Milk and Medications: The Tale of a GI Virus

We were forced to take a small break from Free Snacking this week since we were recovering for a GI virus. This virus took out my poor two-year-old for 48 hours and introduced me to the world of hidden dairy in medications and supplements.

After a full night of throwing up, I went to the grocery store to look for some Pedialyte. The Pedialyte section, just like most things, seemed to be suffering from a two year pandemic supply chain problem (though it was right beside the infant formula so that put complaints into perspective), and the only kind they had was Pedialyte Advanced Care. Ok, that’s fine, I thought. I read through the list (because that is what I have been trained to do); water, sugar, some long words… seemed fine. Then I saw there was a contains statement- milk! I reread the ingredients.

Water, Dextrose. Less than 1.0% of: Galactooligosaccharides, Citric Acid, Potassium Citrate, Salt, Sodium Citrate, Natural & Artificial Flavor, Sucralose, Acesulfame Potassium, Zinc Gluconate, Blue 1, and Red 40.

Contains milk ingredients?!?!? Why, Pedialyte, why?!

Galactooligosaccharides have got to be the offending party here. But what are they? According to the internet, they are a prebiotic made up plant sugars that are found in dairy products, beans, and certain root vegetables. Prebiotics are things that the bacteria in your gut like to eat, so I guess the “advanced care” here is trying to make your gut bacteria happy again after diarrhea has destroyed their precious biome. People who are allergic (IgE mediated, actually ALLERGIC not intolerant) to milk are allergic to milk protein. Galactooligosaccharides, by themselves, should be fine for my kid to eat. But when I see "milk" I'm not bringing that near my kid.

I guess my bigger question is if these prebiotics are found in beans and root vegetables, why did Pedialyte decide to go the dairy route? Cow’s milk protein allergy affects 2-6% of children! And lord knows how many people think they are lactose intolerant. And vegan. Anyways, I guess I’ll just be giving my kid only the normal amount of care in the future.

Which brings me to the next realization of hidden diary. After throwing up for over 24 hours, we headed out to our pediatrician and got some much needed Zofran (anti-nausea medication) so that my kid could at least drink something without vomiting immediately. We got our script for it and headed on our way. At the pharmacy, when we were picking it up, the pharmacist mentioned “Oh hey, noticed she’s allergic to milk, this has milk in it, but it’s probably fine because it’s just lactose, just try a little bit, make sure she doesn’t die, and then she can have her full dose. Have a good night!”

I’m sorry, that can't be your professional advice for somebody with severe food allergies? I’m going to give that advice 0/5 stars, would not trust you to feed my baby, and how did you get this job?

After talking to my pharmacist sister-in-law, my kid’s pediatrician, and looking at Go Diary Free, I’ve learned some things. Lactose is a fairly common ingredient in medications, especially tablets. It apparently makes things taste better- creamy and slightly sweet to offset whatever the active medication tastes like (milk: why you so delicious?). Lactose, just like our prebiotic friend above, shouldn’t be a problem in people with IgE mediated milk protein allergies, however again, it is definitely a milk product and there is always a risk of contamination. Liquid Zofran (that my kid had the doctor’s office and the kind that we picked up from the pharmacy) doesn’t have any milk products in it. I even checked the ingredient list on “package insert” and there was no mention of any milk products.

I’m not sure why the pharmacy where I picked up the liquid Zofran from had an alert that it contains milk (when it was easy enough to check that it does, indeed, not), but I did learn some things. I’ve got to continue to check ingredient lists on medications as well as food (even if there's no good reason for that food to have allergens in it. Seriously Pedialyte? Seriously?). And we need to be especially careful with dissolvable tablets, even over the counter. Milk! It’s everywhere!

Free Snacking: MadeGood

Try as I might, I couldn’t find any Top 9 allergen free snacks at my normal grocery store on any aisle. I have a distinct memory of seeing some somewhere… but I sure couldn’t find them. At least, not with a toddler tagging along. Everything is impossible to find with a two year old. It’s like you get transported through a vortex of “can we get that?” “what about that?” and soon you have your cart full of Poptarts and sugar cereal and none of what you came for.

