So perhaps you've seen my Slightly Addictive Black Cherry Cranberry Popsicles.
These are Also Awesome.
Orangey Orange Popsicles
Ingredients
2 small boxes sugar-free orange jello
1 packet unflavored orange koolaid
2 cups very hot water
2 cups cold water
canned mandarin oranges, drained (about 1 can)
Combine the orange jello, koolaid, and hot water. Stir until the koolaid is completely dissolved. Stir in the cold water.
Add about 3 mandarin orange slices to each popsicle mold. Pour in the jello/koolaid mixture. Freeze.
Makes about 15 popsicles, with 0 gms starch or maltose, and about 2 gms carbohydrate per popsicle.
Thursday, May 31, 2012
Wednesday, May 30, 2012
Just slightly addictive
So I've been on a bit of a popsicle kick lately. I've made Strawberry-Orange-Banana, Strawberry-Limeade, Triple Berry, Orangey Orange, and a few others. They've all been good, and the Orangey Orange was Really Good, but none have been OMG Good.
well, until now.
But wait, you say... isn't this a strach free blog? Unless they secretly add potatoes to my Flav-Or-Ice, isn't it all starch free??
Yes, but unfortunately many of the commercial popsicles have artificial-everything, and they often have maltose are part of their sweetener blends. So I've been making popsicles for a couple of years to avoid the maltose.
As an added twist, one of my other sons was diagnosed with type-1 diabetes about a month ago (as of this writing) and now either my popsicles need to be sugar free too*, or I need to start making special popsicles for every kid.
I chose option #1. I'm all about the Easy, lol.
So, without further ado, here is the recipe. I recommend just going to your local big box store and buying all the ingredients in bulk. You'll be making them all the time!
Black Cherry Cranberry PopsiclesIngredients
2 packets unflavored gelatin**
1/3 cup sugar-free syrup (I use Torani)**
splenda or other sugar-free sweetener, to taste
2 cups hot water
2 cups cold water
1/4 cup cranberry concentrate, not juice (like This)
Method
Combine the gelatin, syrup, cranberry concentrate and 2 cups hot water. Stir until the gelatin has dissolved, and add sweeteners as desired. Add remaining 2 cups water, and stir well. Pour into popsicle molds and freeze.
**You can substitute 2 small boxes of sugar-free black cherry jello for the syrup and the gelatin. The results will be slightly different, and less tart-sweet but still pretty tasty.
**You can also use 2 packets unflavored gelatin, 1 packet black cherry koolaid, and the sugar-free sweetener equilavent of aboout 1/2 cup sugar (more or less, to taste). This would be a slightly more complicated, but (IMO) much tastier option than sugar-free jello.
Makes about 15 popsicles, depending on size of molds. 0 gms starch or maltose, about 3 gms carbohydrate per popsicle.
*this is why you'll start to see carb counts in addition to starch and/or maltose at the bottom of every recipe. I refer to this blog for recipes all the time, and I only want to calculate it once!
well, until now.
But wait, you say... isn't this a strach free blog? Unless they secretly add potatoes to my Flav-Or-Ice, isn't it all starch free??
Yes, but unfortunately many of the commercial popsicles have artificial-everything, and they often have maltose are part of their sweetener blends. So I've been making popsicles for a couple of years to avoid the maltose.
As an added twist, one of my other sons was diagnosed with type-1 diabetes about a month ago (as of this writing) and now either my popsicles need to be sugar free too*, or I need to start making special popsicles for every kid.
I chose option #1. I'm all about the Easy, lol.
So, without further ado, here is the recipe. I recommend just going to your local big box store and buying all the ingredients in bulk. You'll be making them all the time!
Black Cherry Cranberry PopsiclesIngredients
2 packets unflavored gelatin**
1/3 cup sugar-free syrup (I use Torani)**
splenda or other sugar-free sweetener, to taste
2 cups hot water
2 cups cold water
1/4 cup cranberry concentrate, not juice (like This)
Method
Combine the gelatin, syrup, cranberry concentrate and 2 cups hot water. Stir until the gelatin has dissolved, and add sweeteners as desired. Add remaining 2 cups water, and stir well. Pour into popsicle molds and freeze.
**You can substitute 2 small boxes of sugar-free black cherry jello for the syrup and the gelatin. The results will be slightly different, and less tart-sweet but still pretty tasty.
