Corn-free...HELP please???

[True Blue]

As I said in another post, DS's IgG came back low reactive to corn. I need to test it out this week. Luckily, DS loves fruits and veggies, but I'd like to bake some things for him too. He is already dairy free and soy free (going yeast-free now too), and with this now I just lost our butter substitute. I got some coconut oil today. He has also lost his So Delicious coconut milk and Silk chocolate almond milk, not to mention a number of his supplements. I can make baking powder, fine. But vanilla extract? What do I do? I was going to bake cookies this evening but now I don't know how?????

He's been on the verge of tears several times today because everything we pick up has some sort of corn derivative in it (or some other item he can't have).

[lyterae]

I've heard you can buy vanilla extract without corn, I'm looking tonight, you can also make your own (though that's not an instant process). Can your DS have rice milk? We are dairy,corn, and soy free as well.

[mamafish9]

For a week long test, I'd just avoid baking, honestly. There are ways to get around corn derived ingredients, but they're hard to source, or you need to do stuff like make your own vanilla. It can all be done, but for a week, I'd just stick with basic whole foods that he likes, and stay away from baking or any prepared foods. Then trial corn - if you discover it's an issue, then you can figure out all the ups and downs of avoiding it - but it's a learning curve I'd personally not try to figure out for just a week's test elimination.

[karika]

coconut oil is good. can you use earth balance soy free? that is what we have for dd1. I don't use it because of canola oil, and if you can have your child use coconut oil, that is good. dd1 will not use coconut oil. The only thing we need the EB for is as a replacement for mayo on a sandwich (on GF bread, we are also GFCFSF) I want to trial corn free also. We did obvious corn (and the obvious hidden kind too) for a week, but she was still reacting to something. It must be nice to have a test to tell you what to avoid. There is a corn free vanilla available. It is only a flavoring though, Frontier Brand Vanilla Flavor. You can also make your own from the beans and a corn free liquor. I just skip vanilla altogether in baking. I am a member at http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/foodlab/ and this group is very helpful at figuring out foods and hidden things.....

So what is it in So Delicious that is corn? I didn't remove it or the Udi's bread during our trial, though something told me there was corn in it... i write more later... toddler grabbin boobie

[Amandamarie]

My dd is very allergic to all forms of corn. It's her only allergy though. She can eat dairy as long as it doesn't contain Vitamin A or other hidden corn ingredients.

Here's some corn-free ingredients.

Frontier brand alcohol-free vanilla flavoring or just skip it
Hain's brand Featherweight baking powder (potato starch instead of corn)
Spectrum brand canola oil
King Arthur flours- any type but I don't know if they have a yeast-free kind.
Whole Foods brand 365 organic brown and white sugar.
I cook with Clover organic unsalted butter, but I've used applesauce as a substitute. Make sure it only contains apples and water.
Sea salt or salt without iodine


Earth Balance isn't corn-free.

[True Blue]

OK, I was wrong about the coconut milk, but the yogurt and kefir is out....dextrose and citric acid. EB SF has "natural flavor derived from corn" on the label. I'm pretty sure there is a rice milk that is corn free, but he doesn't like to drink it, though it can go in recipes.

We did the test from Great Plains, and our insurance paid so all we had a was comparatively small copay. http://www.greatplainslaboratory.com...llergy_igg.asp We did the Dried Blood Spot test...our Dr signed the papers, and I pricked the kids' fingers at home with the included lancet...much less drama (and time) than going to a lab.

I'd really like to bake this week for a number reasons. DS has had a rough couple of months with the food trials, and I'd like to try to help feel as normal as possible. Plus, corn is just in SO MANY things, I want to do this as right as possible so we will know definitively in a week or so. Any mistake at any point will be a setback, and make us start the day count over. Also, my birthday is Monday...and there WILL be cake!

[True Blue]

Thanks everyone. Can anyone help me find safe bacon? That would make a happy boy. breakfast gets hard when you can't have bread, cheese, cereal with milk, etc...if I could make bacon and eggs, and my homemade waffles, we'd be in pretty good shape for that meal!

[True Blue]

DS is getting, if anything, worse. Do we really think the minute corn starch in Zyrtec could be enough to make him ill? He did have a cold, but honestly since being off Zyrtec is cough is going downhill, which is a major symptom for his allergies. He's coughing and gagging. I don't even have corn-free C to give him to help. Help???

[mamafish9]

Yes, if your child is corn sensitive, a small amount of corn starch can be plenty to set him off. It sounds though like you have some other allergy issues that the Zyrtec bandaids, and taking away the Zyrtec is bringing those symptoms back (an environmental allergy, maybe?)

