Soy Update

Okay, I usually don't do posts outside of reviews and recipes, but this is part of our life and so I wanted to update we were are right now.  My little one has a soy sensitivity, but I know it isn't too bad, because it wasn't triggered until we switched all the dairy items to soy items.  But, we played it safe and took anything soy related out of his diet.  We soon discovered that soy lecithin was safe, so that made life a lot easier.  Now, I'm pretty sure that soybean oil is fine.  I've been using our Nucoa margarine instead of our Earth Balance Soy-free margarine for the past few weeks in cooking and on toast, etc.--and he's still the same happy boy, no reaction at all.  So, I'm starting to feel comfortable with the oils now.  It'll still be a long while before I test soy protein, because I know that is where the sensitivity lies, but for now, we have more leeway some of our food. :)

Soy!!! :(

Okay, I said I was just going to have this blog be recipes and reviews, but I need to write this, because this will change future recipes and reviews....I'm pretty sure my little one can't handle soy, so now he is gluten free. dairy free, and soy free. :(

When I first took him off of gluten, I knew dairy was a problem, because his behaviors and sensory issues really hadn't improved a whole lot.  I knew he did had a gluten problem, though, because of the 4 days of 'withdrawal' hell we experienced when we took him off the gluten.  So, when we got the results back from Enterolab we immediately took him off the dairy. He did so much better that first week, he was happy, goofy even, he had normal bowel movements, was eating great, he was a normal kid, finally!  But, the next week he started getting cranky, and having more of what I called bipolar moments, where his mood would suddenly and drastically change.  I dismissed it as him being a 3-year old, come on 3-year olds can be quite moody, right?  Well, by the next week, it was obvious it was more than him being misbehaving toddler.  His behaviors turned aggressive and even violent.  It truly frightened me, I know that something had changed in him and that's when I realized that we had easily tripled his soy consumption since going dairy-free.  He was drinking soy milk, eating soy margarine, we were deep frying chicken nuggets and corn dogs in vegetable oil (soybean oil)...the list goes on.  I was literally sick, what had I done to my baby!?!?  Within minutes of having this sick realization, my sitter called me to tell me that something was wrong with him, that they really could not handle him anymore...could it be the soy?  That was enough to confirm for me that (1) I wasn't imagining his behavior and (2) it was soy.

So, we have a well child checkup on Friday, and I'm going to be bringing all this up with the doc then, but in the meantime we're cutting out the soy.  We started the new diet on Saturday, and my baby is back, he's happy again (yes, he still has his 3-year old tantrums, but they aren't murderous outbursts now) and he's back to being a normal kid. I really am hoping and praying that this is the last intolerance we have to deal with.