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Tuesday, October 20, 2015

What its like being an allergy mum

When I was pregnant I never imagined I'd have a child with allergies. I knew I'd be apprehensive when trying peanuts for the first time given so many kids react, but other than that I never really considered allergies would be a problem. The only allergies I knew of in our family are seafood based and I figured the baby wouldn't be eating seafood for a few years anyway so that never really concerned me.

What I never, ever imagined was that I'd have a daughter who has a severe dairy allergy. An allergy that wasn't diagnosed for weeks despite my constant trips to the drs pleading with them for help because I knew something wasn't right. An allergy that caused her to scream inconsolably for hours on end. One that caused her skin to be flaky and dry and over time develop an extreme eczema rash covering half her body. An allergy that caused her to projectile vomit repeatedly after every feed. An allergy that even caused her to stop breathing on a couple of {extremely scary} occasions.

But that's exactly the reality I find myself in. I'm an allergy mum. And its not just dairy, she's also allergic to numerous other foods {soy, eggs, avocado, apple, pear, nectarine, bacon, pork and sausages to be exact, and probably a bunch of other foods we're yet to try}. On the whole I have to say having a child with food allergies sucks {for so many reasons}. People often dismiss allergy mums as hypochondriac helicopter mums who overreact, but trust me that's not the case. To others we may seem to be over protective, but in reality we're just trying to keep our kids safe like every other parent, we just have to work a little harder to do that. There seem to be a number of misconceptions out there so I thought I'd give you a glimpse into what life's like with a child who has food allergies.


I'm always worrying if she's going to have a reaction.
Trialling new foods with an allergy bub isn't fun and exciting like it should be. Its nerve racking. She's had different types of reactions to each food she has an allergy to, some are mild and she probably doesn't even notice them, but others are quite painful and can become life threatening. Reactions include hives, welts, chemical burns in her nappy, swelling, vomiting, and in some cases she can stop breathing. It means I'm constantly living on high alert. I'd love to be able to give her a new food and not have to second guess whether its going to cause a reaction, but that will never be a reality for us.

I always have to monitor what she's eating.
When she was a baby controlling her food intake was relatively easy because a) she couldn't move and b) I was her only source of food. Now that she's bigger, mobile and can talk {read: can try and con other people into giving her food she wants} its a lot harder. I have to watch her like a hawk whenever she's around other kids with food. 

Telling a toddler they can't eat certain food is hard.
Most parents have to explain to their kids that they can't have certain foods at some point, i.e. no you can't have ice-cream for breakfast, but I have to do it on a daily basis and not just regarding junk food. I have to say no to the most basic of foods, like apple juice and biscuits, things other toddlers eat every day. There are often tantrums. She doesn't understand why her friends can have certain foods and she can't, but thankfully most of the time she accepts it. But it breaks my heart that she can't eat the same food as her friends.

I make her food from scratch.
I was going to make most of her food from scratch anyway so in reality having to do this hasn't made a huge difference in our lives. However, having to do it, rather than choosing to do it, sometimes does leave me a bit exhausted. Making her food is not as simple as grabbing a few things and throwing something together, it involves scouring the health food aisle to find the limited number of items I can actually use to bake with. It has to be pre-planned to ensure I have the necessary substitutes on hand. There have been so many times I wish I could just buy a packet of biscuits, or muffins instead of needing to bake for her to have snacks. I'd also love to be able to take her to a restaurant and order her a meal off the menu instead of having to make her food and take it along with us {then hope we don't get in trouble for bringing it and not paying for something off the menu}.

I'm an expert at reading ingredient lists.
Although I make the majority of her food from scratch, there's still times where I need to read ingredient lists on foods to make sure they're ok. For example when finding substitutes to use in cooking {like nuttelex, bio cheese and coconut yoghurt}, or when other mums offer her packet food. Years ago I never really looked at ingredient lists when buying food, I just bought what tasted good, as most people do. Now, I'm a ninja when it comes to deciphering ingredient lists, I can spot even the smallest amount of hidden soy or milk.

Birthday parties aren't as fun.
Nothing sends an allergy mum into a panic quite like the words birthday party. I don't expect other parents to cater for her dietary needs when organising their party, that's not fair on them, but it does mean that she's not really left with many options when it comes to eating food at parties. I wish she could just go to a party, eat all the food and have fun like all the other kids.

