Wednesday, February 04, 2009

Henry's diet

As most of you know, Henry is allergic to wheat, milk, eggs and peanuts. I am running out of ideas on how to make his daily eating more diversified. Help please.

A usual day for Henry consists of an oatmeal breakfast, lunch of a hot dog or chili or grilled chicken, and dinner of more meat and veggies.

i am worried he is not getting enough fruits and veggies. Actually our whole family isn't. But it is especially hard to make vegetables appealing without using any dairy or flour. He eats potatoes and rice for starch. He doesn't like the texture of most of the fruit I try to give him. Although he loves oranges.

I would love any ideas you have for getting an 18 month old some variety in his restricted diet. Thanks!

10 comments:

Emily said...

Jonah has always loved frozen peas, steamed zucchini, and basically any vegetable just cooked with no butter. Sometimes Brandon will give him a little salt on them. Refried beans or cooked lentils as an alternate protein. Corn or rice noodles. Rice. Don't forget avacados, crunchy corn bran (no wheat?), potatoes w/ olive oil...

Jami Baker said...

My dad is allergic to wheat and he uses rice flour to thicken things. There are so many things you can use instead of flour. There is this stuff called Ultra Gel that I even use. It's great! Also, Sprouts has a whole section of non gluten products, pretzels, cookies, crackers. They are actualy good. I've tried them. And I know there are a ton of soy products like milk and yogurt. I know the soy chocolate milk is good. I buy it so I can drink it. I don't know, I hope this helps a little!! Good luck!

stephanie said...

does he like fruit leather?

Andrea and Blake said...

my friends were just talking about an egg replacement they use with there kids because they are allergic as well - I will find out the name and then use soy milk and you could probably make him some bread or pancakes with that. try cutting up bell peppers - they are crunchy and kids like the sound (red and yellow are sweeter than green) grapes, pineapple, tomatoes, Ham (all kids love sliced ham from the deli)! you might want to check out some websites with message boards for kids with allergies - they might have better ideas. love ya

Full House said...

Hey thanks Robin it was a nice surprise to see your comment on my blog. I hope all is well with you! Let's last time I saw you had to have been @ Liza's shower when we were chatting on the couch.

Man on the whole diet thing for Henry. Let's see I think these allergies are somewhat common so there's got to be lots of ideas on the web. Check out Quinoa. It can be found @ all health food stores, Tader Joes's, Sprouts, Whole Foods etc. Google it and you will find it is a very balanced item. It is high in protein amongst other health values. I really like it and will feed it to the boys as cereal(with honey, cinnamon and soymilk) or mix it into ckn. salad. Other than that check out things made of whole grain spelt. It's a relative to wheat but is supposed to be easier on the system (maybe he can't have that either I don't know). Anyway they make lots of wheat-less breads, cereal bars etc. these days that can be found @ Trader Joe's & Sprouts as well. I need help with the fruit & veggie thing too. I just steam lots of veggies.

Good luck I know it's hard enough to just feed kids let alone adding in the whole food allergy variable.

Tori :) said...

Can he have fruit juice? Or like V8 stuff?

Gina said...

I asked my friend Rachel to come over and comment as she's had similar allergy trouble with her little guy.

To get Liam to eat mandarine oranges or any fruit from a can, I put sprinkles on them... sprinkles make everything taste better, right? Even though they don't really taste at all!

Gina said...

Oh we do a lot of fruit smoothies too. Add spinach or kale for more vitamins. I generally just keep bananas, berries and any other fruit that may have almost gone bad in the freezer. Add soy milk or juice instead of yogurt or milk.

Anonymous said...

Hi there! I'm Gina's friend (but I just go by super-secret RC identity in the bloggy world, please).

A couple of thoughts (even though I'm only battling the dairy allergy here) - I would check out the following Web sites:

http://www.spewdfree.com/ (It stands for soy, peanut, egg, wheat and dairy-free, as her child is allergic to all five.) She has a few recipes.

http://enjoylifefoods.com/ (Company caters to food free of the 8 most common allergies - a bit pricey, but they have recipes with their items, to make other things.)

http://www.iansnaturalfoods.com/ (Again, great allergy-free foods, depending on the various allergies. All of the allergy-free foods are a bit pricier, but worth it for variety.)

http://www.foodallergy.org/ (They feature recipes and have other links.)

My little guy is also picky about fruit and veggies - a texture issue for him. It is getting better, but I've gone back to include pureed fruits and veggies in his diet on days where I don't feel we are getting enough into him. Applesauce and bananas are a staple in our house, too.

Plus, I've found a few good veggie/fruit juice blends that I let him have as his juice in the morning, to load him up on those food groups right away.

Hope this helps! Feel free to stop by, or let me know if I can help you out with anything else. You have it rougher than I do in choices, but hopefully these help!

Klin said...

There are some vegan products that don't have dairy and I hear that almond milk is really good. I don't know if almond is closer to peanuts or not. There is butter made with out animal products, too.

I do a smoothie to keep up on my fruits and vegetables and I do add kale for added nutrients.

That has to be hard for you to struggle with your baby.