Let's See What Kind Of Spam I Get From THIS Post

Dear Penis Spam People: 

Please stop.  Seriously.  I appreciate that you are taking the time to manually log in the link to your site, and write cryptic vague notes of flattery ("Good Day. Wow, what a blog! Please check out my site!)  etc. etc. 

For the record, I like peni.  They are nice.  They have their place.  My blog is not one of them.
Thank you for your cooperation.

---- Soper

Dear Potential Advertisers/Spammers Of Non-Penis Ilk: 

Thank you very much for your interest in having me promote your product.  While I am flummoxed as to how exactly you determined that my audience would be a good fit with, say, hand-knit adoption voodoo totems, I appreciate the thought.  I must, with regret, respectfully decline your offer, though. 

While I am relieved that the product you are hawking is non-penis related, I am not interested in promoting your wares.  If we cannot mark out one small space in the world that is commercial free, where will that leave us?  Think of me as the last frontier.  A bastion of non-commercial blogging.  I may just be a mommy blogger, but at least I can hold my head up and know that I still have my dignity.

Did I mention that I am currently not wearing any pants?

I would like to say this is an improvement, since yesterday I wore pajama pants all day.  At least I am moving towards clothing, right?

I am not wearing pants because I think I have the swine flu.  Or, as we say around these parts, "I think I done caught that hawg flu."  Joint pain? Check.  Headache?   Check.  Diarr... Let's just skip the rest of the symptoms and say "check."  

So I am curled up in bed recovering, right?  While friends and family tenderly shuffle my children from one wholesome, educational activity to another, right?

Oh, you are too funny.

Shug, who is steadfastly refusing to nap,  is plopped into her exersaucer, happily playing the same note (I believe it is "C" major) over and over again on the truncated exersaucer keyboard.  Moonpie has just returned from preschool, where she discovered that all of her friends (read: the boys) have left to start kindergarten, and she is stuck in a class with "uncool" people (read: all girls).

This fall is going to be an adventure.

Anyway.  D glued the crib slats back together while I was out of town last week, and I although I am itching to toss the sucker and replace it with a new model I am too tired to attempt replacing it.  Shug will just have to get used to having crappy, broken hand-me-downs, like all second children everywhere.

So while my child languishes in a partially broken crib, I summoned the energy to go shopping. FOR MYSELF.  Of course, I did buy mainly baby clothes, but in the midst of all the adorable tiny shoe shopping I managed to stop at Sephora with my sister.

Perfume and I do not get along.  My body chemistry turns most scents into "L'eau de Old Lady" or "Essence of Grandma, Original Hip Replacement Formula."   I am, however, nothing if not determined, so with the help of my personal shopper I tried on several types of perfume.  I put a different one on each arm, and, running out of arms, put a third scent between my boobs. My sister and I would check periodically to see how the different smells were maturing.  Right arm? Smells like soap.  Left arm? Smells like grass.  Boobs?  Hmm, a bit like grass AND soap. 

Etc. Etc.

There is nothing like a little boob sniffing between sisters.  I should totally write a book promoting that as a way to build families and try to sell it to the Christian Right.  Given the interest in women that their leaders have shown lately (snicker snicker) I am sure that it will be well received.

We were waiting at a stop light a few hours later, and she grabbed my arm and sniffed it.  "I'll have to smell your boobs later" she said. "I can't do that a stop light."

No, clearly a stop light was not the appropriate place for sisterly boob sniffing.  What we *should* have done was set up a show on the sidewalk and charged admission.

Did I mention that Shug is apparently allergic to milk?  As you may recall, she had some sort of milk intolerance when she was on straight formula, and we finally settled on Soy as the best alternative.  Fast forward seven months and she is merrily scarfing down table food with nary a tooth in her head, so we introduced cheese to her a couple of weeks ago.  Which she promptly projectile vomited all over me and three separate pairs of pants.  So I need help from my invisible computer friends -- do we get her tested for a milk allergy, or assume that she is at least sensitive to milk protein?  How do those of you with food allergy issues eat out, for instance, or keep one kid happy while keeping the other kid from, say, ingesting a chocolate choco wonder bar and puking on the dog?

