In August my youngest son was diagnosed with a dairy allergy. I confess that driving away from the doctor’s office I broke down and had to bite my lip to gain control back while driving in that wonderful city traffic.
I’m not sure why I did, other than it was the latest “straw” on this camel’s back in a very large stack, but I basically lost it as images and questions flooded my mind about how I was going to basically have to find a way to simulate his daily diet, which consists of basically ALL dairy, with non-dairy substitutes.
No, seriously, this child LOVES dairy. He thrives on yogurt, cottage cheese, Mac & Cheese, grilled cheese sandwiches, cheese pizza, excreta… you get the picture.
So how do you deal with this??? Well, after gaining composure I turned to my mom and asked her “What do I do?” and my brother, in the back seat, reached up and squeezed my shoulder and said it would all be ok. Turns out he was right and my mother was right when she said, “Your smart and you’ll figure it out and find a way. This isn’t the end of the world and you do have options now that weren’t available before. They make dairy substitutes in everything and we’ll just find ones he’ll eat.” I have an awesome Mom.
And that’s what we did. I went and talked to my cousins whom have children, or they themselves, suffer from dairy allergies, and other food allergies, what they suggested. 🙂 AWESOME family I have. So many suggestions and helpful hints were given as well as sites to check out.
My son’s birthday was in December and I about freaked when I remembered… Ice cream is made with milk… WHAT DO I DO NOW????? I’ve tried all the other things… the frozen blended fruit, nope wont touch it… So I did searches and Hello 🙂 I now love Italian Ice, as does my dairy-allergy child 🙂 Can anyone think of a better excuse to go get a cup?
For Christmas my other son, sweetheart and professional TV ad shopper, convinced my Mom to get me a Desert Bullet. 😉 I’ve been playing with these recipes since I got it and boy do I love mine. The kids get a kick out of helping and occasionally I can get my youngest to eat his “ice-cream”. There are so many and they even have a blog with tons more 🙂
So while I sit and run through all the mess and stress of dealing with this new thing, and trying to convince my son’s father that he CAN NOT have dairy, and WHY it’s a BAD thing to keep doing, and that the extra cost of buying cheese made from rice milk outweighs the other stuff…. I’m thankful.
Why am I thankful? Because I have an awesome support base to fall back on and I know that no matter what, I can talk to them and they will have ideas or thoughts that can help me get through it, and remind me that orange is not my color.
( I started this back in August 2013 but couldn’t finish it, then forgot about it until now. Don’t you just love how life keeps you busy? 😉 )
Ya-Ya's Musings 