Anyone have kids with food allergies?

[Tara]

Just wondering if anyone else is facing the challenges of moving towards a high raw diet with your family, but having to accommodate multiple severe food allergies? I try to be creative with my son's diet, but his food limitations often leave me having to prepare alternate dishes for him... I spend a lot of time on food prep. Sigh.

[Bunny Berry]

What type of food allergies does he have? I can totally relate to making multiple meals, since the rest of my family isn't raw (or even vegetarian)!

[KirbyCuke]

I am having these very issues right now.My daughter (5) has been sick on and off for the past year was just diagnosed this week with multiple food allergies to egg,citric acid,artificial colors,flavors and preservatives.
hmm what can she eat??lol
My guess ..raw foods is sure looking good about right now :-)

so we went thru my raw cookbooks and came up with some yummy treats she wants and this is just the nudge i needed to throw me into the high raw category cause I cant take this cooking 3 meals and uncooking 1,lol
I also bought Rawdawg's new e-book and it is awesome and she loved a few things already.
I think just by getting her more involved in all of this...she is taking this as a positive thing right now

I can really feel for you..my next challenge is going away for a week on vacation next week with no kitchen where we are going..

[Jean]

I have 1 kid with nut allergies and I have multiple allergies and the rest of my family is not raw. I make some dishes that are raw and edible by the whole family and then add non raw ingredients to it for them. ie Zucchin pasta with some sausage or BBQ for them. I try to BBQ on the weekend and create with that for them during the week. One stop cooking! They will all eat my raw desserts if they are nut free and I add nuts to mine if I choose. Lots of recipes using Tahini for substitute nut butter as well as seeds for nuts. If you can't find a recipe create it like I do.

[Lori_G]

Yes, we are with you. We have multiple severe food allergies/intolerances. Just to name a few right off of the top of my head: gluten, dairy, soy, refined sugars, honey (even local), dyes, preservatives, chemicals, citrus, cashews, pecans, watermelon, tomatoes, pineapple, watermelon ;(, grapes, rice, potatoes (regular and sweet), chocolate.... I could go on but it makes my head hurt!!

Anyway, we went through some intensive elimination diets to discover what we were really intolerant to as well as allergic to. We (being myself, and my 2 boys ages 7 and 8) tested for food allergies but what came up was really the biggies like gluten, dairy, etc. It really didn't show some of the individual foods, which a lot of them happen to be intolerances and not true IGG reactions, but for us those are some of the most severe reactions. We have been eating like this for 4 years now.

The dehydrator is my best friend and I keep it going all the time. It is great for snacks and cereals for the boys and I. Also, I have discovered that some of the fruits that we cannot handle normally we can handle after they have been dehydrated - weird, I know. I make meals and I make sure that there are foods on the table that everyone will eat. That is what I put on the table, and that is just what you get. They can eat it or not. But with that said I pretty much run our kitchen so that if any one of us have an allergy I just do not bring that food into our house. So basically I bring in NOTHING that is preprepared, or out of a box, bag or a can. Because for some reason we even react, sometimes big time, to raw foods that are in packaging that have no preservatives in them. (Like Lara Bars for example, we cannot eat those at all, but I can make them homemade and we can eat them with no problem).

Anyway, all that rambling to say that I totally understand the challenges that you face. I felt frustrated and it became too much of a time issue for me to prepare different meals for everyone. We just over time found basic dishes that I adapted that everyone could eat. Also, I confess that we are not 100% raw. I do serve cooked (usually lightly steamed) meals at times, I just do as much raw as I can for us and don't stress about the rest. The last thing I need is a legalistic checklist being held over my head!! So, I rejoice that we have such a variety of foods that we can eat and we have come to enjoy being the object of peoples curiosity when they learn what we can't eat by educating them about what we can.

[Flip flop Mamma]

We dealt with things like this when my 3yo was smaller, but it was mostly wheat, citrus, MSG, food dyes. Now that she's mostly raw it's not a problem :)

My kids eat the following:
green smoothies
fruit smoothies
Salads covered in dressing
blueberries
clementines
bananas
apples
mangos
Organic cheese
hormone free cow's milk
peanut butter
some organic cereal
tomatoes
avocados

they do quite a few mono meals and since they've gone mostly raw, my 3yo which has always had a problem putting on weight and is very small for her size has gained 1 1/2 lbs!!