**You can also use 2 packets unflavored gelatin, 1 packet black cherry koolaid, and the sugar-free sweetener equilavent of aboout 1/2 cup sugar (more or less, to taste). This would be a slightly more complicated, but (IMO) much tastier option than sugar-free jello.
Makes about 15 popsicles, depending on size of molds. 0 gms starch or maltose, about 3 gms carbohydrate per popsicle.
*this is why you'll start to see carb counts in addition to starch and/or maltose at the bottom of every recipe. I refer to this blog for recipes all the time, and I only want to calculate it once!
Thursday, May 24, 2012
(What the heck is) Glucoamylase Deficiency: Our diagnostic Process
As a recap:
We had a very difficult time finding a pediatrician that would actually listen to us. Finally, I found the fantastic pediatrician, who is still my children's primary doctor today.
At first, as it routine, she recommended all the routine treatments and all the routine tests. Increase the whole grains. X-Ray to see if he's constipated. Metamucil. Miralax. More Miralax. But unlike our previous pediatricians, she was able to see through all the noise of his symptoms and his history. She was able to see that I wasn't one of THOSE mothers. (It probably helped that I had two other perfectly healthy children.) And one spring day, after an incredibly difficult week and almost at the end of my rope, I made an appointment. As luck would have it, it was the last appointment of the day.
I went in, ready to demand a referral, and frustrated enough that I was almost on the verge of tears. She sat us down and listened to us, really LISTENED to us. And that moment was when everything started to turn around.
She agreed that we needed a referral. But she also wanted to speed the process along. So she ordered all the regular tests, and quite a few that she thought were likely to be needed, so that when we arrived at the pediatric gastroenterologist we'd be ready to talk about what was, and what wasn't, going on. On that day, she spent over 45 minutes with us. By the time we were leaving, everyone else was gone, including the office staff, and it was well after regular closing hours. But we had made a plan, and for the first time I left a doctor's office with hope that we could find a way to make my child feel better.
During the diagnostic process, especially in the fall of 2009 and the early spring of 2010, life was incredibly busy and my memory is a bit fuzzy. In order to refresh my memory, I have referred to his medical records. If we discussed something that wasn't noted in his record, such as why a particular test was chosen over another, I can only speculate.
The tests that our pediatrician ordered were pretty common: tests for parasites, tests for reducing substances in the stool. Occult blood, pH, WBC, and other analysis (fats that shouldn't be there, etc). He also had some blood work- CBC, CMP, TSH, free T4.
When we saw our pediatric gastroenterologist, she did a scope (upper and lower) and did some biopsies. There was no evidence of celiac disease, everything looked pretty normal (though some unspecified inflammation was noted) and some biopsies were taken to check his enzyme activity. They were later sent to Mayo, who confirmed the diagnosis in October of 2009: glucoamylase deficiency.
It took quite a while before we got everything settled with his diet, and there were many times when his symptoms would flare up until I discovered the cause. When we first removed starches, I increased the amount of sweet potatoes he ate, and that's how I began to to realize that maltose was likely a problem too. By January 2010 he was maltose-free too.
In the fall of 2010 he started having more and more symptoms, almost as bad as before. We went to an allergist, who diagnosed a severe tree nut allergy. No nuts for him... we cried. In the office, in the car, and all the way home.
In January of 2011 we went back to be retested, because I wanted to be sure. The test showed that he had only a very mild reaction to almonds, no reaction to any other nut, and a very strong allergy to wheat. Though he was starch free, but I wasn't really focused on gluten-free after the negative celiac disease diagnosis (and a no-starch diet is effectively no-gluten too). Since January 2011, he's been gluten free too, and I've been much more vigilant about it.
In retrospect, I wonder if he had had some hidden wheat or gluten that had exasperated his symptoms. I'll never know, but after 4 months of no *anything* going back to a plain starch-free diet was a relief, and it suddenly seemed much easier. So we did get something very valuable out of that experience: it can always be worse.
At the same time that we saw the allergist, we requested a consultation with Texas Children's Hospital. Dr. Buford Nichols (no longer practicing as far as I know) was a pioneer with this disorder, and did a great deal of research. We saw a different physician in this practice (actually, two physicians) who was also very experienced with it, and was conducting a study on glucoamylase deficiency. He recommended several tests, most of which we had done back in our home city. The only one that was not completed was a Fructose Absorption test... there is no lab in our area that has the ability to conduct it.