Much obliged,

Soper

Comments

[Heather]

We've got a dairy sensitive/allergic kid. Head to toe itchy rash if she even takes one drink of cow's milk and throwing up if she has more. It was so obvious that they didn't bother to test her.

We've always been able to find workarounds when we're eating outside the house, but she's still too little to care all that much (18 months). I've been worried how to deal with both regulating her intake when she's away from me and dealing with the inevitable "everyone else is eating it, why can't I"--pizza and ice cream at birthday parties, etc. But I've talked to a lot of parents of kids with food allergies and they've all said it's not a issue once the kids are a little older. They know if they eat it, they feel sick, so they police themselves. And that having some safe treats stashed away both at home and in the car helps. So here's hoping.

[Jill]

There is a good chance she is sensitive to it and will grow out of it (per my ped, though no, he didn't). And it may be lactose intolerance rather than allergy, and (per my ped) that test is really awful. So for now I would say avoid dairy and watch and see.

Be prepared to educate people- dairy is in margarine, people. Earth Balance makes a new dairy free/soy free butter substitute that is made from canola and olive oil and is to die for...

My kids have different food issues, and don't give me much grief. They know it makes them sick, so they avoid it. I keep safe stuff around to eat and send safe snacks to school so I don't have to worry about party treats. This may sound strange, but with Moonpie's skin issues, Shug having her own challenges may not be a bad thing. Not that I would wish it on her...

[persephone]

I don't know what to say about testing; all I know about milk is that it's supposed to be more likely to be an allergy than intolerance, in kids.

But like Heather says, we haven't had any issues with Aleph wanting to eat peanuts, because he remembers way too vividly what he felt like the last time he did that. Actually, even before he was anaphylactic, when he just got rash/hives - all we had to do was say the word "itchy" and he wouldn't touch it.

That doesn't mean it's easy for him to watch other kids eat treats he's not allowed to eat. And I don't think it's fair to keep his twin brother from eating treats along with the other kids, either. I try to always find out when that's going to happen in advance, so I can bring a safe treat for Aleph to eat at the same time.

But yes, it all rides on his cooperation. I can't imagine if he didn't understand, or tried to sneak things behind my back. I think job #1 with any allergic child is to teach them they MUST ask before they eat anything; they're going to have to be their own first line of defense. I assume the older Shug gets, the easier that will be. ...Or maybe she'll grow out of it first. :)

I confess we don't eat out outside the house much at all, anymore - but that's probably because we're dealing with the chance he might die, rather than throw up. As long as you let other people at the table know they can't give Shug any food without checking with you, it should be doable.

[Meg]

My son had horrid reactions to milk and outgrew them after about 14 months, which the pediatrician said was not unusual. Eggs, on the other hand.... well, i've learned how to bake with flax seed.

I'll check and then i'll double check when we go out to restaurants. Once you find a few 'safe' restaurants and a few good meals, it starts to get easier.

I really hope she outgrows it for you though!

[Abra Leah]

My family is horribly allergic to, well, pretty much everything. All the kids know what they are allergic to and will advocate for themselves. The little ones we just watch them carefully. In addition to all the allergies, my husband is vegan - so, well, you probably don't want to eat with us with our gluten free, egg free, dairy free, meat free fares.

[Jen]

My son also had a milk allergy/sensitivity that showed up around age 1, though in the form of a rash around his mouth with ice cream, milk, and yogurt. We stayed away from those foods for about a year, then at around age 2, tried them again, and no problem! Good luck with Shug's allergy--hope she outgrows it quickly.

[SarcastiCarrie]

We had a cow milk protein intolerance. So, we did goat milk and soy milk. Goat milk is unbelieveably expensive but they make ice cream (in nasty flavors like date). We did some dark chocolate and you can substiture soy milk for milk in every baked good I tried (pancakes, banana bread, waffles, cake, meat loaf). Stonyfield makes soy yogurt (which smells bad).

