corn lite Archives ~ umpalaRAIN

Sweet Elizabeth’s Organics Mixes

March 23, 2018March 23, 2018

Happy Friday everyone! This week I have spent a whole lot of time in my kitchen re-stocking our freezer. I bulk bake to keep my family fed well and allows me more time with my family. One of the items I made this week are these gorgeous Lemon Poppyseed muffins. I met Sweet Elizabeth’s Organics back in November at FABLOGCON (Food Allergy Bloggers Conference). It was such a joy to meet her, she really is so sweet, and her products are safe for my family. All of her mixes are Gluten Free, Dairy Free, Peanut Free, Soy Free, and Egg Free. She kindly sent me home with all of her mixes to try out: Chocolate cake/brownies, vanilla cake (which we made into these lemon poppyseed muffins), blueberry muffins, coffee cake, and pancakes/waffles. My family has loved all of her mixes. When I made the lemon poppyseed muffins this week, my girls were cheering as they ate them. 🙂 My family’s favorite mixes were both of the muffins, but that’s probably because we are huge muffin fans anyways. All of the mixes are great!

If you haven’t ever heard of Sweet Elizabeth’s Organics, you must check out her mixes! She also just opened a bakery in Colorado as well if you happen to be in the area. You will love her goodies and see for yourself just how sweet Elizabeth really is. Thank you so much Elizabeth for sharing your mixes with my family, caring so much about our food allergy community, and being so sweet!

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Sweet Elizabeth’s Organics Coffee Cake Mix

Nesco Dehydrator Review

September 14, 2017September 14, 2017

Several people have asked me what dehydrator I use. I often post through the summer and fall all of the fruits and vegetables I like to dehydrate. We have apple and pear trees in our yard so this time of year I am busy picking, chopping and freezing, and also dehydrating. I have tried to dehydrate all kinds of fruit because I hate to waste food. Dried watermelon is my girls favorite. I have dried peaches, nectarines, apples, pears, strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, canteloupe (yuck), carrots, peas, and I’m sure a few I can’t remember. This fall and winter I will be testing dehydrated meals and beef jerky. There are so many great ways to use a dehydrator.

I bought this Nesco Dehydrator several years ago. Mine came with four trays, this new version comes with five trays and a jerky gun. The price is a great deal. I have saved our family far more money than I paid for this dehydrator. The one down side is that it does take up quite a bit of space. Mine lives in our kitchen green house window. Not the prettiest thing to put in there, but it fits there and is quick to grab when I need it.

The directions are very simple and easy to use. The lid of the dehydrator lists the temperatures that each type of food should be dehydrated at. I love this feature because I don’t have to rummage around for the instructions each time I use it. From there, you just have to check each item every hour or so until you know how long certain foods take. Yesterday I made thin sliced strawberries and most of them were done in 3-4 hours. Blueberries take me about 12 hours or so.The thinner you cut your fruit or vegetables and how much liquid is in them will lower the time it takes to dehydrate. Thin carrots obviously take a shorter time than thin strawberry slices because carrots don’t have as much natural liquid in them. I have only ruined one fruit in all of my experiments. When I realized I had way over dehydrated the blueberries I made them into beautiful frosting. This link gives you a video tutorial too. 🙂

Here are a few pictures of my dehydrator so you can see what it comes with. The lid shows you all of the dials and temperatures to dehydrate at. All of the trays are “webbed” so air can flow through them. Mine came with one solid plastic tray that fits on top of the other trays. This is used for very small items that would fall through the webbed trays or liquid. I have used the solid tray to make fruit leather, peas, and thin carrot slices. It’s a simple but great machine. I highly recommend it! If you have questions about the dehydrator that I didn’t answer let me know, I’m happy to help. 🙂

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Going to School with Food Allergies

September 7, 2017September 7, 2017

All three of my girls went back to school yesterday. I know for some of you, your kids have been in school for a month or so. The beginning of a new school year brings excitement, but also much anxiety for kids with food allergies and their parents. We send our kids off to be monitored by other adults that don’t always understand our situation fully. Most of them can’t fully understand our situation because they aren’t in it. Schools have protocols set in place for kids with multiple food allergies, you can request a 504 plan that states your childs needs and all of the ways your child will need services and/or support with their food allergies. The school nurse typically contacts the parents to get more information, collects the necessary medication (epinephrine, benadryl, etc.), and stores these items unless your child can carry their meds themselves.

I have found that there are several other steps that I like to take to ensure the safety and health of my three girls and their food allergies and intolerances. These are things that I have learned over time and hope they are helpful for you. If I missed something, feel free to let me know. This list is how I have worked mostly with teachers and not the school in general. I mentioned a few ways to work with the school above, but that is not what I am writing about today. All of the teachers are informed of students in their classes that have severe allergies. What I have found is that most teachers don’t know any information beyond that. Here is a list of things that I talk to the teacher directly about.

1. Tell the teacher exactly what food/s my daughter is allergic or intolerant to. I haven’t had any of my daughters teachers know the specific foods they are allergic or intolerant to. It is very important that the teacher knows exactly what foods my daughters can and can’t eat. With this, it is not their job to monitor my daughter and what she chooses to eat. This is to make sure that the teacher is aware and when they need to be extra vigilant. It is my job to ensure that my daughters have food that is safe for them while they are at school. This puts my mind and the teachers at ease.

2. Tell the teacher exactly what reactions my daughter has to each food. This is extremely important. Food reactions have such a wide range of severity and how they present themselves. Even with anaphylaxis allergies the reactions and how they present themselves can be very different from person to person and with different foods. This is a time to educate the teacher and to really know what symptoms should be of concern to them. I never assume the teacher knows what to look for or be concerned about.

3. On the first day of school I come with a box of cookies that are safe for each of my daughters to keep in the classroom. There are so many parties and other events that include dessert that I make sure my girls aren’t left out. Some birthdays happen right after school starts so I make sure they are prepared from day one. My daughters or their teachers let me know when their cookie supply is running low.

4. I request that the teacher let me know in advanced when they will be having activities that include food other than birthdays. There are several parties throughout the school year that involve pizza, ethnic food, popcorn, 5th grade camp (two days overnight), etc. I let the teacher know that I will always provide food for my daughters that is the same as what the other kids will be having or something similar. This ensures that my girls aren’t left out and they have safe food for them.

5. I request to teach in the class about food allergies. I did this last year because my middle daughter was having issues with kids in her class not being safe or kind to those with food allergies. It was a great way for me to educate the kids and teachers in my daughters classes. The majority of people don’t understand the severity of food allergies or understand the consequences of cross contamination. The teachers really appreciated me coming in, learned a lot, and requested that I come in the following year as well. Education goes a long way with people.

6. Check in. I check in regularly with my daughters and their teachers to see how everything is going. Is my daughter almost out of cookies in the classroom? Do you have any questions or concerns? How are my daughters feeling about their food allergies and intolerances at school? Is there anything I can do to make this easier?

I hope these are some helpful tips when sending your precious kids to school that have food allergies. It can be tough, but it can be done. Let me know if there is anything I missed or another topic you would like me to cover. Happy to school year to you all!

Our journey of Severe Food Allergies- Can you relate?

