Not to toot my own horn or anything, but while I've never considered myself especially attractive, I'm constantly told that I have cute kids (must be my husband's half of the equation). This is Tom, who's one year old, and in this picture he is hanging onto the coffee table for the first time. Yeehaw!
Now this is what happens when my little guy gets his hands onto a dairy product.
Welcome to the world of food allergies. I used to do a lot of reading on this type of thing, when I was going through my "food fads" in college. But now I have absolutely no interest in the subject. When I was in the military, I came to respect ordinary food, so I now look askance at all the "health food" that's out nowadays and their claims to be fat-free, wheat-free, vegan, organic, or whatever. I never thought I would have a baby who couldn't do dairy. So now I have to cudgel my brain to figure out what to do with this baby. We've been feeding him soy formula, which he does OK on. I mean, would you put milk in his mouth if you saw it do this to his face?
My midwife insisted that it was I who caused the allergy by giving Tom his first taste of cow formula when I put his first bottle in his mouth at the nine month mark. I'm still not talking to her. My doctor says he's probably not allergic to it, but then again, she's never seen him like this. To me, this screams, "I HAVE A FOOD ALLERGY! DO NOT FEED ME THIS STUFF!"
So what's a concerned mother to do? He is now a year old, and I am getting really sick of buying $40 worth of formula at Wal-Mart every month. And yet, store-bought soy milk in the aseptic containers is almost as expensive, and not nearly as fortified as the powdered stuff. The cheapest I've been able to find it is for $1.25 a quart, if I buy it by the case on markdown.
The other wrinkle to this situation was the discovery of my own intolerance of dairy. So now I consume almost a quart a day, not counting what Tom would need. In desperation, I asked the Hillbilly Housewife what to do.
Her answer rocked my socks!
The solution is to buy a thing called a soy milk maker, which is apparently very popular in Japan and other Asian cultures that do a lot with soy. She linked to the Sanlinx web page where I found and ordered my new toy. While the machine costs $90 to $120, it pays for itself very quickly, since you can get soybeans for a song. It also comes with a one-year warranty, and right now they're offering a promotional two-year warranty, which I got when I ordered my SoyaPower. The thing that ultimately convinced me were all the unsolicited testimonials on their site, including some people who had a problem with their machine or a part and were satisfied with the service.
Making your own soy milk isn't as simple as making coffee, however. You soak the beans for at least 6 hours, then rinse and put them in the filter basket. You fill the canister up to the mark (about 1.8 quarts), then put the whole thing together and press a button. That's the simplest part. The machine heats the water, the blade pulverizes the beans, the cycle runs about 15 minutes, and beeps when it's done. Then you pull the top off and clean the heater element and blade. The filter you pull off and either save or discard the mashed bean by-product inside (hint: don't throw it away, lots of good uses for it). Then you have to clean the filter. The filter is not easy to clean. Your best bet is to buy the Magic Cleaner that they sell, or be like me and make the little sample they give you last as long as possible. You soak the filter in the solution, and next day it's pristine and ready to use again. Meanwhile, you pour the soy milk into a clean container and flavor it with sugar or vanilla or whatever you want to put in it. It takes some finagling to get a comparable taste to the store-bought stuff, if that's what you like. You don't need to buy the special "Laura" beans that they keep touting. One thing I did extra that really helps the texture is that I filter the final product through a paper towel in a Brita pitcher. Otherwise, there is a substantial amount of grit that gets through the filter.
For now I am giving Tom half soy formula and half soy milk from the SoyaPower. When the formula runs out, I'll give him all soy milk with maybe a dose of Poly-Vi-Sol a day. Along with his Claritin.
3 comments:
He's a cutie.
My Mattie had a bad (that pic says it all!) milk allergy but I just nursed him for 15 months and then took him to the allergist where they told me if I just avoided it FULLY for a couple of years (the better you avoid, the quicker they'll get over it) that he would probably outgrow it. So I didn't even bother with soy milk I just bought rice milk for the occasional recipe or bowl of cereal for him and in a year he had outgrown the allergy. I would worry a bit about too much soy and the way it affects hormonal growth if it was a girl, but I'm not sure about boys...anyway. If he is over one year, why are you worried about milk anyway? Water or juice is fine, too as long as they're eating other stuff. Your doctor and your midwife sound like total dorks! We aren't really made for soy "milk" or milk milk because we are made for mommy milk. But if you "caused" the allergy like your idiot midwife suggested then how come a bajillion other babies take their first formula bottle when they pop out and act just peachy without getting red and white spots on their faces and runny noses hmmmm? Whatever causes allergies, who the heck cares, the trick is to avoid reactions because each sucessive reaction will be worse. Trust me on this one. Matty is now only allergic to peanuts and one more reaction to that and he'll be dead (got the epi pen praise the Lord!) When he was your little guy's age he was allergic to peanuts, cats and dogs, eggs, soy, wheat, and a couple of other things I can't remember. I thought "what the heck CAN he eat????" but found it was quite easy to avoid the triggers (yay internet!). Like I said, he outgrew them all except the peanut and animal ones and he is a good, healthy kid having only had juice and water for liquids as a toddler. Okay, hope this was helpful (and I didn't sound too much like a snot) and he IS VERYYY CUTE by the way, those people aren't being just kind!
Ow, sorry to hear you went through all that. I'm really grateful that this seems to be IT, other than the recent hospital visit, o'course.
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