Saturday, March 19, 2011

Oral Rehydration Solution

What do you do when your little one is sick with a GI bug, getting dehydrated, but is allergic to Pedialyte? You save yourself a trip to the store, for once save money, and mix up your own rehydration drink!

This recipe is courtesy of the World Health Organization. I was able to locate it thanks to one of my little guy's team of doctors, so I'm reposting it here since even he had a difficult time finding the exact recipe. The more people that know the recipe the better!

Here is the original recipe, which can be found at rehydrate.org. C's nutrition specialist recommended the recipe #3.

For 1 Liter of oral rehydration solution mix:

  • 1 Liter cold drinking water
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt (I used Kosher)
  • 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
  • 2 Tablespoons sugar (can substitute honey)
Stir until sugar and salt dissolve.  Store cooled and discard any remaining solution after 24 hours.

I tasted it afraid it was going to be salty and it wasn't! I was pleasantly surprised! To me the commercial drinks are far too sweet, where this is just slightly sweet. If I end up with this rotten virus I'll be mixing up some of this solution for myself instead of chugging the dye-filled Gatorade my husband has been drinking.

*Update* I tasted some of the solution after it sat in the refrigerator overnight and it was horribly salty! I guess when I first tasted it the salt hadn't dissolved completely.  So in the future I will be sure to mix up really small batches because it sure tasted better at first!

Friday, March 18, 2011

Updated Barley Oat Pancakes (Top 8 Free)

I mentioned these pancakes in my previous post, so now it's time for the recipe! I remember taking a photo of the regular pancakes cooking (they turned out fluffier than the original post's photo) but I can't seem to find it, so the number-shaped pancake will have to do!


Barley Oat Pancakes (Wheat, Egg, Dairy, Soy, Corn free) 

1/2 cup barley flour
1/2 cup oat flour
1-1/2 tsp safe baking powder
1/2 tsp kosher salt
2 Tbls maple syrup
1 Tbls canola oil
1/4 cup applesauce
3/4 cup rice milk
coconut oil to coat griddle & to "butter" pancakes

Preheat a pan or griddle on low-medium to medium heat. (On my electric stove I set it to 3 or 3-1/2.) Coat pan lightly with melted coconut oil.

Stir together dry ingredients. Add wet ingredients and mix until smooth. Set batter aside for a minute or two to thicken.

Pour batter onto hot griddle and cook until edges turn a light-medium golden color and bubbles start to form on the surface. Flip over with a spatula and top with coconut oil. Cook other side until golden brown.

Yields 18 3" silver dollar pancakes

I've been making these every couple days at the demand of this little man. :) 


Birthday Boy!

Subtitled: What was supposed to be his allergy-safe celebration

My little guy recently turned 3! Kid birthdays here always start off with a number shaped pancake, and that's the case allergies or not. I used a modified version of these barley-oat pancakes I posted a while back and I'll repost it soon. :)




He spent the morning playing and then snoozed the afternoon away! We were all waiting for him to wake up so we could have his celebration! 

One of our recent purchases was a cotton candy machine especially to make special treats for our little guy. Not that you *need* cotton candy but with as many things as he can't have, we wanted something really special that he could have, that would always be safe. Instead of using the artificial stuff they give you with the machine, I just put plain organic cane sugar in. One tablespoon of sugar makes a big cloud of fluffy white cotton candy! The plan had been to use the cotton candy machine his birthday afternoon, but he slept all afternoon! I was happy we'd tested it out a few days prior. :)


His favorite tv show right now is Team Umi Zoomi and I found printable party decorations online so that's what we used. I made Chocolate Wacky Cupcakes and dusted them with tapioca starch powdered sugar because he doesn't like icing. 



Blowing out the candles!


He had such a fun time! He ate 3 cupcakes. :) 

That's where the subtitle comes in. :( Later that night his face got a bit rashy. The next day he was sporting quite a pair of allergic shiners along with flaring eczema and the GI issues that go along with any reaction for him. Rotten birthday present.  



He ate the same recipe cupcakes just 1 month earlier, all the same ingredients with no issues. The only thing that I don't use on a nearly daily basis? Guar gum. Guar gum is also an ingredient in the coconut milk and ice cream that he once loved but started refusing in January. Refusal typically indicates the beginnings of an allergy, I just didn't connect it. Guar gum is in the legume family which he has a lot of trouble with already so I'm not terribly surprised, just disappointed and sad. 

Later the same week, he started refusing he favorite soy yogurt, saying it made his belly hurt. He had been eating it daily. He would ask for it, look at the bowl, cry, give it back to me uneaten. On Sunday, after not requesting it for several days he asked for it again so I gave him a really small bowl. He gobbled it up and asked for more. I gave him a little more, he ate it, then asked for more, and I gave him the last little bit. Within an hour he was crying about his belly hurting and later that night the allergic shiners & GI symptoms appeared.

So…instead of outgrowing allergies he's just gaining them.  I never posted an allergist update in Feb but that appointment confirmed a definite allergy to sunflower seeds, still a very strong reaction to dairy (cross contamination was the likely cause for the cracker reaction), and a new mild allergy to carrots and tomatoes. I wish I'd taken in soy and pinto bean samples, I meant to but forgot. I'm sure he would test positive on both of those now. :(

Just this past week he caught a rotten bug from his in-preschool-sister. Between the soy and the virus he lost 2 pounds in under a week that he couldn't afford to lose and surely knocked himself back down to the bottom of the growth chart. He's reacted to strawberry flavoring in Zofran and corn in fever reducers and has been all-around miserable. After C was doing so well I'm now back to working with a nutritionist trying to find a way around spending more than I usually spend on a week's worth of groceries for the family to buy some elemental formula to supplement my little guy ever-shrinking diet. :(