July 27, 2017

I have been asked to write more about our personal journey with food allergies. It feels like this has been a very long journey, but that is probably just because it has been all consuming. Today I am going to tell you about the journey we have been on with my middle daughter. I am starting with her because her allergies have been the most severe and greatly helped us to recognize food allergies in our youngest when she had them as well. In due time, I will write our journey with my other two as well. I think all of their stories are worth sharing as all of us have different journeys with food allergies but similarities too. This food allergy community is one that I am so thankful for and happy to be a part of.

From the moment my middle daughter, “Peppy”, was born she screamed most of the time. At her one week appointment I told our pediatrician, who we love, that my daughter cried all the time. He said that it couldn’t be colic at that point because colic doesn’t start until 6 weeks or so. From then on, we kept in pretty close contact with our pediatrician. Peppy continued to scream, vomit, and have diarrhea often. I think I cried almost as often as she did. My oldest, then three, was having a hard time adjusting to having a new sister and all of the crying as well. Truth be told, we all had a hard time adjusting to the crying. I knew that something was wrong with Peppy, but no one knew what was wrong with her. Those days were long and exhausting. I remember for months that all I knew to do when Peppy screamed was to hold her and sing “Amazing Grace”. It was all that got us through that dark time. Every time I hear that song now I cry for many reasons.

I was formula feeding because I didn’t produce enough milk to feed Peppy so my pediatrician suggested trying different brands. We went through as many dairy formulas as we could think of still with no change. Then our pediatrician suggested trying soy formula so we did that and the screaming, vomiting, and diarrhea persisted. Realize all of this probably took two months since we needed to try new formulas for long enough to determine if they were helping or not. Our last ditch effort was to put her on Nutramigen which is a hypoallergenic formula and also begin stool testing on her. Peppy continued to have the same symptoms on Nutramigen and also tested positive for blood in her stool two out of three times. By this point she was also failing to thrive as she couldn’t keep very much formula down. My pediatrician finally referred us to see a pediatric gastroenterologist at Seattle Children’s hospital. The GI clinic is so far booked out it was probably a month before I could get in.

By the time we got to our GI appt we were a mess, just hanging by an emotional and string. Peppy was 11 weeks old when we finally made it to the GI. Our new GI came in, he was the sweetest, most helpful, and understanding Dr. He carefully listened to Peppy’s story, looked over her , her chart and test results, and simply said that Peppy had severe food allergies to dairy and soy. At that appointment he gave me a few cans of EleCare prescription formula to try and said she would be fine. I was hesitant to believe that this formula was going to work, but I was willing to give anything a try at that point. We went home and I started the EleCare and I had a new child instantly. It was nothing short of amazing for us and also laid on some serious mom guilt. I felt like I had been poisoning my child, unknowingly. It was horrible, but I am just thankful that the EleCare worked for Peppy. Peppy remained on EleCare until she was four years old to keep up her weight and keep her food allergies at bay.

We continued to see the GI regularly as Peppy got older for weight monitoring and also as we added new foods into her diet. I am so thankful for this team of Dr’s, nurses, and nutritionists that cared for Peppy for many years, they always gave me hope and support. The more foods we added to Peppy’s diet, the more we found that she was allergic to.

When Peppy was about 18 months old we went on vacation to Arizona to see my husbands family. A few friends from home were also going on vacation there so we met up at the house they were renting. In the basement of the rental home there was a movie theater so all of the kids were watching a movie. Our friends kids were eating shelled peanuts and throwing them on the ground when they were done. My husband was with Peppy and she picked up a peanut and put it in her mouth. As soon as she got the peanut in, my husband noticed and took it out of her mouth. Immediately after, Peppy began to cry. It was a long day without a nap so we figured it was time to get her to bed. She cried and cried as we gathered all of our things and buckled the girls in the car. On the way home she continued to cry really hard and began scratching her tongue saying “owie, owie” We couldn’t figure out what was going on so we took her home and got her ready for bed. At this point we put her down but she just kept screaming and scratching her tongue. This was really abnormal for Peppy, she loved to go to bed. All of a sudden, it clicked, THE PEANUT! We immediately called our consulting nurse and she told us to take her straight to Childrens ER in Phoenix. That felt like the longest drive ever! We arrived at the ER and a nurse checked Peppy right away to be sure her throat wasn’t closing. Her throat was still open so we waited to get a room. Upon entering the ER we retold the story, along with the fact that my mom has an anaphylaxis allergy to peanuts. The nurse and Dr left and quickly came back with benadryl and a shot of epinephrine. Peppy quit crying for the first time in 7 hours. From the moment the peanut went in, to getting benadryl and an epinephrine shot was 7 hours!! :/ We spent the rest of the night in ER to monitor her for a secondary reaction. At 7 am we were released, it was Mother’s Day 2011. We went straight to a pharmacy to pick up an epi pen and benadryl, our lives forever changed that day.

We saw Peppy’s GI not long after her anaphylaxis reaction to peanuts. He suggested staying away from all nuts since her reaction was so severe from such a small amount and my family history of allergies. Peppy’s list of allergies continued to grow as she got older. It’s honestly hard for me to remember all of them because they have changed over the years and my youngest daughter also has severe food allergies. I think Peppy’s list at one point that she was allergic to was dairy, soy, tree nuts, peanuts, eggs, wheat, corn, peaches,tomato, and some other fruit I am forgetting. By the age of three Peppy’s GI didn’t think she would grow out of any of her food allergies. We had tested and re-tested all of the foods in office when needed but she had no change.

This is where my very in-depth baking for multiple food allergies began. I had been baking for food intolerances for many years at that point, but not for severe and multiple food allergies. While I loved our team at Children’s I never had someone to explain in depth what food allergies are, what kind Peppy had, when to use an epi pen, how to use an epi pen, how to make the food she needed to eat to keep her safe and gaining weight. What I have found is that none of these were the job of the specialists we saw. Peppy had severe, though not life threatening food allergies (except peanuts) and had all GI reactions. Allergy testing was never helpful because food allergies that effect the GI tract don’t show up on a prick test. We didn’t have an allergist that followed us for that reason. Our nutritionists were amazing at giving us the kinds of food to feed Peppy, but their job wasn’t to find recipes for us, teach us how to bake safely, eat our safely, etc. This is exactly why I started my business. There is a huge gap in service. The practical piece of how to live this food allergy life once you leave the Dr’s office can be so hard and overwhelming. I am passionate about helping people through the practical steps of living with food allergies. You can contact me and also sign up for my newsletter for more helpful information.

I am happy to say that Peppy passed an in office prick and oral peanut test when she was 6. The rest of her food allergies have gotten so much better the older she has gotten. All of them are now either intolerances or she can eat them just fine. Currently she is intolerant to gluten, dairy, soy, corn, and tomato. There is hope whether that means allergies go away or this life becomes easier as we live with them longer.

Growing up in the 50’s with food allergies

July 14, 2017July 14, 2017

I have always known that my mom had a severe anaphylaxis allergy to peanuts. When I was a bit older I realized that she avoided all nuts. She was very careful about chocolate in particular as far as I remember as a kid. I’m sure she would have many items to add that she was careful about, but that’s one thing I remember in particular. Kids memories are funny aren’t they?! Chocolate definitely is an area of concern for people with peanut and tree nut allergies. She even made us peanut butter and jelly sandwiches when we were kids. There was a strict rule that the knife goes in the jelly FIRST and the knife had to go directly into the dishwasher, NO RINSING in hot water first! I still have that same strong rule in my house just in case someone comes to my house that has a peanut allergy.

