Diet and other annoyances

As long time readers will know, I put Bright Eyes on a gluten-free, casein-free diet about five years ago now. We also try to avoid soy and corn, although not super-strictly. It's annoying to always have to think 'what can he eat?' but we manage. 

Last week I was thrown for a loop by finding out that our number two son also has allergies. The doctor we take Bright Eyes to looked at him and said, "I'd be really really surprised if he isn't allergic to something. He just has that look about him." We got a blood test done ($200 in case you're wondering) and I waited for the results to come back. 

"I really hope he's not allergic to dairy," I said. "He absolutely loves cheese." In fact, cheese and vegemite sandwiches are his staple daily fare. So I was extremely concerned when the results showed that he's in fact allergic to dairy and brewers yeast, which is vegemite! The poor child cried when we told him and ever since we've been on the hunt for good substitutes.

One other thing that makes it more complicated is that he's also allergic to sulphites - or all those 200 numbers you find in just about everything. I've been reading packets all over again and the grocery shopping has taken so much extra time!

Today we had a win. It turns out there's a wonderful sheep's cheese (Pecaaso) that he loves. And miso, or soybean paste, tastes close enough to vegemite to be a great substitute. I also found sausages at Wild Food that have no sulphites in them so we'll picking up a few packets of those too. And the bread at Bakers Delight is free of sulphites and dairy (and vinegar, which he's also allergic to) - and tastes beautiful. As for his favourite treat of vanilla icecream, which apparently can't be replaced by soy icecream according to him, Smooze Fruit Ice are doing it instead.

Hooray for the allergy-conscious products out there!