Eggs...and Other Forbidden Food

I have to say I am very impressed with our chickens. We weren't expecting any eggs until August but on Sunday we found our first two little eggs. Since then we have found two more and let me tell you there really is a big difference between what you buy in the store and fresh eggs. We finally have the chickens that we have talked about for years and they are starting to lay great looking eggs, sounds great, except for one thing, Frederick was born with food allergies. Luckily his Doctor recognised the symptoms for what they were and so we found out while he is still so young.

The most common allergies to pass through my milk are dairy, soy, eggs and nuts. I haven't been eating these items for over a month now and all his symptoms were gone. Hoping that he wasn't really allergic to eggs I decided to eat one bite of an egg on Sunday. Monday he was back to diarrhea, spitting up and fussy. This morning I noticed the rash he gets on his ear is coming back (this also happened when I ate something with soy lecithin and milk fat in it). We have an appointment with a Pediatric GI Doctor August 14th which I am excited about. In the mean time I have been learning a lot about food sensitivity and allergies.

Food sensitivity only effect the GI system (throwing up or diarrhea) while allergies can show up in tons of different ways (hives, asthma like symptoms, etc). Also while GI symptoms seem like they are not as big of a deal apparently every time they react to the food they are allergic to cells in their intestines are dying and they can end up with absorption problems later in life because so much of their GI system doesn't work well (or at all). Also 90% of babies with food allergies are allergic to dairy so if there is a family history of food allergies you shouldn't eat dairy while you are pregnant (something I wish I would have done in hind sight) and of those babies 50% are also allergic to soy. I also have learned that anyone with food allergies should avoid nuts until they are over three years of age. It has been a learning process, especially with cutting out soy as that is in almost all processed food (basically anything fast and easy is out). I think I would be starving if not for the help of Kristi (whose daughter is allergic to dairy and eggs), thanks for your support and great ideas! As you can see in the picture below Frederick is doing great. He is growing well and catching up with Brandon's records in the chubby baby category. Adjusting to this new diet is a challenge but one look at Frederick's happy face and it is very worth all the effort.