Health news blog » Allergies

MEAL PLANNING FOR ALLERGIC CHILDREN

admin — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 08:12:14 +0000

These are suggested menus for the three daily meals.

Breakfast: A canned fruit juice, a vegetable, a soya beverage, potato bread, banana rye bread, Ry-Krisp, rice pancakes, or waffles.

Lunch: Rooster, capon, or canned fish (but never fresh fish or shellfish), vegetables, and a beverage or a fruit (apple, plum, apricot).

Dinner: Lamb (including the liver, kidney, or glands of the animal), potatoes or green vegetables. Ry-Krisp or any of the other non-allergenic breads.

The following foods may be substituted to provide variety in the diet:

Beverages: Tea, mineral or carbonated water, or any fresh, frozen, or canned fruit juice.

Breads: Potato rye bread, banana rye bread, and Ry-Krisp.

Fats and salad dressings: Olive oil, lamb drippings, and Mazola oil (although Mazola is corn oil, it is usually permitted).

Fruits: Any frozen, dried, or canned fruit provided the label says that nothing has been added to it besides sugar.

Meats: Beef. Commercially prepared meats, such as frankfurters, hamburgers, meat loaf, sausages, and meat patties should be avoided because they may contain milk or wheat. The school-age child should carry his own sandwich, which should be prepared at home.

Sauces: Catsup and any homemade sauce which does not contain any milk, egg, or wheat.

Soups: Vegetable soups prepared without egg, milk or bread and thickened with rice, barley, or Ry-Krisp crumbs.

Sugars and sweets: Jam, marmalade, jelly, honey, and hard candies can be used, provided they do not contain milk, wheat, or egg.

Vegetables: Any fresh, frozen, dried, canned, or raw vegetable which is cooked with salt, water, and olive oil (or Mazola).

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MENTAL SYMPTOMS OF FOOD ALLERGY OR INTOLERANCE: SCHIZOPHRENIA

admin — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 11:52:25 +0000

One mental disorder, schizophrenia, deserves special mention here because it has been strongly linked with food sensitivity by some doctors. The idea originated with the observation that it was more common among those with coeliac disease than among the population at large. Coeliac disease is an extreme sensitivity to wheat that causes damage to the structure of the small intestine (see pl36). Because of the damage to the gut wall, there is often a greater absorption of intact food molecules, which creates the potential for further food sensitivities.

The earliest studies designed to test this idea gave promising results. A gluten-free, milk-free diet produced fewer symptoms in some schizophrenics, while feeding extra gluten made the symptoms worse. Later studies failed to find any response, for the most part, although one found that two out of 16 schizophrenics responded. It may be that gluten is important, but only in a fairly small proportion of schizophrenia cases.

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CONTRACEPTIVE CARE OF THE OLDER PATIENT – CHANGING RELATIONSHIPS (GETTING OLDER)

admin — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 10:20:49 +0000

It is not just the relationship between the couple that is changing, but that with other members of the family as well. Parents are getting older and may need more support leading to great pressure on the middle generation. The ‘what about me?’ syndrome has been described (Lincoln, 1992), where the woman feels that everyone is making demands on her and she has no time or cherishment for herself. It is worth remembering that grief following the death of a parent can affect sexuality and thus contraceptive use. For some people, sexual closeness can be a comfort when they are mourning, but for others it is just too painful to open out to the depth of feeling that sexual abandonment implies.

As children grow up they develop sexual lives of their own and their parents may find that their own sexual lives are affected. Just as some women cannot enjoy themselves sexually if they know their mother is sexually unhappy, so some mothers are inhibited from continuing to be sexual if their children are unhappy or if their sexual lives are in trouble.

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