It has been suggested that I do a post on Nathaniel and his eating.
You may remember that Nathaniel is allergic to Nightshades (tomatoes, eggplant, white potatoes – not sweet potatoes, tomatilloes, peppers – but not black pepper, ground cherries – grow on a vine, not a tree), and dairy. I am keeping him away from peanuts as I developed an allergy to that while I was pregnant with him. As a precaution and because I don’t trust “big Ag” I am also keeping him away from all grains. Many grains are either GMO, or sprayed with pesticides before we get them and I just think that is a bad thing to give a child who clearly already has some issues.
What this means in practical terms
When we are at home, we generally give him what we are eating. We do have times where we eat things with tomatoes and such in it, and in those times we either take his portion out before adding his “no foods” and make his without, or we give him something else to eat. Generally that is chicken, which we always get the organic, non-antibiotic kind.
When we are eating out this poses more of a challenge though. At home we cook with lard, coconut oil, palm oil or ghee (which he can have even though it is made from butter). Out and about I don’t know what they are cooking with and so I assume they are cooking with Canola (a plant with a dubious past) or vegetable oil (which is mostly corn). I normally try to get him grilled chicken, or fish. However sometimes this may not even be completely grain free. Often times companies put stuff on their chicken that is invisible to us, but is actually more then just chicken. I grin and bear it when I have to, but I try to avoid those situations whenever possible. Instead I bring my own food for Nathaniel.
Bringing my own food for Nathaniel though poses other challenges though as he is getting older. He often wants to try what the rest of his family is eating too. Any parent knows that saying no to a child is always hard. It is much easier to say yes. So now I am trying to plan ahead for when we will be eating out so he can have something similar to what we are eating, but isn’t actually what we are eating that he shouldn’t have. It can be hard, but it is worth it to not have those sad eyes and the inevitable “no” coming from me.
Tonight we are meeting Tony out for dinner before we go to church. We are going to have burgers. Nathaniel will have home grilled chicken and baked white sweet potato. He will likely have some watered down juice to drink. It isn’t exactly what we will be having, but it is close enough. One of us is bound to order chicken.
Having a child with allergies isn’t easy. Trust me it would be MUCH easier to just give him whatever he wants. But this is the world we are in now. My hope is I can take him to the allergist this summer and figure out exactly what is going on with him. Though some of these may be seen as just “intolerances” and that ultimately is something the allergist can’t help us with, but the outcome is the exact same.
I am writing this post today because I have had several conversations recently and people don’t seem to understand what the world of childhood allergies are like and what it means on a practical level. I hope this helps.