Food Allergies - Monrovia, CA

My son loves rice and quinoa cakes, pretzels, raisins, dried fruit, fruit leather, bananas and cheese sticks. -www.weelicious.com

Hi F., My oldest daughter is also allergic to corn. It is in EVERYTHING!!! Quick sandwiches can be made with wheat flour tortillas. I believe there is only one cereal on the shelf in the regular grocery store, however Trader Joes or Whole Foods is going to be your best bet. Hopefully he likes Oatmeal because the cereals that are on the shelf with out the corn are rather boring. You will just have to learn to make sandwiches as meat & cheese roll ups without the bread or use tortillas. Unfortunately, corn starch is used as a thickening agent in many prepared foods and corn syrup as a sweetener. Your best bet is to start with the wheat stuff, such as wheat crackers. You can mix your own granola mix or they also make a natural one at Whole Foods that does not have the corn starch in it.

If you don't have a Whole Foods in your area, go to your local organic market.

Best of luck, this isn't much fun...I know.

C.

There is a bread called Ezekial, it's found in the frozen section of Henry's or any health food store. I use organic peanut butter and jelly for my sons sandwiches. They also sell organic waffles (Natures Best) and organic syrup that has no corn syrup in it. That's not a lunch thing but it's another option for breakfast.

Almond butter is really good and it's all natural. It's good to spread on almost anything. When we take lunches on the go I usually pack up grapes or blueberries and little chunks of cheese.

Good luck. I see a great nutritionist in San Diego if you are in the area and are interested. He can help with food allergies. I used to be allergic to some of the same things your son is and after seeing him and being on a program I am no longer allergic.

A.

find Classical homeopath in your area. Certified Classical is important, but most important is the practice of homeopathy NOT mixed with any other modality. After classical homeopathic treatment your son will be able to eat many things you thought off limits.
Good Luck!
V

F.,
I sell wildtree herbs. We are a food allergy friendly company and have alot of products without many of the ingredients your son is allergic to. You can look at the foods at http://wildtreeherbslasvegas.mywildtree.com.

Let me know if you have any questions
J.

Wow, corn. My daughter is allergic to wheat, milk and soy to name a few. It's not corn, but I thought I'd offer advice anyways :-)

We eat a lot of rice and a lot of fresh foods. For on the go, we get fruit snacks, dried fruit (cranberries) or fresh fruit. Lunch seems to be the hardest for me. I usually end up giving her noodles - brown rice or semolina and hot dogs. For us, I think SOY is in absolutely everything!

I would also recommend seeing a nutricianist. Most will take your insurance with just the co-pay. I learned so much about food - I forgot that there is more grains than just wheat. Also, you'll learn about other names that are put on packages - for example "gums" are usually a wheat product.

Good luck. My thinking is that with my daughters allergies - we all eat what she can eat (with the exception of putting cheese or something on ours sometimes). We are all healthier because of it.

Check out Mommywood.com. The founder's daughter is allergic to nearly all foods so she has very helpful information on how to deal with allergies as well as lot's of other helpful info for mommies.

F.,

My 2 year old is allergic to both dairy and soy proteins. So a different type of food than your guy but the same basic issue. We do a primarily "whole food" diet. Meats, potatoes, rice, veggies and fruit and not much else. The more processed the food, the higher the chances there is something in it he can't eat. Which means I do a lot of cooking. But, to make it more manageable, I tend to double cook. I cook enough for 2 nights and either eat it two nights in a row or will freeze half for another night. We do a eat a lot of chicken but you could do the same thing with beef or pork. I'll serve chicken kabobs (with onions and peppers) on Monday and then "repurpose" the leftovers the next night and serve it as fajitas w/ refried beans. That way we don't feel like we are eating the same thing all the time. I almost always have some sort of leftovers in the fridge (I plan it that way) and I use those for his lunches and to take along when we are going somewhere and I know he'll need to eat. We just did Christmas dinner at my in-laws and I basically brought his dinner with us. It takes a little planning and coordiation but it is very do-able. It took me a while to come to grips with the fact that there would be no "convenience" foods in his life but once I wrapped my brain around that and developed a system, it isn't so bad.