The tests that he ordered: CBC, Celiac (blood test), CRP, SED rate, liver panel, lipase
The allergist recommended in January 2011 that Sharky start taking probiotics. The specialist agreed in February 2011, and told me that he's found that the "r" bacteria (rhamnosus, reuteri... all the ones that start with "r") are especially beneficial for kids with this deficiency. Perhaps they munch on starch? I don't know. But I do know that probiotics have been amazing. Sharky went from sickly-sick-sick-sick before diagnosis to sickly-sick on a starch-free diet to Just A Normal Kid after we added the probiotics to his starch-free diet. Amazing.
We had a very difficult time finding a pediatrician that would actually listen to us. Finally, I found the fantastic pediatrician, who is still my children's primary doctor today.
At first, as it routine, she recommended all the routine treatments and all the routine tests. Increase the whole grains. X-Ray to see if he's constipated. Metamucil. Miralax. More Miralax. But unlike our previous pediatricians, she was able to see through all the noise of his symptoms and his history. She was able to see that I wasn't one of THOSE mothers. (It probably helped that I had two other perfectly healthy children.) And one spring day, after an incredibly difficult week and almost at the end of my rope, I made an appointment. As luck would have it, it was the last appointment of the day.
I went in, ready to demand a referral, and frustrated enough that I was almost on the verge of tears. She sat us down and listened to us, really LISTENED to us. And that moment was when everything started to turn around.
She agreed that we needed a referral. But she also wanted to speed the process along. So she ordered all the regular tests, and quite a few that she thought were likely to be needed, so that when we arrived at the pediatric gastroenterologist we'd be ready to talk about what was, and what wasn't, going on. On that day, she spent over 45 minutes with us. By the time we were leaving, everyone else was gone, including the office staff, and it was well after regular closing hours. But we had made a plan, and for the first time I left a doctor's office with hope that we could find a way to make my child feel better.
During the diagnostic process, especially in the fall of 2009 and the early spring of 2010, life was incredibly busy and my memory is a bit fuzzy. In order to refresh my memory, I have referred to his medical records. If we discussed something that wasn't noted in his record, such as why a particular test was chosen over another, I can only speculate.
The tests that our pediatrician ordered were pretty common: tests for parasites, tests for reducing substances in the stool. Occult blood, pH, WBC, and other analysis (fats that shouldn't be there, etc). He also had some blood work- CBC, CMP, TSH, free T4.
When we saw our pediatric gastroenterologist, she did a scope (upper and lower) and did some biopsies. There was no evidence of celiac disease, everything looked pretty normal (though some unspecified inflammation was noted) and some biopsies were taken to check his enzyme activity. They were later sent to Mayo, who confirmed the diagnosis in October of 2009: glucoamylase deficiency.
It took quite a while before we got everything settled with his diet, and there were many times when his symptoms would flare up until I discovered the cause. When we first removed starches, I increased the amount of sweet potatoes he ate, and that's how I began to to realize that maltose was likely a problem too. By January 2010 he was maltose-free too.
In the fall of 2010 he started having more and more symptoms, almost as bad as before. We went to an allergist, who diagnosed a severe tree nut allergy. No nuts for him... we cried. In the office, in the car, and all the way home.
In January of 2011 we went back to be retested, because I wanted to be sure. The test showed that he had only a very mild reaction to almonds, no reaction to any other nut, and a very strong allergy to wheat. Though he was starch free, but I wasn't really focused on gluten-free after the negative celiac disease diagnosis (and a no-starch diet is effectively no-gluten too). Since January 2011, he's been gluten free too, and I've been much more vigilant about it.
In retrospect, I wonder if he had had some hidden wheat or gluten that had exasperated his symptoms. I'll never know, but after 4 months of no *anything* going back to a plain starch-free diet was a relief, and it suddenly seemed much easier. So we did get something very valuable out of that experience: it can always be worse.
At the same time that we saw the allergist, we requested a consultation with Texas Children's Hospital. Dr. Buford Nichols (no longer practicing as far as I know) was a pioneer with this disorder, and did a great deal of research. We saw a different physician in this practice (actually, two physicians) who was also very experienced with it, and was conducting a study on glucoamylase deficiency. He recommended several tests, most of which we had done back in our home city. The only one that was not completed was a Fructose Absorption test... there is no lab in our area that has the ability to conduct it.
