Parents of babies/toddlers with food allergies, how do you do it?
My toddler is moderately allergic to milk/dairy and peanut and mildly allergic to soy and other nuts.
None are anaphylactic but bad enough that he can’t eat them. Milk and peanut he gets swollen eyes and hives over his whole body and scratches his neck and ears till they bleed, with the soy and other nuts he gets mouth neck and chest hives and itching but no swelling, and of course he cries all night from a tummy ache after. He has done well with the first step of the milk ladder, the second step is a mild reaction and anything above that is moderate.
We are working with an allergy specialist and I’m not looking for medical advice, but I’m just exhausted trying to feed him. We are a milk loving family, most things I make have it in some way: milk, cheese, butter. Soy is in so many things as well. He is 1 year old, and he’s fallen down from 85th to 50th percentile in weight, meanwhile he’s 95th for height.
He refuses everything but fruit pouches. We try to get him to eat the meat/veg ones and give him chicken nuggets, fries, steak, eggs, etc. He won’t eat most things. Just fruit, fruit pouches, and broccoli. He will drink only apple juice or water, won’t have oat milk or formula, but breastfeeds at night and before a nap.
I’m kind of at my wits end because I’m trying to make him an allergy free version of our dinner every night just for him to throw it on the floor. His doctors said it’s normal for his age especially for a kid who’s had so many reactions it can be traumatizing and turn them off of food, but I feel like I’m failing him because he’s so skinny.
I’m sure there’s no magic fix-all answer, but I’d love some advice from anyone who’s maybe gone through the same thing.