My son loves, loves, loves corned beef and cabbage and potatoes. I make it in the crock pot (cook the beef all day then microwave the potatoes until done and the cabbage until hot, add it to the crock pot and eat in about 20 minutes) so it is reasonably fast and easy and makes good leftovers.

I also belong to this yahoo group:
http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/allergicbabies/

It isn't very active normally but the members are really nice and very helpful when you have a question. All of them are dealing with some sort of food allergies with their kids and they have a wealth of knowledge to share.

T.

Wow, corn would be tough! My kids have multiple food allergies so I feel for you! The only thing I could think of off the bat is rice cakes. We eat them all the time for snacks and also to dip into guacamole or other dips(Instead of corn chips). They come in lots of flavors now (even sweet ones)and they are certainly portable! I don't deal with the corn thing so that's all I could think of. There is a great cookbook for egg free baking that I will tell you about though...It's called "Bakin' without eggs" by Rosemary Emro. Oh, what about Van's frozen waffles? I know they don't have eggs (they are Vegan) but I'm not sure about corn, you'd have to check on that. Trader Joe's has them. They are good and healthy too. Good luck!

The Namaste Brand of products is allergen free. They make baking products mostly and desserts.

Enjoy Foods is allergen free as well. They make snacks, bars, bread, etc.

I have always been a label reading Mommy since I have food allergies of my own. So basically you will just have to take your time and read every label. You'd be surprised at what things have corn in them and what doesn't.

Also check out the Special Diets section on sites like Henrysmarketplace.com and Wholefoods.com. You can print out a list of their products that are corn or allergen free.

I buy most of my food from either Henry's or through amazon.com's Subscribe and Save program. You get 15% off the amazon price plus free shipping. And for the most part, my organic and allergen free items are cheaper through the subscribe and save program than at the grocery store if you factor in gas mileage. Jimbo's and Wholefoods, while they tend to have a better selection than Henry's, is kind of pricey for me.

Good Luck!

The "Kashi" brand makes great natural cereals and other foods. Their website also has recipes using their products.
You might find something here or other ideas.
Their website is:
www.kashi.com

Can your son eat rice? Japanese foods, has a lot of rice recipes... that you make into "musubi" rice balls. It's really tasty, and great, and portable. Just do a Google search for "musubi" recipes or something. All the local kids here in Hawaii eat this as a staple, and adults too. Or, what we also do is layering in a bowl, rice, then some kind of chopped up teriyaki flavored meat (ie: beef or tuna), and another layer of rice, then topping it off with shredded "nori" seaweed. It's real good!

here is a photo and info. about what musubi's look like:
http://www.kitchencow.com/2008/06/27/i-love-my-new-onigir...

I would also get a "bento box" type lunch box, to make on the go meals... it's real great and we use those a lot here where I live. Here is an example:
http://lunchinabox.net/

http://www.laptoplunches.com/

Hope this helps,
Susan

I would start shopping at a natural food store like Jimbo's. You will have to look carefully at the ingredients but stores like Jimbos tend to carry food that does not have corn syrup. Be careful too with the "all natural" label. The FDA approved corn sryup as an all natural product but if you do your research you will understand it is anything but natural! Good luck.

We don't have food allergies, but my kids love edamame (soy beans), you can get them already shelled at Trader Joe's. Plain yogurt sweetened with fresh fruit or unsweetened applesauce. I find a lot of snacks at Trader Joes, I can't say for sure if they have corn syrup. You may be able to find pita or flat bread without corn products. There is also whole wheat pasta products that you can have plain and easy to take with you on the go (again, not sure if there is corn syrup or not). I will cut up chunks of cheese, apples, pears, peaches, grapes. Avocados and bananas are easy to take with you items.

My daughter has an egg and avocado allergy, but you are definitely going through way more food issues with the corn! The first thing that comes to mind are quesadillas. I think if you check a place like Whole Foods you will be able to find an all natural cereal without corn syrup, but I am not positive. I have lots of egg free suggestions, but don't know what all has corn in it!