It’s official. You have an allergy. Your child has a food intolerance that’s causing eczema. Your nursing baby seems to be reacting to something in your diet.
The logistics of moving to a new diet can seem overwhelming. I know, because I’ve been around that block a couple of times now, and I am sure there is more to come. In my late teens, I became very sensitive to milk and has to switch my diet around. Then I got type 1 diabetes, which made me rethink how I eat and made it essential to count the carbohydrates in every meal that I eat. Thyroid-friendly and gluten-free foods are on the list now too.
This makes it sound like eating and cooking in my house are no fun at all, but really that is not the case. To have fun eating and cooking with a food intolerance, you need to make your kitchen and your pantry feel safe and delicious.
If you are simply avoiding a food, you may continue to have that food in the house. Create a designated shelf in the pantry or in the fridge for that food so that you do not get confused. If you want to avoid wheat and everyone else eats it, have the wheat bread on one side of the freezer and the wheat-free bread on the other side. Ideally, have them in separate parts of the kitchen so that you don’t get confused.
If you have a very serious allergy or food intolerance in the house, the best way to create a safe space is to move the entire family over to the new diet. That way, you know that you can cook with any of the items in your kitchen.
Make sure that you have snacks on hand that are safe for everyone to eat. Snacks are important when you have kids, and safe snacks are even more important when you’re trying to cook in a way that accommodates everyone’s needs.
You don’t need to reorganize all of your cookbooks, but make a section in a recipe book so that you can write down recipes that work for your new diet. When you have a success or invent something wonderful, write it down so you can do it again.
Make cooking a little easier. Designate a drawer for any measuring or weighing equipment and get more than one of these items if you are going to use them often.
Does someone in your house have a food intolerance? How do you organize to accommodate it?
Image courtesy of gimbok at stock exchange.