Starting school was a major change in many ways, fear, an-trepidation (on my part), excitement & thirst for adventure (on Mr.5's) plus new meal times to accommodate, not to mention our own intolerances & avoidances to adhere to plus others allergies to consider. The teacher has been very open-minded regards his intolerances & considerate to notify me of food events forthcoming, however the surprise birthdays haven't always been forewarned. The latter however have been handled so maturely by him, accepting that a friend may be providing sugary or coloured food that might affect his behaviour or tummy & confidently says "No, thank-you". I have then given him an alternative treat (home-baked) or small toy/stickers etc once home. His teacher was quite accepting of me providing a magazine article which highlighted food intolerances & behavioural associations, which assisted with her understanding.
Kinder was also a change, although we had been there previously, however its a new teacher & new child this time around. Plus with shortened hours & increased allergies at the centre, their food time has been cropped to just a shared fruit-platter ilo providing their own lunch box. This makes for easier exit from home when time poor & all you have to provide is a singe piece of fruit once a week instead of making the whole pack-up each session. The teacher has been totally onboard with intolerances having a child in her other group who is seriously anaphylactic & allergic to many foods. Avoiding bananas & preservatives (for Miss.3) is quite tame in comparison. She had also forewarned that birthday treats should be non-food if possible to consider others, then as a group we determined this would be the case & do simple gifts like a balloon, stickers, pencil etc. As the terms have progressed though this seems to have been forgotten by some & I often turn up for pick-up with her holding out a serviette with some sweet treat in-hand & a quizzical "Am I allowed for this?" desire. As we are usually heading home to lunch or dinner, I can avert her until after that, but she rarely forgets it & I find myself having to provide an alternate "treat", but she is not as satiated as Mr.5 with non-sugar replacements, especially if not pink & colourful!
We remained Failsafe for the the first couple of months of the year, but kept trying to re-introduce salicylates, & had started introducing supplements to improve mineral deficiencies - namely magnesium, iron, probiotics, & sun exposure for vitamin D. We also approached Cranial Osteopathy as another path to ease any underlying issues for the tic & anxiety, whilst also being recommended a naturopath & bio-meridian testing route to soothe the gut, at the same time as increasing real foods to naturally increase minerals & vitamins. Healing the gut & soothing the sympathetic nervous system have been our priority. Both are improving gradually. The tic has abated, even with increased salicylates, but anxiety has reoccurred on & off, some of that could be more circumstantial due to new experiences.
The naturopath has recommended some other dietary exclusions for 8 weeks, but also allowances to increase many fruits & vegetables, & healthy oils (olive & coconut) that were previously excluded. Currently the restrictions are Wheat, Dairy, Eggs, all Sugars (except Stevia) & Moulds/Yeasts. Baked goods are hard to achieve meantime, but the newly allowed fruits do provide some enjoyable alternatives, especially as pears were the only choice a while back. During the summer we had a glut of them as the tree in the garden really served us well. The kids loved being able to pick one straight from the tree for a sweet snack.
The garden itself has been a wonderful learning experience for the kids (& myself). In the raised beds we planted spuds, beans, carrots, leeks & choko, plus a handful of herbs. In pots we had chilli's & a dwarf lemon tree. In the beds I attempted to companion plant as best as possible to give them a good chance. They all did fairly well considering I'm total novice. The leeks were pretty feeble from seed though & I had better results with those from shop bought ones I regrew from its base roots. Next time I will leave a longer stem. Both the lemon & choko were affected by the weather extremes - choko the heat & lemon the storms, both survived but neither fruited, am hopeful they may come to something this spring. The only creepy crawlies that gave me any grief were caterpillars, I tried crushed eggshells as a natural deterrent but that didn't work for them. I now have added garlic, potato onions & brussels sprouts (from seed) as a winter crop.
I have been reading voraciously again about foods, health & gardening alongside some lighter material like rockstar biographies. The most insightful one though was Grain Brain, certainly food for thought & something I keep mindful of, given that some of my grandparents have suffered the ills that Dr.Perlmutter attributes wheat/grain to such as Alzheimers & Parkinsons. Wheat Belly was also top of the book list. Afterward I had a good try at baking sourdough bread with gluten-free grains, in an attempt to give us options... & save money, given some loafs are around $8. I had so many failures - bricks that thudded straight to the base of the bin, I decided that hand & my knackered old food processor were not tools of choice for this task. My culture survived well & was really good for buckwheat pizza dough which didn't seem to need as much effort in kneading. I really do want to try making gluten-free breads again, but have convinced myself that a Thermomix is my only friend & now working out how I go about getting one! I finally went to a demo last week, although I have been lusting after one for about 6 months. We still remain additive-free so with the lack of processed/convenience foods I'm spending more & more time in the kitchen that I truly believe I would gain some time savings, not to mention long-term financial as readily available alternative ingredients are not cheap. Party season is also upon us & the speed at which it would allow me to come up with 'treats' would be beneficial along with reduced washing-up of multiple appliances, crockery & utensils. So watch this space....
For todays party I made Zoo Poo, or as it was at a Farm, maybe I should call it Moo Poo, but essentially an alternative for chocolate rum-balls. The centre ingredient is banana, avocado, carob & nut spread. The outer - melted coconut oil, carob, stevia & desicated coconut. I froze in two stages to set. They substituted very well for the cake pops the others received - especially as mine got 3 each. The other provision was Ant bread in lieu of Fairy bread. I soaked some chia & poppy seeds in mashed banana & used as a spread on some soft spelt sourdough bread. Had I known the host was using pink sprinkles only I would have added a berry or 2 to the mix to achieve a similar colour... & add more fruity flavour.
I plan to blog more frequently now we are over the most hectic part of the year & worst of the changes. Kids are way more resilient to change than us mothers I believe! Glad to be back :)
