I should start this post off by stating that I am not a vegan, although I am 100% convinced that this is the best nutritional diet. Someday I will get there, but I am still having trouble eliminating dairy entirely from my diet. I have also been a very naughty vegetarian for the past six months.
Anyway, a few years ago my son started getting sick with severe colds. (They later diagnosed this as "asthma".) He had 6 hospital admissions within a 9 month period. A mild cold would immediately send him to the emergency room. Despite seeing several pediatricians, an allergist, and a pulmonologist at Seattle's Childrens Hospital, no one was able to control these incidences. I finally took him to the clinic at Bastyr naturopathic school. A food allergy test revealed no clear food allergies, but rather a low reaction to dairy and some type of reaction to basically every food they tested for. They assumed this was leaky gut syndrome. (Also when he was an infant, he had severe baby acne and eczema and removing dairy from my diet while breastfeeding him cleared these problems up immediately.) Our first plan of action was to remove dairy from his diet again. It's been over a year and he hasn't had a problem since. The more conventional/mainstream explanation is that milk causes a buildup of mucus and can lead to complications in kids with asthma and upper respiratory conditions.
He has just started attending Head Start preschool. This is a free, federally funded program for low income children. They serve breakfast and lunch and the food program is funded and run by the USDA. During the paperwork process, I asked them not to serve him dairy and they wanted me to fill out a food allergy form. I did so and they required that it be signed by a doctor. This, in itself, has been a hassle. (We haven't seen the naturopath for a year, because, well...we haven't needed to. She is several hours away. I finally got ahold of her via email and she graciously agreed to sign the form and fax it back to the school. This should be completed soon.) However, the director of the preschool called me this morning and asked if the doctor would be completely documenting his condition and the reasons why dairy affects him, etc. What???
I am completely irritated by the entire situation. I asked her, "If we were vegans, would we still have to get a doctor to sign the food allergy note?" She said yes. She said that the food program is very strict and any food eliminations or substitutions should be thoroughly documented. She also continued to ask, "Can he have pudding if it has milk in it? How about crackers that contain evaporated milk?"
I am going to continue to handle the situation with the preschool until they stop serving him dairy. (As of now, they are giving him cheese on his sandwiches and glasses of milk and from what I hear, he is refusing them. He knows that dairy will make him sick and generally avoids it even without me needing to step in.)
However, I want to take this a step further. Should I write a letter? How is the USDA getting away with controlling the nutrition of low income children based on what they believe is correct? How can people still believe that milk is nutritionally excellent??? Why have my rights as a parent been taken away because I fall under the low income category? Shouldn't I just be able to say "I don't want him having that" and not be questioned?
Your thoughts are appreciated.
Anyway, a few years ago my son started getting sick with severe colds. (They later diagnosed this as "asthma".) He had 6 hospital admissions within a 9 month period. A mild cold would immediately send him to the emergency room. Despite seeing several pediatricians, an allergist, and a pulmonologist at Seattle's Childrens Hospital, no one was able to control these incidences. I finally took him to the clinic at Bastyr naturopathic school. A food allergy test revealed no clear food allergies, but rather a low reaction to dairy and some type of reaction to basically every food they tested for. They assumed this was leaky gut syndrome. (Also when he was an infant, he had severe baby acne and eczema and removing dairy from my diet while breastfeeding him cleared these problems up immediately.) Our first plan of action was to remove dairy from his diet again. It's been over a year and he hasn't had a problem since. The more conventional/mainstream explanation is that milk causes a buildup of mucus and can lead to complications in kids with asthma and upper respiratory conditions.
He has just started attending Head Start preschool. This is a free, federally funded program for low income children. They serve breakfast and lunch and the food program is funded and run by the USDA. During the paperwork process, I asked them not to serve him dairy and they wanted me to fill out a food allergy form. I did so and they required that it be signed by a doctor. This, in itself, has been a hassle. (We haven't seen the naturopath for a year, because, well...we haven't needed to. She is several hours away. I finally got ahold of her via email and she graciously agreed to sign the form and fax it back to the school. This should be completed soon.) However, the director of the preschool called me this morning and asked if the doctor would be completely documenting his condition and the reasons why dairy affects him, etc. What???
I am completely irritated by the entire situation. I asked her, "If we were vegans, would we still have to get a doctor to sign the food allergy note?" She said yes. She said that the food program is very strict and any food eliminations or substitutions should be thoroughly documented. She also continued to ask, "Can he have pudding if it has milk in it? How about crackers that contain evaporated milk?"
I am going to continue to handle the situation with the preschool until they stop serving him dairy. (As of now, they are giving him cheese on his sandwiches and glasses of milk and from what I hear, he is refusing them. He knows that dairy will make him sick and generally avoids it even without me needing to step in.)
However, I want to take this a step further. Should I write a letter? How is the USDA getting away with controlling the nutrition of low income children based on what they believe is correct? How can people still believe that milk is nutritionally excellent??? Why have my rights as a parent been taken away because I fall under the low income category? Shouldn't I just be able to say "I don't want him having that" and not be questioned?
Your thoughts are appreciated.
Good luck!!
