The Feeding of Charlie

[marydell]

As I've often mentioned, Charlie has food allergies.  He also has some motor skill delays.  This makes feeding him a bit of an adventure.  Our goal for a long time was just to identify his allergies and identify foods he could eat safely.  Of particular importance to me as chief food-preparer was to find some commercial baby foods he could eat so I wasn't cooking all the time.  We're finally in a bit of a routine with all of that, which means of course that it's time to change everything around again!  He is still in the infant room at his day care, because in order to move to the toddler room he needs to be able to walk and to feed himself.  So, we're working on the walking in PT (at 15 months it is ok for him not to be walking yet, but before PT he wasn't doing any of the predecessors either--I'll save that for another entry) and now I need to work on transitioning him from purees to finger foods.  He can eat a couple of crunchy snacks unassisted but he'll need to be able to have a whole meal's worth of finger foods by himself every day before he can move up.  So far he reacts to anything mushy by playing with it, but he doesn't try eating it.  He understands the concept of a spoon and can get a couple of bites in his mouth, but he gets frustrated by the complexities and generally moves onto the "throw it on the floor" stage after a few tries.
 
I'm sort of formulating a plan and I'll be running it by a peds dietician soonish, but first I'm soliciting suggestions and commentary from y'all.  As you can see from the various picture posts, Charlie's not malnourished, but we have gone through phases where he was a bit hungry because of his limited options and I want to avoid putting him through that again.

So. The allergies:  1.  Apple, Pear, Plum, Peach, Cherry, Strawberry.  All members of the rosaceae family, across three sub-families so we're avoiding that entire set of fruits.  That means any stone fruits or any aggregate fruits (raspberry, blackberry) are out.  2. Wheat, Oats, which means we also avoid Barley, since it's a close Wheat relative 3. Eggs (the only one that showed up in RAST testing; the rest we found through skin tests followed by oral challenge) 4. Peas, the powder or something in powdered formula, and a few other random odd things like "natural flavor" and Margarine.  5. Right now Turkey, Grapes and Spinach are in the "maybe...must test further" category.   Testing involves giving him a small amount of the food and waiting to see what happens; if it's ok, we give a little more a few days later.   This got easier once I started grouping things into botanical families and skipping families where he already had multiple issues.

Not allergic:  1. Rice, Corn  2. All Dairy, so we can give him milk, liquid formula, yogurt, butter and cheese. We haven't tried some forms, like cottage cheese yet. 3. Potatoes, Sweet Potatoes, Acorn Squash, Butternut Squash, Green Beans, Carrots, Broccoli, Tomatoes , Avocados  4. Oranges, Bananas  5. Beef, Chicken  6. Cinnamon, Honey, Salt, Pepper, Sugar, Garlic, Onion, Vanilla, Olive Oil

Next in the test list:  Pineapple, Other Citrus Fruits, Pork, Zucchini, Mushrooms, and whatever else seems like a good idea

Avoiding until age 2 or later:  Soy, Peanut, Tree Nuts, Shellfhish, Fish, because they're some of the more unpleasant allergens, and it's best to avoid them for a long time with a sensitive child. 

He doesn't like textures that require a lot of chewing, although he has all the necessary teeth (12 of 'em at this point).  In particular, food that's dry doesn't go over well.  And he's tired of bland food, so stronger flavors are a hit but he doesn't want anything spicy or even a little peppery yet. Open pit bbq sauce doesn't give him a rash but it makes him sad, for instance.  The two crunchy foods he eats are Kix honey-flavor cereal (wheat free), and Gerber cheese puffs, which are like corn-based cheetos with a little less crap in them, so he's adept at picking things up...when he wants to.

Today's particular wish list:  1. a Charlie-allergen-free chicken gravy   2. a way to cook chicken that makes it tender and moist as well as tasty.  I suspect a crock pot may be involved 3. a way to cook sweet potatoes that results in something pick-up-able. Fries maybe?  I'm researching these things now,  but suggestions/short cuts are welcome.

Lunch ideas:  1. pineapple rice with ham, if he can eat pineapple and ham and whatever else would go in that dish.  2. rice-based pasta with marinara sauce & sauteed zucchini  3. hash browns with cheese  4. tater tots and, um...? Cut-up beef franks maybe? 5. Chicken & mushroom risotto (done with lo-salt chicken broth, not wine), if he can eat mushrooms. 

So, flist, any ideas of other finger-friendly toddler meals a person could make with that smallish safe-ingredient list? Any suggestions for potentially useful foods or flavors I could be testing him with? Also feel free to share your own tales of allergy or toddler-feeding woe :)  Thanks muchly.

Comments

[summers-place.livejournal.com]

Gravy? I assume you're simply looking for a way to thicken it without using a wheat product. If so, that's easy: use cornstarch, since you list corn as one of the items he is not allergic to. I usually use cornstarch to thicken my gravies and sauces anyway. The plus for me is that it seems to thicken faster than flour, so be sure to take that into account.

