Rash Begone!

I promised an update on Sam, and after three months of being pretty good about eliminating all wheat, soy and dairy from his diet his skin looks and feels amazing!

There's no sign of any rash left on Sam's face, back, belly or arms. His skin is as smooth as, well, a baby's! We are still fighting a little dryness and rash on the tops of his feet, but now it seems like dry skin instead of the itchy, red, angry, bleeding mess it was just a few months ago.

When he gets out of the bath his skin still is bright red where it was the worst, but it doesn't seem to bother Sam and it quickly fades.

We have had a couple cheats. Like the day I was slapping lunch on the table and Sam said, "Mom, can I have more of that really good cheese?"

I realized that I had accidentally given him regular cheese instead of the almond cheese he usually eats. Whoops. To his credit, he didn't fuss at all about the almond cheese that I served for his second helping.

A couple days later I made him a batch of wheat-free, dairy-free, soy-free "cheese" crackers (kind of a Goldfish substitute). The recipe calls for buttermilk, and the first time I made them I substituted coconut milk and vinegar. It was OK, but not great. So I grabbed the yogurt instead. Only I grabbed regular yogurt. Whoops again.

The one that sneaks in on us the most is garlic. From guacamole to spaghetti sauce to chips, that stuff is everywhere! However, I don't think that's the big culprit when it comes to his skin. I noticed a little more rash after the two incidents with dairy slipping into his diet, so that's clearly a biggie.

We've got three more months to go, so hopefully Sam will be 100 percent better by then. And hopefully he will have outgrown some of his sensitivities. Or, maybe we'll figure out that there's one big culprit, and we don't have to eliminate quite so many things. Anything we can add back in would make life easier!

In the meantime, I'm getting better at the substitutes, though every once in a while something pops up that Sam wants to eat -- to the point of a fit -- and I can't work around it. Recently it was Annie's chocolate chip bunnies.

Now I'm onto flourless baking, which has yielded some pretty good results. And we're navigating the hazards of Easter and all its treats Sam can't eat by putting gummi bunnies, quarters and gum in the Easter eggs.

Tomorrow I'll post a recipe for flourless, dairy-free chocolate cupcakes that was a real hit around here. It will be making a reappearance for Easter dessert!

Thanks to everyone who chimed in with support and suggestions as we've worked our way through this special diet. It's still not easy, but three months in it's finally getting easier.

© Trippin' Mama 2012