The food list I received was only minimally helpful. I was correct in assuming that a good majority of the food in the 'least allergenic' column we had already tried and failed. Most of the food we had not tried did not seem like good trial food. I mean, how is a one year old supposed to munch on lettuce everyday with very few teeth, or how often can I expect her to eat lemons? In the end the only one on the list made sense to try: Broccoli.
And guess what?
EASY PASS! There was absolutely nothing out of the ordinary during our two week trial. Even though she was 15 months old, I still had to steam and puree it in order for her to eat it. I also had to teach her to chew and swallow. It had been four months since she had eaten anything, she had not had consistent adequate time to learn the very basics. Eventually, though, with some practice she was able to start eating it cut up into little pieces.
Next on the trial list? Well, I tossed the actual list into a drawer and decided to be adventurous. Coconut was our next trial. That may sound random, but coconut is SUCH a versatile food. Did you know they make coconut flour? And coconut Sugar? Coconut vinegar, syrup, butter, oil...you can see how this would be hugely beneficial. The tricky part was figuring out HOW to trial it. I bought a ginormous container of coconut flakes for her to munch on (which was great practice for her learning how to chew. In the beginning she just sucked on them and spit them out all over the house). With the recommendation of fellow FPIES moms, I got some Coconut Manna. It's sort of like peanut butter. It's solid when it's cool and liquid when it's warm. You can use it for many things. What I did was mix it in with her pureed broccoli to give it some flavor. I also used coconut oil to sautee her broccoli. (And that is YUMMY).
And guess what? Yup. Easy pass. Can you imagine my delight at having TWO safe foods?! Being able to have both kids sit down and actually eat together at meal time is such in an indescribable feeling.
Cauliflower was next. Since broccoli was so easy and it's so similar to broccoli, I figured (hoped) that it, too, would be an easy pass. I was correct!
One afternoon my husband got takeout from Olive Garden. We're all sitting around picnic style eating our salads and on a whim we decided to give Aurora a bite of tomato. And a bite of lettuce. And a bite of onion. Being super daring we also let her try a banana pepper (which she LOVED!). Luckily, so luckily, she did not have any problems! We then decided to try tomatoes for our next trial. She simply loves her 'maters.' And we had another easy pass.
There were, however, a few mini trials that didn't go as well. I wanted to try quinoa so she would have some sort of grain. She had 2 bites one day at lunch time and had a really rough night of sleep that night. After spending 4 months getting her insides healed, I was not willing to risk another full blown reaction, so I immediately stopped that trial. We also tried avocado and blueberries for a few days. They seemed to disrupt her sleep as well (though not as severely as the quinoa) so I pulled those, too.
So we now have broccoli, coconut, cauliflower and tomato. I would really love to have some sort of grain (fake grain anyway, buckwheat? Sorghum? Millet? Arrowroot?) to bake with. I would also love some sort of egg substitute. We have had very bad luck with fruit, which are commonly used to replace eggs when baking, so I was hesitant to go that route. There are other things I could try, such as flaxseed, but I would love something a little more versatile. After hours of research I finally decided to man up and just do an egg trial.
This.is.huge.
If she fails? SO many things that we'll have to strictly avoid at all costs for a long time. If she passes...I can bake!!!!!! She can have cookies and casseroles!
So here we are, day 4 of our egg trial. So far she's had baked omelets (baking an egg at a high enough temperature for 30 minutes bends the protein, giving a slightly less chance of a reaction). AND...I also made her a cookie. A coconut cookie! A bunch of them in fact. My sweet baby girl, at 18 months old, ate her first cookie! I'm still overjoyed at the thought!
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| Her first picnic with her 'bubby'...munching on her broccoli. |
