Michi8
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irregardless of gluten, mcD's every day, or any other fast food every day, is not something anyone who really thinks about and cares about their health would eat.
go rent supersize me
-rg
I wasn't asking about eating it everyday. I was enquiring about whether anyone knows if McDs Canadian fries are gluten free or not. It can be an okay treat once in a while. Thanks anyway.
Michelle
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I completely agree with this. McDonald's French Fries were one of the few "normal" kid foods that my daughter liked that made her feel less excluded when she and her cousins went to McD's with Nana and Papa... now they go to Chik Fil A instead... It's not health food, it's junk food, and it shouldn't be part of a healthy diet, but it's a junk food treat that kids and grownups like... we don't always eat what's good for us. That being said, McD's lied to us and told us that they were gluten-free. And now they've been caught. Do I agree with the families suing them because of this? No, I'm not a lawsuit happy kind of person. I also agree that suits like this set our cause back in more ways then it helps.
It appears that the ingredients in the McDs french fries differs in Canada from the US. Do the Canadian members here know if there is an issue with wheat in McDs fries in Canada?
McDs Canada french fry ingredients:
FRENCH FRIES: Potatoes, a blend of partially hydrogenated fat and oil (beef fat and cottonseed oil), may contain dextrose and sodium acid pyrophosphate and cooked in an A/V shortening (beef fat and cottonseed oil, monoglyceride citrate, propyl gallate, propylene glycol).
McDs US french fry ingredients:
French Fries:
Potatoes, partially hydrogenated soybean oil, natural flavor (beef, wheat and dairy sources), dextrose, sodium acid pyrophosphate (to preserve natural color). Cooked in partially hydrogenated vegetable oils (may contain partially hydrogenated soybean oil and/or partially hydrogenated corn oil and/or partially hydrogenated canola oil and/or cottonseed oil and/or sunflower oil and/or corn oil). Contains derivatives of wheat and dairy.
Michelle
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The syrup has cane, corn, artificial flavors, and glycerin (which could be numberous things)
This is what Pfizer says about their syrup...lots of artifcial stuff and questionable ingredients (just as with many medicinal products):
ZYRTEC syrup is a colorless to slightly yellow syrup containing cetirizine hydrochloride at a
concentration of 1 mg/mL (5 mg/5 mL) for oral administration. The pH is between 4 and 5. The
inactive ingredients of the syrup are: banana flavor; glacial acetic acid; glycerin; grape flavor;
methylparaben; propylene glycol; propylparaben; sodium acetate; sugar syrup; and water.
In Canada, Reactine is the equivalent. Pfizer says this about Reactine syrup:
Ingredients
Medicinal Ingredient: Cetirizine Hydrochloride 5 mg/5 mL.
Non-medicinal Ingredients (alphabetically): Acetic acid, artificial banana and grape flavours, glycerin, parabens, propylene glycol, sodium acetate, sucrose, water.
Michelle
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If he is allergic to milk, zyrtec will bother him because it has lactose from cows milk in it. Lactose might just be the sugar, but it still contains cow's milk proteins. There is no way to seperate the allergic proteins from the different parts of milk, like lactose. They use it to make it less water soluable. Most tablet type medications contain lactose. I try to take gel tabs whenever I can.
Just to clarify: Zyrtec tablets do have lactose, but the children's syrup does not.
Michelle
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The funny thing is that I don't think either of them have celiac. Our baby (well he's 2, now), is what brought us to this site as he's suspected of celiac and/or eosinophilic esophagitis. Our 10 year old tested negative for celiac, although I still suspect this as a possibility. I know it's possible, but I'd be very surprised if our daughter had it. If we find out for sure the baby has it, we will have our daughter tested also. We are retesting our son via blood here shortly, so I'm avoiding gluten-free stuff until then for him. So far, blood has shown me and our oldest son to be negative and the baby's had elevated IgG, but the others were normal. Biopsies for both celiac and EE are end of November for the baby. I thought I heard that the Epstein-Barr Virus stays in your system forever once you have it, but that usually your symptoms go away after anywhere from a few weeks to a couple years. I also heard that a large percentage of people get it (I want to say it was 85% or so....really high anyways), but that many people never even knew they had it. I wonder why some people get affected really bad and others have no idea they had it. Anyways thanks for your post.
A lot of people carry Epstein Barr virus and never develop mono at all. According to the CDC, up to 95% of US adults between 35 and 40 have been infected.
