Food Can Be A Real Pain In The Butt

As I have mentioned before, Gabe has numerous food allergies. A few being pretty major ones, peanut, wheat, egg and soy. What is the shocker to us is he is very allergic to garlic and it seems to be in everything now. Once we said goodbye to baby food, which from what I know does not typically have garlic, the doors to allergies opened.

Gabe's allergy symptoms manifest themselves primarily through his bowel movements. We are uncertain if it causes anything else like stomach discomfort. When I ask him if his tummy hurts, he always says "No." But says "Yes" to his bottom hurting. Our first sign of an allergic reaction is diarrhea that creates a burn like rash on his bottom and genitals. (OUCH! is an understatement) It is so uncomfortable and painful that Gabe sometimes has started crying the minute he began to have a bowel movement. We quickly wipe the area clean, lather with Vaseline,administer Benadryl with lots of hugs and kisses.

We have to buy most of Gabe's food in it's purest form. Garlic is in spaghetti sauces, Gravy, sauces, prepackaged dinners, Rice dinners, Salsas, a lot of meats like Smoked Turkey bacon (Jenni O)(We think it is in the smoke flavoring) and Turkey sausage (Jenni O) in it's ingredient labeled "Spice derivatives" (SD and I were like, "What the hell does that mean?"). Soy is another whopper. It is in everything. I'm wondering if over consumption of something, like soy, in our society is attributing to allergies. I'm certainly not a scientist, but what is soy doing in kids' cereals? Also, ingredient labels, companies should only pick one oil that they use with their products. Either, or, and possible are not words that should be allowed. Either it is or it is not. Coppice.

Poor Gabe and his butt. We've had two episodes already this week. He has been an incredible trooper through it all. I would only be accepting ice cream at this point if I were him. But, I have made him spaghetti tonight from scratch. Well, I didn't make the noodles, they're gluten free, and the sauce is really tomato paste (The jury is out on whether he is allergic to tomatoes) mixed with starchy noodle water. I'm not the best cook, but then Gabe's menu doesn't really demand much on the culinary side. Thank God. I'm trying though.