Is it safe to wheat?

I CAN SCARCELY believe it but we are on Day Nine of a taste challenge for wheat and a helping of two entire Weetabix for breakfast has heralded not even the whisper of a reaction.

Could he have outgrown his wheat allergy?

To be fair, Sidney’s allergist has long been of the opinion that he would lose this one sooner or later – I think he cited an 80 per cent probability – and he was surprised when our last oral challenge a year and a half ago saw Sid react to a tablespoon of Weetabix.

If I’m totally honest I’m a bit discombobulated. I’m not sure I quite know what to do next. We’re so well-versed in the art of avoiding wheat that it all feels a bit, well, odd. We’re almost institutionalised into the world of wheat free – I’m an expert at knowing which brands of pasta, bread and biscuits to look for. If I can go shopping for actual proper wheat versions I think I might flounder at the choice.

Of course we’re delighted, don’t get me wrong. It’s opening up a whole new realm of shopping and cooking and eating. I keep thinking of the things that, finally, Sidney can have: cous cous, for instance. Bulgar wheat. Actual proper pizza. Home-made bread (try as I might I’ve never mastered the art of gluten free bread baking). Surely making cakes will be easier, now? Ditto pastry. I think we can probably buy filo. We can all sit down together for a plate of pasta – just what I hankered for all those months ago when we first learned of his allergies.

On the other hand, I now almost feel like a fraud, as if losing the wheat allergy disqualifies us from proper allergic status. I wholeheartedly recommend starting off with as many infant allergies as possible – it means if you shed one or two along the way it feels like you’re barely having to deal with anything at all.

Of course, this is nonsense. We still boast severe, potentially anaphylactic, allergies to egg, nuts and sesame, and chickpeas, lentils and peas remain firmly on the list. Even if wheat is now possible we can’t risk buying fresh bread from our local bakery or eating it when out, because of the risk of cross contamination with eggs, seeds or nuts. And if we should ever pluck up the courage to order pizza or pasta from a restaurant we would have to preface any visit with a battery of questions about cross contamination, cleaning procedures, ingredients and more.

The thing is, wheat was probably one of the easiest of all the allergies to deal with. Not only has Sidney thankfully never been allergic to wheat by touch, only ingestion, but gluten free is such big business these days that it’s been the least of our concerns.

Then there’s the fact that many of the companies that make gluten free foods (Dove’s Farm for flour and biscuits, Nairn’s for porridge, Orgran for pastas, Dietary Specials for breads, Venice Bakery for pizzas) are all mega clued up when it comes to egg, nut and sesame allergy so the products are safe all round. Will ‘normal’ wheat products have such stringent processes in place?

Seriously, allergies can make you quite, quite nuts.

Same old, same old pt II

JUST a quick follow-up to last night’s post on Sainsbury’s ditching the Dietary Specials Mozzarella and Tomato pizzas for their own rubbish version.

I’ve spoken with the exceedingly helpful folks at DS today who confirm that, yes, Sainsbury’s was their only major stockist and that they may now have to discontinue the line completely if no other big supermarket steps in. Deja vu – exactly what happened with Kinnerton milk chocolate. So do give Sainsbury’s a call on 0800 636 262, option ’5′, and ask them to reconsider.

Sidney’s pizza debut

A BIG, BIG day today – Sidney’s first ever pizza. It’s big because Sidney is one quarter Italian and his mother couldn’t bear to imagine a world without pizza. The horror.

Sadly, his debut was not a taste of the pizza a taglio I wolfed down on the street as a child in Rome, or the huge, crisp, paper thin versions, bubbling with sweet tomato and mozzarella, served up in a proper pizzeria. In an ideal world it wouldn’t have been a cook-from-frozen special. But beggars can’t etcetera and thank god, in that case, for Dietary Specials.

Bread!

A momentous day: Sidney’s first ever taste of bread. Granted, it’s fake bread (Dietary Specials’ gluten free brown loaf) and if I’m honest it’s not a little like cardboard. But if it looks like bread, acts like bread and, as far as Sid’s concerned, tastes like bread, then I’m happy to say that’s what it is.

We passed the soya home challenge a week or two ago but it’s taken me this long to get over the niggling doubts: what if we hadn’t done it properly, what if we missed something, what if tofu wasn’t soya after all… Ridiculous, but it’s the first time he’s actually passed a food trial so I was a bit discombobulated by the success.

Now there are quite a few more options open to us: not only the egg-free, wheat-free recipes that demand soya milk (like pizza bases and wraps) but where we’re precluded from buying most of the branded wheat-free breads, because they contain egg, the Dietary Specials range has soya instead.

I am beyond excited. Do you know what this means? It means sandwiches! It means toast! It means cheese on toast! It means something miraculously quick and easy to take out and about for lunch and snacks. It means if we get home late and Sidney’s starving and I haven’t defrosted or steamed one of his homecooked concoctions I can just whip out the bread (“bread”) and slap on the butter, or the cream cheese, or the tomato, or the avocado, and – instant food!

I take my thrills where I can…