CLICK HERE FOR THOUSANDS OF FREE BLOGGER TEMPLATES »

Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Food Trial: Oats

When Mara was a baby and we still were not sure of the extent of her food issues, we-as many parents do, introduced her to oats. I was already aware of her problems with wheat, but was not aware of the cross contamination issue with wheat and oats.

Anyway, at first Mara seemed to do OK with oats, and for the first coupe of times she ate it, she really seemed to enjoy it. I was so excited to have another kind of cereal to feed her!

Then she started waking up throughout the night, more so then usual. Lots of crying, lots of very painful gas. She refused to sleep during the day and just wanted to be held. All the time.

It wasn't until her mucous-filled diapers that we suddenly figured out that it was the oats. We were still learning, and somewhat in denial.

So no more oats for us. Once we figured out her issues with gluten, we assumed that that is why she couldn't tolerate the oats.

Last week my husband came home with this: Bob's Gluten-free oats! I was so excited, as I missed eating oatmeal and being able to use it in cooking.

We tried it with Mara and she loved them with bananas-of course. On Sunday we gave them to her again. Sunday night she was up a few times, crying hysterically. My husband had gone in and rubbed her back, and told me he thought it was her stomach.

Silly me, didn't put two and two together until the next day. Naptime was again filled with tears, and lots of painful gas. As I was sitting there with her, I finally had my lightbulb moment that it had to be the oats.

Another mucous-filled diaper when she woke up confirmed it for us.

So no more oats once again! At least I was able to eat two bowls of it before-hand :)

4 comments:

Becky @ BoysRuleMyLife said...

Oh, I feel for you and Mara. We never had awful diapers, just the anaphylactic reaction to milk. So far that's the only allergen we've come across.

I must say, I do so enjoy reading this blog. I love the recipes and I can "feel" the love in your words for your family.

Thanks, too, for always answering my questions! :)

Julie B said...

thank you so much! I do feel fortunate that her reactions have all been digestive-not fun, but the anaphylactic ones scare me! Mara will be tested again next month, because her allergist feels that she may now start to test positive to some. I wouldn't be surprised if she tests + to soy, given that her reactions have all been severe-nonstop vomiting for hours.

Anonymous said...

HI Julie,

My daughter (3.5) has peanut/tree nut allergies and discovered about two months ago that my son (almost 2) all of a sudden has an egg allergy. I came across your blog through Simply Food Online, Allison. I like your blog, you are way more advanced in this dept of cooking with allergies...so I hope to learn some things! Melissa

Julie B said...

welcome Melissa! I still feel very new at this, but we've come a long way in regards to learning how to cook better. For awhile I felt like we were in this "waiting period", just coming up with simple-yet mostly bland food with the hopes that Mara will soon outgrow it. Over the past year we have decided to no longer hang on to this-we needed to start just enjoying food again, which I really missed.
Anyway-I am babbling :) I am glad you stopped by and hopefully we can learn together!