The Challenges of Eating Out

One more day now until our hospital appointment. My son had another attack of D, a few days ago. It was related to the banana bread I made for him (recipe was from the IBS cookbook). It had reduced fat in it and he was tolerating it well until he decided to eat it late at night and first thing in the morning. Anyway, it was a setback but he is doing OK now.

This condition, whatever it is, has been a really difficult challenge to be sure. We haven't been able to eat out very much because I have found that most restaurants do not have anything on the menu that he can have. I guess I need to find out if people just don't go out or if there are special tips to use when they do eat out. I took my son to Quiznos and ordered him the oven roasted sub on white bread with nothing else and he brought his soy cheese from home and put that on it. No problem afterwards so I was relieved.

One of my friends told me in passing that there was a gluten-free dairy-free bakery in her town and I was quite ecstatic to hear that. I went and checked it out and sure enough the bakery had fresh baked breads and cookies and muffins. The prices were very steep (but definitely worth it), $9.00 for a loaf of bread and $15.00 for a half dozen cookies and muffins. The baker told me the challenges of offering gluten-free and dairy-free items. It has taken her years to perfect her recipes just because gluten free breads do not behave like regular breads. She said that every batch even from the same flour will not come out the same way. But she is at the point now where she can just look at it and tell how much water it needs or whatever. Her deli restaurant offers food for the gluten dairy intolerant and for those that don't suffer from these restrictions. She said she really can't make money doing this but her rewards are helping those people who can't eat anything. She even makes custom baked goods for people with certain allergies. I told her she was doing a great thing and I really was grateful to have found her.

I went to Fred Meyer and found a decent selection of health foods including soy pudding and soy
yogurt without dairy and gluten in it. Also rice milk and rice ice cream. I bought it all.

I decided to try the gluten- free diet to see if that would help. So far my son has been feeling better in the mornings so maybe it is making a little bit of a difference. Guess time will tell.