Moving right along to the next holiday

With Thanksgiving behind us as a not so distant memory (I promise to share successful recipes soon. There were some good ones!), I've started getting serious with my Christmas decorating and planning. Both trees are up and most of the decorations. It did feel a little like National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation though (minus Cousin Eddie). It took about 2.5 hours and 4 very painful phone calls to "Santa's Best" for some new bulbs to get my "ever lit" pre-lit Christmas tree lit. But it's working for the time being and hopefully the new bulbs will be here soon. I'm waiting for the ones I bought and rigged up from Target to give out any minute now. The young man from "Santa's Best" (that's how it came up on the caller i.d.) thanked me for not yelling and cursing at him since he really had no idea what he was doing and since he hung up on us twice. Apparently that was how all of his other calls went that day. I wanted to. I really did. But I had to remember the reason for the season...
The lights on the deck are up too. I had to buy all new ones since our old ones refused to work. One set of the new ones only half lit. I tried everything to get the other half to light but after shocking myself, decided it was best to return them and get a new set (Now I know why our GE stock is worth nothing. Can you say shoddy product??). But the tree, the deck and the house is finally all a glow with the Christmas cheer.



I am just about done with my shopping for the boys. I did most of it on-line this year as I felt time slipping away from me. Apparently I'm not much of an on-line shopper. My credit card company decided that it wasn't my "usual pattern". It must have appeared to them that someone must have stolen my card and had gone to town buying toys on-line. They decided that it was best to cancel card. At least they're pro-active...

The planning of the "corporate Christmas party" for my husband is going OK too. I say "OK" because I've had a few issues with the caterer but I think things are ironed out now.

I'm hoping to start wrapping this week. I always wait until the last minute for that and the hubs and I are usually scrambling on Christmas Eve to get things wrapped after the kids go to bed. I vow to be more organized this year! Things may have gotten off to a bumpy start, but they can only go up from here, right? RIGHT?

Are you a parent of a child newly diagnosed with food allergies? How about some answers to your questions...

Originally posted on WEGO Health:
My son was diagnosed with his food allergies at 10 months of age. When the allergist told me that he was allergic to wheat, rye, barley, oat, eggs, dairy, peanuts and tree nuts my first thought was "What am I going to feed this child"? I was so lost and so scared and I had no idea what to do. No one else I knew had a food allergy child and I didn't know where to turn. Unfortunately, as wonderful as our allergist is, he is not very helpful in this area. He showed me pamphlets from The Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Network and I did get in touch with them and purchased as much information as I could, but I did not find all the answers I was looking for. Not knowing where to turn or what to do is one of the chief complaints that I hear from parents with a newly diagnosed child. That is one of the reasons that I started my blog. I wanted to let others know that they are not alone. And that even though I'm not a physician or an expert, just a mom that has "been there, done that", they could feel free to contact me with questions and I would try to point them in the right direction.
To continue reading and to see all the helpful links, click here to go to WEGO Health

And so it begins

Yesterday morning we woke up to this:






It's gone now. But it will be back.

I'm not ready for snow and Old Man Winter.

Happy Thanksgiving

(photo from Microsoft Clip Art - this is not my table. I'm not that talented)

Wishing you all a wonderful and blessed (and allergy safe!) Thanksgiving Day!

Wishing: Safe travels to those that are on the road, safety always to those that are spending Thanksgiving keeping our country safe, and happiness to all.

I am thankful for too many things to list here. My life is so full and God has blessed me with so much. I may not always remember to say "thank you" and I may not always seem appreciative, but in my heart I always say a prayer of thanks for all the blessing I have been given.


Happy Thanksgiving Day!!

Buttermilk

I mentioned in yesterdays post that my buttermilk has "modified food starch" in it. I'm so naive that I thought buttermilk was just milk. Goes to show you, you can't get lax on that label reading. But I called the dairy this morning at 7:30 am to see if they knew (at this point I'd throw out the buttermilk, but I'm just curious) and the receptionist had no idea so she put me through to the plant. They didn't know either, so "Mike" told me to call back later as he had to go look it up. I just spoke to Mike and he said that it's corn. Good for us, bad for the corn avoiders.
I think from now on I'll go back to making my own (I thought I was being pro-active by buying it this time. I think I outsmarted myself).
But THANK YOU Colteryahn Dairy for going to the trouble for looking it up for me.
Just another reminder to take nothing for granted...

