It's official...

...Joshua is not only gluten free but casein free and dairy free! Well, at least for now. Here's why...

As I had mentioned in a previous post, we noticed that Josh didn't need to be nebulized after his last cold. In trying to figure it out I realized that HE had stopped eating and drinking all of his usual dairy. In the morning he would typically have a 9 oz cup of milk with his vitamins and medicine. Then at some point in the day he would have a Yoplait yogurt and eat the whole thing. He would also have either a cheese stick, a grilled cheese sandwich, or mac and cheese for lunch. He didn't have any of those things. It was only after our trip to Maine to visit friends that we confirmed Josh indeed has a problem with dairy. The only dairy he had while we were visiting was cheese. The night we came home as well as the following night, he had terrible coughing fits and we were back to nebulizing him every 4 hours over the course of the next 3 days!

Fortunately, going casein/dairy free is too difficult for a gluten free family. Most of the prepacked gluten free products and mixes happen to be casein/dairy free already. It's the day-to-day stuff that we're having a hard time with...cheese, and yogurt. After experimenting with several alternative milks, Josh prefers soy milk. So, that works fairly well in most of our mixes and just as a drink for him. As for butter, we've been using coconut oil for quite some time now, and it works really well in just about every instance that you would use butter. Plus, it's healthier! We just haven't found a cheese that he likes though. The trick with that is finding one that is also gluten free. For some reason not as easy. The one we did find, he's not too keen on. And yogurt...forget it.

So, why wasn't this diagnosed through his doctor...??? We DID run some blood tests for every kind of food allergy back at his last check up, because I insisted they be run. Unfortunately, (but not surprisingly) the tests all came back normal. Before I get attacked for saying "unfortunately", let me clarify it by saying that I'm NOT upset that my son is healthy, according to their testing. It's just that in my experience with Ethan, I find it hard to trust the data when it comes back normal. Without getting into the whole can of worms I just opened up, Mike and I just find that if we trust in our gut, (our much healthier gut mind you) we usually end up on the right path to making our kids happier and healthier.

Besides, wouldn't you trust your gut if you were faced with either having to hold down a screaming, writhing, incredibly agitated child while nebulizing him, OR limiting if not eliminating his dairy intake...hmmm...we choose the latter!