The tests that he ordered: CBC, Celiac (blood test), CRP, SED rate, liver panel, lipase
The allergist recommended in January 2011 that Sharky start taking probiotics. The specialist agreed in February 2011, and told me that he's found that the "r" bacteria (rhamnosus, reuteri... all the ones that start with "r") are especially beneficial for kids with this deficiency. Perhaps they munch on starch? I don't know. But I do know that probiotics have been amazing. Sharky went from sickly-sick-sick-sick before diagnosis to sickly-sick on a starch-free diet to Just A Normal Kid after we added the probiotics to his starch-free diet. Amazing.
Wednesday, May 9, 2012
(What the heck is) Glucoamylase Deficiency: What we experienced
So here we are, approaching the third year since diagnosis, and I realized I've never written about WHAT this deficiency is. So, this is our experience:
Our little Sharky** was born just a wee bit early, and perfectly healthy. As with his later siblings, I had to supplement his feedings with formula. Which, for him, was AWFUL. I have never met a more unhappy little person than he was those first few months. Finally we tried an (expensive and) special hypoallergenic formula, and all was well. For a while.
When Sharky became a toddler his real problems began. At his 12 month check-up he was a robust 32 pounds, and he would spend the next 11 years falling off the growth charts. I suspected that there was something diet-related going on, and I put him on a gluten-free and corn-free diet for about six months. I also really restricted sugar, noticing that during the Candy Holidays (Valentine's, Easter, Halloween) his problems were exasperated. None of that worked. So I focused on making sure that he ate lots of fruits, vegetables, and whole grains, with as few additives and preservatives as is possible these days.
He was always around the 80th percentile for height, but his weight was always a concern. At about age 3 we started the visits to the doctors. At first we were limited, and he had to see a base clinic doctor. And, as is common (especially then, and especially overseas) he almost never saw the same doctor twice. So, based on his symptoms, we were told over and over that he was just constipated. Increase the whole grains in his diet.
We moved. We found a wonderful civilian doctor, who started (as most doctors would) with the presumption that he was a normal kid. Increase the whole grains. Increase the veg.
Our civilian doctor retired after about a year. We found another. She was great, but redid most of what had been done before. He had an x-ray that showed an incredible amount of gas in his gut (no wonder he was in so much pain!) . Increase the whole grains. Try metamucil, because surely he must be constipated. She left to take a teaching position. So we found another doctor. At this point, he was about 7 years old.
The doctor we found is a doctor that I will forever be grateful for. Tina Haynes, of Mid Kansas Pediatrics in Wichita, Kansas. She's a general pediatrician, and like all the others she assumed his problems were normal at first. Increase the grains. X-Ray. Metamucil. Miralax. But unlike all the others, she was able to see through all the noise of his symptoms and his history. She was able to see that I wasn't one of THOSE mothers. (It probably helped that I had two other perfectly healthy children.) And one spring day, after an incredibly difficult week and almost at the end of my rope, I made an appointment. As luck would have it, it was the last appointment of the day.
I went in, ready to demand a referral, and frustrated enough that I was almost on the verge of tears. And then, it all changed. Dr. Haynes sat us down and listened to us, really LISTENED to us. And that moment was when everything started to turn around.
She agreed that we needed a referral. But she also wanted to speed the process along. So she ordered all the regular tests, and quite a few that she thought were likely to be needed, so that when we arrived at the pediatric gastroenterologist we'd be ready to talk about what was, and what wasn't, going on. On that day, she spent over 45 minutes with us. By the time we were leaving, everyone else was gone, including the office staff, and it was well after regular closing hours. But we had made a plan, and for the first time I left a doctor's office with hope that we could find a way to make my child feel better.
What were his symptoms?
Diarrhea. Terrible- the kind that you get with food poisoning or a really bad flu. The kind that sends you running for the bathroom, praying that you'll make it in time. This was a pervasive symptom, and he had it nearly every day from toddler-hood until we got the hang of this starch-free diet after diagnosis.
and finally, when he was about six Sharky started getting hurt when he should have been completely fine. A broken arm jumping off play equipment, when any other kid would have barely had a bruise. Cracked ribs from jumping on a trampoline. And on, and on....
Skarky's last visit to the ER was just before the diagnosis, and after changing his diet his health has dramatically improved. Now he doesn't ever get hurt, aside from the occasional skinned knee just like every other kid. He doesn't have any pain, or vomiting, or diarrhea, or bloating. Just like every other kid. And, just like every other kid nearing the teenage years, he's trying to figure out the world. And to me, all the perfectly normal problems he has are the most wonderful things in the world.
