This is a post I've been wanting to write for a long time.

Before my sweet little HDawg was diagnosed with a dairy allergy, I had very little idea what the world of food allergies was all about. I, myself, have never had a food allergy. David has never had a food allergy. The only experience I have had with food allergies is that my best friend and my sister-in-law both have Celiac Disease. I have learned a lot from them about managing a food allergy and what that entails, but nothing prepares you for parenting a child with a food allergy.

I have a lot of ideas and tips to share, but I'm going to save those for another post. Today, I thought I'd simply share our story. Our family's story about recognizing, diagnosing and managing H's food allergy. I hope that our story informs some of you, whether you're struggling with a food allergy, know someone who is or if you just want to hear more about it. I've found so much comfort in relating to those going through the same thing, so I want to be that for you!

For those of you who haven't followed along for the past couple of years, I'll start from the beginning. My son H has a severe dairy allergy. Much like a peanut allergy, even mere superficial contact with dairy or a surface/person that has touched dairy can (and has) lead to anaphylaxis. Crazy rash, trouble breathing, EpiPen, the whole drill. After he was born and while I was nursing him, we noticed he was very fussy and had terrible reflux. He also had bad diaper rashes. Like any crazy new mom, I Googled away and found that, among other things, removing dairy from the mother's diet while breastfeeding could be helpful to alleviate these symptoms. And it worked, but of course, removing dairy from my diet couldn't be directly attributed to anything. Fast-forward to when he began to eat solids. At about 7 or 8 months old, we fed H his first cow's milk dairy product- a cup of probiotic yogurt (suggested by his pediatrician to help counter an antibiotic he was taking). Immediately, like within minutes, he began to welt up. He was covered from head to toe with a red, bumpy rash. We didn't know at the time if it was the antibiotic or the dairy, but we rushed him to the doctor's office and they monitored him, gave him some Benadryl and watched until the rash went away. They suggested that we try dairy in very limited form after about a month or two.

So, at about 10 months old, we gave H a single piece of shredded cheese. Immediately, he welted up, a rash going around his mouth and up his face into his eyes. Yeah, pretty scary. We took him back to the pediatrician and they suggested we stay away from all dairy in HDawg's diet. It was kind of weird that they didn't send us to an allergist at that point (I'm sure they had no clue about the severity of his allergy), but they didn't. They just advised that we not feed him any dairy. So he drank soy milk, we didn't eat cheese. It was a pretty easy switch. For the next six months or so, we followed this really loose plan. 

Along the way, we began to realize that even the tiniest exposure of cow's milk would start his allergic reaction. We certainly weren't feeding him anything with cow's milk, but, say, if I fed him from a plate that also had a dairy product on it, he would react. Or if his food was cooked on a grill that had butter on it at one point, he would react. Or if a prepackaged item was processed in a facility with milk, he would react. So I decided enough was enough of the "laissez faire" attitude to his allergy and, guided by the advice of a new pediatrician, I took him to an allergist at about 1.5 years old. The allergist did a full panel allergy test and a full panel blood test. Sure enough, he reacted severely to cow's milk dairy. He also had slight reactions to eggs and lima beans, items he has since tested negative for. After the testing, we actually felt a little relieved. That sounds totally weird, but it was like our year-long suspicions about how badly dairy affected him had been confirmed and we were now on track with a clear path and plan in hand: an official diagnosis and a doctor who would help us manage the allergy. The allergy doctor prescribed an EpiPen "just in case, even though I'm sure you'll never have to use it." Unfortunately, he was wrong.

Fast forward again to the end of last year, when H was about 2 years old (well, about 27-28 months). It was Christmastime and we were at a family Christmas party. David and I monitor H like a hawk while we're in settings like that to be sure he does not eat/touch/get into/come close to dairy. Our family also knows not to give him any food that's not approved by us. So, that day, he only ate the food we brought for him, including a handful of dry mixed nuts (something he had eaten often). But before we knew it, he was having a full out reaction. Worse than we had ever seen. Huge welts, head to toe. He was terrified. We were terrified. He started getting really anxious and I knew it was only a matter of time before his breathing would be affected. We rushed him to the emergency room, where they gave him the epinephrine and, thank the Lord, he immediately stopped reacting. He had the shakes badly (the medicine does that to you) but he otherwise looked better as soon as that medicine pulsed through his little system. Then I breathed. I had literally been holding my breath for the past hour. It was terrifying to see my little boy like that. HOW did he react? There was NO WAY he ate dairy. I am 100% sure. The mixed nuts? He ate peanuts and cashews every day. But wait, David remembered there were also pecans in the mix. It had to be the pecan....

We took him back to the allergist the next day. He did a full panel test for the pecans and other nuts- no reaction. We retested him for a multitude of items to see if he had new allergies. No issues. We also did an in-house taste test analysis where H ate pecans in front of the doctor. No reaction. It wasn't the pecans. It wasn't many other items that we tested based on what he ate. The only explanation is that H's dairy allergy had gotten so severe that someone at the party unknowingly touched dairy and then touched H without washing their hands. Insane, right? I looked at the doctor- that could lead him into anaphylactic shock? Seriously? The doctor nodded and said, unfortunately it looks that way. He compared it to those people who have a severe peanut allergy. My son? Crazy.

