Almond Milk, Hemp, and Chlorella

Last few weeks have been quite busy here. Through the allergy evaluation that the naturopath physician performed we were able to learn that Diego was "sensitive/allergic" to a long list of foods (42 items) and cleaning products. The big ones have been cow milk, anything with casein (all lacteous), cheese, and eggs. Somehow he is OK with yogurt, but we may eliminate that too from his diet. As a part of the evaluation he was supposed to get "desensitize" from these foods, but now he seems to refuse anything that has milk or cheese or eggs. So, we are kind of back to the times when he didn't want to eat almost anything!!! Is it just him being a toddler or is the food that really bothers his body?

So, after freaking out a bit thinking what my life will be cooking everything from scratch trying to avoid these foods we have come to some options. First: almond milk instead of cow or soy milk. For what I understand the molecule of the caseine in the cow's milk is very similar to the molecule in the soy milk, so sometimes the body may confuse the soy with the casein. The other option was hemp milk, but this is quite expensive ($4 versus $2 per 32 oz), so we are trying right now the almond milk and so far Diego is drinking it. Also the almond milk is easier to find in most stores, while I have only found hemp milk in Whole Foods. The tricky think about the almond is that only has 1 gr of protein/8 oz while the other milks have more protein, so we are adding a protein supplement based on help that has tons of amino acids and minerals.

And to add more things to the mix we are also trying to give Diego a pill of Chlorella per day (I crushed it and add it to mashed avocado or mix it with water and give it in a syringe, but it tastes quite awful!). It's an algae with tons of good stuff that helps your gut's flora and fauna and helps eliminates bad stuff from your gut (in plain words). Diego is pretty picky and sometimes I wonder it is has something to do with his gut... Remember that he had to battle quite a bit of infections in Russia and few here and the antibiotics can wipe out the good bugs in your gut...

I don't know if someone still reads this blog anymore, but the few ones may think we are just nutcases. But hey, Mark and I are environmental engineers and we really believe to keep things as close to nature as possible and if this stuff helps Diego's health, all the struggles we are facing now (with the no eating and trying to get him to eat this stuff) are worth it!

Besides all this allergy and food craziness, we are doing quite well. In the last month Diego's communication has exploded and he consistently uses 2 words and even 3 word phrases! This is just so much fun to watch him trying to explain us things, or bossing our dog around with bunch of commands, screaming and pointing, or just repeating what we say! We also started taking him to swim classes and he loooooves it! We had to buy him a little speedo for the class and he calls it his "agua undie". Once I tell him we are going to his "agua class" he can't stop repeating that until we are there!

And now, few pics: at his grandpa's house in Phoenix, at his first swim class, our first hike together, and Easter morning after mass.