Food 4 Thought...Our life with EE: YES!!! A Pumpkin Choclate Chip Muffin! And it is soo good!

Our story........

I have three of the cutest kids you have ever seen. Jaxen 5 Tieler 3 and Boston 8 months. I have started this blog mainly for me, to be able to vent, cry, share, brag, and help myself and others families that are in the same boat. After YEARS of struggling, doctors, specialists, prescriptions, hospitalizations, Test after test. We have a diagnoses. Eosinophilic Esophagitis. I hope in sharing our stories, struggles and triumphs we can connect with one another.
So here goes... I will give you the shortened but still long version starting in 2005. Jaxen, the sweetest most loving five year old. My sunshine... Reflux baby, diagnosed with Asthma at 8 months, GERD, "Toddlers Diarrhea" ( when they don't know why...) Milk intolerance, chronic ear infections led to tubes, severe outdoor and pet allergies, But always happy, good sleeper, good eater, who literally ate anything you put in front of him. UNTIL..... around age 3 1/2 Jaxen began getting pickier and pickier I chalked it up to age but slowly over the next year and a half he completely eliminated all but five foods from his diet, My happy baby also seemed to be very anxious mostly associated with meal time. We had tried everything you could think of to just get him to eat. I complained to the pediatrician and begged for help. He also had begun vomiting, constantly in the mornings always. I thought at first it was car sickness. until it began happening on a weekly sometimes daily basis. I was tired of both Jaxen and myself leaving the dinner table in tears. Nothing worked. He is such a good boy, listens to me, does everything I ask the only thing we ever battle over is food, why? Finally the pediatrician had him come in for a well child check to address all my concerns. Jaxen's growth had gone down 45% in the last year. This was cause for concern and off the Gastroenterologist and feeding specialist we went. First we saw the feeding specialist diagnoses: Severe childhood eating disorder who needed feeding therapy and the Gastroenterologist who said possible EE. And that's were we are at today with Jax.
Tieler our princess, my singer, dancer, tiny and tough, my angel...... Tieler was born in June 07. She weighed in at 5 lbs 2 oz she was alot smaller than they thought she would be. Tie seemed healthy though until we got home. Tieler would spit up everything she ate. Her first hospitalization at 1 month for possible Pyloric Stenosis. Negative but a significant case of GERD. Our 2nd hospitalization another month later for inability to maintain weight and projectile vomiting. Third hospitalization another 3-4 weeks later for C diff which I guarantee she contracted in her previous hospital stay. Tieler was so sick and was very close to a feeding tube after about ten days at Primary children’s she finally began to keep in about an oz. of formula. When we finally left the hospital. Tieler was 5 months old and weighed in at 9 lbs 1 oz. this hospital stay was followed up by allergy testing. The findings were positive for Milk, egg, wheat, peanut, and tree nuts. We had been poisoning her... Tieler grew slowly she was on Nutramigen which she could tolerate, and very little food. Tieler didn't sit till 11 months and didn't walk till 17 months. She had global delays but was finally doing ok. Tieler had a physical therapist and then speach because she didn't talk hardly at all. Her immune system sucked and she like Jaxen; got sick all the time. At 18 months out of the blue Tieler had a massive seizure. Sleep deprived EEG was normal her therapist continued to express concerns they felt Tieler was having absence seizures. Again we had no answers. As she grew she continued to add on food allergies. They changed, came and went, and continued to restrict her in so many ways. During the fall of 2009 we started to notice randomly that she had symptoms of asthma, but it was so different than Jaxen’s I had spoken to the allergist who gave her a script for a flovent inhaler and I didn't open the package. It was rare and so different from Jaxen that I assumed it was me being paranoid. Was I ever wrong... In Dec. 2009 Tieler had a massive asthma attack and stayed in the hospital for 4 days then went home on oxygen for two more weeks. Since then Tieler had another seizure in school this time, and seemed to be complaining almost constantly of stomach aches, and throat pain. She has had SEVERE excema since birth and I just knew I had to put the pieces together. So I started researching again. To me it all had to be somehow related... and most of it was. I found some pages on kids with EE and I knew from that point on I had found it.

Sunday, February 20, 2011

YES!!! A Pumpkin Choclate Chip Muffin! And it is soo good!

This morning we made Pumpkin chocolate chip muffins! And they are delish!

Heat oven to 350

1 Cup canned pumpkin
1/3 Cup Oil (Canola is soy free...)
1 Cup Sugar
1/4 Cup Rice or Hemp milk ( soy too if you can tolerate it)
2 Teaspoons Vanilla
11/4 Cup Flour ( we use "Megans" flour mix I will copy and paste it below)
1/2 Teaspoon of Baking Powder
1/2 Teaspoon Baking Soda
1/2 Teaspoon Cinnamon
1/4 Teaspoon Salt
3/4 Cup of Semi Sweet chocolate chips ( Enjoy life brand at Harmons is soy free too! yay!)

Add Pumpkin, oil, sugar, milk (whichever you use) and vanilla. VERY slightly mix together.
Then add Flour, Baking Soda, Baking powder, Cinnamon, salt, and chocolate chips.

DO NOT BLEND... Again very slightly mix together, fill muffin cups and cook for 22-24 min. Makes 12 I cant believe everything that is left out of these for how good they taste! Love Them!!

Megans Flour mix I copied from her blog!

1/2 c brown rice flour
1 c sorghum flour (or chickpea flour)

1 c tapioca starch
1 c potato starch (or corn starch or arrowroot)

1/2 c quinoa, millet, or amaranth flour

3/4 c sweet rice flour

add all and blend in food processor.