Vivi Eats: Life With Food Allergies 4

This is the last "Vivi Eats" for awhile.  After four weeks of these updates, you're probably getting the idea.  Avoid dairy, eggs, and peanuts...yada, yada, yada...and she loves blueberries!

If you want a recap, see here, here, and here.  

Otherwise, this is what Vivi ate on Monday:

Pre-Breakfast:

Dry Cheerios

Juice/ Water mix

Breakfast:

Thomas' Cinnamon Raisin Bagels

Blueberries

Juice/ Water (leftover from pre-breakfast) 

We tried these bagels out for the first time this week, and she loves them!  She likes them plain, but I'm trying to convince her that they're better covered in jam.  

Nap:

8 oz Nutramigen formula

Lunch:

Sunbutter and jelly roll up (using Joseph's lavish bread) 

Watermelon

Frozen peas (she did not eat)

Almond Milk 

Snack:

Wheat Thins

Clementine (which she saw me eating and stole) 

Almond Milk

Dinner:

Baked lemon chicken

Rice Pilaf

Broccoli

Almond Milk

I chopped the chicken and broccoli into super tiny pieces and mixed them with the rice.  Vivi LOVES rice, so she didn't notice the additions while she was busy shoveling fistfuls of food in her mouth.  

Bedtime:  

8 oz Nutramigen Formula  

Vivi doesn't like almond milk that much, and she likes coconut and soy milk even less.  Even though I offer her almond milk throughout the day, she rarely takes more than a few sips.  We ran out of formula the other morning, so we tried giving her almond milk in her bottle instead.  She drank for about three minutes before she realized that something was different.  Then she was mad.  Really mad.  Mad enough to yell right through her nap.  Boo.  She might be drinking Nutramigen till she's sixteen, and insurance is no longer covering it...so awesome...

Vivi Eats: Life With Food Allergies 3

Man, my child is becoming a very picky eater!  A month ago she loved butternut squash! But tonight?  My kitchen floor is plastered with the stuff.  Plus, I don't think she's ever eaten a piece of meat without spitting it out.  Madeline doesn't like meat much either unless it's in a taco.  My girls are fruit and carb girls all the way.    

As I mentioned here and here, Vivi is allergic to eggs, dairy, and peanuts.  I'm sharing samples of what she eats, but this is in no way a complete picture of her diet.  Some days she eats nothing but blueberries, and some days she surprises me by scarfing down an entire bowl of chicken soup.  Babies...You feel me?    

Pre-Breakfast:
As always...
Dry Cheerios
Juice/Water mix

Breakfast:

Apple Raisin-Bran Bread
Blueberries
Banana
Juice/Water mix (left over from pre-breakfast)

I used the recipe on a box of Raisin-Bran to make the bread, but with dairy/egg free substitutions.  (original recipe here) I replaced the milk with almond milk, and I replaced the eggs with mashed banana.  I left out the walnuts, and added shredded carrots and extra raisins instead.  Yum!  

Nap:
8 oz. Nutramigen Formula

Lunch:

Avocado Quesadilla (using  Joseph's Lavish Bread and Daiya "Cheese")
Sliced Strawberries
Almond Milk

Afternoon Snack:

Frozen Peas
Back to Nature Honey Graham Sticks
Almond Milk

My mother picked up some of those graham crackers for us last week.  They are dairy, egg, peanut free. The girls share a bag for snack, and they are gone in about ten seconds.  Madeline tried stealing Vivi's when she was done with hers today.  Not cool, Maddie Bear.  

Dinner:

Roast pork loin and veggies (which she did not eat and angrily threw to the floor)

Applesauce
Almond Milk

Strawberries for dessert

Bedtime:

8 oz. Nutramigen formula

Vivi Eats: Life with Food Allergies 2

When it rains, it pours.  Or in our case, when it snows, it blizzards.  It's been a hell of a week with even higher snow banks, sub-zero temperatures, a stomach bug, and a frozen dishwasher.  Thankfully, Eric is on winter break this week just in time to save me from running through the streets stark raving mad.  Mad, I tell you.  Maaad.

