Coeliacs and the Summer!

Hello lovely people,

So sorry that it's been a while....again! We have been busy with lots going on.

Zach had review allergy tests and all levels were the same and he has also been diagnosed with coeliacs.  I know! How lucky can one little boy be??!!

So, how have we dealt with it?  This time I have gone easy on myself, rather than feeling wholly responsible for all of Zach's nutritional and social needs.  I have relaxed and let it sink in.  I've had a cry and done some baking, but other than that, not a lot.  I've allowed myself to say no to people and also to tell people that I don't know the answer.  I don't know what contains gluten apart from the obvious...bread! As well as not knowing, I am taking my time to find out.  I've stood in three different supermarkets looking at the freefrom aisles searching for eggless and gluten free products and felt fairly sad at the very poor display, but slowly I am learning to replace the gluten and bake again!! Actually its pretty similar to replacing egg, so most of the ingredients (or one of them, albeit an important one....xanthum gum), we already have.

I have been bought a BBC gluten free recipe book by my mum which has some good recipes and have borrowed the Intolerant Gourmet by Pippa Kendrick - a fabulous book and have already cracked flatbreads - quite an achievement!  I am spending a lot of time being slow and thinking a lot about meals (not helped by the fact that I'm pregnant) but I think that's natural and it will all become second nature.

The hayfever season is also in full swing and its taken me a while to remember all the helpful tips to lend Zach a hand.  As well as dosing him up daily with antihistamines, I try to remember vaseline for his nose (funny, but it really does help), daily hair washing and not to hang his bedding on the line, not a great deal to remember but a challenge for me at the moment!

We also decided to give him fromage frais deciding adamantly that, if he has to avoid gluten, he will be able to have dairy (hilarious - like we have a say in it!).  However, two days of that and he was covered in itchy eczema and we abandoned that for now....not to be defeated.

The amazing thing about Coeliacs is the support.  We had a dieticians appointment within 4 days and were given a bag full of leaflets, free food, information and even a recipe book (as we have one of the more 'challenging diets', as the dietician put it!).  Coeliacs UK, the main charity is free to join for 6 months and have sent a food and drink directory, full of information about brands, where to shop... the list goes on.  We have a gastroenterology appointment in two months.

So, it got me thinking, how different life could be when diagnosed with food allergies.  Imagine for a minute if your child was diagnosed, then seen within DAYS by the dietician who was knowledgeable, helpful and full of nutritional and recipes ideas.  Then you saw the allergist within two months and there was a directory of food in a book form and online where you could put in brands of food, the shop you buy at and it would tell you the allergens in the product!  Imagine if everyone was that knowledgeable and helpful and the system just worked! 

I think it can become reality.  Maybe starting with baby's red books to flag up food allergies so they are identified and diagnosed earlier, working with the allergy charities and educating health care professionals about food allergies and their management.  Anyway, we can wake up now, but maybe we could work towards that as a community of parents of children with food allergies? Who's in?!

The final few thing to say is, yes I'm worried about our next baby in terms of allergies and coeliacs, but that's life and I am very grateful to be pregnant and there many worse diagnoses.

And finally, we have a book deal!!!!!! Random house have signed The allergy-Free Baby and Toddler Book by myself and Dr Adam Fox.  It's due to be published and launched for Allergy week 2014.  I am so excited I could pop.

Keep in touch and let me know your thoughts about how to change the world of allergy!

Love
Charlotte

World Allergy Week

It's World Allergy Week, the focus of the week being 'Food Allergy - A rising global health problem'.  It is a particular worry as 'the condition disproportionally burdens children, negatively impacting nutrition, healthy development and anxiety levels' (The Anaphylaxis Campaign, 2013).

I want to use this week to highlight to any readers how important support, friendship and trust are to the parents and children who have food allergies.  Everyday and everywhere allergic children go, they either carry their medication for themselves or their parents carry it.  Each situation carries its own anxieties - the party of a new friend, going out for lunch, going to a farm to feed animals, the list goes on, and for parents who want a babysitter to go out for a night, that's a whole new world of questions.  Should I teach the babysitter how to use the epipen??...but they are in bed asleep, not eating eggs,...but what if...& what if.....The ultimate plan for the parent is to be prepared and never ever be a position where you are forced to regret your actions or lack of them.