Sorry for the ramble. That is all. Resume normal activity.

Oh for the love of corn bread!

Corn bread is going to get me this Thanksgiving. I'm just hoping that it doesn't get the Little Man....

I got a note from his teacher that the Kindergarten, along with the first grade, is making a "friendship stew" for Thanksgiving. Each child was asked to bring in an ingredient. We were asked to bring in "chopped apples". Even though the "stew" is supposed to be mostly fruit (fresh fruit, dried fruit, canned fruit, etc) I can't take it for granted that it will be safe for the Little Man. So I stopped by the class this afternoon to ask the teacher what is in the stew and he said it was basically just fruit, so I told him to look for a container of safe "stew" in the Little Man's back pack just for him. He said he thought the Little Man might be able to have the stew (NO) but he was sure he couldn't have the corn bread. CORN BREAD? CORN BREAD? DID SOMEONE MENTION CORN BREAD? CAUSE NO ONE TOLD ME ABOUT CORN BREAD! Yes, corn bread. And the class will be making it themselves. IN the class room. An added bonus. It's Jiffy bread. But he doesn't have to eat it. OH FOR THE LOVE OF PETE!!
My son is severely allergic to wheat. His last reaction was anaphylactic (ingested reaction). He's contact reactive. Why did no one tell me about this??? He can't be in a class room with 17 other Kindergartners tossing about wheat laden batter (my head is exploding). I wanted to say "You are so NOT doing corn bread". But I'm a nice person and I will put my son out before I put out anyone else. So instead I went straight inside the building and hunted down the poor first grade teacher. I've known her for 5 or 6 six years and she knows the Little Man and his limitations well. And since she is part of this I said "R, he can not be in the room with this tomorrow". She could tell that I was about to take up my allergy mom machete and start taking out everyone around me at the knees. We agreed that all of the bread would be made in her room instead of the Kindergarten and the Little Man would go and hang out in the office while the bread was being made. I need to make sure that I send a note that states that everyone needs to be extra vigilant with hand washing too.

So like any loving allergy mom I come home and whip up a batch of corn bread for the Little Man to take to school. It's a new recipe that looks really tasty and it calls for buttermilk. I made the bread and then I noticed that buttermilk has ingredients that go beyond "milk". OH YES IT DOES, BECAUSE THAT IS HOW MY DAY IS GOING. One of those ingredients is "modified food starch". WHY???? WHY???? WHY???? Of course the dairy is closed so I can't ask them what the heck it is. They open back up tomorrow at 7:30 am, and I'll call back but for now I'm whipping up batch number two of corn bread with regular old milk. I HATE YOU CORN BREAD. I HATE YOU FOOD ALLERGIES. And I hate that schools have such issues with communication.

What we've been up to: a recap of sorts

I know I've been absent from the blog lately. Life has really been getting in the way of blogging. So I'm just going "recap" last week. It's boring, but it's an update. If anything exciting happens, don't worry, I'll hop on and let you know. But for now, we are just hanging in there and getting by:

1. I started my Christmas shopping. I have the boys "big gift" bought (even though it isn't all that "big") and their Christmas outfits. Osh Kosh was having a really good sale so I'm done with the clothing.

2. The Husband went to Florida last week for business and either contracted strep on his way there or had it already and it was aggravated by the plane travel. The poor man was sick and had to go straight to the Doctor when he came back for antibiotics.

3. The boys have pretty much finished their antibiotics from their bouts of illness and I'm hoping that the worst is behind us and they stay healthy for a while (fingers crossed, please).

4. Because the Husband was ill, I got to go to Scouts last week with Older Boy. The boys worked with tools and made wooden airplanes. One mom with a bunch of dad's and tools was interesting, to say the least. I survived and all the boys left with completed airplanes and 10 fingers in tact.

5. Friday I got my hair cut. It's a little different but nothing too radical. I'm tired of my stacked bob and I'm looking for something else so I'm going to let it grow out a little bit. Then I went shoe shopping and had lunch with my mom. It was a girls day. Thank you for the birthday shoes mom, love you!

