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Feb. 1st, 2004 09:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
the_rckI decided that it was time to investigate what might be causing Delia's rash. Shortly after we started solids, she developed some rash, and it's gotten much worse in the last few weeks. I was contemplating eliminating all solids and then reintroducing things much more gradually, and I was thinking about trying to get rice out of her diet since that was the first food and the rash started then.
I really wasn't looking forward to the elimination diet. My own food allergies cause rash, but the amount of exposure required for a reaction varies wildly. I can, for example, have a serving of ice cream every day and never have problems, but if I add in more ice cream or some cheese or other dairy, I'll get rash. Nutrasweet, on the other hand, causes fairly immediate rash with just a mouthful or two of sweetened food. Peanuts fall in the middle ground. I can have some occasionally, but if I have them, say, three days in a row, I'll get rash.
So I was figuring on at least a week of pretty much nothing but each individual food before we could rule it safe. Delia'd hate it, but we'd need that much time to be sure.
Then I started looking at the jars of baby food that we had. My main goal was to find out which contain rice and put them aside so we wouldn't use them. I found something unexpected, something that Scott and I both should have spotted and didn't. Sigh... I think we each thought we'd read the ingredients already and just assumed that everything was fine.
One of the foods we've been giving Delia recently is a green bean and potatoes mix. As it turns out, it also contains cow's milk. Dairy products weren't on the official agenda for quite some time since both Scott and I have food allergies. My guess is that this stealth dairy is behind the rash. We're going to see what a week or two without it will do, but she's already showing improvement after four days, so... She's probably got a dairy allergy. At least, it's a fairly mild one.
But Scott and I are both feeling guilty about not having read the label. And I'm feeling kind of like a bad mother for not making my baby food. The jars really are more convenient while we're still trying out vegetables and fruits (and for anything containing carrots it's safer). It's just that if I made my own, I'd know what I was putting in it.
Never mind that I'm at best an indifferent cook.
I really wasn't looking forward to the elimination diet. My own food allergies cause rash, but the amount of exposure required for a reaction varies wildly. I can, for example, have a serving of ice cream every day and never have problems, but if I add in more ice cream or some cheese or other dairy, I'll get rash. Nutrasweet, on the other hand, causes fairly immediate rash with just a mouthful or two of sweetened food. Peanuts fall in the middle ground. I can have some occasionally, but if I have them, say, three days in a row, I'll get rash.
So I was figuring on at least a week of pretty much nothing but each individual food before we could rule it safe. Delia'd hate it, but we'd need that much time to be sure.
Then I started looking at the jars of baby food that we had. My main goal was to find out which contain rice and put them aside so we wouldn't use them. I found something unexpected, something that Scott and I both should have spotted and didn't. Sigh... I think we each thought we'd read the ingredients already and just assumed that everything was fine.
One of the foods we've been giving Delia recently is a green bean and potatoes mix. As it turns out, it also contains cow's milk. Dairy products weren't on the official agenda for quite some time since both Scott and I have food allergies. My guess is that this stealth dairy is behind the rash. We're going to see what a week or two without it will do, but she's already showing improvement after four days, so... She's probably got a dairy allergy. At least, it's a fairly mild one.
But Scott and I are both feeling guilty about not having read the label. And I'm feeling kind of like a bad mother for not making my baby food. The jars really are more convenient while we're still trying out vegetables and fruits (and for anything containing carrots it's safer). It's just that if I made my own, I'd know what I was putting in it.
Never mind that I'm at best an indifferent cook.
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Date: 2004-02-01 08:06 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-02-02 05:05 am (UTC)Re:
Date: 2004-02-02 06:16 am (UTC)Thanks for the good wishes, though.
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Date: 2004-02-02 12:13 pm (UTC)Labels are weird things; I bought some soy cheese for a vegan friend because I figured soy cheese would be safe (because, it's soy cheese!). It turns out that some soy cheese people augment with animal protein and some don't; you have to read the label and see. I would have never thought of that.
Aren't dairy allergies something that kids are prone to? It would seem to me that the baby food people wouldn't put dairy in things that you wouldn't expect to be dairy but I don't know really.
Re:
Date: 2004-02-02 01:49 pm (UTC)I've heard about the thing with soy cheese before. I think the protein's called casein. It's in a lot of milk substitutes and other pseudo-dairy products. I think it's used to simulate the texture of dairy, but I'm not sure.
I think Scott and I got caught on the assumption that putting dairy in baby veggies wouldn't happen for the very reason you mention. Of course, I think a lot of people still consider food allergies rare. Also, the usual formula for bottle fed babies is based on cow's milk, so it's not an altogether unreasonable assumption that many babies will have had dairy products in some form before they get to solids.