When my middle daughter had severe food allergies as an infant, and then had an anaphylaxis reaction to peanuts at 18 months old, it didn’t come as a huge shock. I will write a blog post at some point about my daughters anaphylaxis reaction. Knowing my mom has an anaphylaxis allergy to peanuts greatly helped us when my daughter had her reaction. I adopted some ways that my mom has lived life with food allergies for my daughters. One thing that I have greatly appreciated about my mom and her food allergies is that they have never stopped her from enjoying life. She takes them seriously, takes appropriate precautions, but they don’t keep her from living life to the fullest. My mom travels all over the world, enjoys restaurants, and time with family and friends. Her food allergies certainly don’t define her.

Since two of my daughters have had severe food allergies, my parents and I have talked a lot more about their experiences. My dad is a Dr. so he too has added a great level of comfort for our family with food allergies. We always know that if anyone has a severe reaction and panics, he won’t panic. He’s calm, cool, and collected all the time in every situation. That has helped all of us to see life a bit in the same way. Clearly, he also takes my mom’s food allergies seriously and has been there for many of her anaphylaxis reactions. It’s great to have a Dr. with you everywhere you go. 🙂

My parents have taken amazing care of our girls and their food allergies. They don’t get a lot of social media posts from me on how they care well for my girls because they have my girls without me often. 🙂 Date nights = overnight stays for my girls with my parents who spoil them with Udi’s blueberry muffins, Van’s waffles, Rudi’s bread, Pamela’s cookies, and Enjoy Life Foods cookies. I have never feared that my parents wouldn’t know how to handle a severe food allergy reaction. Let me tell you, this made my life so much easier! I know many people don’t have this same experience. My parents have been an amazing support for us over the years in many ways, including our food allergies. When we have family gatherings, my mom goes out of her way to ensure that we all have safe food for us. Thanks mom for loving us so well!!

I thought it would be good to ask my mom several questions about growing up in the late 40’s and 50’s with food allergies. This gave me great perspective in many ways. My mom is very clear that her parents response to her food allergies is likely not how others may deal with them. I want to be sure that this is not a place for judgment, but a place for us to gain understanding of one persons experience growing up many decades ago with food allergies. It has opened my eyes to understand my mom in new ways and has also brought me to a place of thankfulness that there is so much more education and help for those of us with food allergies today. Here is my mom’s story of growing up with food allergies, please read with a heart of kindness and understanding. 🙂

From my mom:
OK. This may not help much, and you may not agree with the way I was raised, but here it is… 🙂

How old were you when you were diagnosed with food allergies/what year was it? I suppose that the answer to this depends on your definition of “diagnosed.” I had my first major allergic response to peanut butter as a toddler. (ok, so that would be in 1946 or ‘47…) I was first tested for allergies by an actual allergist at age 7, in 1953.

What foods were you allergic to as a little girl? What were your symptoms for each (as brief as you want). I have anaphylaxis and occasionally nausea and vomiting with peanuts. (I’m not totally sure if the nausea is part of the allergic reaction per se, or if, as I have begun to theorize, every time as a toddler and small child I was given ipecac in the ER every time I was brought in.) I’m also very allergic to walnuts. From age 7 on I lived in a house with a huge walnut tree in the front yard that I routinely climbed. Touching the oil in the nuts caused my eyes to swell shut and hives to break out. Eating walnuts causes hives and extreme swelling and itching in my hands and ears. I have similar reactions to pecans. I’m allergic to all melons, although the reaction is less severe. When I eat melons my mouth and throat itch and I feel kind of “icky”. I ate watermelons regardless as a kid, and just put up with the itching because I like them. I can’t eat stronger flavored melons, like cantaloupe, at all. I am allergic to milk, which causes stomach cramping.

How many other people that you knew growing up had food allergies? My dad was also allergic to milk. That’s about the only person that I knew had problems with eating certain foods.

How did your parents help you with your food allergies? This is an interesting question, and one that you may not like my answer to. I had my first actual “allergy testing” at age 7. I pretty much reacted to everything that I was tested for. I’m strongly allergic to just about anything that grows, from all grass to all flowers, from weeds to mold, from dust to cats, and on and on. My allergy testing results were pretty much the same for foods. Some foods showed an exceptionally strong reaction, but others were milder. I’ll never forget leaving the doctor’s office and my mom looking at the full page of foods that I “shouldn’t” be eating. Of course it included peanuts and all tree nuts, but it also included wheat and eggs and milk and raw carrots, and melons and on and on and on. She immediately pretty much just tore up that list and threw it away… You may freak out right about now, but for me it was the best thing that she could have done. From then on she simply figured if I had a bad enough reaction I wouldn’t try eating that item again. Pretty much, “if it doesn’t kill her she can eat it.” That attitude allowed me to have personal control over my diet. It also allowed me not to feel like I was totally different from other kids. I continued to eat bread and cookies and cake (which all contain wheat and eggs and milk) and my system has, through persistent exposure, accommodated those milder allergies. I learned on my own that M&Ms in those days (even the “plain” ones) contained ground up peanuts, and I only needed one problem to never eat another M&M.

How many anaphylaxis reactions have you had in your life? Were they from direct contact eating a food you are allergic to or was it from cross contamination? This is a hard one to answer. Supposedly in my first couple of years of life I spent quite a bit of time in the hospital. I assume that at least some of those visits started with anaphylaxis, although probably most were from my severe asthma. My asthma attacks occasionally were almost like anaphylaxis because my throat was closing and I couldn’t breathe. Since early teen years I’ve always had Benadryl within reach, and take a big dose whenever I think I’ve gotten in trouble. I had one anaphylaxis during college when our chef unexpectedly decided to put walnuts in the beef gravy… sigh. As an adult I’ve had maybe 5 trips to the ER with anaphylaxis. I have carried an EpiPen, but never used it. Instead I take a bunch of Benadryl and get to an ER for IV epinephrine. I’m not totally sure how you would define cross contamination. I’ve had my throat start to close and my eyes swell shut from the steam when someone ran hot water over a knife coated with peanut butter. Because of the peanuts covering the ground and being walked on and floating in the air I can only go to baseball games when I am so loaded down with Benadryl that I’m totally groggy. I had one episode in a Mexican restaurant when they put mole sauce with peanut butter on the enchiladas instead of normal enchilada sauce. I learned that I can’t walk into a Thai restaurant because the peanuts cooked in oil permeate the air from the cooking steam and my throat will immediately close up. I had a bad time once from pesto sauce that the menu had not clarified contained ground walnuts. I know that I can’t eat at a Cold Stone ice cream place because I worry about what has been chopped up on those stones before I get my ice cream. I know that I can’t eat a Blizzard at DQ because they don’t really clean the machinery after making a Blizzard with something like Reeses Pieces. I suppose that I learned that by having a reaction from the cross contamination.

Did you ever feel left out as a kid with food allergies when there weren’t very many people with them? I didn’t really feel all that “left out.” Partly that was because the only foods that had total urgent restrictions were nuts. Partly that was because I’m pretty much an introvert and as a kid was sort of “odd” anyway. Because my parents were so laid-back and never overreacted when I had a problem with food I never actually focused on it very much. People have often asked me if it isn’t just “terrible” not to be able to eat peanut butter and chocolate bars with nuts, etc. I can’t say that it has been that hard. Since those items make me so sick they just don’t appeal to me. Basically there are so many things that I can eat that I don’t worry about it at all.

