The Food Allergy Thing...what the heck do you feed him?

Both of my kids have food allergies.  My 3 year old, Sean has a laundry list...ready?  Peanuts, tree nuts, eggs, wheat, dairy, soy, sesame seeds and bananas!  We have known about Sean's allergies since he was 9 months old.  With Nolan, my 5 year old, we thought he wasn't allergic to ANYTHING until a recent a scary incident with a cashew.  Nolan is also allergic to sesame seeds (see "The Food Allergy Story" for their stories). 

For Nolan we avoid sesame seeds (sesame seed buns, hummus to name a few) and anything containing ANY kind of nuts just in case.  For Sean, the usual question I get is...What do you feed him?  What CAN he eat?  Sean can have chicken, beef, all the meats as long as they aren't mixed or cooked with anything he is allergic to.  He can have veggies and most fruits.  Here are some of his other favorite things:

These hot dogs are from Applegate.  Most hot dogs contain milk or casein which is a milk protein (I know, I didn't know either!)  These Applegate dogs and also Boars Head hot dogs don't contain milk.

Sean can't eat bread because it contains wheat.  This is his favorite "bread" it's made from brown rice.  It took us a while to find "bread" that wasn't hard as a rock.  The "Light Brown Rice Loaf" from Ener-G is a good one.

Sunbutter!!  The is our all time favorite and a staple in our house.  It is made from sunflower seeds and is a great alternative to peanut buttter.  My kids LOVE it, I love it!  They both bring sunbutter and jelly sandwiches to school for lunch.  When their preschool became peanut/tree nut free, I called the Sunbutter company and they send us 100s of samples for the school.  The director of the preschool sent it home with the parents for the kids to try, it was a hit!!

We sometimes make plain popcorn with canola oil or even olive oil.  Sometimes packaged popcorn has dairy in it but this one from Trader Joe's doesn't and it is really good...sweet and salty!

This is brown rice pasta, it's really good!  Sean loves it plain or with tomato sauce and ground turkey or hamburger.

                                                                                              (I love seeing this on a label)

Sean's addiction...Rice Milk!!  I buy 5 of these a week, he can't get enough.  He likes both brands--Rice Dream and Trader Joe's.  The ones I buy are enriched with calcium and vitamins.  Not only does he drink it by the carton, he puts it in his cereal, I use it to to make mashed potatoes, frosting--basically any recipe that calls for milk.  They also come in little boxes, like juiceboxes, get on the go! 

Something fun...365 (Wholefoods brand) Tater tots, we all eat these!

These are Enjoy Life cookies and bars.  They are an awesome treat!

He loves the Sunbutter bars

If Sean is having a party at school or we are going to a birthday party, we use Cherrybrook Kitchen cake mix and make cupcakes.  They actually keep some in the freezer at school :)

You can get more information on any of the products I talked about by clicking on the highlighted brandname.  It will take you to their website.

Other "normal" junk food that he can eat - Lay's potato chips, Fritos, Skittles, Dum Dum Lollipops. 

Sean has a really good appetite and is not picky...he eats whatever I put in front of him.  It is only now that if we are out somewhere he asks "can I have that" or "is that my kind"?  He is usually pretty good about things, probably because he has been eating this way his entire little life and doesn't know any different.

Here is my happy boy Sean and his big bro Nolan

More to follow on eating out...which we don't do much anymore with the kids but we have found a few special spots!