And when I cook chicken, I can get it very moist and tender simply by doing the following: Use boneless, skinless chicken pieces (breasts, thighs), take a frying pan that has a lid, heat a tablespoon or two of olive oil in the pan and sear the chicken pieces on both sides in the oiled pan, with the lid off. Then add a small quantity of water to the pan, so that the chicken sits in a pool of water perhaps a half-inch deep. Put the lid on the pan, turn the heat down to just below medium, and let the chicken simmer. Check it periodically, adding water if needed, until the chicken is fully cooked and some water remains. Do not overcook; you can cut into the center of one of the largest pieces to check for done-ness. This cooking method results in tender, juicy chicken, and the leftover liquid in the pan can be used to make gravy by adding cornstarch and salt to taste (add additional chicken stock if need be) and stirring over low to medium heat until thickened.

Sweet potatoes: Cut into bite-sized chunks, maybe roll in cornmeal, and fry?

I noticed you mentioned beef franks in one of your hypothetical lunch menus. If you use them, be sure to get the kind that have no fillers, just beef.

Good luck!

[marydell.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I did this with chicken last night and it turned out great--for me, anyway; tonight I'll give him the leftovers and see how he likes them. (I'm not a very ept cook so I wait til he's in bed to try cooking anything new.)

Sweet potato home fries...those could be good. He can have butter, too, so I could fry them in some butter instead of olive oil, which would probably taste funny with sweet potato.

[raqs.livejournal.com]

Can he have grapeseed oil? It's very healthy, high smoke point (great for frying), and almost no flavor - you can cook anything in it.

[raqs.livejournal.com]

Second the cornstarch-thickened gravy. A little cornstarch (tablespoon or two) mixed with an equal amount of warm water should thicken up two cups of chicken stock or more - if the stock is concentrated and flavorful, with perhaps a little seasoning in it, boom, you've got chicken gravy.

As for the moist, flavorful chicken, I don't know why people don't poach things any more, but it's super easy. I poach chicken breasts all the time in a skillet in an inch or so of water (it doesn't matter if a little bit sticks up out of the water as long as you flip it partway through so that gets cooked too.) As long as the liquid is at a SIMMER - barely vibrating on top, NOT boiling - you CANNOT overcook chicken this way, so it doesn't take a lot of watching.

I used to flavor mine with some scallions and a little vinegar (which sometimes makes little bits on top of the chicken but still tastes great - just not that cosmetic). Your flavoring agents can vary.

I USED to because right around my gall bladder surgery when any fat at all caused me massive pain, this was about all I could eat and I sort of OD'd on it.

Also for the sweet potatoes - just roast 'em in the oven, man. 400 degrees for 30, 40 minutes, till they are as tender as you want. If you want finger food they can't be TOO tender, but they should get nice and soft. They'll have to cool, of course.

[marydell.livejournal.com]

Thanks! The cornstarch gravy looked a little weird, but tasted good. Do you cover the pan for poaching, or leave it uncovered? I'll have to see about vinegar--we have rice vinegar, which should be ok for him, but might taste weird with chicken. (Apple cider vinegar would taste good but he can't have it...I dunno what regular-plain-ol-vinegar is made with, must look it up).

I do sweet potatoes in the oven now, but he won't pick up anything squishy--well, he'll play with it, but won't put it in his mouth. I might try shredding some and see if they can be hash browned.

[raqs.livejournal.com]

Yeah, cornstarch thickened gravy looks odd, but it's essentially what KFC serves, so, you know, it Serves the Purpose. :-)

You can cover the pan or leave it uncovered, for poaching. The brilliant thing is that if you get the liquid to just the right temperature, you can essentially leave the food in it ALL DAY. As long as it's out of the danger zone, it is bacteria-free and will CONTINUE to be. So you can let it cook for twenty minutes or an hour and it doesn't much matter while you cook everything else. It just has to be that light simmer.

Eventually, of course, your chicken is likely to fall apart. But that's because it's hard to keep the liquid right at, say, 160 degrees.

Vinegar - just a splash of it - does NOT taste weird with chicken - it's just a slightly acidic flavoring, like lemon juice, and it helps tenderize the meat too. Rice wine vinegar would be lovely. It just gives it a little more flavor than Plain Chicken, which eventually you (or he) might get tired of. And you said he liked things with flavor.

If your roasted sweet potatoes are always squishy, you can do a couple of different things:

Roasting them quicker at a higher temperature will make the outside crispier (you have to watch them more quickly though). Rubbing them with fat will help with crisping.

Also, you can grill them. We freaking LIVE off a George Foreman grill, but any type of grill will do, including a grill pan. That will cook them and make them palatable (more so than raw) but they will hold their shape and not be squishy.

Flatter shapes - like an oval about a quarter inch thick - work better for crisping than cubes, and also cook well on a grill.

Hash browns are of course always delicious. :-)

[ashnistrike.livejournal.com]

Another way to get moist, flavorful chicken is roasting. The trick is to stick a little bit of butter under the skin, or a garlic/olive oil mush. Throw it in a pan with any sort of liquid or oil and bake for 20 minutes/pound, or an hour for cut-up chicken. You can also throw veggies or cut-up potatoes into the pan and they will soak up chicken flavor. I like this because it has endless variations and very little prep time. (Although my own prep time tends to be a touch longer because I like to peel a buttload of garlic and roast it alongside.)