What is one piece of advice that you would give parents that have small children with severe food allergies? For me it worked to be 100% vigilant about the foods that could truly be potentially fatal, but having plenty of leeway and not overreacting and panicking about foods that might cause more minor irritations like itching or brief rashes.

Anything else you want to share with us? 🙂 Help you kids have strong self-identities that don’t stress their “differences” but stress their “similarities” to the other kids. I love that you have learned to make cupcakes and pizza and all the things that the other kids eat so that your girls never feel left out.

Thanks for sharing your story with us mom! I love you!

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Living in Africa with an Anaphylaxis Allergy

June 15, 2017June 15, 2017

In 2011, my family left our home country to live in Rwanda, Africa for six months. At the time, our oldest daughter had just turned 5 and our middle had just turned 2. We headed half way around the world to fill in for the executive director of a home for former street boys. Our health journey leading up to us leaving was exhausting in many ways. Six months before we left, our middle daughter had an anaphylaxis reaction to peanuts while we were on vacation. She also had severe, though not life threatening, dairy and soy allergies. Due to these two allergies she was on prescription formula. Before we left, we had long conversations with her pediatrician and her gastroenterologist. They were both amazing and supportive of our upcoming trip and encouraged us to not let the food allergies keep us from going. With the stamp of approval from her doctors, along with many other pieces coming together, we prepared to head overseas.

As you can see, we took a whole lot of baggage! Flying internationally allows each person to have 2 suitcases up to 50 lbs and 2 carry-ons. We took full advantage and took all 16 bags, a stroller, and 2 car seats. It was quite a spectacle at the airport. We arrived three hours before our flight took off so that we had plenty of time to make it to the ticket counter, through security, and onto the plane. The woman that checked us in was amazingly helpful and patient with us. One item that we purchased for this trip and still use everytime we travel is a hand held baggage scale. It works like a charm and is very small, I highly recommend getting one if you don’t have one. I made sure that we had enough, and extra, food to get us all the way to Rwanda with delays if they happened. We called the airlines ahead of time to ask what they would be serving on the plane. There wasn’t a whole lot that we could eat, but that is pretty common for us. I had Dr’s notes for the epi pen, Benadryl, and medically necessary food in case anyone gave us a hard time. If I remember correctly we had at least one whole carry on full of food with ice packs. No one gave us a hard time, it just took us a very long time to get through security lines. We were prepared for that so it was ok.

While my middle daughter had severe food allergies, the rest of us also had food intolerances. At that point, our family couldn’t have nuts, gluten, dairy, soy, egg yolk, tomato, and garlic. We had a friend in country that was able to help us decide what we needed to pack for our time in Rwanda. Two of our suitcases were full of food and kitchen items. The first one of these suitcases was full of 40 cans of prescription formula for my daughter. We couldn’t leave the country without the formula since my daughter couldn’t drink any milk alternatives and she also failed to thrive without the calories she got from the formula. Our carry ons also held several cans just in case our bags didn’t show up. The second suitcase full of food had xanthan gum, one pot, one pan, and as many boxed mixes that we could stuff in. At that time, we used Chebe pizza mix, Bisquick GF (gluten free) pancake and waffle mix so we packed many of those, and a few other random mixes as well. We knew that we could easily buy GF flour so we didn’t need to bring flour with us. It was amazing to have GF flours so easily accessible and also launched me into baking full time.

Our friend that was in country was able to get us a loaf of GF bread upon our arrival from a sweet friend of hers. Along with the loaf of bread was the recipe as well. All of the corner markets carried GF flours for very little money. I could get brown rice flour, white rice flour, tapioca starch, millet flour, and I think teff as well. Before we went to Rwanda, I had used many boxed food items for our allergies, but hadn’t done very much baking with my own mixes. This trip changed all of that in a heart beat. I was able to get many recipes from other Americans that we had become friends with, but I had to figure out how to convert them to fit our dietary needs. Our internet connection there was far slower than dial up, if it even worked at all. I didn’t have pinterest or any other sites that I could get recipes from. So this began my crash course in allergy friendly baking. I spent hours upon hours in the kitchen there with my two daughters to make enough food to sustain us. Meat in Rwanda is VERY expensive so it was only for special occasions. Other than that, we ate a ton of rice, eggs, salad, avocado, fruit, and vegetables. While we lived there I managed to make bread every other day since we only had a small refrigerator and the heat made the bread mold quickly.

We worked at a home for former street boys and all of us would spend a full day together there each week. From the first time we met the staff and boys, we were VERY clear with them about our daughters severe food allergies. We made a rule that no one was allowed to feed her. While people in Rwanda don’t have food allergies, the staff and boys were amazingly understanding. They all took her allergies very seriously which we were so thankful for. English is the national language in Rwanda, but hasn’t always been. Thankfully all of the staff at the home spoke fluent English and we also had an interpreter with us most of the time so we could communicate effectively.

There is a very close knit group of ex-pats in Rwanda. We made sure that we connected with them right when we got to Rwanda. This made our transition much easier to find safe restaurants, large grocery stores, learn how to navigate the market we lived next to, and also gave us friends right away. When we lived in Rwanda we ate at home, or home made food, about 98% of the time. This was the easiest way for us to ensure our daughters safety. There were a handful of restaurants that we frequented, there is a list of them below. We lived in the capital city of Kigali, so there were many options for us to choose from. All of these restaurants had staff that spoke fluent English, were originally from an English speaking country, and/or were high end that catered to English speaking people. These three criteria were important for us to stick to so we knew our daughter would get safe food. Many of these restaurants also let us bring a few of our own food items. We made sure to call ahead to ask if this was ok and also to talk to them about our daughters food allergies ahead of time. Thankfully we made it through six months living in Rwanda without needing to use an epi pen!!

Our Safe Restaurants
Mr. Chips- this is a small burger shack that is owned by a Canadian man. It is frequented my many English speaking people and all of the staff speak English

Sakae Japanese Restaurant- This was a brand new restaurant when we lived there. They serve amazing asian food of all sorts and kinds. All of the staff speak English. We called ahead of time to talk about our food allergies. They were fantastic! We went for early dinners so the staff wasn’t rushed. They allowed us to bring our own GF soy sauce for those of us that could have it. All of our food was checked closely by the staff to ensure that it was safe for my daughter to eat.

Zen Oriental Cuisine- We had the same experience here as we did at Sakae. They were a bit on the busier side, but still great!

Aromas Coffee- This coffee shop was a few blocks away from our house so we went there several times. We would get smoothies and nothing else. I wasn’t comfortable eating food there, but the drinks were great.

The country of Rwanda is very small in terms of land mass. It is easy to go on day trips to other parts of the country. This was very helpful for us to see other parts of the country without having to find safe food in small villages. While there, we went on a safari trip. We used Bizi Danny’s guided tour and they did a great job. They picked us up very early in the morning because the animals are most active then. I packed all of our food for the day so we didn’t have to stop at any restaurants along the way. Akagera National Park is on the east side of the country that borders Tanzania. The park is split between both countries so the animals are free to roam between them. We had the opportunity to see zebras, hippos, topee, gazelles, water buffalo, baboons, giraffes, and many species of birds. The day we were there the elephants and lion were in a different part of the park. We were told that the lion typically stays on the Tanzania side of the park. This is one of the most amazing experiences I’ve ever had. It felt surreal the whole time we were there. I would highly recommend doing a safari trip.

