none of the advice given here is intended to replace or override medical advice. as with any radical dietary changes, you should seek the advice of a medical professional before undertaking any of the eliminations discussed on this blog.
this blog and it's recommended elimination diet is based on my experiences with my children. i can only speak to what has worked for our particular set of circumstances. to be specific, the things we have to eliminate as much as humanly possible, right down to even a hint of cross-contamination, are: egg, dairy, peanuts and corn. if you are highly allergic and extremely sensitive to those things as well, you are going to find good, safe recipes, alternatives and advice here. we also have to completely eliminate soy, wheat and tree nuts. however, i don't have to be as careful about cross-contamination with these products as these are not very serious allergies for my children. therefore, the actual ingredients i use will never contain these food items, but i may use things that have a small risk of cross-contamination - and i may recommend that other ppl try tree nuts in a recipe, provided they don't have that allergy. i do this because a lot of vegetarians also find themselves in this boat and nuts are an excellent source of protein that i am sorely upset we can't use anymore. however, i always place the priority of the recipe on being nut free first.
i also have 2 recipes up with seafood/shellfish, which were not an allergy for us at the time of posting. since then, my youngest is becoming allergic and reactive to seafoods, so i will be culling those out in future menu and recipe postings.
finally, we do eliminate gluten as well, though tests have shown it is not an allergy for my children - so far. i am noticing a trend wherein my most sensitive child is becoming allergic to all of the top 8 allergens and so chose to preemptively eliminate gluten before he does become allergic. also, on this diet - once you've eliminated all that we have, it's almost impossible to find much you can have with gluten, anyway - because it almost always contains other allergens we can't have. i want to caution that i don't have to be as careful about gluten and have received feedback that some of the products i recommend are suspected of cross-contamination with gluten. gluten seems to be like corn: if you're very sensitive, and it's everywhere (which it is, like corn), it can be almost impossible to truly avoid and you have to become almost fanatical about learning all the potential sources and brands that aren't safe. if this is where you're at with your elimination diet, my menu might not be right for you. gluten isn't a serious allergen for us. some of the brands i've been told by very gluten sensitive people that are suspect for cross contamination and which i use are: tempt (hemp milk) thai kitchen (gluten-free) products, tinkyada (gluten-free) products, so delicious (gluten-free) products, (gluten-free)buckwheat, cocoa and spices.
the very best bet in cases of extreme allergy and sensitivity - to the point of reacting to cross-contaminated items - is to avoid all mass-produced and packaged foods and cook only whole, single ingredient items to make your own foods at home. i have been lucky enough have found items that seem to be truly corn-free for my profoundly sensitive corn, dairy and egg guy. we've achieved baseline on this menu. i haven't had to cook every single thing from scratch, an impossible task with 5 kids and a hectic schedule. in sharing what's worked for me, i am hoping to supplement and support people who've already received the medical advice to eliminate all of these allergens. i am merely trying to pick up where the doctors leave off - when you walk out the door wondering what on earth you can realistically cook and feed your family! I do not recommend undertaking this diet as a means to lose weight, though that is definitely one of the most common side effects of it. you should especially monitor the weight with your health care provider of growing children on this diet and make every effort to get the safe fats and oils into them.
i recommend finding food allergy groups online that match your needs when beginning a multiple allergy elimination diet. there you can hear firsthand what items are safe and which ones make very sensitive people react, despite being 'gluten (or dairy or corn or whatever) free'. two of the groups i've learned the most from are foodlab@yahoo.com and glutenzap.com. i also welcome any feedback, suggestions or alternatives to items i have posted.
~jack
