Gluten & Dairy

As you all know, we have had many problems with Regan and her asthma lately. It seems that it just keeps getting worse despite the number of different medicines the doctors have put her on.

She uses a flovent inhaler.

She takes nasal sprays.

She takes 4mg of singulair every night.

She takes a dose of Zyrtec before bed.

She has an “in case of emergency” inhaler.

She has to have a cool mist humidifier running in her bedroom.

The child still coughs most of the night and through her naps. She is exhausted. I am exhausted. Jason is exhausted and the medicines are not cheap when you have no health insurance.

We sent our dogs to live at my sister’s for a while to see if the pet dander was the culprit, but so far it seems like with them being gone she isn’t coughing as much, but still coughing non the less.

After hours on the computer this morning catching up on my blog reading, doing some commenting and some web surfing I ran across this article.

I have been a devoted follower of Mrs Q  and her amazing blog, Fed Up With Lunch, since she was about a week into the project. As someone who takes nutrition and school lunches very seriously (I pack a lunch every day for Linsey and send food to school for Regan regularly) I thought what she was doing was beyond commendable.

After reading the above mentioned article discussing her year anniversary of the project I noticed it stated,

“As she wrote and thought more about food, and communicated with commenters on her blog, she realized her son?s health problems might be related to what he was eating. She cut out gluten and dairy from his diet, and his health improved dramatically.”

This got me thinking a lot about Regan. We are already vegetarian and drink almond milk instead of cow’s milk, but what if that isn’t enough? What if I need to go a step or two further to help her with this problem?

If removing a few more things from our diet and replacing them with a healthy alternative will help with her asthma and possibly get her off the plethora of meds she’s currently on – why wouldn’t I?

Jason’s first response was, “You should consider giving her a small amount of meat to make sure she’s getting enough protein.”

I don’t want to give her meat. EVER! AT ALL! That is NOT an option. I have very serious, strict, not to be detoured from feelings about this subject.

Being a meat eater is not the answer. It can’t be.

So I ask you, dear readers, what do you think. I will continue to research this subject and slowly begin to incorporate gluten/dairy free items into our daily diet. I have been a vegetarian for 8 years and it’s not even something I have to think about anymore, but gluten/dairy free is completely new territory for me.

I need advice.

I need help.

I need support.

I NEED RECIPES!!!

Thank you and enjoy your weekend.