Most of you I don’t know me personally, so I thought I would share a little bit about us. In the “About” section, I go into a some detail about how I came to be a consultant for kids with multiple food allergies. I thought I would go into a little more detail here. My husband and I have been putting together a presentation for my business this week and this is one of the slides for it above. While I am very aware that food in the world of having food allergies is getting to be really amazing, I know we can all relate to this picture. If we know better than this, most people without food allergies don’t.

One thing that is difficult having multiple food allergies and intolerances, is finding recipes that fit our needs without having to “tweak” something. Here is a glimpse of what I have running through my brain every day as I look at recipes, create my own, and look for pre made foods that we can eat. This list is what my three daughters and husband can’t have:
– Gluten
– Dairy
– Soy
– Egg yolk (whites are fine)
– Nuts
– Corn products, not derivatives (I’ll do a post on this at some point)
– Cane sugar
– Tomato
– Garlic
– Beans

My two youngest daughters had severe (though not anaphylaxis allergies) to dairy, soy, and eggs from the time they were just days old. I go into more detail in the “about” section on this if you care to read about it. At 18 months old, my middle daughter, had an anaphylaxis reaction to peanuts while we were on vacation. A trip to the ER, benadryl, and an epi shot finally stopped the reaction. As my girls have gotten older, their allergies have become less severe, and my middle daughter amazingly has grown out of her anaphylaxis allergy to peanuts. While their allergies have become less severe, the above foods still have enough effect on my girls that they choose themselves to not eat them. All of my daughters want to do oral challenges (ok’d by our Dr’s) about once a year. When they want to, I let them so they can make the decision themselves what foods don’t make them feel well. Each time they have done oral challenges, my girls feel miserable whether it be horrible nausea, vomiting, rash, diarrhea, headaches, bronchitis type cough and sinus congestion, malabsorption in their gut, etc. While I’m abundantly thankful that my girls reactions aren’t life threatening, the reactions they do have are no fun for them either. They have each decided that their reactions to the foods above aren’t worth experiencing. Gluten, dairy, and cane sugar are on all of my girls and husbands lists, but the other food items are for one or some of them. All of my girls vomit from eating cane sugar, go figure. I’m not sure if that is because they don’t eat very much of it or they have an intolerance to it. They sure are funny when I joke with them about it. I tease them that they can eat a whole bowl of candy and they all yell “NO, we don’t want to get sick. YUCK!!!!” Cane sugar and corn are the most difficult foods for us to avoid when looking at pre made foods so I make virtually all of our food. It’s easiest for me to cook one meal for everyone so I take the whole list above into consideration when I cook. I have purposely left myself out of the list above because I have quite a limited diet due to health issues of my own.

OK, back to finding recipes for people with multiple food allergies… I tell you the above information so you know what I go through in finding food to feed my own family with multiple food allergies and intolerances. Since I have been making food for multiple food allergies for almost 12 years, it has become much easier over time for sure. One of my greatest joys in working with kids with multiple food allergies is finding food that they CAN have. I absolutely love finding recipes from some of my favorite trusted food allergy bloggers, creating my own recipes, and finding products on the market that my clients can eat. Problem solving is so much fun for me and I am fiercely determined to be sure my own family and my clients can eat foods that they love and miss even though they have multiple food allergies. If it is possible to recreate a food for my family and clients with multiple food allergies, I am determined to figure it out for them. I push many boundaries in the kitchen and am willing to try just about anything to be sure my family and clients get to enjoy the best allergy friendly foods possible. You don’t have to eat cardboard, spend many hours, and failed recipes to find great food for your child with multiple food allergies. Let me do it for you, it’s what I do best! I do all of the research of finding recipes for my clients specific food allergies, foods they want to eat, and then help them meal plan as well. Leave me a comment of a food that you wish you could still eat, along with your restrictions. Bring me the joy of problem solving for you. 🙂