I was forced to go to Whole Foods to explore their overpriced yuppie aisles. This time, with my five year old. The only way to get him to help with errands are if new snacks are promised at the end. None of the allergen free crackers that were available were actually safe for my kid (Garlic! Why do you have to ruin EVERYTHING?) but they did have two more kinds of cookies. This week-

MadeGood

We just got their minichocolate chip cookies, but they were so good I immediately went to their website to see what other things the company made. The first thing I noticed? They are running a sale all through May to celebrate Allergy Awareness Month. 15% off! All of their products are free of the top 9 allergens (awesome) and they have a wide variety (even better). Granola bars, crispy squares (which appear to be square granola bars?), crackers, crunchy and soft cookies. The most exciting? They have “cheddar” crackers that don’t appear to have garlic OR milk in them. So, yeah, we will be placing a large order from their website.

So.... open the box. There's 5 packages. Of 7 tiny cookies. This would feed one hungry caterpillar for less than one day.

The cookies? My kid picked the mini version (cars, cookies, muffins… everything’s more fun tiny), and I was skeptical when I saw that there is a serving of vegetables in them. Hidden vegetables usually spell trouble. I was even more concerned when I read the vegetable extracts included (Broccoli? Shiitake mushrooms? Great for dinner, but cookies? COOKIES?) But, I reread the fine print and noticed it says “all the nutrients of 6 real fruit and vegetables” which to me just means they added some vitamins and minerals from mushrooms which I am totally fine with.

They have the most neutral flavor of all of the allergen free cookies we have tried (mushrooms? Neutral? I know. It’s hard to believe). They aren’t grainy at all, I'm assuming thanks to their gluten free flour blend of oats, brown rice, potato starch, and chia. Don't get me wrong, the texture is still different than a “normal” cookie; I don’t want to oversell these guys and for everyone to be disappointed. You’ve got to bring a little bit of optimism to any allergen friendly cookie. Really, if you did a blind taste test these first any store bought cookie with wheat, milk, and eggs, you would need no training to spot the difference, BUT their texture was better than other ones I have tasted. Most importantly, they have a good amount of chocolate chips, which can make or break a chocolate chip cookie.

 

Overall, I can’t wait to try more of their stuff!

Free Snacking: Granola Butter

This week on free snacking, instead of eating some top 9 allergen free baked goods, we are checking in on spreads. Searching for a peanut butter replacement that has protein and some fat was one of the first things I set out to do with a kid with allergies. Not only is peanut butter one of my favorite foods, but it’s a great source of calories for toddlers (but... you know... only when it’s safe for them to eat it). If you can’t have peanut butter, often the first place you go to is one of the many tree nut butters- almond, cashew, pecan, Nutella, etc. They, too, are delicious and a good thing to add to snacks or sandwiches, but again only if you can have them.

The main peanut butter alternative is Sunbutter, made from sunflower seeds, it has a similar (maybe) taste to peanut butter and it also is full of fat and some protein. But there is a new kid on the block- granola butter. 

"Granola Butter" is not the best name because you read it and then say to yourself "What is that?" but the company "OAT HAUS"? Perfect branding. No notes.

It was also a Shark Tank impulse buy for us last year, but now it’s actually in our regular grocery store! The creator said she wanted something that tasted like liquid teddy grahams (it’s literally on the website. I think that sounds like the unfortunately byproduct of a toddler stomach bug and would have maybe gone for… spreadable teddy grahams? Pureed teddy grahams? Literally anything without the word "liquid" in it. But what do I know?) 

