I feel like the food police

The boys both have bronchitis, so we spent far longer at the doctor's this afternoon to get prescriptions for both of them.  While waiting, a little boy about two wandered over to watch my boys play in the iPad (which is, by the way, the *best* child-waiting entertainment device ever!).  No problem, he wasn't touching, was just watching, not really getting into their personal bubbles, so I went back to marking.

Then the boy offered William a cookie, which William took.  I felt like I was in one of those slow-motion movie sequences, where the disaster is about to happen and there's nothing you can do about it.  I managed to stop him, reminded him nicely that he couldn't eat anything unless Mommy or Daddy told him it had no sulphites, then had to take him and scrub his hands, all the while trying not to over-react and become *that* shrill allergy mom.

The mother of the little boy was quite offended at how I reacted.  Considering I managed not to make a big fuss (and let me tell you I certainly felt like it), I wasn't too happy about that.  I was polite, but trying to explain a complicated food sensitivity to someone who is (1) not interested and (2) doesn't speak English as a first language is an exercise in frustration and futility.

We're trying to keep things as normal as possible for William, but it's so hard some times, especially when other people just don't *get* it.  And I'm getting frustrated at having to explain myself over and over and over.  *sigh*

Minor reactions

We've had several minor reactions over the last few weeks, and it's getting frustrating.  I just think I've isolated the source, when William has another one.  Thankfully, we're only dealing with digestive issues and eczema, but when we're being *so* careful to avoid sulphites, even a minor reaction is frustrating.  It's even more so when I know that even these small exposures could cause an anaphylactic reaction.

So far, it seems that these reactions are a result of one of three things.  The first is food products produced before the current labelling laws went into effect, which means that while new(er) product is labelled, older product isn't.  We can't even be sure that foods are safe if we've read the label, and that's incredibly frustrating.  It means that grocery shopping is a potential mine field, which is one of the reasons that we're moving towards an organic diet.

The second is food products that don't need to be labelled, which includes things that contain less than 10 ppm of sulphites.  Ironically, grapes that supposedly contained less than 10 ppm of sulphites were the source of William's original anaphylactic reaction.

The third is cross-contamination.  We've had a few instances of this and, with our switch to organic produce (thanks in part to Etomami Organics), there have been less and less of these reactions.  But we can only control so much of William's environment and food intake, so are having to slowly eliminate more and more items as we discover potential points of cross-contamination.

In this process, I've learned two things:  (1) there is no such thing as "sulphite-free" eating due to the fact that sulphites occur naturally in a variety of things* and (2) dealing with a complicated food sensitivity is extraordinarily frustrating!  I've dealt with serious food allergies before, but sulphites are a category all of their own in terms of the near-impossibility of avoiding them.  At the moment--knock on wood--we've had several days without a reaction, but I'll stock up on Benadryl, again, this afternoon, as the question isn't "if" there'll be another reaction, but "when."

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*Look for a post on naturally-occurring sulphites, coming in December.

First CSA pick-up

Our first pick-up from the community-supported agriculture farm that we've joined--Etomami Organics--was this morning.  It was a bit chilly, and William was a bit of an orangutan and had to be shipped off to the truck to watch tv whilst I got everything organized.  After doing a bit of paperwork, we got our allotment for the month, which included:

• 2 lbs ground beef
• a 6-1/2 lb chicken
• 2 dozen eggs
• beets
• potatoes
• cabbage
• kolorabi
• Brussels sprouts
• butternut squash
• carrots (William was particularly excited about these)
• onions
• frozen broccoli, green beans, sauerkraut, and zucchini

Now that I've made room in the fridge, I'm going to plan out meals for next week, including what I'm going to do with the kolorabi and the Brussels sprouts!

An official diagnosis

So, it's official:  William's got sulphite sensitivity.  Not that it was a surprise, but I can say that I was secretly hoping it'd be the grapes.  Not so.  It's not often that you leave the allergist's office with him saying to you, "I'm sorry.  I wish it was something else.  You're not going to be able to eliminate it, but avoid as much of it as you can."  So there you have it, in a nutshell.

The visit was rather anticlimactic.  There was scrambling to find a grape to do a skin test, just to make sure it wasn't actually the grapes he was allergic to.  William thought it all very amusing, especially when they cut the grape in half and rubbed it on his arm.  The only positive reaction, though, was the histamine control.  And, as there's no reliable skin test for sulphite sensitivity, and because our detailed food diary indicated a positive correlation, that was the end of it.

Nothing's changed for William.  He had a minor reaction this morning to the Cheezies he ate last night (unbeknownst to me, damn!), but the Benadryl seems to have helped and he's currently sprawled on our bed upstairs, sleeping with Sleepy Bunny.

I thought an official diagnosis wouldn't really affect me.  After all, Ocam's Razor being what it is, the most logical culprit was sulphites.  But it's the "official" notice of a significant change in our lives, and whether I want to admit it or not, I'm going through the stages of change (or grief, depending on how you want to look at it), which is, in a way, why I'm posting this a week after the appointment.  Maybe, if I don't write it down, it won't be real.  Denial at its best, eh?

Asking about allergens ....

You'd think, with the prevalence and increased visibility of allergens, that people in the food service industry wouldn't look at you like you were from outer space when you ask about potential allergens and inquire about ingredients.  You'd think that they would be able to provide an ingredients list, or at least tell you whether or not a product contains one of Health Canada's identified top nine food allergens.  Well, don't hold your breath.  It's not going to happen.

We drove into the city this morning to get supplies to make pies for this evening's Fowl Supper.  As we were leaving the grocery store, I thought it would be nice to grab a cup of coffee and a treat for the boys for the drive home.  I ordered my coffee, then inquired about ingredients in their baked goods.  Not only did the woman serving me have no idea about the ingredients of what they were selling, she tried to sell me product anyway, even after I informed her that one of my boys had an potentially anaphylactic sensitivity to sulphites.  When I asked if there was an ingredients list online, she had no idea.  None.  Grrrr ....

So I took my (overpriced but convenient) coffee and left, with her wondering why I wasn't going to buy anything else from her.  Go figure.  I've since emailed the company to ask about an ingredients list, but I'm certainly not counting on a helpful response.  And I find it rather ironic that their online "nutritional information" directs customers to ask store staff for further information.  *meh*