Michelle
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Ursula,
And I thought it was bad having 1 child being allergic. I couldn't imagine having different kids allergic to different diapers....what a pain! But then again, they're all allergic to or don't like different foods, and I'm kinda getting used to that.
Thanks everyone! Any recommendations of a kind that might be safer or better than Huggies? I don't think I'll try Pampers after what's been said on here. He'll be back on zyrtec by Tuesday. If he's not having a reaction while on zyrtec, is it ok to keep him with what we've been using? I can't express enought how much I DREAD cloth diapers and would do almost anything to avoid this route.
It's a shame you dread cloth...there are lots of brands that work very well. The Mother-ease Open Original Shared Link ones are very absorbent (terry cloth is the best!) and don't leak, and the waterproof covers work very well. They also keep the skin much cooler than disposables. If you're wary about cleaning soiled diapers, you can use a disposable liner inside the diapers that you can just flush away. There is also the option of a diaper service where they do all the washing for you.
Tushies Open Original Shared Link is one choice of disposable diaper that might work well for you. There are other brands out there too...just do a Google search for organic disposable diapers.
Michelle
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Check out Canada's Best Slow Cooker Recipes by Donna-Marie Pye. The recipe on the cover, Zesty Orange Beef Stew, is excellent. I used potato flour instead of wheat flour when browning the meat and it turned out perfect. Lots of recipes without flour, or easy enough to substitute for ones with.
Michelle
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Yes, he could be allergic to diapers. My eldest child wore cloth diapers (mother-ease terry cloth, one-size) and did really well with them. When ever he worn disposables (any brand), he'd get a horrible rash. Pampers were the worst for us...even I would get sick from the perfume!
You can get cotton disposable diapers that may be better for him...they're more expensive, but may be worth not having a rash. They also don't have the same fluid absorbing gel in them (this can be a big source of irritation and allergy.)
If you choose to do cloth, wash carefully and rinse thoroughly to eliminate any potential problems from detergent. I would do a soak with borax, wash with detergent, and do a double rinse with vinegar added to remove detergent residue and eliminate odours. I actually really enjoyed cloth diapering with my son...enjoyed it less by the time I had three kids.
Michelle
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Recovery time really depends on how severe the mono symptoms are, and how old you are when you have it. It went through our school last spring, and the really young kids who got it exhibited no more than cold symptoms. My 8 year old caught it and ended up with severe tonsilitis (had to go to emergency for treatment, because of worry about obstructed airway) and a swollen spleen. He never did experience exhaustion though. It took a couple of months for his spleen to return to normal. He's not experiencing any obvious symptoms now, except he is continuing with his constipation issues and is about as lethargic and moody as he was pre-mono. Those health issues aren't normal of course, but they don't seem to have been made worse since having mono.
Michelle
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My son also has horrible constipation and was recently put on Miralax twice a day. He used to poop every 4-5 days and then have enormous, extremely painful ones, and several in a row. He's now pooping about every other day on average, and even went every single day for 3 days in a row. It's nice that he's going, but it's huge volumes of very soft, (but not liquid), poop.
It's funny how you can look at a leaky, overflowing diaper that requires a half of package of wipes and be so happy about it.
Is this normal though for being on Miralax? He's only been on it about a week and a half or so. Does it take a while for his body to adjust? (He's been constipated for 18 months straight, with one 3 week bout of diahrrea in the middle of it.) Will he ever have "normal" BM's while on Miralax? Everything so far has been very, very soft and looks almost like sand texture mixed in it (if that makes sense). The dr. said she wants him going every day. It is nice to see him not crying and straining every time he goes, though.
Miralax (polyethylene glycol) simply helps to pull water into the bowel, so it shouldn't affect the stool (colour or texture) other than to soften it. You can adjust the dosage if the stool is too soft or not soft enough...something you'd want to talk to the doctor about first though. We're finding that, for my son, lowering the dosage makes him go from extremely soft (sometimes runny) stools back to extreme constipation. I think we have a long way to go until we see "normal"...and I think we'll need to eliminate some food (possibly gluten) for him to really be "normal."
Michelle
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What a horrible way to be treated! That dr obviously has no bedside manner.
Unfortunately, it's way too common for some specialists to be like that (I'm betting my GI will be like that, just based on her curt manner during my initial appointment.) I've found anesthetists to be especially bad/cocky. And you wouldn't believe some of the chatting and comments surgeons make during procedures.
The worst can be during a cesarean section when the mother is awake and aware the whole time, and the surgeon & staff are chatting about all sorts of irrelevant stuff and completely ignoring the mother who is going through what is supposed to be the most amazing moment of her life: having a baby.
