I’ve run across so many moms who wanted to do what we do but they didn’t know where to start and I’ve wanted to help every one of them but as you can imagine that can be time consuming so it occurred to me to just create a website and list how we do it complete with menu’s and recipes. I know this is a lot of info to take in and will probably be overwhelming but take it in stride and know that mistakes can and will happen. We had 3 major melt downs today, 2 were due to low blood sugar but the 3rd… that was my fault. She had a major meltdown from low blood sugar so I fed her chicken nuggets with Honey Mustard. It wasn’t until a few hours after I got the kids to sleep (a total nightmare tonight thanks to a major meltdown) that the ingredients flashed in front of me and something jumped out so I went to the fridge and got it out and sure enough. I’d seen “vinegar” but some how missed the fact that it was “cider vinegar” which causes major reactions in her. I’m still learning and figuring out what affects her and what doesn’t but I’ve seen such a radical change in my daughter that I’m willing to stay on the diet and make it work for our family.
Why do we follow this crazy diet?
We’re gluten free as both my 6 yr old and I have Celiac Disease and allergies to Dairy (actual allergy not intolerance) and my dd is also allergic to Soy, Seafood, Lamb, Beef, Tomatillos, Cherry, Pear, Pineapple, Peanuts, Nuts, Grapes and Pink Beans. To add to the fun I’m also allergic to Peanuts, Strawberries & Amaranth. I needed a diet that would work for both of us most meals because I’m too lazy to be cooking 2 different meals every time.
What caused us to get rid of artificial colors, flavors and salicylates?
A few months ago I was at my wits end with my daughter and seriously wondered if perhaps she needed a different family because I obviously must be a horrible mom to have such a rotten child. She threw horrible violent tantrums, screamed about everything as if she were possessed, kicked, hit, acted like a wild animal at times. It got to the point I didn’t want to be around her EVER she was such a horrible child to be around. That’s hard to swallow as a mom, especially one who has practiced attachment parenting since birth. I did try many discipline techniques and nothing worked, time in, time out, I even broke down and started spanking which just made things worse. I knew I had to do something and decided it’s either medication or a foster home because CPS is going to show up at some point with all this screaming and I was hanging on by a thread with my sanity. I just couldn’t take it anymore so I took her in to be medicated for ADHD. We ended up getting assigned to a councilor I went to a few years back and she remembered me and the fact that I get psych symptoms (severe anxiety and depression) from gluten and asked if it was possible my daughter was just reacting to a food in her diet. I said no and brushed it off. Later that week I finally found a box of gluten free (GF) Trix that I thought would be a nice treat for my daughter. Some how it took 3 times of feeding it to her and her completely flipping out to the point I almost called mental health to have her committed for a couple days she was so out of control and I was worried that 1) I was going to hurt her I was so frustrated or 2) she was going to hurt me, herself or the baby (she was fond of jumping on the bed with the baby on it and more then once I snatched the baby literally an instant before she landed where the baby was laying). We had days like that on a regular basis but feeding her the Trix really amplified the symptoms and made me think. I’d heard of the Feingold diet and that it meant removing artificial colors, flavors and salicylates from the diet and started paying closer attention to what I was feeding her and realized her diet was full of them and the more she ate the worse her behavior got.
So out of desperation I read everything I could find online and at my local library and thought interlibrary loan and was convinced she needed the Feingold diet but we had 2 problems. I’m a single mom and low income to boot, to help with that the Feingold Association offers financial assistance in buying there program. I had the chance to look at a copy of the program that was 2 years old and realized we had a 2nd problem and it was major. The diet consisted of many foods we can not eat. I called the Feingold Assn and explained our situation and they were honest that there materials would not be that helpful to us since we could only eat a few items on there lists with our restrictions (I am thankful for there honesty!). So I started researching and thanks to dealing with multiple severe food allergies over the last 6 years I was able to put together a diet that eliminated the allergens and the artificial colors & flavors. A 3rd thing occurred to me, my daughter is underweight and we’ve not had luck in getting her to gain weight so when creating my menu’s I decided each “meal” should be at least 500 calories and every snack at least 200-300 calories and I really don’t care if there high fat. I make no claims that these meals are nutritionally balanced (as long as they balance out over the week your fine, it really doesn’t need to be every day). I started off by brain storming and went though all my cook books and discovered 2 books that had tons of recipes we could use. The Gluten Free Kitchen by Roben Ryberg and Gluten Free 101 by Carol Fenster which ironically are my favorite 2 cook books anyway. Because of copyrights for menu’s that use recipes for there books I will just state the book and page number the recipe can be found on. You should be able to find them at your local library or though interlibrary loan for a small fee (mine charges 50 cents) or you can buy them through Amazon.
To make things even easier I will be listing the brands of foods I use, again I make no guarantee the foods are safe but there what we use. I sure someone will ask, yes I do have a current copy of the Feingold program thanks to a kind and generous mama who decided the program wasn’t what she was looking for and gave it to me and some of the foods I use are listed in the program but most are not and I will not tell you if an item has been ok’d by the Feingold Assn in there program or not. I will only share with you what we do that I have found though my own work since most of what we eat is not listed in there materials.
So… on to the Menu’s!
I started out just creating a list of foods that we like then looked at new recipes I’ve never tried and looked at calorie content which was key if it made it onto our menu. My goal was to get 2000 calories a day into my daughter to see if she would gain weight (she’s being checked for Pancreatic Insufficiency this month since we found out I have it and she’s inherited bad eyes, celiac, allergies and everything else so it makes sense to rule it out since she has signs of it) The menu will change as we figure out triggers and such, we’ve been stuck in what Feingold calls “stage 1” because we have not had any luck reintroducing any salicylates into her diet and I’m thinking of just pulling all high salicylate foods and not just the ones Feingold recommends removing to see what happens.
Breakfast
Bacon, eggs & toast
Pancakes w/ real Maple Syrup
Pumpkin Pancakes w/ Maple Syrup
Oatmeal (McCanns Irish Oats)
Waffles
Gorilla Munch (GF version of Kix)
Amazon Frosted Flakes
Koala Crisp (we stopped eating this when we discovered cocoa seemed to trigger behavioral issues for us)
Egg McMuffins (It’s the only way I know to describe these!)
French Toast
Sausage, eggs and toast
Lunch
Ham
Egg Salad
Chicken Salad
Refried Beans w/ corn chips or Fritos
Chicken Nuggets
Chief Salad
Lettuce Wraps
Dinner
White bean soup
Lentil Soup
Vegetable Pot Pie Soup
Mafratta (think Subway but its round)
Hamburgers (Ostrich, Bison or
BBQ Chicken
Lemon Pepper Chicken
Chicken Taquitoes
Chief Salad
Snacks/Deserts/Side Dishes
Fritos
Carrot Cake
Pumpkin Muffins
Banana Muffins
Deviled Eggs
Potato Salad
Biscuits
Pumpkin Spice Muffins
Gingerbread
Lemon Cookie Bars
Pumpkin Pie
Rice Pudding
Bran Spice Muffins
Banana Bread
Avocado
Carrots
Celery
Banana
Brussels sprouts
Zucchini
Broccoli
Squash