I can't send her to day-care.
Ok so technically I could send her to day-care if I could find one which would cater to her allergies {which is hard enough in itself}. However, after hearing first hand of how kids sometimes drink each others bottles by accident at day-care, there's no way I'm risking my child ending up drinking milk {even if its completely by accident}. If that was ever to occur her choking is silent and deadly and unless a carer was literally watching her face to face there's no way they'd even know she couldn't breathe. Given the ratio of carers to children in most child care centres I know she won't be watched face to face 100% of the time so the risk that something could go wrong {as minute as it may be}, is one that I can't take. I would never forgive myself if something happened to her.

Some people are just down right ignorant.
I get that people don't understand food allergies and that's fair enough because I didn't have a huge grasp on them before either, but some people actually dismiss her food allergies {because apparently everything the paediatrician has told me is wrong and they know better}. I've also had lectures from people {who aren't drs and clearly have no understanding of cmpa} telling me all sorts of different things that I should do to make her right "oh she's allergic to dairy, just give her lactose free stuff, she can have the lactose free yoghurt and milk she'll be fine". Actually she won't because she's allergic to dairy protein, not lactose and she'd probably stop breathing if you gave her any of that. The truth is none of their {hopefully well meaning} advice would have any affect on her allergies other than to exacerbate them and cause reactions. In the beginning I used to try and educate them, but it soon became clear these people think they know my daughter and her allergies better than I do, so instead of correcting them, I usually just allow them to say their piece and thank them for their advice and move on {while making a mental note to never leave my child alone in their care}.

In a way I understand why allergy mums come across as helicopter mums to other parents. From the outside it probably does seem like we're overly paranoid and coddle our children, but trust me it comes from a very necessary place. The truth is you can't really understand what it's like to care for a child with food allergies until you have to do it yourself. Unless it's your own child who has the potential to have a life threatening reaction you'll never truly understand the enormity of it. You just can't, but hopefully this has given you a glimpse into what its like. And hopefully you can now see we're not crazy helicopter mums, we just don't want to lose our precious babies.

Toni x
Friday, October 16, 2015

Dairy Free & Egg Free Jam Drops Recipe

Apart from tinkering and creating savoury recipes for dinner, I've never really had the need or desire to bake. Especially sweet things. With just two of us in the house it was always easier to go buy a cake or biscuits, because the effort I'd put into baking them and the fact we'd never eat them all, meant it really wasn't worth doing myself. However, along comes a child with dairy, soy and egg allergies {amongst others} and suddenly I find myself with a pretty good excuse to bake everything from scratch. So this year I've been desperately creating recipes for dairy free, toddler friendly foods and at some point that has to include sweet treats {because savoury just doesn't cut it full time when a toddler is concerned}.

So, my latest recipe is classic jam drops, with a dairy free and egg free twist. Until a few weeks ago I had absolutely no idea how to bake jam drops, but Cate is currently running a series of 31 days of cookies where she's baking 31 different cookies over 31 days and she's inspired me to give cookies a go. She shared a jam drops recipe as part of her series and it inspired me to come up with a dairy free and egg free jam drops recipe.

Allergy friendly dairy and egg free jam drops

It's relatively easy to make most recipes dairy free if you know what to substitute things with. In this case I've substituted butter with Nuttelex, and milk with almond milk. I went with almond milk for this recipe instead of oat milk because almond milk {although I use unsweetened} has a sweeter taste than oat milk. I also omitted custard powder, which in most cases would be an ok ingredient, but I don't take any risks when it comes to bub. For our jam drops I've used strawberry jam, but you can use any jam of choice. Just make sure not to overfill the holes as the jam will spread a little as it cooks.

Dairy free and egg free allergy friendly jam drops recipe ingredients

The jam drops have a lovely crumbly texture with the nice sticky gooey jam in the middle. Be warned though they're addictive, you won't be able to stop at one. Each time I've made them they've been eaten within a day {and the recipe makes approximately 25 of them}, so they must be good. They also go really well with a cup of tea as an afternoon snack.

