My name is Niccie. I have two beautiful boys and another on the way (boy as well and yes we are THRILLED not bummed at having all boys :P) My son Gabriel was recently diagnosed with severe food allergies to wheat, egg, strawberries and CORN. We orginally thought it might be peanuts. That scared the hell out of us. Then when cutting out peanuts didn't stop his reactions and they continued to get worse and worse and more common, we thought it was soy. Both my husband and I thought it was the end of food for us. I mean soy is in everything right? LMAO, boy I wish. Because it is a top 8 allergen they now list it on everything that has even trace possiblities, so where as there is sooo much you can't eat, atleast you know what you are eating. So then we did all of our testing and came back neg for soy. SHOCK Relief! And found out instead he had a corn allergy.
Corn however is a different demon. Corn is in EVERYHING and because it isn't a top 8 allergen, by law no one is required to list it. Actually the companies aren't even required to test for it. Yea I wish we had even realized it was a possiblity that someone could be allergic to corn because as a reward for being SOOOO brave with the spt (skin prick test) we fed him a whole box of gummy bears. We ended up in the ER that night for horrible horrible skin rashes and hives and swelling of his extremities :( So yea that has started my journey into corn free life.
We tried starting with a no nos list. Please for your own sanity don't do that. It will depress you, make you want to cry and drive you nuts! Start in the begining with a can can eat list!!!!! It will make you a lot happier if you KNOW something is safe. We started doing this by pulling everything off our shelves and looking at what we thought was safe. (LMAO boy were we naive) Then I started my campain to call every single company. To do this please have the ingredient in front of you, make sure you can find the barcode numbers and the experation date :) I know a lot of companies list stuff on their websites, but because corn is not a top 8 a LOT of companies don't post the info on it.
When you call ask about citric acid, vitamin c, white vinegar and natural flavors. Those seem to be the top culprits that are corn derived. (shocking I know) Also anything that has maltrodrexin don't even bother with :) If a company can't give you an answer (and there are a SHOCKING amount that can't) then if you are highly sensitive to it please don't risk it.
Make a list of things that are safe!!! And trust me when I tell you to find a health food store near you! And make sure that they carry Namaste brands. OMG I can't rave about this company enough!!!!! They are AMAZING!!!!!!!! Gluten, wheat, soy, corn, potato, peanuts, tree nuts, dairy and caisen free! (their entire factory is dedicated to being allergen free! WOOT!) The people in the company are absolutely wonderful! And the food tastes good!!! We are still trying them all, but I will rave to anyone who will listen about their brownies and muffins and pizza crust! Also I've heard great things about their chocolate cake!!!! (aren't you loving them as much as I do already?!?!?!) Also the health food stores if they are good ones will not mind you picking their brains all the time. (I'm a question asker and if I don't understand something I won't go away til I do and they still like me at mine!)
Well folks I hope you will jump on board with me for this crazy freaking ride I'm getting into! Maybe we can all find others who are struggling with this like ourselves!!
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