Allergy Update

I have had several questions regarding my previous post containing our menu for the week. I didn't mean to post the menu on this blog. I intended for that post to be published on my other blog. Anyway, most of the questions have been regarding Katie and her allergy to chicken. When Katie was diagnosed, the doctor gave us some information regarding food allergies in children. One thing he said was that many children will test as allergic to a food and will later grow out of it. He stressed that at her age (2 1/2 at the time of the test) growing out of the allergy was a very real possiblity. He also told us that many individuals can recover from an allergy if (a) first you totally eliminate the food from the diet for 3-6 months to give the body time to heal and (b) reintroduce the food in small amounts. Once the individual can eat the food again, it should only be eaten every few days. Constant eating of an allergic food leads to more severe reactions. We totally eliminated chicken for 6 months and we now allow Katie to eat chicken every 5-7 days. She could probably have it a little more often but this plan is working for our family. I find that having a written meal plan is very important so that I do not misplan our meals. I also write in on my meal plan what we actually ate. Sometimes I need to change the plan to avoid having chicken too often. For example, I planned to serve breakfast for dinner Saturday night. Some friends of ours gave us a gift card to a restaurant and some other friends offered to watch our children (thanks!). What if Katie eats chicken with the babysitter? I obviously need to have a backup plan for Sunday lunch that does not include chicken.

All in all, Katie seems to be doing a lot better. We still avoid eggs. From what I can tell, Katie's more severe reactions were to the eggs. I will let her eat one muffin or two homemade cookies but I try to limit her consumption of eggs as much as a I can without letting these allergies rule our lives.