Dairy Free

Tonight, J and I had honey and jam sandwiches for dinner. It would be peanut butter, but we're still sorting out a food intolerance that has recently appeared. It seems to be mostly milk, but there's something else lurking that hits him every few days, and honestly, I don't have the resources to do a healthy elimination diet over here, so we're doing the best we can.

It's a little frustrating becasue I did all the things you're suppossed to do to keep this from happening. Breastfed 2+ years, no formula, no whole milk or peanuts until he was 2, and then out of nowhere in March he starts pooing blood and mucous. Three DR visits, including one ER later, it's not bacteria, it's food, and a child who lives off of cheese and yogurt can no longer have them. In the states it's not so bad, as there's readily available, soy/rice/almond milk, almond butter, and other delicious things he'll eat, but here it's a bit of a hassle to get to the stores with the rice milk, which comes in tiny tiny boxes. Last time I went to the store I bought 16 boxes. That will last us about a week, I think. There's also no sweet potatos or winter squash, which I find surprising in a country that puts regular potatos in everything. How hard can it be to grow a squash? Those were my two go-to, high nutrition, peace of mind foods for him.

Of course, this coincides with him being in the throes of toddler food refusal. The only vegetables he'll eat are avacado and carrotts, and the only fruits are peaches and bananas. He'll eat chicken, turkey slices made to look like sails, meatballs (straight ground beef in balls), cheerios, oatmeal, honey, jam, bread, plain muffins, and of course rice milk.

Now that I wrote that down, it doesn't seem too awful. I'm just bummed about the vegetable thing. He used to eat peas by the fistful, and blueberries constantly, but not now. The other day he asked for blueberry mufifns, and we made them (dairy free, of course), and he picked the blueberries out. Ugh. I'll make zuchinni muffins next time. That'l show him...

I am thankful it's intolerance and not allergy, so if he does sneak ice cream he won't die. It is alwasy disturbing to see blood issuing from your child, though, don't you think? ANd it's a good thing I did most of the cooking from scratch already, or this would be much harder for us.
Alright, gotta run. Tomorrow, I'll tell you all about marinara sauce.