Any Vegetables?

[Chelsea]

Gillianne has been doing so well lately I have tried challenging a few items, mainly vegetables. She seems to be tolerating some vegetables better than some of the whole grains things we have tried in the past, like oatmeal.

A new favorite from her is cucumbers, she loves them in a little garlic vinegar. She also loves spinach, lettuce and celery. I offer asparagus but she really doesn't touch it, which is funny because it used to be a favorite food for her before her restrictions. Broccoli doesn't do well with her even though she loves it.

I know many cannot tolerate many vegetables but she is doing well with them and I am wondering what other suggestions any of you may have.

[Tammy]

That's pretty much the vege list for Regina, too. Except she also likes brussel sprouts. She can also have green peppers, but since I don't like them, I rarely have them. I make her potatoes the same way as Fred does if I have the grill on. Some in my family also slice some green peppers and put in the foil with the potato.

[Chelsea]

I have to remember to start cooking some mushrooms. I love them but all the boys in my family won't touch them. I used to cook them for me and her but had forgotten.

I have tried green beans and from what she eats she tolerates them but I don't know if the amount is enough to test. Green beans and toddlers- thats more of the issue on that one.

I have to say though, I feel better putting vegetables on her plate. It's still a mental thing for me. Of course, I wouldn't feel good if it were making her sick.

As for the potatoes, we that her too except were cover them in cheese and bacon bits, mmmm so goood!

[lisa]

One thing that was shown as allowable on Karen's diet list was snow peas. I got some today and will let you know how it goes. We haven't had too much luck with veggies, but mostly it's because he won't try them.

[kristen]

Before restriction Coley would eat any veggie...brussel sprouts were his favorite, but green beans were a close second. He ate spinach, broccoli, squashes - zucchini etc, carrots, peas, onions, occationally corn, asparagas, etc.

Now he won't touch anything except broccoli and pickles, although I was successful in getting him to eat some spinach last week chopped up into plain rice. He's funny, I can't even get him to try a plain cucumber! I'm sure he'd eat his legumes though...those he eats like candy!

My next 'experiment' is going to be making a mushroom sauce, that normally would have sliced mushrooms, but I'm going to puree them to see if it's the taste or texture...I'll let you know.

I also want to try making gabage rolls, he's eaten these before.

KJ

[andrea]

Is tomatoes allowed?? Do you offerer onions??
Davi´s nutritionist allowed it on his diet. I would like to confirm if it is allowed in your diet.

[Tammy]

On my old, yellowed, falling apart original lists,
tomatoes are NOT allowed. Neither are onions. Although I do allow things if they list onion powder down at the bottom of an ingredient list. As I work in a food processing plant, I understand that a lot of things like onion powder is comparable to throwing a bucket full into a swimming pool and then stirring it. You may or may not get a grain in your little package. We've never had a problem.

[kristen]

Just wanted to second Tammy...everything I have consistently says that fruit, onions, corn, tomatoes and carrots are ALWAYS avoids!

I do use onion powder and garlic powder sometimes in my own cooking - depends on how crucial the taste is to the recipe - but I have learned that if you sprinkle just the smallest amount into heated oil that it spreads the taste quite effectively!

We have quite a few diet lists - they are conflicting in many ways, basically the only thing that they agree on is that dairy, meat, fish, skinless white potatoes and refined grains are safe in unlimited amounts.

Many of them say that cucumbers, celery, dark green leafy veggies, and mushrooms are safe in limited amounts.

And then it gets really confusing from there...generally (as you know) we find that it's often different depending on the person, but the occational serving of broccoli, brussel sprout, oatmeal or shredded wheat seems to be tolerated by most as well.

If you (or anyone else) wants to e-mail me, I'll be happy to forward to you some of the diet lists we've gotten from our dieticians. Also, there is Dr. Tolans website which posts 2 versions.

Hope that helps!
KJ

[Chelsea]

I do use limited onions, like if I am buying a pre-packaged food that is otherwise safe but has onions. I do not do tomatoes.

[lisa]

Snow peas are a hit. Nate likes to open up the pods and eat the insides rather than eat the whole thing, but I'll take what I can get. He calls them candy. The volume he takes in is very small, so I'm not sure if that has anything to do with it, but adding some variety is nice.

