This summer we discovered, once and for all, just what foods the Bambino could not eat. A skin test confirmed that he is allergic to wheat and eggs (for now, at least -- he might outgrow these allergies, as is often the case with children.) Luckily, dairy products are fine, if we could just get him to like them. Chapman's vanilla flavoured Gluten-Free, Peanut-Free Ice Cream is the exception, of course. As a toddler, he's typical -- he likes a select list of foods. The challenge is to make sure those foods pack enough nutritional punch and keep him filled up for a reasonable amount of time.
There are many resources available for those with food allergies. I started out with
Allergic Living magazine, and then stumbled upon the website
gluten-free girl and the chef. At
Chapters the Bambina and I parked ourselves for a good chunk of time in front of a large section of allergy and gluten-free cookbooks. Our neighbourhood
Superstore and
Metro grocery stores have a good selection of products (such as
Bob's Red Mill mixes and
Tinkyada rice pastas), but it was in Port Carling, Ontario, on a run to
Foodland, that I discovered a bonanza of products, from Cambridge, Ontario-based
El Peto (buns and pizza dough) to Burlington, Maine's
Cherrybrook Kitchen (Sugar Cookie Mix.) Silly me for not checking sooner, but
Highland Farms, practically in my own backyard, has a great selection of gluten-free/dairy-free/egg-free/soy-free products (I should have known that any grocery store that's Sicilian-owned would seek out as much variety as possible for their clientele.)
Obviously, we're lucky to have these resources available to us, and so we can manage at home. But what happens when we travel? Eat out in restaurants? When the Bambina was a toddler, we were able to just let her munch on some dinner rolls at the table while waiting for our meals to arrive. Not so with the little guy. We pretty much pack as much of his food as possible, from
Maple Leaf Natural Selections Turkey, to
Want Want rice crackers, to any warm food I've brought in the thermos (usually potatoes), to sliced cucumbers and fruit. Once he's happily munching on his appetizers, it's our task to find something on the menu that works for him. Our wonderful allergist's warning about "cross-contamination" is always at the back of my mind. It's my job to make sure that the wait staff and chefs at whatever establishment we're dining at understand right off the bat that they are going to be preparing food for a toddler with allergies. Some of the wait staff we've encountered don't really seem to understand the seriousness of what we're dealing with, and have seemed annoyed with what they must regard as another picky and overbearing mother. Others, like that sweet server at the
Hard Rock Cafe in Niagara Falls, Canada (herself a mom) seemed genuinely concerned, and was full of questions. She had been noticing more and more customers asking for gluten-free items, and wanted to understand what this meant.
Maybe not so surprisingly, the fast food chains seem to be better attuned to feeding those with allergies. Whenever I visit
Wendy's or
McDonald's I am assured that the oil the french fries are cooked in is peanut free and not used for frying anything else (at many restaurants chicken fingers, which are often prepared with egg and wheat, share the same oil as the french fries.) But I ask every time, regardless of how many times I've been to a place. At the take-out entrance of our neighbourhood
Swiss Chalet, there's a booklet containing a chart of all the allergens their food might have come in contact with. This is a smart move that I hope will become a standard practice in the industry.
These are the lessons we've learned so far this past year or so, trying to feed the Bambino. If you've got any for me, please feel free to leave them in the comments.
I feel like I've dropped a lot of names in this blog, but it's all in the interest of creating a sense of awareness for those out there who might be in a similar position to us. Remember, this is an ad-free blog, so no goodies (even french fries) were exchanged for this post.
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