Since that moment in time, we have taken all dairy out of our house for fear of any cross-contamination. Our little girl, who is now almost 15 months old, only drinks cow's milk at school. We drink almond milk at home (no more soy milk, that's another story), eat coconut ice cream and make cashew cheese. And we love it, honestly. Going dairy-free is actually a choice I prefer now. Minus that moment in time I want some good queso. Then I miss me some cheese. Otherwise, being dairy-free is totally manageable. And I feel such a sense of relief knowing we aren't unintentionally exposing HDawg to any scary contributors.

Speaking of our Little Lady June, we decided to be proactive with her and any potential food allergies. While there's no indication that a dairy allergy is hereditary, we wanted to be safe. At 12 months, we ran a full panel test on her and she had negative results. No dairy allergy. Such a relief.

The best part? My kid is so dang brave about it all. I seriously have anxiety attacks when it comes to things like kids birthday parties (cheese pizza! cake! ice cream! milk cartons! dairy everywhere!) and H? He just takes it with a grain of salt and is proud to tell everyone he's different, that he's got a food allergy. That picture above? That's him at his school Easter egg hunt. The school filled the eggs up with chocolate and cheese goldfish (I know, very frustrating) so instead of opting to sit him out, we asked him to wear gloves. Of course, we had to watch him closely so he didn't open the eggs up, but this prevented any issues in terms of accidentally touching what was inside each egg. He was such a trooper, he loved it. If there's one thing I've learned in all of this it's that this boy is not afraid to be different, that he's cool to rock what he is. He's my role model.

Well, that was a long post. Like I said, I plan to do another post with some basic tips and tricks for any food allergy parent. Until then, I'd love to hear your questions or if there's any other aspect of being a food allergy parent that you'd like to know about. Leave your thoughts in the comments or shoot me an email- tenjuneblog@gmail.com. Until then, feel free to check out some of my dairy-free recipes.

Please note that I'm not a medical expert. I'm just a mom. A mom of a kid with a food allergy. I'm just sharing my story and our experiences and certainly not trying to render any medical advice!

During both of my pregnancies, donuts and the lemon iced pound cake at Starbucks were pretty much my best friends. Let's be honest, I'm not pregnant now and these two desserts rank almost as high on my priority list as my children and husband. I love me a donut.

Even though donuts are my jam, my sweet little HDawg had never had one before due to his severe dairy allergy. So, this momma decided to concoct a recipe (I pulled the cake donut recipe from here) to make my favorite dessert for my dairy-free kiddo. Because what two year old doesn't NEED a good donut in his life? And don't worry, Little Lady June got to enjoy too. And as she would say: TA DA! Now I've got a recipe for dairy free lemon iced baked donuts! Enjoy.

I N G R E D I E N T S :

donuts:

-one (1) cup flour

-1/2 cup sugar

-1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

-1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

-1/2 cup almond milk

-1/2 teaspoon white vinegar

-1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

-1 egg

-4 tablespoons of Earth Balance

-1/4 tablespoon salt

-donut pan (I used this one!)

icing:

-2 1/2 cups powdered sugar
-4-5 tablespoons lemon juice

D I R E C T I O N S :

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. In small saucepan on medium heat, stir in almond milk, vinegar, vanilla extract, egg and Earth Balance. Stir until butter melts and then combine wet and dry mixtures. Stir until smooth and then pour into ungreased donut pan. Bake for 12 minutes. While baking, mix together sugar and lemon juice to create icing. Once donuts cool, ice and let set. Zest some lemon peel over the icing for extra lemon-y effect.

Psst! I also made a dairy-free chocolate icing for HDawg (with sprinkles, duh). Simply mix 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar, 4 tablespoons of cocoa powder and 3 tablespoons almond milk. Delish.

Sometimes I like to pretend like I know what I'm doing in the kitchen, especially when it comes to cooking dairy-free and with a "whole foods" approach. Last week, I posted one of our favorite family meals on Instagram- a sweet potato "bird's nest" with spinach and eggs- and a few of you asked me to share the recipe. So here ya go!

S W E E T   P O T A T O   B I R D ' S   N E S T

Ingredients:

-three medium sized sweet potatoes, washed and chopped in half

-about 3-4 handfuls of fresh spinach, washed

-four eggs

-olive oil

-chopped garlic cloves (amount to taste)

-salt & pepper

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 400. While the oven is preheating, chop your sweet potatoes. I used a zoodle machine to curl mine up into a "bird's nest." Although I guess it's not a "zoodle machine" if you aren't using zucchini? A swoodle machine? Stop me now....You could also finely slice them if you aren't into zoodling. [toddler friendly alert: sometimes I simply chop the sweet potatoes into chunks for the little ones! they often prefer that to the shoestring shape]

2.  Scatter your shoestring sweet potatoes across a baking sheet. Drizzle oil, salt and pepper across the potatoes and bake for approximately 15 minutes.

