The Back Story: Without going into any graphic detail my 12 year old son is most likely suffering from IBS. His stomach hurts 24/7. If he can distract himself enough with video games or homework or friends he can deal with it. But there have been days, weeks even, that all he can do is lay on the couch, curled up in a ball with hot water bottle on his tummy. This has been going on intensely for about 4 months but when I look back he has complained about stomach aches forever. However this fall things took a turn for the worst and we have tried all sorts of things but finally we jumping on the FODMAP elimination diet to see if we can see the food triggers he has.
I am far from being an expert but in a nut shell the FODMAP elimination diet has you eliminate: wheat, gluten, milk (lactose) honey, agave, HFCS (high fructose corn syrup- fructose is the issue) several kinds of fruits and vegetables including garlic and onion (including garlic and onion powder) and long list of other things from your diet for 6 weeks. After the elimination phase you can start slowly reintroducing some of those foods you eliminated back into your diet and experiment with how much you can eat, and still feel ok. It's quite common for those suffering to have to give up many of these foods for good, or suffer feeling horrible all the time. For some real information about this go here FODMAP
Now, I consider myself to be a very good cook, I love being in the kitchen, I love tweaking recipes and feel very comfortable making up my own dishes. So when our Doctor first suggested we think seriously about trying out the FODMAP diet, I looked at the list of 'limit these foods' and thought, EASY I can do this! But when we got closer to starting, I realized I was in for a big learning curve, HUGE actually. This was going to test my talents to the max.
Not to boast but I'm the kind of person who can open the pantry and fridge and see what we have and make something delicious out of it in 60 minutes or less. Think "The Food Network's Chopped" for regular people. I decided I would start by writing down a list of breakfasts, lunch, dinner and snack ideas and make a menu plan for 3 weeks ( I hate eating the same thing over and over) and then we would repeat it. Easy Peasy. I will have this menu plan and a shopping list written out and ingredients bought by noon! Well... Breakfast was easy, lunch items a little more difficult and then I got to dinner.... suddenly everything I could think of had one or more of the "no foods". I knew it wouldn't work for the rest of the family to eat dinner every night and then to tell my son "Well we are having pulled pork for dinner but here is your gluten free chicken sandwich or bowl of oatmeal," I knew I had to find recipes we all could eat, and since my poor kid is in pain, we need to start ASAP. Many people find significant relief after only 1-2 weeks of this change in diet.
The internet and Pinterest are full of fabulous FODMAP recipies, things I would love ( I love everything!) but I searched for hours looking for something that a regular 12 year old semi-picky eater would eat! I mean my poor kiddo is already feeling horrible, now he has to eat a bunch of weird food? and what about lunch at school, do you really want your kid to be the 'that kid' who has to eat the strange food? And what about treats at church or scouts, or when he goes to a friends house- what then! No, I didn't want him to feel worse than he already did, so I realized I had to start from the ground up.
I mean the no onion or garlic (even in powder form) was enough to make me crazy. Let alone the no wheat, gluten or milk! Let's see garlic or onion powder is in EVERYTHING!! that means no ketchup, salsa, BBQ sauce, taco seasoning, chili powder, spaghetti sauce, cream of anything soups, salad dressing... the list goes on. So what are we going to eat!? I also have a VERY busy life and with some other issues we are facing (anxiety is another issue with IBS) I have absolutely no time to take a week to figure this all out. So once I had my own emotional breakdown I decided to put on my Big Girl Pants, roll up my sleeves and get to work!
That long story gets me to the purpose of this blog. I am going to record our journey, our ups and downs and everything in between. I hope to post the recipes and foods we find that work, and taste good and are kid friendly. I promise to get credit to anyone's recipes I use and offer this disclaimer.
I am very new to this, so if I make some FODMAP faux pas be kind.
Here is a basic list of what we need to eliminate!
Ready or Not here we go!
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