In the short term, do you have a compounding pharmacy near you? They would likely be able to make you a Zyrtec replacement without corn.

[True Blue]

I don't even know what a compounding pharmacy is. How would I know if a pharmacy is or isn't?

He has pretty severe dust mite and mold allergies, which we had controlled last year with mattress covers, air purifier, etc etc. When we moved here, it got worse and never better. This is why we started investigating food allergies, to look for exacerbating factors. Even with Zyrtec, he was pretty miserable, but it still helped. Vitamin C works relatively well, I just wish I'd thought to get to the hfs earlier today. All I have here is Emergen-c and pure ascorbic acid crystals (which I looked up, and come from either corn or grapes, non-specifically). Dairy definitely makes him stuffy and have a runny nose, in addition to digestive issues...I'm surprised taking it away made little difference (however adding it back did, lol).

[mamafish9]

If moving made it worse, I'd assume you have a new environmental allergen to contend with (or more of an existing one - mold in your home, something like that?).

[True Blue]

Yes, I'm starting to think the same. Our house is brand-new, and we installed hardwood in his bedroom and I purposefully kept his room a little sparce. There is a playroom next to it for most of the kids' stuff. We have wood downstairs, but the rest of the upstairs near his room is carpeted. I'm not sure if that is the difference, but you would think, at least, that new carpet would be fairly clean. I closed his air ducts this evening, shut his door, and ran his purifier. He won't sleep with the door shut, so I put the other, larger one in his doorway; so, essentially, he has enough purifier for over 1000sqft in his room and no outside air being pushed in. If this makes the difference...I will be calling the builder in no time to have our air ducts examined. Someone on the board here had a similar problem and I kind of forgot about it til now. Of course, LOL, I won't know it was the air ducts since I took out corn and yeast. :

At any rate, we are kind of looking to lighten his 'load' with the foods at least. They certainly have affected his eczema. In fact, we were noticing tonight, his eczema has cleared up once again. Coincidence?

The fun part is....his baby sister's IgG should be in my inbox Tuesday...we already know soy makes her nuts and was the cause of her cradle cap. I've got busy times!

[kjbrown92]

I make our own vanilla extract (you can use rum, which is made from sugar cane, or Luksusowa vodka, made from potatoes, then add 5-6 slit vanilla beans, and let them sit for 6-8 weeks). You can also get vanilla from www.saffron.com (I also get my vanilla beans from there). Just make sure to get the vanilla extract that uses sugar cane alcohol. We use silk Almond Milk (vanilla) and also Pacific Foods Chocolate Hazelnut milk (really good).

When I needed a compounding pharmacy last week, I first asked the doctor (who didn't know of one) then asked a pharmacist, and got a phone number for one a half hour away. They ask you all the allergies so they know what they can't include in it.

Most bacon is safe for us. Rarely does it have corn in it, I've found. We use mostly Oscar Mayer, or a local smokehouse, though just because of taste. We also use Jones frozen sausage.

What about the Wacky Cake recipe - it doesn't have dairy, soy, or corn, and uses cocoa, so maybe you can get away with no vanilla extract. And in the short term, you could also get a vanilla bean, split it, and use some of the innards to flavor the cake.

We use Spectrum Palm Shortening on things like zucchini bread and mashed potatoes as a butter sub, though it really has no flavor.

[True Blue]

Thanks. You won't believe this....my grocery store carries Frontier Vanilla!!!!!!! I have a regular ol' cake baking in the oven (well, "regular" with coconut oil, coconut milk, homemade baking powder, and Frontier vanilla LOL). Thanks mamas!

[lyterae]

Originally Posted by True Blue

Thanks. You won't believe this....my grocery store carries Frontier Vanilla!!!!!!! I have a regular ol' cake baking in the oven (well, "regular" with coconut oil, coconut milk, homemade baking powder, and Frontier vanilla LOL). Thanks mamas!

Okay... how do you make baking powder?

[True Blue]

1/2tsp baking soda with 1.5tsp cream of tartar. I think there are a few different recipes online...but that is what I used.

[mamafish9]

Originally Posted by True Blue

Yes, I'm starting to think the same. Our house is brand-new, and we installed hardwood in his bedroom and I purposefully kept his room a little sparce. There is a playroom next to it for most of the kids' stuff. We have wood downstairs, but the rest of the upstairs near his room is carpeted.

New homes release enormous amounts of VOCs (volatile organic compounds - glues, plywood, drywall, carpets, all release plenty of VOCs, worst when they are new). For a fragile child, those can create all kinds of toxicities and increase the total load of stuff they need to deal with (a lot of VOCs and related toxins get cleared through methylation pathways, as do histamines from allergies, so it all goes into the same bucket).