Bobby is eating with his fingers, but rather inconsistently. Likewise his reaction to his spoon. Once he's eaten just a little, dropping everything on the floor becomes much more fascinating. He is starting to have Opinions about what he wants to eat at any given moment, which is frustrating for everyone involved because he is not yet able to explain what he wants other than by firmly and messily rejecting everything else we offer.

[marydell.livejournal.com]

Charlie can express opinions by shrieking in an animated manner when he sees what he wants to eat, but he won't point to it, so that's not very helpful. I made the mistake last night of trying to feed him some veg when there was a banana in his field of vision, so there was much shoving and disgruntlement from him. But no pointing, silly boy. He might be learning to say "banana" but not in a way that we can understand.

Aren't toddlers fun? This is where my being a bit of a mind-reader is coming in handy, but I sure wish I was more of one.

[unhappytriad.livejournal.com]

You can get frozen sweet potato fries, but I don't know what kind of oil etc. they put on them.

Thinly sliced sweet potato zapped in the microwave for about 30 seconds results in a firm but not crunchy texture that might fall in that "chewable" category. "Baby cut" carrots can be done the same way, in a cup with a little water.

Have you consulted a speech therapist about his eating issues? Some SLPs (like the one I work with) specialize in eating/swallowing issues. Not just for kids with physiological problems or delays, but also some kids are hypersensitive to certain textures etc.

[marydell.livejournal.com]

We'll look into that in a month or so if he doesn't make progress--in his case the eating delay seems to be just a lack of practice. Because of his allergies, we had to take him off of solid food after he had started, and when we started solids again we had to go really slowly with adding things. Other than small test amounts of things, he ate nothing but sweet potato, squash, rice cereal, and pureed banana for 2 or 3 months...boring, boring textures. So he's excited when we give him a new food or texture now, but he hasn't quite figured out how much to chew things before swallowing them. Although he did pretty well with sweet corn the other night, so we'll be trying that again.

I'll try the sliced sweet potatoes - I've been baking them but that pretty much makes mash, which he won't pick up with his fingers.

I think he's probably delayed with talking - he couldn't hear well for a while because of ear infections (now tubed, yay), and he is hooked on his paci because it helps him to deal with pain from his skin or his ears. When we take it out of his mouth he'll babble and say mama and dada, but that's like 5 percent of his day. I'm less worried about this, though, because "talking" isn't a requirement for moving ahead at day care...15 months old and his parents are already pushing him, sigh.

[unhappytriad.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah--I'm sure you already know this, but I feel compelled to say it--if you do the beef franks, cut them longitudinally before you cut them crosswise--hot dog slices are a perfect size and shape to choke on.

[marydell.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I did know that but it never hurts to be reminded. I am scared to death of him choking on something. I saw a "toddler hot dog slicer" at a store that does that for you - I almost bought it but I think maybe I'm not quite that lazy. Maybe.

I also have heard that hot dogs have some kind of bad chemical in them, so I'll have to read about that before I give them to him. Sigh.

[raqs.livejournal.com]

Depends on the hot dog. Hebrew National is about the only brand of hot dog I'll eat. "They answer to a higher power." :-) So they really don't screw around too much with the ingredients.

[almeda.livejournal.com]

Juicy chicken: I do it in the broiler. If you are careful not to overcook it to cardboardyness, it should squirt juice when you cut it. Reasonably sized (not mutant huge) chicken breasts are done after about 7min on the first side and 5 on the second.

I can highly recommend quinoa -- cooks just like rice, but more interesting-tasting. Wholefoods has it in the bulk bins for not too expensive.

If you have access to a Trader Joe's, their 'pirate booty' brand of Cheerios-with-less-crap-in-them are highly regarded by other toddlers I know. Especially the kale flavor (which *I* find vile).

You could try using spices in his food like sage, thyme, cumin, etc -- to make things 'tasty' without 'spicy'. I really like the Penzey's chili-powder blend called 'chili con carne,' which is very flavorful and not hot. Similarly, stuff like cinnamon, nutmeg, etc, are awesome flavorful without being spicy.

In that vein, if you have a bready product he likes, toasted strips of it with butter and cinnamon-sugar (or even just cinnamonny butter) was something I really liked for snack as a kid, and I was a hella picky eater.

[noveldevice.livejournal.com]

I have a crapload of allergies myself. Looking at your list, I suspect he's a supertaster. A lot of people think this shouldn't make a difference but it's going to affect how he tastes stuff, and things that you don't think of as being bitter, sour, or spicy he may find unbearable. (I'm a supertaster in a family of non-supertasters; as a child, dinner sucked.)

You can try making your chicken gravy with arrowroot starch/flour (same thing) instead of wheatflour--should work out okay and will be tasty. Chicken fat plus arrowroot for the roux, then broth till it's gravy, I'd guess. I'm allergic to chicken. Slow-cooked chicken will be moist; you can also bake it in liquid or whatever--I'm not good with chicken, cf. above in re poultry allergy. YAM TEMPURA!!! Sweet potato fries are also a goodness; you can buy them in bags in the freezer section.