Inaugural Post

Hi! Welcome!

I've been putting it off and putting off, but no longer. Here is the beginnings of an allergy-friendly recipe blog that I've been pondering for almost a year. After the countless, "but... what do you EAT?" responses when people hear of our "allergy situation" as I've dubbed it, I thought I'd start keeping track of the deliciousness that I lovingly prepare from scratch. Daily. For every meal and snack. It's an endless job, but also very rewarding. (And tasty.)

Yes, I do miss cheese. And ice cream. And bread. But, I *don't* miss constant stomach pain, heartburn and gas. Nor do I miss the gross poops and the hellacious gas my children used to have. And neither the full body eczema nor the constant night terrors in my older daughter. We're still pinpointing a few things here and there - corn is exceedingly hard to avoid; gluten cross-contamination is everywhere; restaurant servers like to lie to you about food ingredients (yes, this really happened) - but all in all, we're in a pretty good place, especially compared to where we were even six months ago.

In addition to avoiding personally "reactive" foods and other "potentially reactive" foods, we are on a daily supplement regiment to help our bodies digest our food better and to help heal our gut (more on that in a coming post). All of us (Lily, Aevryn & I) take daily dairy-free probiotics and cod liver oil (not as gross as it sounds; ours is mint flavored). Lily takes an allergy-free children's multivitamin. I take daily allergy-friendly Calcium/Magnesium/Zinc and B-complex 100 vitamins. Lily & I try to take digestive enzymes with every meal that contains proteins or grains.

As the months wear on, I'm starting to see evidence of better nutrient absorption and better gut conditions. I'm hoping to go off of vitamins this fall, preferring to get all of our vitamins and minerals directly from our food. We've been digestive enzyme-free for a week now and I'm considering going back on, but I'm still waiting and seeing. We've been eating a lot of raw and/or fermented foods lately, so I think that's been helping. I feel like we'll be on priobiotics and fish oil for a long time to come, but I think it's worth it for improved health.