Garlic

[heatherp]

Hi all!  I hope everyone is doing well!  I have a question pertaining to garlic.  We were told it is a no, and haven't ever cooked with it for Wyatt, but SO many products (sauces, seasonings, pepperoni, etc) have garlic powder in them that would otherwise be safe without, and I noticed some of you seem to safely use those products. Any advice on this?  Do you use products with garlic powder and just watch for reactions, as long as the garlic powder isn't a main ingredient (that infamous "2% or less" category)?  

Thanks again for all your help!

[Tammy]

Regina does fine on the small amounts of garlic. When it's in the 2% or less They usually use such a small amount that you really don't know its even in there. I work in a factory where we can food (Chef Boy-ar-dee, Healthy Choice) and we cook 300 to 1500 gallons of sauce at one time and put in a handful of garlic powder. Think putting a tablespoon full in your bathtub. Or a cup into a hottub.

For more larger amounts, Regina still does ok, but Colormist can be more accurate than I can.

[heatherp]

Thanks, Tammy. I think we will add a few of the two percent or less products to our trials.

[colormist]

I use garlic quite a bit, but never when I'm feeling ill. I add it to many of my stews and pastas. At most I add a tablespoon of fresh garlic to a huge pot. I also don't try to eat the garlic. I also never really pay attention to garlic powder listed on labels. However, I do pay attention to listings of onions and carrots. And just to contradict myself further, I do use onion powder/salt occasionally in recipes.

Again, I'm a full-grown adult, so my tolerance might be a bit different than that of a child. You can always do a trial run (with a very small amount) to see how he does on a good day.

I'm really hoping he does well with it, because that opens up a whole new variety of food to his diet.

[charlie]

Heatherp, all I would add is just make sure you have built up a really sound base of absolutely safe things first. Then try a little, lets face it it would be very small amounts for a child.

Also make sure that they are healthy in every other way too before testing it, so you don't get confused with symptoms. I have never got round to testing Meg with garlic because she doesn't like any strong tastes anyway and there have always been other things to build up with her first, but then she has several conditions going on. We use alot of mixed herbs and a lemon and thyme salt grinder, that satisfies her taste buds beautifully and satisfies my mum obsession that food must be tasty......

[denverjay]

I use large amounts of Garlic all the time and have no ill reaction to it other than bad breath.

[heatherp]

This is very interesting. It is hard to pick small reactions with Wyatt. A large reaction would be no problem, but, thankfully we haven't had one of those since prior to his diagnosis because we are really very very careful. Of course, we don't want a large reaction, either! I mostly want garlic for things like pesto and for the foods that use garlic powder in the 2% or less category, so I think that the 2% or less category would be our first trial. We always wait a week between new foods....that is how we were told by his metabolic dietitian to build his diet. One thing I know Wyatt reacts to that some of you seem to be able to tolerate is lemon. Lemon is no good for us...even small amounts he has issues with. This makes me really hesitant to try garlic.....but, on the other hand, I won't know until i try. Over the summer I am home all day, so that would be our first new food trial, as right now we don't "need" any new foods since he really has a great diet going. I will let you all know how it goes!

[colormist]

Heather,
I thought I was okay with lemon. I used to make sure there was a lemon wedge in my water and my tea. Thinking it was okay, I bought a bottle of lemon juice and would add it to my water at home. One day I added too much. I learned two things that day: it does have quite a bit fructose in it and lemon juice vomit is just about the best tasting vomit ever (which isn't saying much--all things considered). That was a violent day and required lots of cleaning afterward.

Since Wyatt is so small, maybe when he's closer to a teenager he'll be able to tolerate a lemon wedge in his water. That's definitely all I'll be sticking to in the future. Garlic might be another thing that needs to wait until he's closer to adult size.