In the last fortnight, I have heard a little girl tell my son his skin is bumpy and funny and a mum outside nursery has asked him (not me, him) if he has teenage pimples.  He looks in the mirror and tells me he wants the spots off.  I've even considered using concealer on him.  The allergist he is under finally reviewed him after his anaphylactic episode in hospital, 7, yes that's right, 7 months later.  The GP refused to refer him to the dermatologist for a review and better allergy management because 'dermatologists laugh at GPs' - I'm not even joking and, to top the fortnight off, he has had me running at him across a large table of friends and family shouting 'no Zach' because I thought he was about to drink milk, when in fact he showed me, it was water.  All in all, he is remarkable and unfazed by what he can and can't have, but sometimes I am astounded by people's lack of judgement, knowledge and sensitivity.

There are many parents out there who have it a whole lot worse than we do and with allergies on the rise and with no cure on the horizon, what do we do?

Well, this week, how about we all just increase the support we offer our friend or the family we know who is affected by food allergies?  If you are the friend, teacher, grandparent or even neighbour of a child with food allergies, please take the time to ask the parents if they are OK this week and ask them how it's going.  When you are out, ask them where they keep their epipen, ask if they can show you how to use it, just discuss it.  Just for this week, try to think, as if it is your child who has food allergies and make your plans, in order to make their life fun, free and fabulous.  I am lucky to have a great family and friendship network, but we still have many days where I just want to take it all away from Zach, who is the one who ultimately has to cope with it.


While there is great research going on and many trials, there is no solution for food allergies except avoidance of that food.  In the meantime, use this week to support anyone you know and to learn for yourself what life is really like.  Every parent that I have met who has a child with food allergies has fears and anxieties that they are trying not to let influence their child.  Sharing those anxieties would be appreciated by many, I'm sure.

Charlotte x

Lunchboxes

Happy new year!!

Having helped with 'The Allergy Free Baby and Toddler Book' that I have written (hopefully soon to be published), the informed, brilliant and supportive Michelle Berriedale-Johnson at Free From Foods asked me to suggest some yummy and allergy free lunchbox ideas for the website.  You don't have to be intolerant or allergic to enjoy them (although they are all egg, dairy and mainly gluten free), so check them out and try a few in your children's next packed lunches.  Here's the link:

http://www.freefromrecipesmatter.com/recipes/guests/articles/charlotte-muquit-01-13.html

Enjoy! 

Charlotte x

By the way, in the bit at the start about me, it says that I'm a keen runner (yes, I did say that!).  Just to clarify, I am a runner but I think keen is a bit of an exaggeration-wouldn't want to confuse the people who know me now would I?!

One of my favourite things....!

A few of our favourites!

Gingerbread Boys

This easy recipe for gingerbread men has been renamed Gingerbread boys by Zach, for obvious reasons.  All sorts of shapes can be used for this delicious recipe.  Add a ribbon and they even become Christmas decorations to hang on the tree or gifts for your favourite people.  For the creatively challenged of you, a word of warning.....I tried to add a ribbon after they were baked but found that drilling a hole in their heads with scissors didn't work.  So remember to put a add that hole before you bake!

 

 

 

 

Ingredients:

• 350g (12oz) plain flour, plus extra for rolling out

• 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 2 tsp ground ginger
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 125g (4½oz) sunflower margarine
  175g (6oz) light soft brown sugar
  1 tbsp Ener-G egg replacer
• Splash of dairy free milk
• 4 tbsp golden syrup

 

To decorate:

•  writing icing
• cake decorations

What to do: 

• Sift the flour, bicarbonate of soda, ginger and cinnamon.
• Pour into the bowl of a food processor. 
• Add the butter and blend until the mix looks like breadcrumbs. 
• Stir in the sugar.
• With a small whisk combine the egg replacer with a splash of milk until it is a thick consistency without lumps.
• Add the egg replacer mix and and golden syrup to the food processor and pulse until the mixture clumps together. 
• Remove the dough, wrap in clingfim and leave in the fridge for 15 minutes.
• Preheat the oven to 180C (350F, Gas mark 4) and line two baking trays with greaseproof paper.
  