Dairy free jam drops with a cup of tea

DAIRY FREE JAM DROPS RECIPE


INGREDIENTS


  • 80g Nuttelex {softened}
  • 2 tablespoons almond milk
  • ½ teaspoon vanilla essence
  • 1 cup self raising flour
  •  cup caster sugar
  • Jam of choice

METHOD

1. Pre-heat oven to 180
2. Beat together butter and sugar until it is well combined and turns pale
3. Mix in milk and vanilla essence
4. Sift in flour a little at a time until well combined and mixture turns to a dough consistency
5. Roll dough into small balls and place on tray
6. Indent a small hole into each ball and fill with jam
7. Bake for 15-18 minutes {depending on size of biscuits}



MORE ALLERGY FRIENDLY DAIRY FREE RECIPES



Friday, October 9, 2015

When your child breaks you.

We all have those moments when we reach the end of our tether and just want to lose our shit or crumble into a useless mess on the floor, right? I know I do. Parenting small humans is such a hard and relentless job. And tiring, oh my god its so tiring. There are bound to be periods of time where we feel like we just can't cope with it all.

Yesterday I had one of those moments.


After a week of up and down night sleeping plus unpredictable day naps {i.e. will she have one or won't she}, I've been exhausted. But I went off to mothers group regardless because I still needed my adult time {with real people outside of facebook} and to ply myself with copious cups of tea {mothers group is always good for that} plus I knew she needed to socialise with the other kids too. We definitely aren't home bodies, it drives us batty being stuck in the same four walls for too long, so we go out more often then not even when we're a little bit exhausted.

Inevitably though there comes a time of the day where all the kids get tired and are losing their shit and start to get frustrated with each other's company. Their play deteriorates into play fighting and we become referees instead of relaxed mums watching our cute kids play together. Coincidentally yesterday this point in time coincided with me having a raging headache, so that didn't help. Funny how kids can always pick the moments where you're at your weakest to cause the most havoc. They're smart like that.

So at this point in time we decided to call it quits and leave. Cue mass exodus of mothers group. If you have kids though you'll know leaving somewhere is not a quick exercise, it takes time. Time to pack stuff away, time to bribe convince them to stop playing with the toy they've recently taken ownership of that isn't actually their's and then more time to get them out the door and into the actual car. This time is often filled with crying, yelling, screaming, kicking, throwing things, and any other way they can exert their displeasure at the situation. It's so much fun.

One of the other mums was doing much better than I was and managed to leave without much fuss while I had a screaming banshee follow me into the toilet. When I finally managed to remove her from the toilet {after yet another tantrum because I stopped her trying to pull off all the toilet paper and shove it in the toilet} I was greeted with an empty peaceful {apart from my still screaming child} room while they were outside. As much as I wanted to hurriedly pack said screaming child and all our things into the car and disappear, I decided to take a moment and sit on the couch and re-group.

And then I lost my shit and cried like a baby right along with her.

I'm usually ok with handling her tantrums. I can usually keep my cool. But given how exhausted I was + my pounding headache + her relentless screaming and kicking I reached my limit and lost it. I just sat there on the couch and cried right along with her. In fact I think I had a lot more actual tears than she did. She broke me and I had nothing more to give.

A few minutes later Lyndi {who's house we were at} came back in and saw pathetic me on the couch in a blubbering mess us having our moment on the couch and went and got a toy to distract bub to stop her crying, and then set up a dvd for her to watch for a bit to calm down. Isn't it amazing how kids will respond to someone else, but will ignore everything you say to them. Anyway that's not the point, the point is she saw I wasn't coping and she immediately offered to help. And on top of that she then told me I was doing a good job.

Those are the best words someone can tell you when you're losing your shit and feeling like a really inadequate parent. You're doing a good job.

Those words made me feel so much better. They justified my feelings and reminded me that I have got this and I can do this. No matter how shit I felt in that moment I knew I was doing the best I could and it was so nice to have someone else essentially tell me you are a good parent. We all have good days and bad. We all have those moments when our child breaks us. But its ok. You're still doing a good job.

Of course today bub is back to being her adorable sweet self, and she's having a nap {hallelujah}. Like adults, kids are going to have their days where they're feeling off and they're going to make their feelings known. And often they will do it relentlessly. They're going to push your buttons, and some days they might break you down to the point where you can't do it any more, but its only temporary. It will get better and you will get through it, even if you need to have a good cry. I want you all to know that you're doing a good job.

Have you had a day where your kid/s got the better of you?