At the very end of our trip we headed west to Nyungwe rain forest. The scenery in the rain forest is stunning to say the least. We found a little hotel and restaurant to stay in just outside of the forest. This hotel wasn’t fancy in the least, but it worked for us. We had fun guests outside our room every morning. Our girls loved having baboons so close. The drive through the rain forest is slow but beautiful so we just learned to enjoy the scenery as we made our way through. Towards the west side of the forest there is a ranger type station. This is where you can find trail maps and hire a guide if you want. Many people go to Nyungwe to see orangutans, but they don’t allow kids to go on those hikes. We hired a guide to take us to see colobus monkeys. It was a pretty steep mile hike down before we found the monkeys, but worth every step. There were probably 1oo monkeys playing with each other, screaming, and flying from one tree to the next. If you ever go on this hike, or any other hike in a rain forest, it’s a good idea to hike in tall rain boots or gators. Take it from me, biting ants in the pants are no fun! :/ After our hike we drove through the rest of the forest to see what was there. There are miles of tea plantations in a gorgeous setting. In the middle of one tea plantation is an amazing hotel. The next time we go we will be saving our pennies to stay here. Our time in the rain forest was magical.

All in all, our trip to Rwanda was a great success with food allergies! It took a lot of planning ahead and time in the kitchen while there, but it was all worth it. My current baking is a direct result of our time in Rwanda, so I am abundantly thankful for that. It pushed me far beyond my limits in many ways which helped me to grow in ways that I wasn’t expecting. If you are contemplating a trip with severe food allergies, it can be done, if your medical team approves it. I am so thankful that we had a medical team that cheered us on and encouraged us to make this trip. They prepared us and helped us in many ways to make this a safe trip. I hope you enjoyed learning about our overseas journey and feel encouraged that it is possible to travel with severe food allergies!

*all photos are mine

Asthma and Food Allergies- Part 2

June 9, 2017June 9, 2017

Today Dr. Ana-Maria Temple is sharing about Prevention and Functional Medicine Treatments for asthma. I’m so thankful for all of her work, she has helped educate me in many ways. You can find her website at www.familywellnesstips.com. Thanks again Ana for sharing your expertise with us!

Functional Medicine Tips for Reducing Asthma Symptoms and the need for Medications:

Asthma is a disease of chronic inflammation of the airway. It likes to manifest along with eczema and seasonal allergies. It’s called the allergic march. All 3 are inflammatory conditions.
Like many chronic diseases, Asthma has a genetic background.
– 1 parent with asthma = A child has 30% risk of developing the disease
– 2 parents with asthma = A child 60% risk of developing asthma
– If a child has eczema before the age of 2yrs old, they are at an increased risk to develop asthma later in life. (1)
– We discussed the link between food allergies and asthma in a previous post

However, genetics DO NOT mean that the disease will occur 100% of the time. In other words, in most chronic conditions genetics do not define the outcome. Genes put us at risk, BUT its Genetics + Environment (triggers) + what we do in our every day life (mediators) = disease.

Let’s talk prevention:

What to do before becoming pregnant:

Many studies in animal models are suggesting that pre-pregnancy maternal health is as important as health during pregnancy in determining children’s health. (2)
– do not smoke. Not inside, not outside, not anywhere.
– eat fruits and veggies 8-13 servings a day. Both egg and sperm carry genetic
material. How we eat and treat our bodies determines how our genes are being expressed in our bodies and in our offspring.
– start or maintain a fitness routine to empower your body with strong heart and lungs that are imperative in delivering oxygen and nutrients to the future fetus.

What a mom and dad can do during pregnancy:

– do not smoke. Not inside, not outside, not anywhere.
– eat fruits and veggies 8-13 servings a day. Yep, I have to say it again for those who
skip the top part.
– regular fitness routine is important for so many aspects of pregnancy, including
asthma prevention in the offspring. 30 min a day, every day can make a life long
impact on the child. It can be yoga, walking, swimming, cross training, etc.
– control your stress levels. Stress alters your Cortisol Level which affects almost all
other hormones in your body. The hormone shifts have an impact on the fetus.
– sleep – see hormones above. Furthermore, a recent study showed a relationship
between less sleep and less good bacteria in your gut. (3) Pregnant women need great gut flora for nutrient absorption by the fetus, prevention of infectious illnesses that can adversely affect the fetus, and hormone regulation.
– build your gut health, see below in supplements

After delivery:

– breast feeding is one of the most crucial steps to asthma prevention. Even small amounts can make a huge difference. Yes one ounce every feeding can help.
– Vitamin D is a powerful anti-inflammatory that has been shown in numerous studies to decrease asthma symptoms. Formula fed babies need about 32 oz a day to get enough vitamin D, while nursed babies do not get Vitamin D from mother’s milk.

Weaning to solids:

– When it comes to food introduction, forget rice cereals, they are processed flakes in a box mixed with arsenic (sorry but it’s true). Start babies on fruits and veggies.
– Spices like turmeric, cardamom, pepper, cumin, cinnamon can be used for babies 6 months and older. Here is a great Blog on this topic: http://spicespicebaby.com
– When it comes to finger foods for babies and toddlers – NO Food Coloring! If Fruits/ Veggies are not always avail, packaged foods with ingredients you can pronounce and can identify as food, no more then 5 ingredients per package.
– NO JUICE, unless you juice at home. NO store bought juice ever in your house. EVER!

Toddler years

– At the age of 12 months, if a child has been suffering from chronic issues with ear infections, wheezing, bronchitis, eczema, continuous runny nose and congestion, I would NOT transition to Whole Milk. I prefer Almond Milk, Coconut Milk, Hemp Milk, or Non-GMO soy milk – if they are non-allergic. Dairy has been shown to be an inflammatory food in some children. Proceed with nutritionist guidance.
– If at 12 months, the baby is healthy without medical issues, I would start Organic minimally pasteurized whole milk, despite family history of Asthma. I am not a fan of Raw Milk (not a controlled substance, not regulated, who knows how the milk is stored and where, illegal in many states, high risk of bacterial infection, etc)
– During the Picky Years when toddlers start chucking food at your head and refusing food because they are not growing as fast, do not give in and supplement their discarded healthy meals with pasta, bread, crackers, milk in larger quantities, cheese, cereal, and other white/beige foods.
– Eating habits begin now and are easier to correct at 18 months then 4 years down the road.
– A white/beige diet = asthma, allergies, eczema, weight gain, hyperactivity, increased levels of tantrums, developmental delay, poor brain development.
– Ensure the family eats 8-13 servings of fruits and veggies a day

Beyond the Toddler Years:

– a white/beige diet = asthma, allergies, eczema, weight gain, hyperactivity, increased levels of tantrums, developmental delay, poor brain development.
– ensure the family eats 8-13 servings of fruits and veggies a day
– do not keep soda, sports drinks, juice, or other sugar ladened drinks in the house.
– sugar => blocks the immune system for 5hrs after ingestion. More viruses => more
asthma
– if your child likes to overdose on crackers and snacks, stop buying it
– simple carbs => sugar => asthma
– nightly family meals around the table without electronics have been shown to
decrease asthma exacerbations in kids

More Tips Applicable to Everyone:
– dosages to be discussed with your doctor

Reduce the use of antibiotics –
children who received antibiotics during their first year of life are twice as likely to develop asthma before the age of seven! Most ear infections do not require antibiotics. Great and amazing blog post here about ear infections.

