Friday, June 14, 2013

Fruity Oatmeal Muffins and Living with Food Sensitivities - IGG tests to the rescue - Part One



You might be wondering why I'm posting an oatmeal and fruit recipe made with agave. If I ate one of these I would be way off the rails on my Candida diet (fruit and agave), triggering one of my worst food sensitivities (banana's) and slowing my digestive system way down (oats).

But these were not for me. They were for my sometimes sweet, sometimes saucy, 5-year old. And they are very purposefully gluten, dairy and egg free. 

Yep. We finally got her IGG food senstivity panels back. 

Well, we actually got them back a week ago. I needed a few days to have a good cry, panic and then regroup, get shopping, get researching and get cooking.  It was not good news. 

If you want to read about my food sensitivities and some discussion on IGG tests go here.

But this is about my daughter. Let's backtrack a bit.

My 5 year old (first born) was a very colicky baby, a very serious and often cranky toddler that got sick often and had lots of ear infections, and an impossible to deal with 3 year old that was sick with high fevers for a good part of a year. We often said she was an old soul - one that has been here before and was not happy to be back.

The doctors just thought she was "in a daycare with lots of kids so kept picking up bugs". I went along with that for a long time. But finally after her behavior got so bad (a 3 year old that seems depressed, violent at times towards her mother, extreme temper tantrums, general discontent?) and we were all at our breaking point (I actually broke and my husband wasn't far behind) my intuition FINALLY kicked in.

This is not normal. This is not my child. I need to help her. 

So we took her to a Naturopath. And we bit the bullet and paid almost $500 dollars (including the first and follow up visit) to get her food sensitivity panels run. 

And we found out that very clearly this child has a severe leaky gut. And severe food sensitivities. She was reacting, quite highly, to numerous foods (more than 75% of the 90 foods tested). Like mother, like daughter. The worst offenders for her seemed to be eggs (yolk and white) and dairy. 

So we reluctantly switched her to soy milk - that girl LOVED her milk. Cut egg based meals out of her diet (scrambled eggs) - that girl LOVED scrambled eggs.  And put her on a course of Probiotics and multi-vitamins. 

You have to remember that I wasn't into this clean eating business back then. I was uneducated in nutrition and still didn't fully buy into the concept of you are what you eat. So that is all we did with the information. We didn't fully cut out egg products, milk products or keep up with our supplements. We never addressed the other 60 plus foods that might be bothering her. And we never went back for a follow up visit.

But it worked. Her behavior changed DRAMATICALLY. She is actually a very goofy kid. She laughs a lot and is actually quite easily amused. She's funny. She is very loving - especially towards her mother. She has an extremely nurturing nature. I finally got to meet my real kid. 

And she didn't get a flu or fever the WHOLE YEAR SHE WAS FOUR. 

I can not tell you what a miracle and blessing this was to our house and our life. I have regrets that I didn't figure this out sooner but I also feel so grateful that we ended up down the right path - at the Naturopath, $500 dollars less in our wallet but full of hope and laughter and giggles. 

Some of you might think: 1) IGG tests have no basis in science, 2) why didn't you just figure this out by yourself by watching her symptoms or 3) its a coincidence. 

Well, I'll address some of those things on Monday in PART 2 to this post. Its too much for me in one day. I need to make some egg free, gluten-free meatballs for supper and time is ticking.

So for now I will just leave you will a new recipe that I made for my giggly girl. One that she didn't love but her dad adored so its going in our family cookbook anyway.  And yes, I stole one bite (just to make sure they were edible) - they were fabulous!

Fruity Oatmeal Muffins - Gluten, Egg and Dairy Free

by MamaChanty
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 25 minutes
Keywords: bake breakfast dessert snack candida-diet friendly gluten-free low-carb paleo sugar-free wheat belly almond flour canned coconut milk coconut flour raspberry
Ingredients (12 muffins)
  • 1 cup gluten free quick oats
  • 1/2 cup blanched almond flour (Almond meal would work too)
  • 1/4 cup organic coconut flour
  • 1/4 cup ground golden flax
  • 3 tsp baking powder
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 1/2 tsp fine sea salt
  • 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
  • 1 ripe mashed banana
  • 1 cup carton unsweetened almond milk (or milk of choice)
  • 1/4 cup coconut oil, melted
  • 1/4 cup agave nectar
  • 1/2 cup fresh blueberries
  • 1/2 cup fresh raspberries
Instructions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line muffin tin with 12 large muffin liners.
Combine dry ingredients.
Mash banana. Add milk, coconut oil, agave and applesauce to banana and mix thoroughly.
Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and mix until just combined. Don't over-mix. Let stand 10 minutes to let coconut flour set.
Gently mix fresh fruit into batter.
Divide batter into 12 muffin liners and bake for 25 minutes or until knife in center comes out clean.
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