To anyone with corn allergies, I am sorry that finding food is so hard! Corn is in everything convenient. We don’t know what is causing Larissa’s rashes but we are keeping a log of things that cause her to get a rash. She will get a rash very quickly after eating something that disagrees with her body. Yesterday was rough, she cried quite a bit because she loves sauces and popcorn.
I have discussed several thoughts with friends as to why now. Could be several factors, hormones changing or she just got her middle school shot a few months ago. I talked with her doctor office today and they haven’t sent her referral yet. I suspect it is going to take a while to get tested. On December 2nd she goes to see a new neurologist and I am concerned about new medications and allergies. We will have that appointment before testing.
Today was a better day. All day was corn and lactose free. I have bought corn free oils and such. She did not have any rashes today.
Contemplating Thanksgiving and looking for recipes.
Oh no! hope you have figured out some things for Larissa to eat by now. Her story is eerily similar to ours with severe food reactions that appeared after shots. The doctor confirmed that is a real possibility. Of course after the fact:(
ReplyDeletePlease encourage Larissa that it does get better; you will figure stuff out for her to eat. We must avoid gluten, corn, soy, egg, dairy, flax, but most vegetables, meat, and fruits work as long as nothing processed touches it. We make a lot of roasted meat, veggies, and potatoes or rice; hot dogs and homemade fries; spaghetti; chili (over rice not cornbread); or soups. We use our crock-pot all the time. We'll batch cook pancakes or cookies to have in the freezer.
By far our favorite cookbook is The Healthy Gluten Free Life by Tammy Credicott. It's written by real mom who cooks for her family and the recipes taste really good. It is egg free, but if Larissa can tolerate egg just add those in place of the egg replacement.
Nomnom Paleo website has some good meal ideas and safe ingredients too.
We get our GF flours mostly through Amazon from Bob's Red Mill and Anthony's Goods. Both brands have been consistently safe and never caused a reaction. We use sunflour or olive oil for cooking.
For convenience foods- that is hard. Off the top of my head. We love the red lentil pasta from Trader Joes or Barilla. It's a little dry, but add a lot of sauce. The Annies Organic line has worked in the past. Haven't read lately though. Loved the chocolate chip granola bars. Tinkyada rice pasta is good, but it doesn't hold it's shape that well. We love the Aldi Simply Nature organic hot dogs. Canned fruit (in juice not syrup) with no added vitamin C. Some of the expensive potato chips use sunflour or canola oil instead of corn or soy. Read the back of the bag every time though- it changes frequently. Trader Joe's plantain chips work. Some of the expensive jellies use sugar instead of corn syrup. GoMacro protein bars are good and filling when you need to be away from the house over meals.
For help reading labels if it's Organic, Paleo, or Whole 30, (or insanely expensive) it has a much higher chance of working as those products generally have few processed ingredients.
I second the suggestion of a functional medicine doctor. For us, it did help some.
Per the corn allergy, yes it is hard. Everything is corn. Vitamin C and even a lot of table salt has corn in it as the dextrose in it is sourced from corn. Vinegar, citric acid, pectin and unfortunately most vitamins and medications are sourced from corn or have corn as a filler too:(
Please check her makeup, soap, lotion, dish soap sunscreen, laundry detergent and hair stuff too. Sometimes the ingredients in those will cause or contribute to rashes and reactions. We can only use the natural, no dye, no perfume version of all of those.
Please let us know if you want to email or talk more; we could talk about this for days. I know how extremely overwhelming it is at the beginning. Since this has been our normal life for that last decade we would love to help someone else.