Reduce antibiotics in foods –
Buy grass fed /organic meat and dairy to reduce exposure to antibiotics from animal products.

The Mediterranean Diet – see below
Has been shown in many studies to reduce the risk of asthma and to reduce the use of medications in those suffering from asthma (7) (8)

Vitamin D – is anti-inflammatory. Low levels of vitamin D have been associate with Severe Asthma. A current review of the literature (1) showed vitamin D to be effective in reducing asthma symptoms in adults and children with moderate or severe asthma (4)

Magnesium – relaxes the airway and has been shown in adults to help in those with moderate Asthma symptoms(5)

Zinc – is a mineral that is important in controlling histamine response . Having a diet rich in zinc is important in reducing the risk of developing food and environmental allergies.

Vitamin C – can decrease the risk of getting the common cold, which triggers asthma. Furthermore it can relax airway swelling in those with exercise induced asthma symptoms. (9)

Probiotics – moms, make sure you are taking a probiotic, drinking kefir, eating fermented foods, or drinking kambucha during pregnancy under your doctor’s supervision. Your healthy bacteria gets transferred to the baby during birth. Baby guts colonized with healthy strain of probiotics show less health issues at birth and later in life (6)

Quercetin – a kind of antioxidant called a flavonoid, helps to reduce the release of
histamine and other allergic or inflammatory chemicals in the body. Histamine contributes to allergy symptoms, such as a runny nose, watery eyes, and hives

Allergy testing for food and environmental allergens – an important part of the treatment plan for Asthma. Reducing exposure to allergens may significantly reduce asthma exacerbations and need for asthma medications.

Bottom Line –

• Look with your doctor for the common causes of asthma. Is it food allergies?
• Is it environmental allergens?
• Is it mold?
• Is there something wrong with the bacteria and microbes in the gut?
• Is it a toxin?
• What about stress or a poor diet?
• All of these things are potential triggers for asthma and all chronic disease.

Mediterranean Diet – The 8 Pediatric components
1. 2+ fruits every day
2. 2+ servings of veggies every day
3. 2+ whole grain servings a day
4. eat beans, legumes, 4 or more times a week
5. eat nuts and seeds daily
6. use olive oil as a source of fat (no vegetable, corn, palm oils)
7. eat fish 2 times or more a week
8. eat red meat once a week or less

Things to Know About Asthma:

Asthma Symptoms:

– cough with running and playing when well
– cough at night more then 2 times a week when well
– wheezing
– difficulty breathing, shortness of breath with colds or with activity
– constant coughing

Asthma Evaluation:

– all kids may wheeze one or two times under the age of 3 before we diagnose them with asthma
– Criteria for Asthma diagnosis of children under 3years

– wheeze with every cold,
– hospitalized with wheezing more then once,
– they need albuterol with every cold,
– they need oral steroids more then once a year

– there is one test that can help with the diagnosis of asthma in kids older then 6years old – Spirometry. However, it can be a tricky test and results may vary. The best way to diagnose asthma at this time is from the history and illness pattern.

Asthma Triggers:

allergies, mold, foods, pets, cold or hot environments, exercise, stress, viral infections, sinus infections, poor diet, poor gut health

Asthma Pathology:

– this is chronic inflammation of the airway. With chronic inflammation of the airway, the lungs become very sensitive to changes in temperatures, allergens, exercise, colds, etc. Poor nutrition decreases the ability of the immune system to function properly. More toxins are absorbed by those who consume

Asthma Treatment (2 treatments that are misused):

– Albuterol
This is a medicine delivered in puffer or nebulizer form and it is used for coughing or wheezing. It is a temporary relief that generally lasts 4hrs. If your doctor has prescribed this medicine and your child is coughing and you wonder if you should use it, the answer is always yes. In my clinical practice, I find that most parents are afraid of using albuterol for various reasons. If albuterol has been prescribed and is used at the onset of cough and/or wheezing, the symptoms resolve much faster and with less doctor visits.

– Inhaled Corticosteroids
This is a medicine that is prescribed in puffers or nebulizers and is used twice daily (generally) independent of cough, shortness of breath, or wheezing. If your doctor prescribes it, use it. This is a preventative medication that helps keep airway inflammation down, so a cold is just a cold and coughs don’t worsen leading to Emergency Room visits or hospitalizations.

Fun Fact: a medium strength inhaled steroid used twice a day for 365 days of the year, has to be used for 5 years to equal ONE ROUND of Oral Steroids of 3-5 days duration.

IN THE END – KNOW YOUR SYMPTOMS AND YOUR TRIGGERS. FIND THE ROOT CAUSE AND IT WILL HELP YOU REDUCE MEDICATIONS AND DOCTOR VISITS!

In Good Health,
Ana-Maria Temple, MD

Citations:
1 – https://bmcpediatr.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1471-2431-12-168 2 – research happening in New Zealand at Wellington Hospital, results are not
published yet
3 – probiotics – http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/ninetonoon/audio/
201845643/sleep-guts-and-bugs
5 – https://nccih.nih.gov/research/results/spotlight/021110.htm://www.cochrane.org/
news/high-quality-evidence-suggests-vitamin-d-can-reduce-asthma-attacks 6- infant guts – https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4350908/
7 – mediterranean diet – https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18782109
8 – mediterranean diet – https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4651981/
9 – vitamin C – http://www.bmj.com/content/349/bmj.g5517/rr/797361
4, 10 – summary of asthma and alternative options – http://www.umm.edu/
health/medical/altmed/condition/asthma

Asthma and Food Allergies – Part 1

May 26, 2017May 26, 2017

To help celebrate Food Allergy Awareness week, I asked my followers on social media to tell me what they would like to hear about. Due to so many requests, I decided to answer questions throughout the whole month of May. The last request I received was about food allergies and asthma. I am not equipped to answer this question myself, but I am thankful that I know someone who is. Last week I introduced you all to Dr. Ana-Maria Temple who is a pediatrician. She is a wealth of information and has kindly written a two part series for all of us on this important topic. Her and I decided to do this in two parts because there is so much information that we would like you all to have. This week Ana-Maria will be teaching us about food allergies and their affect on asthma. Next Friday, she will be teaching us about how to prevent asthma and also functional medicine treatments for asthma. Be sure to come back next week. Thank you Ana-Maria for everything you do to educate us!

The Relationship between Food Allergies and Asthma

There is a close relationship between asthma and food allergies, though the actual relationship is

not yet fully understood. Here is what we know so far based on the latest medical

literature.

General Information:

• Asthma and food allergy may often coexist.

• Up to 45% of children with asthma have food sensitivity by food sIgE.

• Food-allergic children were found to have 29% chance of having asthma by the US National

Center for Health Services (NCHS)

• Food allergic individuals with asthma are at higher risk for severe asthma then individuals

that have asthma and no food allergies.

• Food allergic individuals with asthma are at a higher risk for severe allergic reactions to

foods, particularly if the asthma is uncontrolled.

• Children with asthma and food allergies are less likely to outgrow their food allergies, then

those with only food allergies.

• Food allergy should be considered in children with acute life-threatening asthma

exacerbations with no identifiable triggers.

