HELP! I just learned that my 1 yr-old has allergies!

[K's Mom]

I just learned that my 1-yr old son is allergic to milk, wheat, egg, soy, and peanut. For the last few months he's been having Gerber pureed fruit with oatmeal cereal for breakfast and Gerber pureed meat with oatmeal for dinner. For lunch I make him some kind of vegetable with rice. I feel like I'm feeding him the same foods every day and need some suggestions to give him some variety.

Thanks for your suggestions!

[kjbrown92]

If he's 1, he can start having some table foods.

breakfast: small chunks of banana, cream of rice or cream of buckwheat cereal, rice chex cereal, rice cakes

lunch or dinner: rice, gravy, chicken bone broth, buckwheat waffles, meatballs, sweet potatoes (mashed), veggies (cooked soft). Even if he doesn't have any teeth, they can mash a lot with their gums.

I'd be wary of the oatmeal since most oatmeal is cross contaminated with wheat.

[K's Mom]

Thanks for the suggestions, Kathy. Meatballs sounds especially good. What would you suggest for binding agents instead of the breadcrumbs and egg?

Thankfully my little guy has only a slight allergy to wheat. He can tolerate it in small quantities (like when it's a smaller ingredient in a product); he just can't tolerate pastas, breads, wheat crackers, etc. His milk allergy is the same. He can't tolerate dairy products but has been drinking milk-based formula for a while...it's perplexing! Anyway, his allergist said to keep giving him the foods he can tolerate. But I do appreciate your warning about the oatmeal. It's amazing how even the foods you would use to substitute other foods contain the same allergens!

I'm new to this whole allergy thing and am learning a lot!

[Catt75]

I don't have any ideas as I am new to all of this also. I just wanted to say hugs and welcome. My girl is 11 months and I know that she is allergic to dairy but not sure what else. She has eczema so we assume there are other things. It is so weird to have to be so cautious about food and feeding.

[lil_miss_understood]

There are rice and corn based pastas, fwiw.