Dairy Free Sugar Cookies

This recipe might be a work in progress but it got the job done.  Sugar cookies for my little guy!

 

Dairy Free Sugar Cookies

1/2  Cup Sugar
1/2 Cup Sugar (Powdered with my Vitamix Dry Blade)
1/3 Cup Coconut Oil [I did not measure so might be a little less]
1 Egg
1 t Vanilla
1 1/2 Cups Flour
1/2 t Baking Soda
1/2 t Salt
 

Sprinkle of Sugar on the top before baking.  Bake 375° for 6-8 min.  Enjoy!

 

 

Dairy Free Chocolate Chip Cookies

They turned out great!!

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A friend kindly offered my son a cookie yesterday as his sister quickly said, “he can’t have that!”  The tears started as she said, “sorry buddy,” and he realized…wait I am missing out!

As the group of mom’s discussed that he was dairy free and that was why he could not have them.  I stated there must be a recipe but cookies were the one thing I really had not found a replacement for on his dairy free diet.

I don’t want him to miss out.  I searched Pinterest last night until I found a recipe that I considered good enough to try.  Actually I ended up adapting my all time favorite cookie recipe.

Dairy Free Chocolate Chunk Cookies

1 Cup Sugar
1 Cup Brown Sugar
2/3 Cup Coconut Oil [I did not measure so might be a little less than 2/3 cup]
2 Eggs
2 t Vanilla
3 Cups Flour
1 t Baking Soda
1 t Salt
1 1/2 Baker’s Unsweetened Baking Chocolate Squares broken to little pieces 
 

Bake at 375° —- 8-10 minutes

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Dairy Free

I have learned so much over the last few years that some days it is hard to think about what to share…there is so much.

For about 6 months to a year we fought horrible allergies with my son.  The allergies were so bad, they were causing blisters on a nearly daily basis on the skin of my son’s diaper area.  It was horrifying.  Diaper changes were a nightmare.  I would often cry after diaper changes.  The doctors could not figure it out.  Eventually we ended up at a dermatologist and urologist at the children’s hospital.  The treatments would help but not eliminate the problem.  It was continually changing.  Yeast.  Staph.  Allergy.  Something would help then we would stop the treatment and the problem would come back.  It was miserable for him and me.

Eventually by luck we (me not the doctors that we paid the big bucks) figured out the main culprit was a neurotoxin, iodopropynyl butylcarbamate.  We had not changed the baby wipes we were using but the company had added this ingredient to the baby wipes causing a very adverse reaction in my son.  After it was completely eliminated from his products we have had no blisters. Yeah!!

While we were going through this above allergy issue my son was also having GI issues.  All the doctors insisted he was not allergic to milk.  I kept asking, are you sure?  No.  When I was nursing him as a young baby he would get oral thrush if I drank any milk within a few hours of him nursing.  I had not nursed in quite a while so had kinda forgotten.  He had been eating cheese for a long time so it did not seem like it should be the culprit.

One day I had just had enough of the GI issues and said I am just gonna stop milk again.  I started giving him soy milk again.  He got better for a few days then it got worse again.  We gave up again as the results were not consistent.  The next time he got sick the only thing he would eat was granola bars.  He was not getting better like he should have been after a few days of feeling ill.  I took the package and looked at the ingredients.  There was no milk but there was whey.  The same protein that is removed when making cheese.  We have a winner!  When we had stopped milk before we had not completely removed all products that had milk in them specifically, WHEY!

Whey, was the key to all successes.  He is a completely different child now.  After about six weeks he was nearly completely recovered and the best part he talks!!  He can use better descriptive words then his older siblings after all those months of no talking [by talking I mean no attempt to communicate verbally or non-verbally].

At first I was really worried about all the favorite foods that he would miss out on because they contain dairy or that it was going to be so hard to prepare food for him, constantly making something different.  It has been so easy and has benefited other family members as well.  For the most part we are a dairy free family now but we still eat our favorite foods.

HOW TO SWITCH

Most of the time it is really easy.  We are also soy free as it was worse for our family then milk.  Most recipes we just switch milk for rice milk or almond milk.  The first change was in pancakes if you have read my blogs you probably could have guessed.  I simply substitute either one of the other milks for the milk that is called for in the recipe.  Muffins same thing.  Butter is sometimes harder because of the texture, I use oil where I can or fruit puree if oil does not work.

My husbands favorite is Alfredo.  At first I thought it was no longer an option.  I was so wrong!  I made a cream white sauce with the rice milk and it is so much better then the Campbell’s soups we used before.  Tomato soup is the one thing that we have found is so much better with milk but we did make it dairy free too…fresh from the garden!