3. While the potatoes are baking, heat up a large pan on the stove with olive oil. Add the chopped garlic cloves. After 1-2 minutes, add the spinach and cook until wilted. Set aside.

4. Cook the eggs as you like them- for this recipe, I prefer over easy. [toddler friendly alert: I cook the kids' eggs scrambled. I simply chop the spinach up into the scrambled eggs and put that on top of their sweet potatoes]

5. Now it's time to assemble. Plate the cooked sweet potato shoe strings and arrange the potatoes into little "nests." Top with a serving of the cooked spinach and then an egg. Garnish with a little salt and pepper.

Serves four people. Can't beat toddler-friendly, healthy and delicous, amiright? My kids love this dish and it doesn't hurt that David and I do, too! 

Hello, hello! It's been awhile, but I wanted to drop by, say hi and wish all of my sweet online friends a happy Valentine's Day week. As I've mentioned before, David and I aren't much for V-day celebrations but with kids... well, every holiday is an excuse to celebrate!

But if you're like me and you've got a kiddo with food allergies [our 2.5 year old son has a severe dairy allergy- even simple contact with someone who has touched dairy can (and has) send him into anaphylactic shock much like a peanut allergy), holidays aren't always the most fun time. In fact, they can be kind of stressful. Birthday parties, family gatherings and holiday times cause the most anxiety for me in terms of HDawg's dairy allergy just because he's around different food and more people who don't understand the severity of his allergy. Side note: we purchased H this kids allergy bracelet and he loves it. We let him wear it when we're in new places like birthday parties- he thinks it's cool and I feel just a tad bit better knowing he's got some sort of notice about his allergy on him at all times.

I get lots of emails from readers asking for more posts on how we handle H's food allergy. We cook completely dairy free and mostly gluten and soy free on a pretty solid "whole foods" diet. Would you guys be interested to hear more about that here on the blog? Let me know!

Today, I want to help alleviate some of y'alls fears about Valentine's Day and share some allergy free (mostly non-food but at least free of the main food allergies) V-Day ideas for the little ones. Just like last year, I am using my "main squeeze" printable to send fruit pouches for the toddlers and infants in both kids classrooms. You can download your free printable HERE.

Here's a few more allergy-free ideas I love!

"you light up my life" glow stick Valentine from eighteen25

"I wheelie like you!" Valentine from C.R.A.F.T.

army Valentine from Armelle

dinosaur Valentine from Sweet C's Designs

"you're so sharp!" Valentine from Or So She Says

"blow me a kiss!" Valentine card from At Second Street

And of course you can always search Pinterest for more amazing allergy friendly holiday ideas.

I'm always pinning dairy-free, gluten-free and other allergy friendly foods over on Pinterest, so come follow me! And feel free to share any great allergy friendly ideas you've got.

About six months or so ago, when we started feeding HDawg solid foods, we quickly learned that he did not handle dairy well. In fact he broke out in hives (they start around his mouth and crawl up to his eyes with big red welts!) every time he ingested cow's milk dairy or even if his skin came into contact with anything dairy. Same with eggs (although egg yolks are okay, the egg whites affect him). Although he's too young to be officially tested, the poor kid is at least intolerant, if not allergic, to cow's milk dairy products. 

I know, that's the pits, right? Because it also affected him through my breast milk, I actually had a dairy-free diet for the first few months of his life. It was torture not to be able to eat pizza or chug a glass of cold chocolate milk at night (which I do quite often!). But I learned some tricks then that I'm now passing on to H. His main allergy is to raw dairy, like cheese, milk, yogurt, ice cream, etc. He doesn't seem to have much of a problem with dairy and eggs baked into products like bread, crackers, cake, etc.

So for his first birthday party, I decided to make him regular cupcakes with dairy-free icing. I combined a few different recipes and came up with my own. I think it turned out pretty well! When I mentioned that I had made dairy-free icing, a few of you emailed me and requested the recipe. So here ya go!

Ingredients

-1.75 cups powdered confectioners sugar

-half a stick softened vegan butter (I used Earth Balance brand, which honestly I didn't love... it tastes a bit like straight canola oil just FYI)

-0.25 cup almond milk (we drink the regular, not the unsweetened)

-half teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

1. Combine sugar and butter in a mixing bowl with an electric hand-mixer. The consistency will be thick and creamy.

2. Add milk and vanilla to the sugar + butter mixture. Continue to mix until smooth.

And that's it! I refrigerated this mixture for about 24 hours before use and it held up well. Like any homemade icing (well, like all of my homemade icings), I think this version tastes a little sweet but it was really good. In the end, it only gets a B from me because I didn't like the vegan butter flavor, but it was certainly a sweet treat for my sweet HDawg. In fact, as I shared before, he loved the cake and icing so much that he rubbed it all over his belly! Get in mah belllyyyy.