6. Yes, I have a birthday coming up in a few weeks. It's a big ugly one that should come with botox and liposuction. I don't want to talk about it....

7. A friend of our family passed away last week. He was 47 and left behind a wife and 3 children (9th grade, 7th grade, and 3rd grade). It was very unexpected and shocking and my heart breaks for their family. Please keep this family in your prayers.

8. I just got back from the Doctor and I have a sinus infection. I'll be on antibiotics too. We need a serious germ bomb to go off in our house and kill all this crud.

9. I'm ready for Thanksgiving - bring on the turkey.

Have a wonderful week!! Stay healthier than we are :)

And the winner is....

OK, I'm a day late (and I'm sure a dollar short) but the winner is....


Infant Bibliophile! Congratulations!! Just email me your mailing info to chupieandjsmama@gmail.com and I will forward it to Betty Crocker and your prize pack will be on it's way.

Thanks to those who participated in the contest and thanks to Betty Crocker for the wonderful, gluten free prizes!!

Betty Crocker Fruit Snacks (gluten free!) and a contest

One of the Little Man's favorite snacks is fruit snacks. He.love.these.things. Did you know that Betty Crocker has gluten free fruit snacks? Although I may not be thrilled with the dyes in the fruit snacks, I am so grateful for something safe that he can eat that comes from the regular grocery and that I can tell non allergy moms about. A few times this year a really caring mom has called me to ask what she can bring to school for a birthday snack for the Little Man. These snacks are on the top of my list.

Betty Crocker contacted me to ask me if I (really the boys) would try some new snacks (yes, they sent me a FREE package of fruit snacks {giving a wave to the FTC}). The Little Man was highly excited. His reaction on Halloween made us a little leery of gummie type snacks but he's always eaten Betty Crocker snacks with no issue so we let him have these over the weekend. He had NO issues with the Betty Crocker snacks (thank goodness!). And both boys gave two thumbs up to the fruit snacks.

Along with the fruit snacks, BC sent some really neat toys that the boys have enjoyed. The light up yo you was their favorite.

The package included the following:



There are 2 boxes of gluten free fruit snacks, a Frisbee, a retro Pick ‘em Up Sticks game, and a light-up yo-yo. For more information on other allergens you can go
here.

The nice people at Betty Crocker have also offered the same package for me to give away. So I'm having a contest to give away the above package. Just leave your name and e-mail address in comments here on the blog and I will announce a winner on Saturday.

I survived swine flu 2009

I need a shirt or a bumper sticker. When I last left you, the Little Man had strep throat. By the end of the week, the rest of us got knocked down by H1N1. Today is my first day out of bed since Friday. My husband didn't go to work Thursday or Friday and anyone who knows him knows that this is so not like him. He'd drag his deathbed into the office if he could. He's very dedicated. But someone in his office recently had a baby and once he started not feeling well, he realized that it was going to be bad and he didn't want to give to the baby. Older Boy went down fighting also. But he lost the fight and is still home from school today. I took him to the pediatrician because he is still coughing and he also has a double ear infection and a sinus infection.
So I'm very behind in everything. Except that I started to get my Thanksgiving and Christmas recipes together. Food Allergies keep the holidays interesting, so since the flu confined me to bed for 3 days I had nothing better to do except watch trash TV (Those crazy Housewives and ANTM kept me company) and catch up on my magazine reading. Thanks to all my back issues, I've got lots of new recipes to try out this holiday season and most involve cheese (surprise, surprise).
Speaking of cheese (my usual fat catalyst), who gains 4 pounds with H1N1? Yea, that'd be me. How the heck did that happen?? I was and still am nauseous, but potato chips were my friend and my main food group. They lessened the nausea. Chips should be banned...from the world.
I really hope that this takes care of our flu/H1N1 for the 2009/2010 season. Once you get it, can you get it again? And the total irony is that I signed us up on line for the H1N1 vac. I signed us up Wednesday night, and we fell down with it on Thursday. Go figure.
But we are recovering and I took down the "caution tape" and the Hazmat tent that surrounded our house. The mailman can stop throwing our packages in the bushes and running like heck (oh yea, he does that anyway).