• Food allergy should be considered in children with moderate to severe eczema and with

severe persistent asthma. (Editorial note: I would consider this connection even in

children with mild to moderate eczema and asthma combo)

• Being sensitive to more foods and having higher levels of sensitization is associated with

increased severity of asthma. See Photo Above

• Food allergies often affect young children, can develop before the onset of asthma, and are

considered a risk factor for persistent, problematic asthma in young children.

• Studies indicate that children with food allergy present with asthma at an earlier age than

those without a history of food allergy.

Looking at Individual Foods:

Table outlining the foods that have the highest association with the development of Asthma

(red). Blue arrows show the other factors associated with increased risk of

developing Asthma.

• Sensitization to egg, one of the most common food allergens in childhood, has been shown to

be a risk factor for developing environmental allergens and asthma later in life

• A specific study examined the role of clinical peanut allergy with asthma. The authors

reported that having peanut allergy (based on a positive history of reactions, peanut-
specific IgE > 15 kU/L and positive skin test to peanut) was associated with increased

rates of hospitalization and use of systemic steroids as compared to asthmatics

without peanut allergy.

• A 2009 study found that having cow’s milk allergy is a predictor for subsequent airway

inflammation. Children with IgE-mediated milk allergy at 7 months of age diagnosed

by oral food challenge had increased risk of elevated airway inflammation at 8 years

of age.

• The presence of asthma is a predictor for persistent cow’s milk allergy

• Wheezing infants, who have test for specific IgE of >or=0.35 kU/L to wheat, egg white, or

environmental allergens are at higher risk for developing asthma later in childhood.

Consequently, detection of those specific IgE antibodies in wheezing infants may help

with the early diagnosis of asthma, especially in cases with no clinically evident

eczema.

A Word of Caution:

• Cross-reactivity between foods and environmental allergens can lead to positive skin tests or

serum IgE levels to foods that may not be clinically relevant. For example, people

with birch tree pollen allergies can test positive to peanut and those with dust mite

and/or cockroach allergies can test positive to shrimp

In Good Health, Ana-Maria Temple, MD

Citations:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3155248/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2990684/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20146729

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12859453

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10981525

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16210063

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17469157

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2922978/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20618346

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12612281

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15867869

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19389315

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3070157/ – charts authors

Camping with Food Allergies- Part 1

May 23, 2017May 23, 2017

Over on social media, I do Tuesday Tip’s where I share helpful tips about baking, living with food allergies, and my favorite kitchen items. This week, my Tuesday Tip was to have fun. I know that doesn’t sound all that helpful. For those of us that live with or have family members with food allergies, our lives are consumed by food and keeping us or our loved ones safe. We eat 3-6 times a day so by nature, we are consumed by food allergies. What else do you do 3-6 times a day that could make you really sick or even worse, land you in the ER fighting for your life? Probably nothing. It’s no wonder that the stress level of people with food allergies and their families are so high. That’s why my tip is to have fun. Since our lives are consumed with food, it’s safety, and our loved one/s we can become isolated and all consumed. Having fun and doing things other than thinking about, planning, and preparing food are of utmost importance for us.

My family lives in the burbs and enjoys the burbs, but our hearts are in the woods and traveling internationally. My family comes alive when we are out. The weather has finally turned for the better here so camping season has officially started for us. We headed east of where we live into the Cascade Mountains to enjoy a weekend camping “off grid”. There were no hook ups, water, or bathrooms. Thankfully we own a little tent trailer that holds several gallons of water and has a battery for minimal electricity, only when necessary. The trailer isn’t fancy, but it’s just right for our family. It gets us up off the ground and gives me an indoor place to cook when it’s hot or raining. A win both ways! I will write a post tomorrow all about how we eat with multiple food allergies and intolerances while we camp so be sure to come back.

Today’s post though is all about FUN. I have added a few affiliate links in case you want to check out these items. This is how we have had fun while we are camping. Hopefully some of these ideas will be new for you or good reminders. We have three girls and no boys, but that doesn’t stop us from having a great time in the woods. If we let our girls, they would wear dresses while hiking and rock climbing. 🙂 A year and a half ago, my husband had the idea to get a bow and arrow along with a sturdy target. We took it camping then and our girls just loved it. The bow we got for them was just right for our, then, 9 year old daughter. It was a bit challenging for our, then, 6 year old daughter. Now they are 10 and 7 and can both use the bow and arrow really well. Our 7 year old is quite the sharp shooter! Having the bow and arrow is a great way for all of us to have fun together, cheering each other on, and working together. I never would have thought of this, but I’m glad my husband did. This set always goes with us when we off grid camp. We also use it in our backyard.

We love to hike and explore the woods. There is an awesome little trail that is in our camp spot that leads to a large rock face. We scramble up the rocks to the bottom of the rock face together. I just love watching my girls scramble, they are awesome at it. My youngest takes it as a huge challenge and does a great job. This trip she learned how to follow kairns. 🙂 That is a very important skill to have here in the northwest since we hike so much and trails can be hard to find sometimes. My husband was sad that he didn’t bring his rock climbing gear. Next time we will have to bring it. We have taken our girls to a rock climbing indoor gym here and they love it. It would be fun to see them climb outdoors as well. As for me, I just belay everyone because I’m afraid of heights. On our way down the trail we found some unwanted hitchhikers, TICKS. YUCK! I wasn’t expecting ticks, but thankful I knew what they were. We found 4 on our trip enjoying their new home in our hair. :/ As far as we know, we left them all there.

This hammock lives in our backyard all summer and is a hit with our girls and all of the neighbor kids. It is typically full of kids with lots of laughter. Bringing it camping is great fun as well. There are always a large amount of trees where we camp to put it up.

My girls think I’m a little silly, ok maybe a lot silly. One night, we had the girls do a scavenger hunt in the woods. They had to find all of the items or they couldn’t have s’mores. LOL! Thankfully they are good sports and did the whole list and enjoyed it. Yes, I know, I’m terrible that I make my girls find poop. I did tell them it had to be dry. 🙂 It’s all fun and educational. The s’mores were worth it!

There was a neat river close by so we found a safe area for my girls to wade in rain boots, skip rocks, and play with water skeeters.

Now, I know we went camping, but I do think that a craft bin is a MUST! There will always be times when kids need time to chill. I have found the craft bin is great when I am cooking or the girls are simply done playing outside, which I get. Several hours in a day, my girls were in our craft bin and had the best time together. These are items that are different from the ones we have at home, so that makes it fun too. My bin is about 32 inches long, 25 inches wide, and 8 inches deep. That’s not exact, but a good guess. It is large, but it is so worth it to us. This bin stays in our trailer.

Craft Bin items
1. Playdough- make sure you have an allergy friendly one that is safe for your family. I make traditional playdough with regular flour because we only react to ingested gluten. I know that isn’t safe for very many of you so I won’t give you my recipe.

2. Coloring books of all kinds- I have coloring books that fit all the ages of my girls so they can all find something they enjoy

3. Crayons- I love these Melissa and Doug ones because they don’t break!

4. Crayola Markers– Crayons just aren’t good for all purposes so pens are a must too

5. Crayola Magic Markers and Paper– if you have a little one these are great! No mess or coloring on anything you don’t want them to. My older girls still really like these as well.

