in the States. When I tried to order things I discovered that the shipping would be more than the items themselves. That was a bit frustrating.
And you know it's surprising what things I needed to replace. Like milk. I guess when they add the vitamin B Parmalate to milk they can use BHA to add it. And that chemical can remain in the milk. So they recommend that you only use those kinds that they have researched. As big of a city as I live near I could only find one acceptable brand here. And that's what we are stuck with.
Another thing that I found hard to find was chocolate chips. You know real ones without artifical flavour or fake Vanillin in them. I finally called a friend who owns a candy shop and asked what he used. I discovered that the company he orders from has a factory here in Edmonton. After a few phone calls I drove in one day and picked up some large boxes of chocolate chips. We won't talk about how much they cost.
I wanted to share some links with you for different sites I follow and read.
http://www.diefooddye.com/ - this is a blog by a mother who is doing Feingold for her family. It's pretty informative.
http://www.allergykids.com/blog/seeing-red/ - this is an article written by another mom concerning food dyes.
http://www.feingold.org/ - The Feingold website. It was a little scary reading through some of the symptoms helped and realize how many of them our kids have.
http://coalminecanaries.blogspot.ca/ - This is the blog of the lady who I first heard about Feingold from. I`ve never met her but she has been a big help though e-mail conversations. Although she doesn`t update this blog any more it`s also a good read of their back story with doing Feingold.
http://www.oatmealafterspinning.com/2012/08/19/the-feingold-diet-how-it-changed-our-lives-for-the-better/ -another blog entry
Sunday, October 14, 2012
After Easter
So we came home after Easter and decided to take colour out of our diet. I was still researching Feingold but wasn't quite ready to go all the way with it yet. The week after we decided to take colour out of our diet though Aslynn informed us that they were doing an experiment at school and were going to be trying a different type of gum every day for the next week to test different qualities of it. I went in to talk to her teacher and gave permission for the gum but wanted the teacher to know what we were doing so that she wouldn't be giving Aslynn any other treats.
The conversation I had with her was enlightening. It seemed that she had been having food problems for the last year and had finally sought out a Natural Path who did a blood test on her. The results came in that she could no longer have gluten, tartrazine (Yellow #5), and a few different citrus fruits. This was another confirmation to me that Feingold might work but I still wasn't ready to jump on board.
I was also e-mailing back and forth with blogger who I have been reading who had started Feingold with her family. One of the things she said to me was this:
My totally unsupported theory is that if you have a difficult baby who has a lot of trouble sleeping etc, then it is probably something in the way he is wired. But if you had a fairly easy baby who suddenly starts acting terrible around age 2 - ie, when they start eating people food - then it is probably diet. Again that advice is worth what you payed for it, but that's my theory.
That was a new thought for me. Judah had been my easiest baby, until he was close to 2. Then we started to wonder what had happened to our sweet child. He also started to have night terrors several times a week. He would wake up two, three, four times a night between 10:00pm and 1:00am. He would scream and cry and nothing would calm him down. Touching him would only make it worse so I would often carry him upstairs as he screamed and fought me because I was touching him. The I would place him in the corner of the couch and he would scream for about 10-15 min before he started to calm down and I would finally be able to cuddle him and calm him down and put him back to bed. Then we would repeat that another couple times in a night.
Despite all the signs I still wasn't willing to go all the way with Feingold. I wanted to just start with artificial colour and see what would happen. We agreed that we would give it one month.
We never went back.
There were several errors as we figured it out, and also during holidays. No one could deny though that Judah was calmer. He was concentrating better, could follow directions better, wasn't screaming as much. And another big thing- the night terrors went away.
And yet, sometimes he would still fly off the handle, be physically unable to sit still, make unstoppable noises with his mouth.
Over the summer we began to admit that as much as taking colour out had helped him that there still seemed to be something bothering him. In September we took the plunge and ordered the Feingold materials.
The conversation I had with her was enlightening. It seemed that she had been having food problems for the last year and had finally sought out a Natural Path who did a blood test on her. The results came in that she could no longer have gluten, tartrazine (Yellow #5), and a few different citrus fruits. This was another confirmation to me that Feingold might work but I still wasn't ready to jump on board.
I was also e-mailing back and forth with blogger who I have been reading who had started Feingold with her family. One of the things she said to me was this:
My totally unsupported theory is that if you have a difficult baby who has a lot of trouble sleeping etc, then it is probably something in the way he is wired. But if you had a fairly easy baby who suddenly starts acting terrible around age 2 - ie, when they start eating people food - then it is probably diet. Again that advice is worth what you payed for it, but that's my theory.