I think Fred was saying he eats radishes. Has anyone else tried them? I thought they were a no item, but maybe they are not??

[kristen]

I was wondering the same thing about the radishes to Lisa.

I want to test another item, but he's doing so well I'm afraid to rock the boat. I'm actually feeling safer trying a fruit (crazy huh!)...what berries did Nate tolerate the best? Frozen right?

I might try rhubarb too?

[Tammy]

Radishes have always been an okay item on my lists. It's just not something that I keep around here as none of us care for them. I think her brother gave Regina one off a salad bar one time, and she wasn't crazy about it, but we didn't have any problems with it.

[kristen]

Hmmmmmm....now that makes me wonder about water chestnuts too...aren't they just about the same thing?

Maybe I'll test radishes & water chestnuts next.

I think I'm going to start having pickling cucs around all the time too...maybe seeing us eat them will spike his interest!

KJ

[lisa]

First we tried strawberries. I gave him no more than 2 a day at first. Fresh go over better than frozen, but frozen are good for yogurt shakes.
He usually eats blueberries frozen rather than fresh. Primarily because the fresh ones are so expensive and seem to go bad fast.
We also tried blackberries and raspberries, but he did not tolerate them well.
Good luck! Hope it goes well.

[CK]

I tried a little bit of waterchestnuts and didn't feel well for a couple of days after eating them. It was the only new thing I tried that week so I am pretty sure it had to be the culprit.

[kristen]

Bummer!

Alright, I'll test radishes & pickling cucs...!

Thanks,
KJ

[alice]

I read on a site, maybe Dr. Tolan's, that one of his patient's tolerated? lima beans. I would be leary of lima beans, aren't they a legume, and aren't legumes a no-no?
My daughter would LOVE them, has anyone tried them?? or would anyone try them??

[Tammy]

All my lists always told me "no" to lima beans. So therefore we have never tried them.
As to the "would" part of your question (would we try them), the answer is no.
We live by the rule "If you don't know or there is any question at all, then the answer is no."
It's the best, safest way to be sure. "Experimenting" is not something we do at all. It's my daughter's health and I don't challenge that at all.
Knowing her likes and dislikes, I'm sure she would probably like them very much, but I still never take that chance.

[alice]

I thought the lima beans were probably a no-no, just hoped, and that's why I asked!
I don't experiment and that's the reason I asked. Because my daughter is improving so much physically on this diet, I am not even interested in trying okay foods that she seemed to react to in the past but ones that she hasn't tried in a while. As she's improving we are very slowly reviewing the lists to try okay foods again.
My daughter does do well with cucumbers. Probably her best veggie. I hadn't thought of pickles. She doesn't tolerate many veggies, I need to relook at the list again to give a small variety.

Because she is older she is able to clearly explain the physical changes she has experienced with the diet change. Her body was so "polluted" as all kids that have any type of food intolerance are...when she went fructose free, her body made such a turn around, one of the things that she expressed was that her head "fog" is almost cleared! She still is having a lot of short term memory problems, but she's much less foggy. The head fog clearning has helped some of her frustration related to her physical symptoms, as well as helping her joint pain, abd. pain, nausea... and I also think she is actually having less memory problems as time goes on as she's gaining weight and improving physically. We're seeing small steady progress. At least more good days than bad days. We are very thankful for that!

[Tammy]

Baby steps, baby steps. But isn't it nice when they add up!
I'm glad she's doing so good on it, and it's actually nice that she's old enough to understand. It'll also help in the "cheating" area when she's with friends. Since she knows the difference, she won't be so tempted as the smaller kids are.

The vege list for everyone seems to be different, but Regina's list is:
potatoes, broccoli, asparagus, spinach, green peppers, cabbage, mushrooms, brussel sprouts, lettuce, radishes, cucumbers, string and wax beans, cauliflower, celery, rhubarb, and parsley. I would put parsley in the Herb catagory, but it's listed on my vege list. Call it what you want. You can adjust it as you need, but this is her list. But also take note. She can only eat most of them on a limited basis. Like once or twice a week. The exception is potatoes. She eats some form of them every day. And Cucumbers are almost every day as dill pickles.

This may give you a place to think about starting.