6. Playing cards- my girls love to play card games

7. Old Maid– because everyone loves Old Maid! 🙂 We can’t control our laughter, ever!

8. Melissa and Doug reusable sticker books– my girls spent so much time doing these this weekend

9. Plain paper for coloring

10. Bubbles– everyone always loves bubbles!

11. Water balloons– if it is hot when you go, these are a must, so quick and easy

12. Slip and slide– we only take one of these when we are in a camp ground, not off grid camping. None the less, they are super fun!

13. Water guns– Who doesn’t love a good water gun fight?!

We have realized that going camping doesn’t mean that you just have to sit around and enjoy the woods. Trust me though, we LOVE the woods. It’s ok to bring other things for the kids to do and it will make your life much better too. The things that we remember and enjoy the most are things that we get to do together. When we are home, we are distracted with life and don’t get as much time to spend face to face with our kids as we would like. That’s what camping does for us, it’s a lot of face to face fun together. What are some fun things that you like to do when camping?

Why are Food Allergies on the Rise?

May 18, 2017

I often get asked why food allergies are on the rise. While I have my own opinions as to why this is, I don’t have a medical background to give facts and data. This is why I turned to my friend Vivian who is a general practitioner. She is a wealth of information, well researched in this area, and has a son with severe food allergies. I am so excited to have her guest post for me on this important topic.

Why is allergy on the rise?
I’m always asked ‘What is the cause of allergies?’ – and it is a difficult question to answer, and you can probably talk about it all day because there are so many factors at play, which I will highlight here.
Food allergies among children in the US increased approximately 50% between 1997 and 2011 – allergy is now an epidemic in many of the developed countries. And it’s not just children – adults are starting develop food allergies for the first time in their adulthood too.
So the million dollar question is… WHY?

Genes
There is no denying that genes play an important role in the development of allergy – if you have a family history of atopy (food allergies, asthma or hay fever) you are more likely to develop allergies but the rapid rise in the incidence of allergy must be linked to the environment too as our genes cannot evolve that quickly. Some interesting facts:

• foreign-born Americans have significantly lower risk of allergic disease than U.S. born Americans.
• your risk of developing allergies increase the longer you reside in the U.S.
• this tells me that it is not simply down to the genes but must be also due to environmental factors too

In 2013, Dr Silverberg of St Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital Centre in New York found that foreign-born children who moved to the U.S. had an increased risk of developing allergies, and this risk increased the longer they resided in the U.S. So this supports the theory that environmental factors are causing more allergies.

“Why is the environment making us more allergic?”

Whilst there are many theories out there, so far no one has the definitive answer. There’s the Hygiene hypothesis (that we are too clean and the immune system is not stimulated enough – I’m not a fan of this theory though).

Personally, I believe the gut and the food we eat has a lot to answer for…

All disease begin in the gut – Hippocrates

The father of medicine said this about 2000 years ago – and I think we are only beginning to find out there is truth in his wisdom. Obviously, I don’t necessarily agree that ALL disease starts in the gut. Congenital and genetic conditions that you are born with, for example, do not. However, I am convinced that a lot of chronic medical conditions which are on the rise begin in the gut e.g. autoimmune, chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia, allergies… just to name a few.

Research has shown:

• Antibiotic use in infancy is linked to increased odds of developing food allergy in childhood
• The bacteria found in stools of children with food allergy is significantly different to those of children without food allergy.
• Beneficial bacteria in the gut produce substances which alter the integrity of the gut barrier to the outside world, and the way the gut presents food particles to our immune system.

The Gut

Did you know that the gut is a major immune organ?

As well as digesting and absorbing food, the gut also plays a significant role in healthy immune function. We are seeing a worryingly rapid rise in allergy and autoimmune diseases (e.g. Hypothyroidism, Lupus, Rheumatoid, MS), and although allergy and autoimmune diseases are different entities, there is a common theme – all of them result from a malfunctioning immune system: in autoimmune disease, the immune system attacks the body itself, whereas in allergies the immune system attacks food/environmental allergens.

The allergy epidemic has gone hand in hand with a period in the developed countries of increasing antibiotic usage, GMO foods, intensive animal farming, pollution, increasing cesarean sections rates, formula feeding, and a low fiber/highly processed foods diet….just to name a few!

For example, you may think you are ok because you don’t take any antibiotics, but the antibiotics that livestock has been fed/injected from intensive farming probably stays in the meat, so you are most likely ingesting some antibiotics inadvertently when you eat meat farmed this way, and similarly with milk and dairy products.

Why does it matter?

Antibiotics kill bacteria – as well as killing the bad bacteria that causes infection, they also kill the good bacteria you need for health. There are trillions of bacteria in the gut – weighing around 3 pounds, and these are necessary to maintain normal gut function. A combination of environmental factors listed above has led to an altered ‘microbiome’, the healthy bacteria missing and instead the gut has ‘bad’ bacteria which can release toxins, cause the gut to be leaky and therefore leads to an increased risk of allergies. The way it does this is by allowing food proteins to enter the blood stream when normally these food proteins would stay in the gut. When food proteins are circulating in the blood stream, these may trigger an immune system or “train” the immune system to become allergic to that particular food.

The gut bacteria is so important in regulating how food proteins are presented to our immune system – if they present food in the wrong way, we end up with an allergy.

SO it ALL begins in the gut! Somehow, the gut is presenting food wrongly as foe… Why the immune system produces the wrong signal is an area of rigorous research. It has been suggested that beneficial gut bacteria produce many of the important messengers involved in the correct signalling process and with the altered gut microbiome caused by environmental factors, these important beneficial gut bacteria may be missing thus changing the signalling process in the gut. Due to GMO farming, modern day food no longer resembles what our ancestors used to eat. Wheat and soy are both heavily altered to withstand harsh conditions for improved crop yields, and this is also having an impact on our health.

As well as the gut, food allergens may also be presented to the immune system through the skin – and this is particularly relevant for eczema sufferers where the skin barrier is broken and may explain why infants with eczema have a higher risk of food allergies (good eczema control is particularly important in infants to prevent this theoretical mechanism of food sensitisation). It has been suggested that if your immune system is ‘seeing’ allergens through the skin but not encountering it in the gut as food, an allergy may develop to that particular food when you start to eat it. The LEAP study (2015) conducted by Professor Lack’s team in London has shown that early introduction of peanuts into the diets of high-risk infants can reduce the incidence of peanut allergy developing later on (see my blog post on this next week). So it is important that the gut sees these allergens, identify them as food and ‘accepts’ them early on before the immune system starts playing havoc and misleads the body into attacking it.

For me as a doctor, the rise of allergic and autoimmune conditions is both alarming and frustrating as we are not good at treating them. We have strong and toxic medicines to dampen the immune system with but these can cause serious side effects and we don’t like using them. Apart from these toxic medications, we can only treat surface symptoms without ever getting to the root cause: food avoidance for allergy, painkillers for rheumatoid arthritis, steroid creams for eczema.

I really think that Hippocrates was way ahead of his time, and we are only beginning to unlock an important piece of the disease puzzle by looking at the gut. The modern day life assails many assaults on the gut and as a result, we are seeing a rise in conditions which were rare a couple of decades ago.

Watch this space.

In the meantime, look after your gut.

Thanks Vivian for a great piece on the rise of food allergies! Here you can find more information on gut health from Vivian. She is such a great resource so click through her other articles as well!