here’s gavin just finished with watching the bird and getting into his toy chest and on his way over to pull videos off the shelf and steal his dad’s computer mouse

So, we have been working on figuring out which foods are not good for Gavin for the last six months or so. It’s been very complicated and frustrating. At some points it’s been downright nerve-wracking. I’ve come to feel there’s not much worse than your baby being uncomfortable or in pain and you not having a clue what you can do to help.

I went on various elimination diets and kept a journal and watched Gavin closely. Sometimes other things interfered with the process of figuring out what was happening, like teething, or trips, or hidden ingredients.

His symptoms were not as serious as some of our family, which is a relief, but also made it harder to figure out which foods were ok and which were not. He gets a stuffy nose and painful tummy when he eats wheat and dairy. The color of his poop changes to green when he eats wheat. When he eats dairy or casein he goes poop more frequently than he should and has mucous in his diapers and has trouble sleeping at night, seeming restless and in pain. (This bit is mostly for long-term future reference for me.)

After many different trials we think we may have figured out the majority of his food issues now.

Crossed fingers here

So Chris and I thought it would be good to try to put in in an accessible place for later reference and other people to see.

Here is the list of food that causes problems for Gavin:

**wheat, other glutenous grains (barley, graham, rye, and in some cases oats)

**dairy (specifically casein, but we are avoiding all of it)

**egg

We are avoiding nuts too, in case he’s allergic. We will give this a try at some later point.

Foods we’ve tried and are okay for him:

**rice, corn, potato, soy

**tomato, strawberry, other berries, peaches, onion, squash, bell peppers, carrot

**chocolate without dairy (he hasn’t eaten this himself yet)

So we are scouring ingredient listings on packages for hidden wheat, dairy and egg.

Some of the sneaky listings:

wheat: spelt, graham flour, durum, seitan, bran, kamut, gluten, glutenin, bulgar, edible starch, modified food starch, malt, prolamin, semolina, natural flavor

dairy: artificial butter flavor, casein, caseinates, whey, lactalbumin, lactoglobulin, lactose, lactulose, milkfat, nougat, rennet, yogurt, chocolate, flavorings, margarine, lactate, lact-anything, caramel color, caramel flavor

egg: albumin, globulin, livetin, lysozyme, ovalbumin, ovoglobulin, ovo-anything, vitellin, silici, albuminate

these are ok:
Lactic acid (however, lactic acid starter culture may contain milk)
Calcium stearoyl lactylate
oleoresin
Cocoa butter
Sodium lactate
Cream of tartar

Very confusing! However, Gavin is feeling much better since we’ve cut out all casein that was remaining in our diet. So we are feeling very encouraged.

I’m feeling much more confident about cooking without these ingredients now too, which is a relief. I am collecting (and composing) gluten free, egg free, dairy free recipes that actually taste good. Chris seems to think they’re okay too. Being able to enjoy a blueberry muffin, or pancake or pasta! every now and then makes going gluten/egg/dairy free a choice I can live happily with.

Also, a small side note is that both Chris and I feel overall more healthy since cutting out dairy, specifically. Less tummy aches, etc. Yay!

to have a face as cute as this to look at daily!

gavin is getting into everything these days! he’s very curious about the bird, any food or drink, magazines, clocks, windows, and plants. he drags chairs around the living room and drops dvd’s over the baby gates into the kitchen. he’s a very energetic little guy.

he’s also very cuddly. he likes to be held, hugged and kissed and in the morning, especially on weekends he comes into our bed with us and smooshes his head against his daddy’s and then plops down on top of me for some good cuddles. he’s just started doing this of his own accord, as we have been subjecting him to cuddle time for over a year now. it’s very sweet and i feel very proud and happy that our son, our little boy is enjoying getting and giving physical attention. i’m glad he’s such a cuddly little guy. i’m loving the baby hugs!

here are some of Gavin’s favorite activities!

here he is petting Frida…they get along fairly well, unless he goes for the tail.

here is Gavin with Daddy. Gavin crawls down the hallway and then Daddy runs after him and scoops him up and runs back to starting line. Gavin thinks this is hilarious!

Gavin loves baths/swimming pools. He has a great time splashing and dunking toys under the water.

and this is him in the pool doing his silly scrunched-up smile.