Sometimes it’s tough to be a parent. Not in the sense that you worry that they won’t get into the right college, or marry the right person, or choose the right Secretary of State for their presidential administration (because, they will be the next President if you have anything to say about it). More in the sense that it can be hard to find the right things to feed your children in order for them to lead healthy, happy lives.
This can be tough when you have a child with food allergies. It can be incredibly hard when what your child is allergic to is in 95% of all packaged foods. This is the case with my son, who is allergic not only to soy and soy accessories but egg as well. Well, he’s allergic to cats and cockroaches too; we just don’t expect him to eat any foods containing those items.
The allergies came about unexpectedly. For the longest time he was able to eat products with both soy and egg in them. Then, as he was nearing his 2nd birthday, it all changed. My wife and I think it was the flu shot he previously received that kicked the allergies off. Not too long after that the baby-smooth skin he once had turned red, scaly and itchy.
After visiting with a number of doctors and getting a range of diagnoses from a simple rash to scabies (at the utter shock of my wife, who is a cleaning freak), one of them finally suggested we take him to an allergist. Lo and behold, a few skin scrapes later we learned of his allergies to egg and soy.
At first, we were a bit dumbfounded in what we could feed our son, who was already a finicky eater, now that our choices were limited. We went from dumbfounded to disheartened when we discovered how many products featured eggs, soy, a derivative of soy (such as soybean oil), or were manufactured in a plant that used those products. I spent a good 45 minutes reading labels the first time I went looking for items that I thought he would like.
Once I found those items, few that they were at my local supermarket chain, I went into sticker shock at the prices. I was amazed at how much people could charge for these so-called organic items that were made without any soy or egg products. This was even truer when I found out later that my son was just one in a very long list of children and adults who have these types of allergies. While I could certainly afford it I considered the plight of those not as fortunate as me who wouldn’t be able to spend six dollars on egg replacement powder or five dollars on cream cheese biscuits. Heck, sometimes I had to wonder about my finances when the final total at the Whole Foods was $80 for two bags of food just for him.
It was certainly tough going at the beginning as we needed to practically re-invent the way that our son was eating. Eventually, though, we got the hang of it by simply looking at labels (one of the rare government initiatives that actually worked). Soon enough we realized that our youngest child could eat certain cereals, rice dishes and pastas as well as sandwiches and ice cream. As time went on we reduced our bi-weekly trips to Whole Foods, which was a 70-mile, round-trip drive, and began making food for him from ingredients we had at home. Let me tell you, there’s nothing better than homemade fries from real potatoes!
As my son nears his third birthday both he and I are happy with his current diet. Though, like any parents, we would like to see him eat more fruits and vegetables, he has adjusted well to a diet of mostly grains, lean meats and no-soy dairy. We can only hope that, as the doctor has said, he outgrows these allergies as he reaches school age. If not, I can see a difficult time ahead as we try to explain why he can’t buy lunches or trade desserts with the other kids.
Clacked by Richard Keller 
on Feb 02, 2009 @ 08:23 EST5EDT