But crazy Mumma or no, baby's gotta eat!  Just like last week, I'm sharing what we feed Vivi on a typical day.  I plan on doing this once a week for a month to provide an overview of what it's like feeding a toddler with food allergies.  

Again, Vivi is allergic to eggs, dairy, and peanuts.  Also, in the effort of keeping things real, I'm purposely not gussying up her meals.  If you want pictures of gourmet, perfectly-plated baby food, then I suggest browsing Pinterest.  The place is dirty with them.  There's a shocking lack of protein in Vivi's diet again this week, so feel free to silently judge me from behind the glow of your electronic devices. I'm working on it, I swear.  

Pre-Breakfast:

Dry Cheerios

Juice/ Water 

Breakfast:

Blueberry pancakes

Sliced banana

Almond milk (Almond Breeze) 

I use Bisquick (which is vegan) to make pancakes for the girls.  Instead of cow's milk, I substitute almond milk, and I use two mashed bananas in place of the eggs.  They turn out slightly more banana-y in taste and are much thicker than the original recipe.  The girls don't mind.  Maddie, a pancake connoisseur, doesn't even notice.  We're usually left with enough pancakes for two days of leftovers, which makes breakfast easy a few times a week.   

Nap: 

 8 oz Nutramigen formula 

Lunch:

Avocado

SunButter and jelly roll-up (using Joseph's Lavish Bread) 

Coconut yogurt (So Delicious) 

Almond milk

I forgot to take a picture, but I think we all know what an avocado looks like, right? Although I once bought what I thought was a mango only to find out it was a giant avocado, so be careful in that produce aisle, folks.  Things can get weird.  Luckily, Vivi LOVES avocado, so giant ones wouldn't go to waste in our house.  

Snack:

Frozen Blueberries

Crackers (Westminster Bakers Co. Multigrain Snack Crackers) 

Juice/ Water

Dinner:

Frozen peas

Bagel pizza (with vegan Daiya "cheese" on a Thomas' plain bagel) 

Clementines for dessert
Almond milk 

We were supposed to eat Shepherd's Pie for dinner, in which case I would have set aside some beef, corn, and potatoes for Vivi before adding any dairy products for the rest of us.  But, as I mentioned above, we're living in a frozen hell scape, and our dishwasher froze.  I was worried about bursting pipes and floods and dirty dishes I would have to wash by hand, so dinner was kept fast and easy instead.  

My mom sent me a link to an article from Babyccino Kids last week with tips on getting kids to eat.  One suggestion was to serve kids frozen peas instead of cooking them.  I dished some up for Vivi as a snack that afternoon and watched her scarf them down like I go at a bag of potato chips.  Then Madeline dove in, and before I knew what was happening, they had eaten two bowls full. 

Frozen peas are the answer, friends.  First they soothe your swollen, postpartum lady bits, then they nourish your children.  

Bedtime: 

8 oz Nutramigen formula 

And that's that!  Have any suggestions? I'd love to hear from you!  

Will She Eat It??

Madeline's baby food supplies were starting to run low, so I spent a full day throwing a baby-food-making party for me, myself and I.

 I made so much food that I had to run to the store to get more ice cube trays.  P.S.  Not very many places sell ice cub trays.  It was an epic search.  It ended at Sur La Table where I was tempted to buy everything in sight.

New to Madeline's repertoire:  Mangos, Sweet Zucchini and Carrot, and Cinnamon Apple Oatmeal Raisin.  Also new: peaches, sweet potatoes, fish, and yogurt.

The most adventurous new food she's tried is fish.  Eric and I were eating it for dinner, so I decided to blend some up for her.  I mixed it with some carrots and she ate it all up!  Yum, yum, yum.  In fact, she eats all of her food all up.  She doesn't seem to be too picky.  

I also gave her some yogurt for the first time last week.  Unfortunatley, she developed a nasty face rash on the days I gave her yogurt.  She gets the same face rash when she drinks regular formula instead of soy.  Not looking good for the dairy department, but I'll try again in the future to see if it really was the  yogurt of it was something else causing the rash.  

Future foods coming Madeline's way:  baby guacamole, cauliflower, chicken, and salmon.