Michelle
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I buy a fresh grade A turkey. Have had great results with cooking a fresh, rather than frozen, bird.
Favourite sides:
cabbage rolls
make ahead mashed potato casserole (potatoes mashed with sour cream, cream cheese, parsley, marjoram, salt, pepper, and green onion)
cranberry relish (fresh cranberries, onions, horseradish, sugar and sour cream) check out this recipe: Open Original Shared Link I like having the turkey with this relish better than with gravy...plus it makes a great sandwich spread for turkey or roast beef. YUM!
string beans (blanched then sauteed in butter w/thyme and lemon)
creamed carrots
Michelle
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The best turkeys are fresh. I order from the meat counter at Safeway, and pick it up the day before or morning of. If you do the quick cook method (high heat for about 2 hours) it makes an incredibly juicy bird that is browned all over. Stuffing is made separately.
Check out this link about Safeway's 2 hour turkey recipe: Open Original Shared Link
I can't find the recipe online, but you can pick it up at the store. We tried it for our Thanksgiving a couple of weeks ago and it was fabulous! Just make sure your oven is cleaned before cooking.
Michelle
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I'm sorry your going through this tough spot, Marlene.
What do you do for work? Is there something you could do from home? Maybe we can help come up with creative ideas to help you out!
Michelle
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Yep, I have lots of vertical ridges on my fingernails...with some of the white "clouds". They are brittle and chip and flake very easy. I can only see the moons on my thumbs and the pointer (index??) finder of my left hand.
My toenails have both vertical and horizontal ridges.
I've never had moons on any of my nails, and they chip and flake easily too. Interesting to read that lack of moons can indicate hyperthyroidism...not surprising given the thyroid problems in my family...but my tests are still coming back normal. I'd better keep eye on that!
I've never had a doctor look at my nail condition though...you'd think that it would be something they would definitely check when investigating health issues!
Michelle
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Thanks for the link, Michelle. I've always been into health and fitness ... it's sad what this disease being undiagnosed can do to us ... this is what my nail problem is "Vertical ridges on nails-may indicate poor general health, poor nutrient absorption, and the ridges may also indicate a kidney disorder."
That's me too. I've had verticle ridges forever, and have always had very soft nails.
Michelle
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The condition of finger and toe nails is very much related to health and diet!
There is a list of nail problems and possible related health issues here: Open Original Shared Link
According to the arctilce, nails which curve under can be due heart, liver, or lung / respiratory problems.
Michelle
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Michelle,
It took me a while to read the response. How is he doing now? It is funny because when my son would get D from the Miralax he would say, "yay, Diarrhea". We are in another bout of C ourselves right now. Thought we were past it as we had 2 good months (something we haven't seen in over 2 years). Starting the end of Sept. we have gone through 3 cycles of pooping ok, to starting to back up, to no pooping for up to 6 days. Very frustrating and the GI acts as though this is "just" constipation and give him an enima if I have to. I can't imagine he has to live his life receiving enimas every week or so. I can't believe there isn't a way to stop this cycle. Maybe time for another opinion.
Nicole
He's about the same. We haven't had him come home sick from school since going dairy free, but even so, he still complains of tummy aches. The doctors have told us that, with the degree of constipation and resulting problems, it will probably take about 2 years of treatment with laxatives to get his distended bowel back to normal (what ever that is!) I still think it's related to food, and will keep pursuing it.
Michelle
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We did talk to our pediatrician about the possibility of it being from zyrtec and he basically said anything's possible, but he doubts it. We love our allergy dr., so maybe I'll run it by him again. He thought they'd go away after a few weeks of both zyrtec and singulair,so I guess I should let him know it's not helping. Thanks for your input.
Zyrtec is supposed to help with hives, so I can see why he doubts it...but anything is possible! My daughter is taking Reactine (Zyrtec is the US version of Reactine). It seems to help with her itchiness, but doesn't help much with keeping her eczema at bay.
Michelle
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Given that the hives started after taking Zyrtec, it's possible that it is the cause. The side effects listed for the drug don't include hives, but your son could also be reacting to one of the components of the medicine besides the active ingredient. It's worth talking to the pharmacist and your doctor.
Michelle
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Michelle, in my experience, ALL eczema is caused by food intolerances. You may want to have your daughter tested, or try an elimination diet, to clear up her eczema.
