CURED!

Big news.
J went to a REAL doctor, at Hopkins.

It is not food. It is most likely polyps. He is eating everything now and there are no ill effects from it. We are all thrilled.

I have even been cooking again. Here is a stew from the"A new Way to Cook' book.

2 cans chickpeas drained, 2 chopped onions, two med. Butternut squashes, peeled and cut in to half-inch cubes. 3/4 cup water or apple cider.
Salt, pepper, cilantro

Cook onions on really low in some olive oil for about 20 minutes. Throw in everything else but the cilantro and cook until the squash is soft, but not completely mushy. Throw in cilantro and eat.

Oh my yumminess. And filling.
Thanks for reading,
-Anne

Power Tooth

J amazes me with his maturity and intellect every day. Now 3 years old, he went to get his second filling just the other day. he had one at 20 months by the most evil dentist in the world, who didn't let me go back with him, and didn't bother to tell me ahead of time. New Dentist is far superior, and even let J sit in my lap for the procedure. J was nervous, and quiet, and even started to cry a little. But he kept his mouth open, and listened, and was very, very brave. He was still and followed the dentists instructions very well. And at the end, he got a little plastic car, and that somehow made it all better.

He is also getting one cold after another. I suspect it's from Gerstung gymnastics class, as I'm sure they're not washing all that padding between every class. Also, he definitely spends much more time playing with other children than ever before in his life, so I guess he was going to eventually get sick. The only downside is I'm not sure if tonight's GI mess (no blood, though), was from illness or an unknown food source. The only different thing he had was red pepper hummus, but he's been ok with that before, and I read the ingredients first. He didn't even eat that much of it, so I'm putting my money on illness.

Here's counting down one more week until his GI specialist appointment. Can't wait!

Thanks for reading,
-Anne

How NOT to cook a fish

Last year, I found a recipe in a summer issue of Bon Appetit for whole fish cooked in salt. We used Rockfish, one of my favorites, and it was not only delicious, but provided an excellent photo opportunity of my little one helping me cook.

The basic idea is you mix about 5 lbs of kosher salt with 5 or 6 egg whites, then put the salt in an oven dish, lay in the fish, who are gutted and scaled, and then cover it completely with the rest of the salt. It cooks at 400F for 20 minutes, then after ten minutes you bash the salt off with a hammer and take the amazing fish out.

I love cooking things whole, and was pleased to find such an easy recipe that seemed fancy. You stuff the cavity with a lemon slice or two, some thyme and parsley before you cook it. Fabu.

This week, I tried it again, only two REALLY important things were different. The most important is I only had two eggs. I add water and olive oil to create a more pasty feel, but as I ended up making the salt mixture in two batches, there was NO egg in the top layer of salt. It didn't crust up, so the fish was just covered in salt, instead of breaking neatly away. Secondly, I have no idea what kind of fish I had. The store said "Sea Bass" which is a close relative of, or possibly the same thing as, a Rockfish, but I think either I picked the wrong ones, or they lied. It was gross and undercooked, although my poor starving husband ate some. J helped make it, and really like the salt, but wisely wouldn't touch the fish.

Next time, I will follow the directions. Sometimes I can fudge it, but apparently, this was not one of those times.

Yikes. Thanks for reading,
-Anne

Fruit Strike!

I swear my next post will be about food, not poop. Bear with me.

This kid is on an all-out fruit strike. He'll eat bananas, but that's it. I have been giving him "Naked" juice that's like a smoothie with the seeds remved (no dairy, of course). He won't drink homemade smoothie anymore. He also refused homemade popsicle. Too dang smart.

Other than that, he's been fairly healthy, not counting the birthday-cake episode a week ago. I let him have a small peice, and an hour later The Mess was backl. He recovered pretty quickly, though, and had has these miraculously poop-shaped poops.

I've been adding flax seeds to his sandwiches, becasue I am sneaky. I've also discovered he likes baby broccoli, and there's always squash and sweet potatos. I am so looking forward to getting the answers to his puzzle. I'm no good at waiting for results, but then again, who is?

More when the mood strikes me,
-Anne

A New road

Pardon my absence. I had an outpatient procedure Monday that has left me basically useless for a week. I'm fine, however, and have been enjoying my husband waiting on us hand and foot.

In other news, I got the results of J's bloodwork, and he has 2 mrkers for celiac, whatever that means. The parasite tests aren't done yet, but he now has to see a pediatric GI, and then get MORE blood tests, and then a gluten-free diet, and then more tests to see if the gluten-free diet made a differnence.

So, I'm really glad we switched peds, and really glad that we're going to find SOMETHING out about all this. He's been doing pretty well, removed from the dairy, egg, nuts, fish and most soy and corn for about three weeks now. But still with a little of the mess.

So that's all the news. Hopefully my brain will work soon and I'll tell you all about our adventures in unschooling. Like how J got an agricultural/ nutrition lesson last night by shucking corn with Daddy. If I took a picture, it would have been a documented "class". Yay!

Thanks for reading,
-Anne

The Dig

Our new pediatrician is great.

He's very laid back, but with exactly the appropriate amount of concern. Everyone in the office is wonderful.

We went on Tuesday, and began a round of tests to rule out everything. Three Serocult cards (poo smear), two parasite bottles (poo dig), and three tubes of blood later, all we have to do now is wait. I've never been so excited to pick through J's poo. It was a little difficult, because the bloody bits are important to include, yet they like to slip off the stick. All this while the boy is hopping around next to me, saying, "I can't see! I can't see!"

He was a trooper with the bloodwork, and cried while they did it, but didn't fight. Afterwards, he was very upset that his band-aid only stayed on for a while.

We went to the mall to find green sneakers for him, a request he had made this morning, and found NOTHING. So, after two hours of searching online, all we could find were these.

I think they're pretty cute, even though they have a Boston Celtics logo on them. I really wanted low-top Chucks in Kelly Green, but alas, they are not available in Toddler 8 (unless YOU have a secret shoe store you want to share.) Ss now he can clash his Mexico soccer ball (green) with his Celtics shoes.

I think a little boy who has been to the doctor twice in two days deserves all the green sneakers his little heart desires, don't you?

Cheers,
-Anne

Miracle milk

Greetings, oh forgotten ones.

I have been experimenting with different milks for J, and have settled on Oat Milk. It's LOADED with fiber, which helps counteract the low-fat diet he has due to the no dairy y thing, and tastes great even without vanilla flavoring. I decided to take him off soymilk, partially because of the whole phytoestrogen debate, and also because I heard it was hard to digest. I wanted to give his little tummy a chance to heal, so I've been giving him really easy food.

I also think he's feeling the need for a simple diet, too, because all he wants to eat are cheerios, bananas, and sandwiches. I switched from almond butter to sunflower butter today, thinking maybe to avoid the whole nut family for a while. I think it tastes much closer to "nutty" than the almond stuff is, and is a little cheaper, too, which is nice.

I tried hemp milk for a few days, but was just too weirded out by the extreme greasiness of it. It tasted pretty good, but crazy expensive, like 4 bucks a box.

On top of that, we finally got a new pediatrician! Hooray! I had a terrible time contacting our old one while overseas, mostly because all hone calls go to an off-site answering center. I need a pediatrician's office where they can see the guy. The old one was a good ped, but his office SUCKED. I had SO many problems with them, that in the end, it wasn't worth it.

That's about it for now. We go to the new guy on Tuesday, so I'll give an update after the visit.

Thanks for reading,
Anne