• Roll the dough out to a 0.5cm/¼in thickness on a lightly floured surface.  Using cutters, cut out the gingerbread men shapes and place on the baking tray, leaving a gap between them.  Use something with a rounded pointy end (I used the end of a whisk!) to carve eyes, a smile and A HOLE where you would like to thread a ribbon.
  
• Bake for 12-15 minutes, or until lightly golden-brown. Leave on the tray for 10 minutes and then move to a wire rack to finish cooling. When cooled decorate with the writing icing and cake decorations.
• Pile them together and tie with a ribbon, or thread your ribbon through the hole and hang on your tree!

  

  Cheeky!

 

Enjoy!

 

Charlotte x

Sofia, the red rabbit and the tutu

 

The party season is upon us!!  Now I wish it was me inundated with party invites to brighten up this dreary November, but no!  It’s not just Christmas around the corner, but Zach has a multitude of toddler birthdays on the horizon spreading from yesterday to the end of February!

So yesterday was the birthday of beautiful Sofia who was 3 and this was how it went. 

Sofia and Zach go back to the bump stage where her mum Rachel and I met on what can only be described as a pregnancy blind date.  It was arranged through a random NHS work night out.  Rachel was on maternity leave and I was new in town, we were both physios and that was that!  She texted ‘Ill be the fat one by Waterstones’ and I texted back ‘No, Ill be fatter!’.  We met and off we went for cake!

Anyway since then we’ve shared stuff together including, in detail, labour stories, (for which I am forever grateful- I had NO shocks during mine!) and all our worries and joys about being mums.  'Fia' as Zach calls her is a firm favourite friend of Zach's, although I'm not sure the feeling's mutual as he is a boy and she is very much a girly girl!

Sofia as a rabbit and Zach as a cat.

So anyway, back to the party.  It was only the second party we had been to where it was majority little girls and it’s a bit of a shocker to the mum of a boy.  We arrived and it was all Disney princesses, sparkly shoes and ballet from the start.  Zach went a bit shy and then whispered to me that he needed something special to wear.  Now to be honest I agree.  I think boys clothes are rubbish!  Where are all the bright colours, stripes and stars for boys? Who wants to wear brown dinosaurs and blue cars all their lives?!  So, Sofia obliged and Zach quickly looked the part in colourful tutu and cat facemask – it was a beautiful thing!!

Here comes the important bit.  Rachel had spent a long time leading up to yesterday insisting that the party be allergy free.  I don’t know why, she just insisted and it was amazing.  Fishfingers, smiley faces and beans all round and then instead of the tear-inducing (for the allergy Mum) cake arrival, there was a RED JELLY RABBIT ON GREEN JELLY GRASS!!! I've put that in capitals because I was THAT excited!  It was a proper old school rabbit mould and everything.

Tadaaaaa! Look closely and you can see the very lovely Rachel!

It made me think….why is cake so important?  Why is it that the first time I met Zach’s allergist, after months of waiting and he asked me what I would most like, my answer was for Zach to be able to eat his birthday cake!  The thought of it still makes me want to cry! However it's not because cake tastes that good, although sometimes it does, but it's all about inclusion.  No one wants to see their child left out anywhere, ever.  For children with allergies, exclusion or feeling different will just be a necessary part of life, as for many other children.  However I think there's a time for everything and when you are 3 all you want more than anything is to be involved in the fun and that’s what Rachel and Sofia (and Leon) did.  So it did matter that the party was allergy free, it mattered hugely.  Thank you to people like Rachel who will go out of their way to include my son – from tutus to red rabbits – he had the time of his life!  Happy birthday Sofia x

Children in Need

Preschool is a success.  The staff have been really supportive and have cooked allergy free biscuits and flapjack to accommodate Zach.  I'm finding that I don't spend my time worrying about him either which must mean that I trust the staff to take care of him - a pretty big step!  I'm finding the 3 hours a huge amount of time and am managing to cram in a whole world of activities including continuing to write an allergy weaning book.  All in all we are loving are new stage in life.

So Children in Need is here and Zach and I made and decorated cupcakes for toddler group.  The icing was too runny but good for making a mess.  The egg and dairy free cupcake was the best recipe to date, if I do say so myself....!

I'll add the recipe ASAP and in the meantime if you would be interested in sharing your allergy story, please get in touch.

Thank you

Charlotte x