We don't eat roadkill, nor do we condone the eating of roadkill. It's the title of a song I learned at Cub Scout camp, and it makes me laugh.
We were junk food junkies until Shane was born. We ate prepackaged, frozen anything. Then the little squirt arrived and changed things up for us a bit.
At 3 weeks old he morphed from a happy little guy to a screaming, vomiting, diarrhea producing, non sleeping question mark. The pediatrician patted me on the head and assured me 'all babies spit up.' Without the support of our pediatrician, we had to do our own research. I talked to any and everyone I could. I kept a food/nursing/vomit/diarrhea journal where I recorded what I ate and the corresponding reaction in Shane.
On the advice of a friend, I eliminated dairy, and then over time wheat/gluten, soy, citrus, tomatoes and a host of other foods. Eventually we realized he had GI-mediated, or non-IgE allergies, to dairy, corn and wheat. GI-mediated/non-IgE means the allergic reaction was not systemic like you often think of when you think food allergy, but rather it was happening in his digestive tract.
From the age of 6 months to 12 months he didn't grow because his digestive tract was damaged so he was unable to absorb adequate nutrition, and our pediatrician finally conceded that perhaps something was wrong. Because there's no blood test for non-IgE allergies, we had to do detective work in partnership with a gastroenterologist. He was tested for everything from Celiac disease to cystic fibrosis. He was chronically anemic with funky pancreas and liver 'numbers' and just a hot mess all around.
As you can imagine Bill and I read alot about nutrition and food. We needed to find nutrient-rich food that Shane could tolerate. In doing all this reading, we came to realize that what you eat is.....very important to your health! Amazing isn't it?
My gene pool is short and round as is Bill's - though he somehow managed to be tall. We don't want our kids to grow up with the same eating habits we did, and we don't want them to struggle with their weight as we do. So we read labels and avoid things like high fructose corn syrup and artificial sweeteners- among other things and choose whole grains over bleached or enriched grains and so on.
Sure we eat junk food and even fast food - but - it's not the norm for us. Most of what we eat is whole, home-cooked foods. We grow veggies in the spring and summer. Three years ago we started keeping chickens so we could enjoy free range eggs. We get pasteurized, but not homogenized, milk from a dairy that is committed to hormone and medication free cows (they medicate a cow if it's sick, but do not sell the cow's milk until the meds have cleared).
We want our kids to be aware of what they eat. To read labels. To enjoy quality whole foods. And to not just mindlessly stuff whatever is at hand into their mouths. So they eat 'weird' things like carrot fries, home-made hummus and quinoa, and their yogurt doesn't have cartoon characters on the package... and they're ok with that.
Is eating this way more time consuming? Yes.
More expensive? Sometimes
Worth it? Absolutely
Here are some links that we visit
The Nourishing Gourmet
Passionate Homemaking
Karina's Kitchen
Our primary food/recipe resource
Nourishing Traditions
And a great place to start if you or your child has food allergies
Kids with Food Allergies