We didn't have issues with whey or lactose so a lot of things (like packaged bread) were OK for us. We figured out it was the casein protein because Nestle Good Start formula is all whey and was fine. Butter was OK so I knew milkfat was fine.

We saw an allergist and discovered it was not an allergy (for us, with bowel reactions as the immediate and disgusting end result).Breastmilk worked alright so I knew lactose wasn't an issue. The form of casein (alpha versus beta) is the same in breastmilk and goat milk but different in cow milk. So, I put on my scientist hat and figured it out. The medical professionals were not so helpful on the figuring it out front. But the allergist did give us a challenge plan.

Since it was an intolerance and not an allergy, we did a tolerance plan. First we took him off all cow dairy products for a month to let his intestines heal (he was over 1 year old at the time). Then, I would measure out the day's milk (12 ounces soy, 8 ounces goat, 4 ounces formula all mixed together) and then I would add a teaspoon of cow milk. I did that for a week, then I did a tablespoon for a week, then a tablespoon and a teaspoon, then two, then one ounce. And so on. For a year, I increased the quantities gradually. Now, two years later, we're at half cow's milk, half soy and I don't worry about cheese or yogurt or incidental milk exposure in bread, etc. When we eat out, I sometimes order him a glass of milk to drink (and the fattier the milk, the better for him). But this is an intolerance and not a life-threatening allergy, so your mileage may vary if you're dealing with a real allergy.

[Tine]

I don't have a kid with allergies, but just want to pass along a tidbit I've picked up along the way.

I can see how being out and about (or at a family picnic, or something like that) might be treacherous with an allergic/intolerant child who is nonverbal or clueless or both. I think there are onesies & bibs & T-shirts & whatnot that you can buy for your kid to wear to such events. I believe I saw them at the Food Allergy Network website, though I'm sure they're available elsewhere too.

[Erin]

P had an allergy to the casein protein in dairy products, which resulted in his vomiting everything everywhere until we finally figured out that he had an allergy and not reflux.

First, I would say to try to figure out if it's a casein or an albumin allergy (those being the most common allergens in dairy). For example, P was able to eat yogurt without getting sick because it has L. casei bacteria that broke down the casein, but was not able to eat hot dogs because they contained casein (and let me tell you what fun it was to discover that one).

Second, something like 85% of kids with that type of dairy allergy grow out of it by age 3. P outgrew his a few months after he turned 2, thankfully. Hopefully Shug will do the same thing and you won't have to worry about it forever.

Since P was our only one at the time, I have no ideas about how to keep one from eating the things the other is happily consuming. It was hard enough on me to watch J eat ice cream during that time (I weaned P at 18 months, so I was on the no-dairy diet during that whole time also).

[Lut C.]

Food allergy, what a bummer! :-(

[Sue]

SarcatiCarrie, you found an allergist that would work with you on food sensitivities? I live in such a backwater. The tolerance plan sounds intriguing. I am sensitive to many foods but not dairy. My husband and son are sensitive to dairy. My 3yr old son has become an excellent self-regulator and is game to try out the many dairy alternatives out there. We are currently using hemp milk - nutritionally strong and creamy. Good luck and like others have said, hopefully she will grow out of it.

[Joy]

My daughter is 7 months old and has a dairy intolerance. I'm BFing and I had to cut out all dairy (even the casein proteins that are in pretty much everything). Our ped said it's not worth it to do the testing and that 95% of kids outgrow it by the time they're two. He advised us to challenge it every 4-6 months. When we discovered her allergy at 2.5 months old, even me eating a piece of bread with whey in it would cause vomiting and other GI issues as well as eczema. When we challenged at 6.5 months, she had some mild spit up after I ate a slice of pizza...much better. I would wait a few months and try again. Our pediatrician also put her on a dairy and lactose free probiotic (very hard to find, had to order Solaray Babylife online). The probiotic made a huge difference in her GI issues that likely developed from the dairy intolerance.