I'd consider a high quality whole house filter that handles VOCs, and support your son's methylation - sublingual methyl B12 (I'd work up slowly to at least 3,000mcg spread out over the morning and early afternoon), and 200mcg each of folinic acid (e.g. thorne folacal, available at iherb.com) and mthf folate (also available from Thorne - note, that's only about 1/4 capsule of each a day). Some vitamin C would be good as well, that helps with histamines (quercetin can also be helpful).

Based on the timing of the increased symptoms, that's where I'd

[True Blue]

I just checked, and the unit in his room is an Austin Air Allergy Machine that does remove VOC's. This of course doesn't help for the rest of the day, but he ought to be sleeping better.

Last night, with his vent closed, he only sneaked into my room once...so there may be something going on with that, or it was coincidence. Now I've changed too much at once to know what's doing what! He's been 48 hours totally corn free, would be 72 but he had some chocolate almond milk before I realized the ingredients. I guess he used toothpaste too, so if you count that I didn't think of that til last night, so maybe it's only 36.

He's taking C, but had to skip it since Friday, but luckily the new C came today, so that will help. That at least makes a dent in his symptoms.

[mamafish9]

Originally Posted by True Blue

I just checked, and the unit in his room is an Austin Air Allergy Machine that does remove VOC's. This of course doesn't help for the rest of the day, but he ought to be sleeping better.

Last night, with his vent closed, he only sneaked into my room once...so there may be something going on with that, or it was coincidence. Now I've changed too much at once to know what's doing what! He's been 48 hours totally corn free, would be 72 but he had some chocolate almond milk before I realized the ingredients. I guess he used toothpaste too, so if you count that I didn't think of that til last night, so maybe it's only 36.

He's taking C, but had to skip it since Friday, but luckily the new C came today, so that will help. That at least makes a dent in his symptoms.

If C helps, I'd still suspect that the VOCs are adding to his total load (and perhaps making him a lot more sensitive to other things). If it's a methylation load issue, just avoiding the VOCs at night isn't going to be enough to improve night sleep.

Methyl groups are used for lots of things in the body - clearing VOCs, decreasing histamines (C does this as well, turns off histamines), and adding a methyl group to serotonin to make melatonin, which can improve sleep. So if his methyls get exhausted during the day trying to clear VOCs, just being out of them at night might not produce instantly better sleep.

Anyhow, if the C works, definitely go get some sublingual B12 - the impact is quicker than C on histamines (do the C as well, at least 2,000mg/day).

[True Blue]

The bit about serotonin --> melatonin is interesting. He's never been a good sleeper, ever. He often takes melatonin to aid that. The first time he slept the night he was 5 years old. He rarely sleeps the night, waking often to use the bathroom, try to come in my bed, etc. He is a very, very restless sleeper as well...which is why I don't like him in my bed anymore (he used to cosleep) -- he kicks, squirms, digs his feet in, grabs with hands, etc. If there is a vitamin to actually fix that...wow.

I was just thinking upstairs as I was with DD and remembered our last house was mostly new too. We transferred within military housing (long story but the gist is rats and mice.....ewwwww) to a refurbished model, with new laminate floors, fixtures, paint, etc. That is however where we got his allergies under control. They did START around the time we moved in there. However, I think the true start date was shortly before we moved in, in August, when the ac broke at our other house (one of many issues lol) and we had mold on the vents (he is very sensitive to molds and dust mites)....I'm pretty sure it started there, then continued in the new house. The kid was so. sick. Coughing his brains out, phlegmy, stuffy, etc. We thought it was a cold (it wasn't). Tried Claritin, which did nothing, but Zyrtec gave him at least some relief. He was tested in Dec and had the environmental ones I mentioned, some trees/grass, and sesame.

We did at least use no VOC paint when on whatever we have repainted in the house, but that's about all I had control over. The wood floors have to be better than the carpet. If it would help we would replace the rest of the carpeting in a heartbeat.

I do have Klaire Labs Ther-biotic probiotics on the way, and he is back taking C (Twinlabs for now, will be 3000mg a day). With the yeast allergy, does anyone think anything of yeast overgrowth? I find it interesting to note that he used to love yogurt and eats lots of it, then lost interest in it a year or so ago, and now gets absolutely none bc of the dairy allergy (and the coconut yogurt doesn't excite him). He's also taking borage oil. He was taking cod liver oil capsules too, but I'm unsure of their corn status (Nordic Naturals). He can swallow big pills luckily so that is a big help!!!

ETA He has had eczema since he was a baby. Dust mites are obviously a huge factor in that for him, but the foods are affecting it too, as I am seeing.