Hi, I’m Oscar’s Mum (aka Sandra). My now adult son was diagnosed with food intolerances just after his first birthday following 4 weeks on an elimination diet. His intolerances included Salicylates, Glutamates, and most artificial flavours, colours, preservatives and additives. This meant that most fruit, vegetables, herbs and spices and processed foods are excluded from his diet. I started this blog to share our experiences and recipes with other’s in similar situations.
Oscar’s diet is now entirely normal. As a result, I don’t blog or post new recipes here anymore, and don’t monitor the site for comments. My first recipe was posted on 1st August 2010 and the final recipe on 6th May 2016. There are almost 400 receipes here! A resource that I want to continue to make available for as long as possible. You can find receipes by using the Recipe Listings (click on “Recipes” on the top menu) or use the Search field. The search is quite powerful, so you can type in a receipe title, ingedient or other criteria such as “lunch box”, “party”, “travel” or “challenge“ to find results.
THINGS TO KEEP IN MIND: I am no longer following the latest information and science on these intolerances, so please make your own checks as to the suitability of the ingredients in them. Also, Oscar-friendly food always included amines (as he was not intolerant to them) and over time the level of salicylates and glutamates increased. All of the reipes are labelled with the level of chemicals, as I knew it at the time (again, please make your own checks) and many have substitutes to make them low chemical.
Our Story
Oscar started having sleeping problems when he was about 5 months old. He started waking more and more frequently overnight and was becoming very difficult to settle. At about 7 to 8 months of age he was waking every 20 to 30 minutes all night long; my husband and I were exhausted. Feeling sure that this wasn’t something that could be fixed by letting him cry himself to sleep, we saw a sleep consultant, Pinky McKay. Pinky saw our son eating a huge bowl of fruit and suggested that he might have a Salicylate intolerance. We removed the fruit from his diet and after 7 days we had a dramatic improvement, with him waking only a couple of times a night. Just to be sure, we added the fruit back and within 3 days the constant waking and restlessness was back. At that point we took him to a dietician who put us on an elimination diet for 4 weeks. I had to do it as well, as we were breastfeeding It was incredibly hard for the first couple of weeks, but as with our first trial, the results made it all worthwhile. Not only was he sleeping better, but he was a much happier, calmer little boy.
In hindsight, the sleeping problems started when he started on solid food. We used the baby-led weaning method of introducing solid foods to our son – and he loved it. His first foods were nectarines and apricots from the tree in our back yard. We started serving him small amounts of the same foods we ate, and he ate (or tried to eat) all of it. An early favourite was chicken stir fry with ginger and garlic. He loved eating.
During the elimination diet, which was difficult for all of us to adjust to, his enjoyment of food decreased dramatically. If it was sweet he would eat it, if it was savoury he wouldn’t touch it. Potatoes, leeks, cabbage and beans weren’t particularly appealing to me either, so I can understand where he was coming from. He lived for months on creamed rice, tinned pears and toast with pear jam.
We started on a very long process of food challenges; reintroducing groups of food chemicals to see which ones he reacts to. As a result, we discovered that he has intolerances to Salicylates, Glutamates, food colours and most preservatives. His intolerances to the natural food chemicals was diagnosed as moderate and we were able to introduce moderate salicylate foods back into his diet. Eventually we re-introduce some high salicylates, as well as additives and preservatives.
His diet was quite limited in fruit and vegetables and because of the food colours and preservatives there was very little processed food he could have, but it was no longer difficult. Not being on the diet was difficult. He was a very healthy, happy little boy, who (like most toddlers) hated vegetables (especially green ones). Our challenge was to make our limited number of vegetables (including the green ones) tasty for a child and make food fun again. I think we achieved this.
I discovered a new love of cooking through creating recipes for my family and friends to eat, which are also safe for my son. This blog is about Oscar-friendly food. Food that is low to moderate in salicylates and glutamates, and free of artificial additives, colours and preservatives. And a little bit about the challenges of living with food intolerance along the way. There are also many recipes that are suitable for the RPAH Elimination diet and FAILSAFE diet.