Yogurt was another favorite of my son’s.  He gets the coconut milk yogurts.  They are expensive but he loves them.  I am hoping to try and make them at home one of these days.

Dairy free takes a little more time but the reward is exponentially worth it!

Good Bread

My youngest has never liked bread.  After we learned some of his allergies I just figured it was because he knew it made his tummy upset because he does not tolerate milk well and most bread you buy in the store has milk.  I went to the bakery last week to get some fresh bread to go with our homemade broccoli cheese soup and he loved the bread.  I was a little surprised, but once in a while he will eat bread so was not a big deal.

A couple of days ago we were given some bread from the same bakery and he almost threw a fit about having to have some.  That was a little weird, that is normally his brothers roll on bread not his.  That is when I realized maybe it was not just the milk but the preservatives too.

I had just read an article about the history of Pepperidge Farms, those little goldfish he loves, the mother that started the company had a son that had allergies to the preservatives and artificial ingredients in the breads she bought.  Hum, this sounds very familiar.

Along with the food allergies our son has allergies to preservatives too.  At the first sign of allergies it was so hard to figure out the problem because there was a combination of things that were contributing to making a really big problem.   We have been trying to add fresher foods and eliminate all the processed foods.  I guess I never thought of bread as processed food but of course they add preservatives to keep it fresher longer.

We went to the bakery this morning and he walked out with a baguette in his hands saying, “Good Bread!”  I think we will be visiting the bakery more often.

My Boys

It has been a while since I wrote.  I started my writing business because I loved writing and my young children gave me so many ideas.  I also had things I wanted to share with them like my time in the US Coast Guard but could not find a book that really shared the things they would be interested in learning, so I wrote and published one to share with them.  Now my oldest son’s favorite thing is his Coast Guard Lego set!

I started this blog with the hope of sharing some of our experiences with our son’s Asperger’s.  I was hoping to write regularly teaching all the things we learn and sharing experiences.  Our house went thru a lot of changes and I just did not have time for writing.  As the dust has settled I am ready to share and  have so much to share.  A year ago we were really just starting to understand the diagnosis…now we have so much to share.

Our oldest son was diagnosed with Asperger’s at the age of four.  He had a lot of behavior problems that resulted mainly from sensory issues.  His other struggles are social.  It is honestly hard for me to remember because he is a totally different kid now.  He completed 24 weeks of occupational therapy, has a home therapy room, and he is a great kid now.  He has learned so much about what makes him feel better and what makes him feel yucky it is a totally new world for him.  He told the dentist he could not have the toothpaste because it has red 40 and blue 1 and asked for a substitution.

My youngest son, our baby, in so many ways is opposite of his brother.  At 20 months the only expressive language he used was “NO.”  He had never cried for a diaper change, never asked for food or drink, just would not communicate verbally or non-verbally.  At first I thought I was over worried since his brother started talking at 7 months.  We looked and looked for therapy nothing was available; he is still on a waiting list.  He had a beautiful voice when he would talk but it was on his terms never to communicate, never imitate, and certainly not on demand even if he did want the water or snack.

I talked to a friend that was and audiologist she said don’t use categories.  She also said you will have to teach him what I’m gonna call the “threes” a dog in person, a dog in a photo, and drawing of the dog.  She also checked his hearing which was fine.  We had just figured out an allergy problem so she said he may just catch up if he was not hearing well with all the infections.  This was a very challenging time.  I had never taught my older two to talk, they just picked it up.

After about a week of no categories and lots of threes talk he used his first word “CUP!”  We found a college student who was wanting to go into speech therapy to work with him.  It was so great having her, he slowly got more and more words and started using them to express his needs.  If he was in a good mood he would sometimes imitate.  Cup meant he needed a drink and bar meant he was hungry, granola bars were his favorite.

The biggest change came when we figured out the other allergy.  I should have known earlier but the doctors kept telling me no he was not allergic to milk.  He had been really sick for about a week.  All he would eat were his bars .  We had taken milk away but it would get better for a while then he would get worse again.  It for some reason just clicked and I checked the bars ingredients, the only thing he had really eaten, they contained whey.  What is whey?  A protein that is contained in the liquid portion of milk a byproduct of making cheese that is waste…except…they put it in LOTS of other things in really high concentrations!  It has been six weeks since we eliminated ALL milk except cheese.  He is a talking machine!!  He is a completely different kid.  This morning for the first time he told me he was hungry!!

We had the amazing experience of attending the Autism and Asperger’s Conference in Salt Lake City, UT this summer.  We learned so much and confirmed so many things we had done with our boys to see huge improvements.  There is so much to share.  Little things can make a big difference but you are not likely to hear about them at the doctors.  I already had the joy of sharing this story with one friend that has seen positive changes in her little guy.  What a blessing!