Nick and I adopted four kids: Nate, Jay, GracieGirl, and E. None of them are biologically related, but they all have some sort of allergies.
Our first experience with allergies was when, unbeknownst to me, someone gave Jay a little bite of seafood when he was a baby. His ears immediately turned so bright red that it honestly looked like someone painted them with red paint! When he was three, he was diagnosed with PDD-NOS, on the Autism Spectrum. I did some research and learned about the GFCF Diet. We decided to try it when a friend told me that her son started sleeping at night (something that Jay didn't do much of at all!) after starting the diet. Sadly, removing gluten and casein didn't affect Jay's sleep, but he tolerated the diet well, after the initial withdrawal from his staple, mac & cheese!
Two years later, we adopted GracieGirl. As a baby, she had constant diarrhea, which often looked like it had sand in it. A friend said that his son had the same thing, which stopped after they removed gluten. So, we stopped feeding her gluten and she responded well.
The following year, we adopted E. Before he was a year old, we learned - the hard way - that he had life-threatening allergies to peanuts. We also learned that he was allergic to eggs. Allergy tests showed that he was severely allergic to all tree nuts, sesame, fish, and seafood.
In addition, all four children are allergic to trees, weeds, grasses, mold, and dust mites. All three boys are allergic to cats and dogs. E is also allergic to horses. GracieGirl is allergic to mice. Nate had asthma, Jay has severe eczema, GracieGirl also has eczema, and E has had RSV and eczema, and still has asthma. E has also been diagnosed with ADHD and ODD.
So...we'd started out with a GFCF diet, and once I felt like I had that figured out, I had to remove eggs from the equation, which led to lots of baking fiascoes! We removed all nuts and sesame seeds from the house, started eating Sunbutter, and, with the help of Lisa Lundy's book, Super Allergy Girl Allergy & Celiac Cookbook, we learned to bake GFCF foods without eggs.
Somewhere along the line, life got crazy, and I gave up on the GFCF diet. The kids started eating cheese again, and eventually ate gluten again, too. Jay responded by eating every wheat cracker he could get his hands on, and GracieGirl seemed to be able to tolerate wheat without any problems.
Fast forward a bit, and Jay still seems hopelessly hooked on wheat, and GracieGirl is having symptoms again, so it's time to return to GFCF.
I'll be sharing our recipes and some of our adventures here!
~Denise