WEGO Health webinar tomorrow: Join us

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We'll be offering this one-hour webinar at four different times on Wednesday, November 4th: Noon, 4PM, 6PM and 9PM (please note: all times are Eastern Standard Time)

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A quick update

I took the Little Man to the pediatrician today. He woke up screaming last night because his throat hurt and he had hives on his hand again:(
They did a strep test and he's positive. And as they put it, "He's not a little positive, it came back full blown".

I asked that ER doc on Saturday to do a strep test and he said "Nope, no need to. He's fine". This was after a 2 second peek in his throat. Now I wish I would have demanded one. He could have been on antibiotics for 24 hours already.

The pediatrician said her first thought on the hives is that they were caused by the strep. That was my first thought when it happened (viral hives)because he hadn't been feeling well but he did eat the candy and then they just appeared. Also, he was sneezing more and lots and lots of "stuff" was coming out of his nose that wasn't coming out before. Maybe a combo of both? I don't think we'll ever really know what caused the reaction. Lynda from Kids with Food Allergies was kind enough to send me information on where I can send the candy to have it tested for allergens. I think I'll be doing that.... just to see.

But he's better now. He's on antibiotics and Orapred (oh why oh why the steroids??? He's like the energizer bunny on speed...) and Zyrtec.

Now I'm just waiting for the older one to fall. You know it's coming...
I'm cleaning the whole house with hydrogen peroxide trying to stave off the inevitable.

Halloween in the ER

Ah Halloween, Thank Goodness It's Over! What a nightmare.

Like I said in the previous post, the Little Man hasn't been feeling 100%. We let him Trick or Treat at just a few houses and really *most* of the candy he got was safe. I gave him all safe candy [or so I assumed] and so did one other neighbor who has a child with a peanut allergy.

He's not allowed to eat anything until he gets home and we check it. My candy and the neighbors candy are in "gift bags" so it doesn't touch anything else. Because he wasn't feeling well, we told him he could eat ONE thing and he picked Starburst Gummibursts from my bag. He had these once before and I double checked the ingredients with the company.

But things started to go down hill. His nose got clogged even more than it was. And he became very itchy. I checked his skin and it looked really dry (not unusual for him) so I put on some Vanicream. Then I noticed that some of the dry skin started to look raised. In a matter of minutes he was covered in full body hives (neck to toes). I gave him 2 tsp. of Benadryl but after a minute or two it didn't seem to be working. Things weren't escalating, but they weren't getting any better either. So off to the ER we went.

I rode in the backseat of the car sandwiched between 2 booster seats with EPI Pen in hand just in case his breathing became affected, but his breathing was fine and we kept telling stories on the way there to keep him talking so we could gauge his voice and breathing.

The first thing they did was check oxygen levels and his oxygen levels were perfect so thankfully his breathing wasn't affected. The ER didn't give him a shot either. But they did give him Orapred (steroid) to help the Benadryl along. And he and his brother got cherry Popsicles as a treat for being in the ER on Halloween (and surprisingly it was quiet for Halloween and a Saturday night).

So we are home. And he's much better hive-wise. He still isn't feeling well. He's got a virus that is messing with his digestive system. I asked the ER doc if he thought the hives could have been viral hives, but he said no. We had him check his throat and it doesn't look like strep. And his ears did look red, but that could have been from the reaction and not an ear infection so we have a script for antibiotics "just in case" he starts complaining of ear pain.

He keeps asking for candy this morning, but the answer there is NO WAY!! I'm terrified to give him anything. The candy he ate should have been safe. I checked it out and the ingredients appear to be safe (the ER doc read it and thought so too). So what caused this? Mystery ingredient? Even though he washed his hands after Trick or Treating was there a residue that got on the candy and cross contaminated it when he ate it? Next year's Halloween will have to be handled differently for sure. I'm thinking that he's going to wear gloves (because he doesn't listen when we tell him not to touch anything), and the candy he gets goes right in the trash and I'll swap it out for money. Then he can go to the store and buy something. Maybe Older Boy will like that idea too and that will cut down on the candy we have in the house.

Before ER:



ER on Halloween:



(he's trying to wave but is exhausted)

Hope your Halloween was less eventful~