We've done some allergy testing already. No foods showed up at this point (but I am aware this could change). She is allergic to pollens, mold, mildew, animal dander, etc. Her flare ups tend to happen more in the summer months...so I suspect that environmental allergens (especially grasses) play a large role. We also have carpets thoroughout the house, and the previous owners had a dog (couldn't find a house without pets...dog dander was easier on my asthma than cat dander, and we cleaned the house top to bottom before we moved in.) We can't afford to change out the carpet yet, but it is in the plans.
She also has the start of asthma that flares in the fall (molds are suspect.) That said, our 1st dermatologist said that eczema is not related to allergies (yeah, right!) and that she'll just suffer with it for the rest of her life. We've since switched to a new, well respected dermatologist (who is also an internist) who has confirmed it's eczema, but thinks that she'll outgrow it in 1-2 years. Personally, I've always thought there is something dietary at play, and we're working out diagnosis...I'm doing testing, my eldest child is going through testing, and so will my daughter. Unfortunately, it's a lengthy process...I'm hoping that everything really starts falling into place once I have my biopsy done at the end of November.
Michelle
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I'm with pixiegirl on the issue with allergen policies in elementary schools. The problem with allergies is every one has a different level of reactivity, and doctors cannot predict who will have a "milder" anaphylactic type reaction and who will have a more severe reaction. So sometimes people look at parents of allergic children as "paranoid" because it seems like they are being overly-cautious----but the reason people who are allergic get so scared at the smallest hive after injesting something is one never knows how far a reaction can progress or how quickly. There is a much better chance of survival if medication is administered immediately.
When I had my worst reaction, it actually seemed *mild* at first to what I was used to---my throat was itchy, but barely, and I felt nauseous but did not actually throw up. Reactions can escalate quickly and by the time it is an actual emergency it might be too late to do anything. When I did get to the hospital, the first dose of adrenaline + other meds + oxygen had absolutely no effect--I could still barely breathe. Fortunately the second dose kicked in! I had had *a lot* of reactions before, but never like this. I learned the hard way that allergies can be unpredictable.
It can take very little to cause a reaction---Sabrina Shannon (for whom "Sabrina's Law" is named) died after eating french fries in her Ottawa school cafeteria that should have been safe. They now think that maybe it had gotten contaminated with cheese since poutine was also served on that day and she was anaphylactic to milk. She did not know that she was having an allergic reaction--she thought it was her asthma. So she ran to the office with her asthma meds but without her epipen. Any delay in administration of adrenaline can mean the difference between death and life---it took too long for the staff to rush to the classroom to get the epipen. Hence the need for a carefully thought out emergency plan for every student who is at risk for anaphylaxis.
I'm not familiar with "Sabrina's Law," but will look it up when I have time later. But milk is one of those things that would be next to impossible to ban. I would expect that kids with anaphylactic reactions would be safer not to buy food from a cafeteria at school.
An emergency plan for the students is important. There are plans in place at our school for anaphylactic kids. Those kids carry their epipens, and there is a second epipen stored in the office. My son carries an epipen for penicillin allergy. I worry, though, that it may get used in the wrong case though...after all, it would be very difficult to accidently get penicillin at school. It would be more important for my son to have a medic alert bracelet instead, so that his info is always with him.
I never had problems with having reactions in school that weren't due to me eating things that I shouldn't have (so far, my worst contact reaction has just involved hives), but some people are very sensitive to contact and to inhalation. It is very rare, but it does happen. (My sisters are like this.) And even for those kids who aren't as sensitive, ingestion can be dangerous---ingestion can involve as little as putting one's fingers in one's mouth after touching, say, a contaminated grocery cart (I've heard of kids going into anaphylactic shock in the grocery store). Even rubbing one's eyes can = ingestion can = anaphylaxis.It does make things difficult when there are multiple food allergies---I know that some parents with children who are anaphylactic to milk don't necessarily advocate for a ban. I think in those cases it is reasonable to restrict some foods like cheesies or any cheese-covered finger food which can make a real mess and to supervise handwashing after eating. I do think in general reducing the number of food-related activities in the classroom is the way to go. Not to mention the fact that kids would be healthier--I have a feeling that cake is served in the classroom more often than fruit and veggies.
Restricting cheeses & cheesies would not be going far enough. Unfortunately, milk is in the vast majority of prepared foods (we're finding this, since we're doing an elimiation diet for milk right now!) There just wouldn't be a practical way of keeping milk out of the classroom.