Toni x
Tuesday, October 6, 2015

Sensory Play with Kinetic Sand

From early on it was obvious that bub was a very tactile baby, moreso than the other babies we hung out with. She's always loved touching and feeling everything and other mums have commented on it on numerous occasions. So I always knew sensory play would be a big part of our lives. Of course we had to wait until she got over the I-must-put-everything-in-my-mouth stage. That stage seems to go on foooorever, doesn't it? But we finally got past it.

I have to admit I really love sensory play too. I love feeling different textures {perhaps that's where she gets it from}, but I don't always love the mess that goes hand in hand with it. I don't mind playdoh because its relatively easy to clean up {although when she mixes all the colours together my OCD goes off the charts and my brain almost explodes}. However, playing with playdough all the time gets monotonous and if you're like me and don't clean it up as soon as they lose interest then the stuff tends to go hard and become useless. Yea I've been guilty of ruining a few bits of playdough in my time. So we've been expanding our horizons lately and looking for alternatives to the humble old playdough and have discovered kinetic sand.

Kinetic sand 1kg plus shap cutting tools

Being an avid beach babe bub took to the kinetic sand straight away. In fact I think her eyes nearly popped out of her head when she saw it. "Beach mummy, beeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaach!". Sand + the actual beach are both the beach to her, so she was super excited to have her own beach at home. We don't have a sandpit {I know poor deprived child} and kinetic sand is the closest she'll ever get to one, because cats + a tiny townhouse courtyard = no room for a sandpit. Kinetic sand is heaps better though because I can set it up anywhere {we used her play table out in the backyard} and put it away again when we're done. Totally portable and maintenance free.

We've both had heaps of fun using the shape cutters to make different shapes in the sand. Yes we, because we all know I'm a big kid at heart. Bub was also quite impressed with herself using the knife to cut the sand because mummy still doesn't allow her to use real knives. This one is plastic and completely blunt though so it passes the helicopter mum test. The shape cutters are also great to use with playdough or as cookie cutters {but maybe clear the sand residue off first or they may be a tad crunchy}.

Toddler cutting shapes in kinetic sand
Toddler playing with kinetic sand

Kinetic sand has been around for a while now and everyone's been raving about it, so of course I've wanted to try it for ages {but that I-must-put-everything-in-my-mouth stage meant I had to curb my enthusiasm and wait a while}. Kinetic Sand is really cool, mould-able sand. Its basically like the sand equivalent of playdough. Its 98% sand and 2% magic {aka bonding agent} which means it can keep its shape when pushed together so it can be moulded into all different shapes and sculptures. Its similar to playing with wet sand, but when you pick it up it becomes fluid and takes on a fluffy liquid like texture. It has the best of both worlds because you can run it through your fingers like dry sand and mould it like wet sand {plus it wont fly in your face if its windy}. This video demonstrates the texture of it really well.


I tried to make a log shape and cut it into little pieces like the one they cut up in the promo video, but of course I failed miserably. Here's a tip, if you're trying to do something cool to take a photo, don't do it when your 2yr old is around because they will take over and ruin it. Having said that though she made my pathetic little sculpture into an awesome train and drove it around the table. I liked it better as a train anyway. Kids really do have extraordinary imaginations and can make anything into a game. By some fluke I happened to grab my phone and record it before she lost interest.


We also grabbed some of her sand moulds from her sand and water table so I could show her how to make awesome 3d shapes. Of course that was about as successful as the log sculpture incident as she wanted to pick them up straight away. Kinetic sand makes great moulded shapes, however when you pick it up it becomes fluid almost immediately so it breaks apart pretty quickly. As you can imagine toddlers aren't the most delicate of creatures so my poor sand teddy never stood a chance. She still thought it was amazing though. Note to self next time take awesome mould photos while she's napping. 

toddler fingers playing with kinetic sand teddy bear mould



Kinetic sand is a great alternative to going to the beach, for the days you don't have the time or the energy to get everything packed up and drive all the way there. And it can be used indoors so is great for rainy days when kids are bored. Its a really great unstructured play activity which helps build fine motor skills. Plus it keeps kids entertained for ages, bub normally has a maximum attention span of about 15 minutes, but she sits playing with kinetic sand for over an hr at a time. Just make sure you supervise kids while they're playing as they may be tempted to sneak a taste and its not designed to be ingested. If you're after a taste safe sensory option, I have a recipe for edible dirt here which is a similar consistency to kinetic sand.

Are your kids in love with the beach as much as mine?

Toni x

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