Stickers and such

Saturday we went to a harvest party with a bunch of college students from Campus Outreach. We had a great time, and Bryce was a huge hit with the girls. I brought Bryce's epi-pen in my purse and kept it close all night, but with everyone holding him and him cruising around the tables I felt mild-panic at the idea of some of the desserts having peanut butter in them.

Lee and I decided we need to go ahead and get stickers for Bryce to wear. They make bracelets too, but that can probably wait til he is a little older. So, I am about to buy into the food allergy identification industry unless I buy sticker paper and make them myself! Below is a link to a bunch of allergy product links...

http://www.foodallergysupportmn.org/Resources/Products/tabid/70/Default.aspx

Liquid Vitamins...a new habit

New research has come out that children need twice as much vitamin D as originally recommended. Last week I started listing all of Bryce's foods plus liquids (rice and goat milk) and was getting frustrated at making all the nutrients add up. Then remembered Bryce's liquid vitamins. I'm going to start giving them to him every day, and it should be enough Vitamin D too.

Now here is the catch, starting new habits like giving him vitamins every day is challenging for me (sad I know!). Dr Maxwell Maltz wrote a book that observed it takes 21 days to create a new habit. I find it kind of fascinating, and so I guess 21 days is my first goal!

http://www.aap.org/family/vitdpatients.htm

http://www.aristotle.co.nz/library/series.aspx?seriesId=61

Got Milk?

Now that soy milk is no longer an option, rice and goat's milk are next in line. I just started the goat's milk this week and so far he has reacted well to it. I am still nursing, but would like to wean soon if he can get enough of the right nutrients.

The biggest negative about goat milk is the lack of folic acid and B12 (oh, and the stinky burps and expensive price tag!) We'll be supplementing also with rice milk since it is relatively cheap and is a source of calcium.

This site has nutrient comparisons for cow, formula, goat and human milk...
http://www.saanendoah.com/compare.html (scroll to the bottom for the chart)

What is a RAST test exactly?

"A RAST (Radioallergosorbent test) is a way of measuring the amount of IgE antibody in the blood stream made against a specific allergen. RAST tests and allergy skin tests give similar information. Both identify IgE antibody (allergy antibody) against materials you might be allergic to...Skin tests may pick up some allergies that would be missed by RAST tests but skin tests have a small risk of precipitating an allergic reaction. "

Information retrieved from:
http://www.oregonallergy.com/id17.html
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/MEDLINEPLUS/ency/imagepages/19334.htm

Rast Test Results

Our son was tested at 10 months for 22 foods.

No Reaction

• Chocolate
• Scallops
  
• Codfish
  
• Orange
  
• Pork
  
• Potato
• Shrimp
• Tomato
• Yeast
• Walnut
• American Cheese
  

Mild Reaction (Class 0/1)

• Barley .28
• Egg Whites .2
• Wheat .21
• Cashew .19
• Cottage Cheese .26

Moderate Reaction (Class 1 or 2)

• Cow Milk .47 (Hives at 9 mo.)
  
• Oat 2.46 (Allergic to Aveeno products)
  
• Soybean 1.10
• Cheddar Cheese* .16
  
• Yogurt* .25 (Mild Hives at 11 mo.)
  

Serious Reaction (Class 4)

• Peanut 21.90
  

*These were from a separate test and were classified differently than the 0ther 20 foods.