The food related-activities do need to be curbed at our school. We have one grade one teacher that likes to reward kids with junk food. Drives me absolutely nuts. Aside from the allergy implications, I just plain don't agree with rewarding expected behaviour with food...especially cookies, brownies, ice cream, lollipops, etc.
I'm really glad my grade-oner doesn't have her for a teacher this year!Michelle
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i have mixed feelings about the nut free school issue, mostly at the elementary level if there are children with peanut allergies like my daughter's then I support it. My daughter had reactions almost every day in her elementary school, they would give her benadryl and then she would sleep thru the afternoon (whether in class or at home). It got to the point where she hated school because she got sick there almost every day. It wasn't a fun place to be and she certainly wasn't learning much being in the nurses office constantly.
It was interesting because the school wouldn't go peanut free but they were latex free (for one highly allergic child). And when you say the "if you make a school peanut free then people get complacent" ... I'm not buying that, I can tell you for sure that most parents with a daughter like mine NEVER get complacent, you just can't. However when peanut butter isn't smeared all over the school you just have fewer reactions over all.
I didn't mean that those with allergies or those with children with allergies become complacent. I meant that the teachers, students and other parents (who really don't understand the allergies to begin with) become complacent. The assumption is that the school is automatically safe with the "nut aware" policy, and I'd bet that there are still parents secretly sending products with nuts, or not ensuring their kids have clean hands before going to school, or are sending foods that may have been contaminated in the home.
I also question the need to go totally nut free as opposed to peanut free. I do support making the school safe from peanuts (I was a peanut allergic child myself, and would have appreciated not worrying about peanuts when I was in school too!), but is there really a need to be completely nut free (meaning all other nuts aside from peanuts?) It certainly would be good for my family if we could add more nutritious choices to my middle child's lunch. He has such a short list of acceptable foods, it would be nice to be able to add something like almond butter to his lunch, rather than having cheese sandwiches every single day (he won't eat meat!) Not to mention the list of nuts we got from the school included items that aren't really nuts, and was missing a couple of types of nuts...gives me the sense that the administration doesn't know what they are doing and don't really understand the allergy at all...they're just blindly following some program.
My daughter spent one year in a peanut free school and not once did she have a reaction. I'm sure occasional mistakes were made but again there wasn't peanut butter smeared all over the lunch room. You asked why they don't ban gluten, I'm not sure it often causes anaphalactic reactions. And according to our allergist the number of children not only with peanut allergies but also with severe reactions requiring the use of an epi pen has gone up dramatically.I can't argue the stats on allergy severity and epipen need...I don't know the numbers. I do know that awareness has increased though. I know that banning gluten is an impossibility, just throwing it out there.
Again I think at the elementary level we need to do what we can to keep our kids healthy and safe at achool, as a child gets older, like my 15 year old they do need to learn how to manage it themselves. But we never let down our guard, with medi alert bracelets, epi pens, benadryl, cell phones, etc.Susan
I do think that there is a point in elementary school when the kids are old enough to manage their allergies. I believe that kids are capable of it at a much earlier age than given credit for.
Michelle
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Hi, my daughter who is almost 3 is having terrible trouble sleeping at night. Luckily my husband can function on less sleep than I can, so he is the one who gets up with her. I feel terrible for both of them! Long story short, she started having all these symptoms at age two, not sleeping well, diet change, ect. Recently diagnosted with Celiac she emdiatley went on the diet and was a changed little girl. We then had more issues and went through all cleaning supplies, soaps, shampoo, ect. Another big impovement. After about three weeks completely gluten free she slept through the whole night! Lasted only a week. It seems to be worse when she as accidently come into contact with gulten. Now she is waking up every hour to hour and a half to sleep with my husband on the couch. He then puts her back to bed and she gets up again. I guess to get to the point, we are out of things to try and wondered who else has gone through this since it seems to be linked to the Celiac. I also have had sleep issues all my life. Not nearly as bad since going gluten free. Any suggestions would be a blessing!
Thanks,
Amy
I wish I had an answer for you. My daughter (now 4yo), used to wake up every couple of hours to eat when she was still nursing ('til 2yo). The wakeful times spread out a bit after weaning and as she got older, but she still has a tendency to wake at least once in a night...and I either end up in bed with her or she comes to my bed. I do know that she has trouble with itchy skin (eczema) that would wake her frequently. Giving benadryl along with using Protopic helps a lot. I think, though, that she is also just one of those people who wakes up at night, and probably always will.
Michelle
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Thanks, Karen! That's good to know.
Michelle