I love the mother’s instinct.  I think that it is priceless.  Thankfully, my doctor puts a lot of stock in mother’s instinct as well.  She always includes my opinion when making her diagnosis.  I can’t tell you the amount of times that the little nudging feeling inside of me has paid off and I have been grateful that I was aware and listened.

Ever since Nena was small, she has had little issues that have stayed just about that, little issues.  However little these issues are, they seem to add up and become a bit of a problem.  When she was about 3 1/2 she was diagnosed with the big 3 combo.  She has allergies, eczema and asthma.  Now, her asthma is pretty well controlled and she has minimal asthma attacks.  She has several allergy meds that keep her hay fever and sneezing at bay.  Her eczema however, has been a pain in the royal …… 

I have tried for YEARS to get it under control.  I have tried every lotion, cream, ointment, soap and steroid under the sun.  We have a bath dechlorinator, epson salts and bleach baths.  She wears socks and gloves to bed and I have switched laundry detergents about a dozen times.  I have bought a state of the art mega suction vacuum.  We gave away our cute cats.  I even have hepa filters scattered around the house.  However, we still deal with cracking skin. 

A couple of weeks ago, I was slathering on more creams and lotions and wondering what in the world I could do to help this little girls cracking, itching skin. I have already tried everything and I hate the fact that she itches in her sleep.  It suddenly occurred to me that if I was doing everything on the outside to help it that the problem must be coming from inside.

I made an appointment to have her tested for food allergies (I had her seasonal allergies tested a few years ago.  Yikes!  That girl is allergic to EVERYTHING!) They are always booked out several months, but I set the appointment for her and bear (figure out what is stuffing up his nose at the same time) for December.   I was satisfied….. until yesterday.  I got a thought in my head to call and ask if they could get us in earlier.  Low and behold, they could get us in the next morning, today.

We jumped at the chance and made it to Primary Children’s Hospital this morning bright and early.  To make  a long story short, we got the list.  She is now allergic to: milk, wheat, soy and fish!  I was floored.  I left a little shell shocked.  I have tried to live the GFCF diet before with Bear and it is tough.  However, adding soy to the mix, what do you do with that.  Soy is in everything.

I will tell you however, I am so incredibly blessed.  I have an amazingly wonderful and close friend that has 5 children that are allergic to gluten and milk.  I called her on the way home and she talked me through the process. 

When I got home today, I hopped onto Google (gotta love Google) and searched the different food allergies and the symptoms.  Wouldn’t you know, the symptoms that were listed are the same ones that are plaguing my little girl.  For the first time in a while, I have been able to take a big long sigh of relief.  This diet is going to be extremely hard and it is going to take a lot of adjusting and modification, time and energy and not to mention lots of MONEY (this is an expensive eating routine,) but it may just help out my nena.

I am glad that we were able to find this out now while I am still home with my little ones and able to work on drastically altering our lifestyle.  I don’t know how I could have done this if I were working full time and trying to run a household.  Hopefully, by the time I hit that part of life, I will be better apt to handle the food situation.

 Oh, and I am going to give a plug for my amazingly fabulous friend Cami.  She is a mother of 5 of the cutest children that you will ever meet.  They are all celiacs and suffer from milk allergies.  She has spent the last 5 or 6 years researching good nutritious food to feed her family.  Most of the gluten free food is full of starch.  She has been able to eliminate a good amount of starch and add in healthy ingredients and maintain an AMAZING taste.  She has started selling mixes to some of her most requested recipes.  Additionally, she is selling some frozen cookie doughs that will fool you any day with their ingredients.   Her site is listed on my sidebar.  Click on the site and see what she has to offer.  Please pass the word along to anyone that you may know.