Thursday, January 5, 2012

Butter me up!

We discovered last week that baby S is still QUITE intolerant of milk. J went to pick up take out from one of our favorite restaurants and the chicken breast which we had specified to have no butter on it looked a bit shiny and suspicious when he brought it home. There was no denotation anywhere on the take out container, the receipt or the bag that it was made without butter. His online order clearly showed he had specified no butter and they've always been great about accommodating us in the past, but I should have trusted my gut instinct. Instead, after hesitating for a few minutes, I tore in to that piece of poultry as if it were my last meal because I was starving.

Within 12 hours, I realized it was definitely the wrong decision.

There were some very bad days and nights in this house following that incident. I decided that, for now, I will no longer be eating outside of our house. At all. It isn't worth the risk and it is unfair of me to expect some unknown person to put my babies' food allergy at the forefront of their mind in this situation. I am not the majority by any stretch, I am not even the minority at this point. I am tiny blip on a radar for a huge operation that is in the business of serving mass amounts of people food. Good food lathered in butter.

In wake of this event, I have really decided to ratchet down on the food situation. I had a pretty good control over it all before, but I was getting lazy. We were eating out a few times a week, trusting strangers, and I was falling in to the bad habit of making the same 3 or 4 meals every single week. That's just not good for anyone. And yea, I'm tired and I'm not at all interested in cooking at the end of a long day that started at like 5 AM with a crying baby, but if I am going to keep nursing then I've got to make this work.

So. That's how I started off 2012.

But I have decided to do my best and turn each bad situation in to a positive somehow. This was just a way to help us test whether or not she is still suffering from MSPI at 6 months. And now we know and I will not make that mistake again.

After a long and thorough trip to Whole-Foods, though, I stumbled across an MSPI-friend margarine AND a dark chocolate bar.

That's right. I said chocolate.

I am kinda scared to eat it. It has been sitting on my counter for a few days. All of the ingredients are totally safe but there's a cross contamination caveat on the package and after last week I'm just a bit shell shocked. The cross contamination warnings have not been an issue on any other thing I eat but I'm just leery about a company who makes chocolate bars for a living. Though, at the same time, it's been almost 6 months and I also have a lovely bottle of Cabernet sitting next to it and I think I'll likely cave soon.




I do hope everyone else's year started off on a better foot than mine!

6 comments:

  1. oh no! that is to bad, I can't imagine...dairy and me BEST FRIENDS. you poor thing! your poor baby! sucky. hopefully you get a handle on it all and ENJOY that chocolate and wine, i say you deserve it!

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  2. Ugh. That sucks. I hear you on the not wanting to eat out- I am currently in a lengthy negotiation with Q. and his mum (who is visiting) about staying in a hotel (where E. won't wake her up at night) versus staying in an apartment (where there will be a kitchen so I know our food will be safe). Am a bit irked that we are even having to have this discussion, as surely E.'s health and comfort is more important than one disrupted night of sleep, but anyway.

    Is The Keg in the US? I discovered that they have an allergy book with every item on their menu and every ingredient. They are superb- they even know that balsamic vinegar usually has soy in it. I think they're now the only place we will eat out at, and since they're expensive, that won't be happening all that often.

    Over Christmas E. had one horrible morning as a result of my eating roasted potatoes that my dad and stepmother (who really really really did NOT get how serious this issue is) insisted were fine...they clearly had been cooked with onions fried in butter. Poor E.

    Re: chocolate- President's Choice (the home brand of our grocery store) makes a dark chocolate bar that is safe, and I have been eating it without incident. Was the margarine the earth balance soy free? LOVE that stuff.

    Also- do you have Larabars? (Whole Foods stocks them). They are a soy/dairy free granola-like bar, mainly dates and nuts. I just found them before Christmas and they are a life saver to have in the diaper bag/purse to avoid blood sugar crashes.

    I really want to nurse E. to 18 months, even if he doesn't outgrow the MSPI before then. So although I'm not one for resolutions, I started 2012 determined to keep reading labels and to do whatever it takes to know that his tummy is not hurting. Glad we are in this together.

    I will try to find a moment or two in the next little while to send you some of our go-to meals. The MSPI has forced us to be a bit creative with our cooking, and we've come up with some good stuff.

    xoxoxo
    T.

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  3. Shame honey pie - but as you say right now it's just not worth it :)

    Still must be tough to have to monitor everything that goes into your mouth...

    Much love to you all
    xxx

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  4. Hoping the chocolate will be fine, I found another one last summer that was ok, wish I could remember it now. OH! And Trader Joe's chocolate chips are ok, so you can make chocolate chip cookies if you use Crisco! :) I meant to say to your email too, I think Smart Balance Light is the MSPI friendly margarine we used. We actually were already using it from J's diabetes and it's fairly delicious, as far as margarine goes.

    Will keep racking my brain for meals, you're a total rockstar, you know. xo

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  5. It will be that much sweeter when you get to the point when you don't have to look that closely at what you eat, right? All this refining just gives us a bit more patience...

    For quick recipes, do you have a crock pot? I've turned to a lot of those, or make a big batch of food (like 3 recipes) one day of the week and then we have those for the rest of the week. I hear you on the getting into a food rut. Once I found some things that worked food wise when I was nursing R, there wad definitely a lot of frequent repeating (and possibly some retired recipes because of that).

    xoxo

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  6. poor S :(
    you are such a rockstar for keeping with it and I am WAY impressed.
    enjoy the chocolate when you are ready to give it a shot. and I wish i could share the wine with you :)

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