Well, most of the time, anyway.
**Don't worry, Sharky isn't his given name. :)
Our little Sharky** was born just a wee bit early, and perfectly healthy. As with his later siblings, I had to supplement his feedings with formula. Which, for him, was AWFUL. I have never met a more unhappy little person than he was those first few months. Finally we tried an (expensive and) special hypoallergenic formula, and all was well. For a while.
When Sharky became a toddler his real problems began. At his 12 month check-up he was a robust 32 pounds, and he would spend the next 11 years falling off the growth charts. I suspected that there was something diet-related going on, and I put him on a gluten-free and corn-free diet for about six months. I also really restricted sugar, noticing that during the Candy Holidays (Valentine's, Easter, Halloween) his problems were exasperated. None of that worked. So I focused on making sure that he ate lots of fruits, vegetables, and whole grains, with as few additives and preservatives as is possible these days.
He was always around the 80th percentile for height, but his weight was always a concern. At about age 3 we started the visits to the doctors. At first we were limited, and he had to see a base clinic doctor. And, as is common (especially then, and especially overseas) he almost never saw the same doctor twice. So, based on his symptoms, we were told over and over that he was just constipated. Increase the whole grains in his diet.
We moved. We found a wonderful civilian doctor, who started (as most doctors would) with the presumption that he was a normal kid. Increase the whole grains. Increase the veg.
Our civilian doctor retired after about a year. We found another. She was great, but redid most of what had been done before. He had an x-ray that showed an incredible amount of gas in his gut (no wonder he was in so much pain!) . Increase the whole grains. Try metamucil, because surely he must be constipated. She left to take a teaching position. So we found another doctor. At this point, he was about 7 years old.
The doctor we found is a doctor that I will forever be grateful for. Tina Haynes, of Mid Kansas Pediatrics in Wichita, Kansas. She's a general pediatrician, and like all the others she assumed his problems were normal at first. Increase the grains. X-Ray. Metamucil. Miralax. But unlike all the others, she was able to see through all the noise of his symptoms and his history. She was able to see that I wasn't one of THOSE mothers. (It probably helped that I had two other perfectly healthy children.) And one spring day, after an incredibly difficult week and almost at the end of my rope, I made an appointment. As luck would have it, it was the last appointment of the day.
I went in, ready to demand a referral, and frustrated enough that I was almost on the verge of tears. And then, it all changed. Dr. Haynes sat us down and listened to us, really LISTENED to us. And that moment was when everything started to turn around.
She agreed that we needed a referral. But she also wanted to speed the process along. So she ordered all the regular tests, and quite a few that she thought were likely to be needed, so that when we arrived at the pediatric gastroenterologist we'd be ready to talk about what was, and what wasn't, going on. On that day, she spent over 45 minutes with us. By the time we were leaving, everyone else was gone, including the office staff, and it was well after regular closing hours. But we had made a plan, and for the first time I left a doctor's office with hope that we could find a way to make my child feel better.
What were his symptoms?
Bloating, incredible bloating. Poor Sharky would have a huge round little tummy, and it had to be extremely uncomfortable.
Pain. The type of pain that wakes you up in the middle of the night. We spent lots and lots of nights snuggling a hurting little boy, trying to soothe him with backrubs and lullabies, and hoping that tomorrow would be better.
Vomiting. Though only a little. He had a lot of nausea, but didn't vomit very often.Diarrhea. Terrible- the kind that you get with food poisoning or a really bad flu. The kind that sends you running for the bathroom, praying that you'll make it in time. This was a pervasive symptom, and he had it nearly every day from toddler-hood until we got the hang of this starch-free diet after diagnosis.
and finally, when he was about six Sharky started getting hurt when he should have been completely fine. A broken arm jumping off play equipment, when any other kid would have barely had a bruise. Cracked ribs from jumping on a trampoline. And on, and on....
Skarky's last visit to the ER was just before the diagnosis, and after changing his diet his health has dramatically improved. Now he doesn't ever get hurt, aside from the occasional skinned knee just like every other kid. He doesn't have any pain, or vomiting, or diarrhea, or bloating. Just like every other kid. And, just like every other kid nearing the teenage years, he's trying to figure out the world. And to me, all the perfectly normal problems he has are the most wonderful things in the world.
Well, most of the time, anyway.
**Don't worry, Sharky isn't his given name. :)
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