Where was I? Granola Butter. Shark Tank. How it was created. Okay, so the creator struggled with an eating disorder for 10 years and when she tried to get back into eating nut butters, her stomach couldn’t handle it. So she created Granola Butter, a nut free spread, that you can still eat in similar ways to a peanut butter. On Shark Tank, the Sharks gave her a hard time because it wasn’t low calorie, but that wasn’t her goal. She wanted something that was a little indulgent, that she could safely eat. Not everything has to be low cal, sharks. And did you not hear the part about the eating disorder??? Let’s take a look at the nutrition and how it compares to other spreads:

 

It doesn’t have nearly as much protein as peanut butter/nut butters/even Sunbutter, but total calorie wise, it’s pretty similar. That’s because the first ingredient is oats. Not so great if you are on a low carb diet, but as far as getting some high calorie foods into my kid, a good choice. We’ve tried three of their flavors- original, vanilla, and chocolate. The original is my favorite. I’m a sucker for some cinnamon. The vanilla is good, as well, though I don't remember it tasting that different from the original. The chocolate one is good as long as you go in with limited expectations- I mean, the first ingredient is oats, so thinking it tastes like “brownie batter” is going to be a bit of a let down.

The main problem with granola butter is the viscosity. All of the flavors are much runnier that traditional peanut butter (or almond butter or sun butter). It makes it hard to have on crackers which is my family’s preferred snack. You know what it is good on, though? Drizzled on top of vegan ice cream. Like, it’s ridiculously good. It’s not hot fudge, but I’m not going to say no to a little bit of extra flavor and fat and carbs on my attempt at homemade dairy free ice cream.

You know what? I spoke too soon. Maybe "liquid teddy graham" is the perfect description.

So, if you want a different thing to make your snacks more filling or your ice cream more delicious, try a tub of granola butter. It’s still ridiculously expensive, but at least it won’t kill my kid!

Free Snacking: Partake

This week on (allergen) Free Snacking is some cookies that were gifted to me for my birthday! Partake Foods was founded by a mom when her daughter was diagnosed with multiple food allergies. In addition to wanting to bring safe snacks to all kids, it also fights food insecurity (by partnering with No Kid Hungry) AND has a fellowship program for HBCU students. Not too shabby, huh?

BUT THAT'S NOT WHY WE ARE HERE! DOES THE FOOD TASTE GOOD?!?!

That’s really the important question here, isn’t it? Well, I was gifted two boxes of cookies- Crunchy Birthday Cake Cookies and Soft Baked Cookie Butter Cookies. A quick perusal of the website shows that they have multiple other cookie flavors (I see you double chocolate!), as well as a lot of different baking mixes.

The Crunchy Birthday Cake Cookies were a hit with my family, though not exactly my favorite. The texture was good- crunchy, as advertised. But the flavor was a little off. A little earthy. Like eating a root. Not terrible, but I think it stems from the cassava flour in the wheat free flour mixture. It might also be related to the rosemary extract- I have no idea why that is in there. My kid’s only complaint was the sprinkles were not as apparent as they are on the box. “Where are the sprinkles, mommy? Those cookies on the box have sprinkles!” My wife said she liked them way more than any other allergen free cookie, so that’s pretty high praise.

Look, there are sprinkles in these cookies. But they do not like the one on the box and it was a harsh introduction to the world of food photography and styling for my kids.

The Soft Baked Cookie Butter Cookies were by far my favorites. I like a softer cookie, and while these weren’t as soft as the Rule Breaker bites, they were definitely softer than the crunchy cookies. The best thing about them, though, was they have a lot of spices (cinnamon, ginger, cardamom, coriander, nutmeg, and clove) that overtake the cassava flour that’s in the flour blend. They are like the most delicious ginger bread cookie I’ve ever had. (Okay, so this is slightly a low bar because are traditional ginger bread cookies that good? But remember they have no eggs, milk, or wheat. Low bar, high praise!)

After my various levels of success with allergen friendly baking, I am also very intrigued by their baking mixes. Something for another day!

 

Slightly off topic- but May is National Allergy and Asthma Awareness Month and next week is Food Allergy Awareness Week. There’s a #AllergyCare twitter chat at 8PM ET on May 10- I think this is an annual thing happening the week after Mother’s Day (because we all know that mothers are usually the ones dealing with food allergies #thanksgendernorms) and I remember when I first saw it 2 years ago right after my kid had a weird reaction to peanut butter. Back before she had multiple food allergies, and just when we were being thrown into this world. Anyways, they always have great information and you should follow @AAFANational and @KFATweets.