That was a new thought for me. Judah had been my easiest baby, until he was close to 2. Then we started to wonder what had happened to our sweet child. He also started to have night terrors several times a week. He would wake up two, three, four times a night between 10:00pm and 1:00am. He would scream and cry and nothing would calm him down. Touching him would only make it worse so I would often carry him upstairs as he screamed and fought me because I was touching him. The I would place him in the corner of the couch and he would scream for about 10-15 min before he started to calm down and I would finally be able to cuddle him and calm him down and put him back to bed. Then we would repeat that another couple times in a night.
Despite all the signs I still wasn't willing to go all the way with Feingold. I wanted to just start with artificial colour and see what would happen. We agreed that we would give it one month.
We never went back.
There were several errors as we figured it out, and also during holidays. No one could deny though that Judah was calmer. He was concentrating better, could follow directions better, wasn't screaming as much. And another big thing- the night terrors went away.
And yet, sometimes he would still fly off the handle, be physically unable to sit still, make unstoppable noises with his mouth.
Over the summer we began to admit that as much as taking colour out had helped him that there still seemed to be something bothering him. In September we took the plunge and ordered the Feingold materials.
Thursday, October 11, 2012
Artificial Colour
Judah is 5. He's also crazy and zany and cute and fun and wonderful.
He also makes total strangers ask me what's 'wrong' with him. Our friends and family think that he must be brain damaged or he is poorly disciplined. My Occupational therapist described it like herding cats. Yep, that's about it. When we are away from home I feel a little bit like a cat herder. Which I think we can all say is impossible.
In the past year I have seen two different doctor's, an occupational therapist, a child psychologist and a naturalpath. All to try and figure out how to help my little guy operate in a world that travels slower then his brain does. And to help us figure out how to help him function.
Imagine then that you are reading a blog one day and the author begins to describe her son and what is going on with him, and it begins to sound very similar to your own dear son. And she beings to talk about a eating program that they are doing with their son. It's called the Feingold program and I had never heard about it before.
At first I thought it wasn't important, it couldn't possible help my son, surely his problem wasn't food related.
Then began a series of what I can only describe as God moments. It started the Sunday before Easter and Judah consuming 5, (yes only 5), Cadbury mini-eggs at church. What followed was eye opening. He literally couldn't sit still. He had to keep wiggling, fidgeting with paper and toys, and seemed not to even be able to focus when I talked to him. I thought I might be just imagining it.
The next day though I was talking to Megan's mom when we were waiting for our kids at school. I don't even remember how the conversation started. I do know that she told me that her son was allergic to artificial color. I then proceeded to tell her what had happened with Judah the day before and she told me about something called 'Tartrazine'. It's also called Yellow #5. We lead a youth group so we are not ignorant as to the effect that Red food coloring has on youth. I didn't know that Yellow is even worse.
I started doing research and more research. And we made the decision to try it for a month and see what would happen. To take out all the artificial colour out of our diets a month and just see if it would have any positive change in our son.
And that was our first step towards Feingold.
He also makes total strangers ask me what's 'wrong' with him. Our friends and family think that he must be brain damaged or he is poorly disciplined. My Occupational therapist described it like herding cats. Yep, that's about it. When we are away from home I feel a little bit like a cat herder. Which I think we can all say is impossible.
In the past year I have seen two different doctor's, an occupational therapist, a child psychologist and a naturalpath. All to try and figure out how to help my little guy operate in a world that travels slower then his brain does. And to help us figure out how to help him function.
Imagine then that you are reading a blog one day and the author begins to describe her son and what is going on with him, and it begins to sound very similar to your own dear son. And she beings to talk about a eating program that they are doing with their son. It's called the Feingold program and I had never heard about it before.
At first I thought it wasn't important, it couldn't possible help my son, surely his problem wasn't food related.
Then began a series of what I can only describe as God moments. It started the Sunday before Easter and Judah consuming 5, (yes only 5), Cadbury mini-eggs at church. What followed was eye opening. He literally couldn't sit still. He had to keep wiggling, fidgeting with paper and toys, and seemed not to even be able to focus when I talked to him. I thought I might be just imagining it.
The next day though I was talking to Megan's mom when we were waiting for our kids at school. I don't even remember how the conversation started. I do know that she told me that her son was allergic to artificial color. I then proceeded to tell her what had happened with Judah the day before and she told me about something called 'Tartrazine'. It's also called Yellow #5. We lead a youth group so we are not ignorant as to the effect that Red food coloring has on youth. I didn't know that Yellow is even worse.
I started doing research and more research. And we made the decision to try it for a month and see what would happen. To take out all the artificial colour out of our diets a month and just see if it would have any positive change in our son.
And that was our first step towards Feingold.
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