SOY JOY!

After reading Komal's post on food, I thought I could write this as a post because otherwise this would be a huge comment! When Jaiden was 2 months, we found out that he was allergic to milk. We had given him milk formula even though I was breastfeeding and his lips got swollen even without drinking the milk and having just a few drops on his lips. After a blood test in about a year, we confirmed the milk allergy and also found out that he was allergic to eggs and peanuts.

So he doesnt get to eat chocolate or ice creams or sweets or cakes or cookies or anything that has ghee or butter. We constantly have to keep looking at the ingredients list to make sure it is safe to give him. The reason is , if he accidently takes in any of these products, he could get an anaphylactic reaction which could be fatal if not taken care of immediately. Even if he touches milk, he starts to itch and his face would turn red with a rash. So that means if we had to eat icecream or have tea.. we would have to wash our mouths and hands before we touch him or kiss him. Going out to eat is also hard for us because 90% of the time he cannot have anything.

Luckily, he can have everything else. Which means I can cook veggies and non-veg without adding any yogurt or milk or any of the nuts and feed him that. So that way we have adjusted to his allergies and now having to look at the ingredients or asking at a restuarant what they have in the dish is a normal thing. As for milk we give him soy milk. The joy of having SOY!!

I am happy that he eats whatever I make, even though it takes a couple of trials, and one good thing is.. he cannot eat a lot of the junk(phew)!! There are things that I dont like a lot but do make for him because he looses on a lot of the milk and eggs. We dont get a lot of indian veggies here.. so i end up cooking brocoli and asparagus(which i hate) for him. When we do get indian veggies... he loves them. Fruits is one thing he loves. One sad thing is he cannot eat mangoes! Again we found that his face gets a rash when he eats mangoes. But bananas, melons, grapes, oranges.. he loves.

It is good to make for our kids the things we dont like to see if they would eat it. But I think as time goes by.. we just dont buy those things and eventually they too wont eat it not because they dont like it but just because they dont have the habit of eating it. Eventually i think they will explore as they grow older, learn to like some foods, hate some and just wont know how some tastes until they try a good recipe. But yeah, giving them the option to like it or hate it is definitely a good idea.

Thank God for Soy and Soy ice cream!!