Snacks

[Stefanie (Ziba)]

I see many HFI adults on here are doing well with eating cheez-its and pirate's booty, but I am a bit confused becasue I thought Paprika (found in Cheez- its) and Black Pepper (Found in Pirate's Booty) are not HFI safe. I probably err on the side of caution more than most and don't let Remy eat anything questionable, but as he gets older and gets bored with his ten staple foods, I would love to know if these other snacks are indeed OK for him. 

He seems to do OK with small amounts of pretzels (as long as they have no malt). I also try to avoid products with citric acid (since this can have fructose and he used to have acidic poops when he was consuming citric acid in his medication).

[rachael]

Do you have a resource that says black pepper is a problem? I thought black pepper and salt were the only for sure safe spices.

My son (3) eats pirate booty, cheese its, plain rice cakes, plain potato chips, Snyders pretzel sticks and snaps, the laughing cow bread sticks with Swiss cheese (in the refrigerator, they are like handi snacks), and popcorn. But he seems to have high tolerance. His labs indicate that his diet is fine (even though other things are off). He does okay with malted barley flour and canola oil (but we avoid these when possible).

[ukbill]

The amount of black pepper you would have to eat to get a reaction would give you serious problems from the spicy hot oils that make pepper well pepper.

The same with Paprika , chili, and just about all the spices and herb seeds, although I would recommend leaving "sweet paprika" on the shelf.

[antonia]

Palmera does fine with a Pirates Booty. She doesn’t eat wheat so I can’t speak to the wheat containing snacks. But she generally does well with grains or cereals that are sufficiently refined and are not enriched or made with enriched flours. I think the enrichment may be mixed with unsafe carrier ingredients because she consistently rejects enriched foods. Corn cheese puff snacks seem fine. Generally speaking, if I don’t see any black or brown specks in the product I assume it’s refined enough. She loves Barbaras Cheese Puffs, Baked Original flavor. She also does fine with Good Thins Crackers, Rice Simply Salt flavor and Corn Sea Salt flavor.

She’s never done well with potatoes. I thought she was okay with Lays Classic Potato Chips. She ate them occasionally for a couple months, but she recently informed me she didn’t like them anymore and they made her shudder. Sometimes she does that, she’ll start out liking something and then change her mind after eating it for a while. In this way I look for her to tell what’s safe and what’s not. I always tell her Mommy can’t tell, only she can, so if something doesn’t make her feel well she needs to speak up.

[Stefanie (Ziba)]

Thank you all for replying. This is the difficulty with being negative for known HFI, yet knowing that cannot tolerate fructose. I don't know if he is just more sensitive or if it is because his type has not been discovered yet.

At age 3, he can't tell me much. I see him "trying" to like things that he thinks he should like. If he eats lay's potato chips, I also think he has a reaction. I will try some of the other snacks and see how he does with them.

[rachael]

My husband has been talking about Hunter syndrome lately, as the person who is trailing the Crisper gene therapy has that. It sounds similar to HFI but I don't know much. Have you looked into that?

[adamsmom]

Hunter syndrome and HFI are not similar in symptoms. The symptoms of Hunter syndrome include joint problems, frequent ear infections, colds, coughs, numbness and weakness in hands, breathing problems etc.

[Stefanie (Ziba)]

Paprika has turned out to be an issue. Maybe there is a threshold, but I let him try Annie's Organic Cheese Crackers. The only ingredient he had not had before was paprika. Restless sleep and paint-like poop that left his butt red followed. I am thinking that what may be tolerated by adult HFIers may be too much for our little ones. Remy does best with no herbs and spices...hopefully, that will change as he gets bigger.

[jenn123]

from our experience, foods/spices an adult HFI can handle is different than my child. This is logical and has repeatedly shown true. I am trying to keep things as simple and as homemade as possible.

[rysmom14]

I have found the same with spices. even parsley. I used to put it in alt of meats. sometimes I think it was more for me than him, because it makes to food look more appealing, but he would say he didn't like it after a couple days he ate the meat balls, chicken and hamburgers. now I just go with salt and pepper and we haven't run into any problems.

I will say that I am going to be looking over all of the pre packaged stuff again and looking for anything that would be a culprit. maybe its even the paprika!I may even do a trial and error with them. but for the most part, I am trying to do everything as homemade as possible.