Son with Food Allergies - Need yeast free, dairy fee, wheat free!

 I don't think you can do sourdough for your son as the starter has yeast in it that is captured from the four and air.  This yeast is what causes the bread to rise.

Hmm, although the sourdough does have yeast in it, the yeast will be killed by the baking process, so I think it should still be okay. (although technically it does contradict what the specialist was saying, but he may have been meaning 'commercial yeast' when he said 'yeast')

I think the allegy specialist was probably thinking that sourdough is okay because the resulting dough/bread is more "fully fermented" than bread made with commercial yeast and thus there will be less available sugars in it for the candida infection to feed on.

Erin, I don't want to override the advice you were given, but I'll give you my own story. We got a comprehensive allergy test done for my daughter (6 now but was 4 at the time) and she turned out to be allergic to almost everything: wheat, dairy, eggs, beef, chicken, soy, even oats. However, our naturopathic doctor was pragmatic; he agreed it was impossible to eliminate all of that, and just suggested that we try our best (other than eggs which she is aniphilactic to). He also proscribed a high quality probiotic supplement*, which was expensive ($70) but it lasts 4-6 months. Since then she has improved leaps & bounds and I attribute most of that to the probiotic. (In fact we should probably get another test done, the only thing I'm still sure she's allergic to is eggs!)

One thing we did was to try to eliminate the allergenic foods for breakfasts at least. That way she was going 16 hours with only "good food", even longer if we could keep lunch free of allergens too. Usually on Sunday I would make a huge batch of rice-flour & flaxseed pancakes, and she'd eat leftover pancakes for breakfast until Wednesday or so.

I tried making wheat/gluten-free bread was it did not turn out very well. I think you're best bet if you're set on eliminating wheat is to use kamut or spelt or possibly rye. These all have gluten though, but it sounded like wheat was the only no-no, not gluten.

You could also try sourdough breads that still have some wheat, like a 60/40 wheat-spelt or wheat-rye bread. Personally I think anyone with a wheat sensitivity is better off eating sourdough bread, even 100% wheat one, as the longer fermentation makes the bread much more easily digested. You can think of the bacteria and yeast in your sourdough culture as "pre-digesting" the bread for you!

How did you create your starter anyway? ... is it currently a wheat based starter that you're thinking of switching over to a different grain?

Good luck,

Mike

* funny enough, I found out later on that many of the bacteria species in that probiotic supplement have also been found in sourdough. So, I actually tried "spiking" my sourdough starter with the probiotic supplement and it did seem to improve the starter's activity. That "spiked" starter is the one I still use today! You can read about my spiking experiment here.

I haven't read through the other comments so perhaps this has already been mentioned.

http://www.breakingtheviciouscycle.info/

This is where I would suggest you start. It is what my wife and I used to sort out the trouble with my "innerds". In my case it is partly a sensitivity to wheat but there were other foods that troubled me. It was a gradual thing for me and I became quite ill and I essentially needed to stop eating for a while. Obviously that wasn't possible but I needed to have an extremely limited diet so that we could eventually identify the things that were hurting me.

We bought the book referenced above and I went on a very strict diet. I almost immediately started to feel better, which made sticking with the diet much easier.

It took over a year for my body to heal, and then we started to re-introduce foods. I still need to be somewhat careful, but I can eat most anything again.

Because we are bakers, and concentrate on sourdoughs, being able to eat my own products is a good thing. I must say that I don't seem to be having any trouble with the sourdough breads.

Beyond the above recommendation I would suggest you investigate spelt breads.

good luck, Peter

Whilst this forum is not for medical discussions you need to know the following. Please note that I have provided Wikepedia web information as this is the easiest to go to. Scientific references are provided below the excerpts.

Firstly, Candida is a genus of yeasts (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Candida_%28genus%29)

Candidiasis or thrush is a fungal infection (mycosis) of any of the Candida species (all yeasts) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Candidiasis)

Some practitioners of alternative medicine have claimed that Candida overgrowth can cause various health problems, from fatigue to weight gain, but this is rejected by many doctors and there is little evidence to support the theory.[6][7]

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Candida_%28genus%29).

Yeasts are all around us. The soughdough starter that you have comprises natural yeasts. If your "food allergy Specialist" is referring to commercial bakers yeasts he/she should say so.

Any reference to child nutrition (maybe try your local GP) will tell you that feeding a child no diary or fruit is nutritionally depriving a growing child.

Making soughdough bread can be very enjoyable (by the way what's with the no wheat flour?). I suggest that you go to http://sourdo.com/index.htm where you can gain information from a person with scientific qualifications

Good luck

Colin

@overboots:  I agree that no fruit is kind of ridiculous, but a lot of people are sensitive to dairy, so reducing if not elminating that may be good to try for a while. Dairy is certainly not required for nutrition. (as long as the protein, calcium, and yes healthy fat is replaced by something else in the diet)  That said, with my daughter we took a pragmatic approach and eliminated milk, reduced cheese to a couple times a week. We did not even try to reduce butter, as it never seemed to bother her and honestly I feel it's more nutritious than any alternatives. Go butter!

Here is a good (and fairly scientific, especially from TFL user Andy) link describing what exactly are the health benefits of sourdough: http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/4203/healthy-sourdough

You are right Mike, actually I am slightly lactic intolerant myself (although that does not stop me eating good cheeses!)

My general frustration is that people are easily swayed towards "non science" in regard to nutrition. As an adult by all means go off on these crazy tangents but if you are responsible for a child at least put in the effort to understand the basic building blocks of nutrition, particularly for a healthy child's growth.

My partner has a long history as a child health nurse and recount many hair raising tales of mothers removing diary from their child's diet with no understanding of how and what was required to replace it nutritionally. The fact of the matter is that very, very few children are lactose intolerant and "diary" as well as "yeast" are the villains for what may be behavioral problems caused by poor parenting.

On that note!, thanks for the link regarding sourdough nutrition, it is very useful. As a matter of interest I recently underwent gastric band surgery as a tool to control my weight (too much good life). Bread, particularly white bread was a definite exclusion as it tends to block the tightened gap caused by the band, inducing vomiting. When I told the surgeon and nutritionalist that I can happily eat white sourdough bread without problems I got uncomprehending looks. I believe it is because of the structure of the bread and the need to chew, which is something lost on the generation of Macca and Subway fans.

Cheers

Colin

I don't think is anything wrong with using Wikipedia as long as you read the references. If you want a recipe that doesn't use wheat flour or commerical yeast, rye is the way to go.

560g rye starter
1.150kg rye flour
20g sea salt
30g molasses
650ml water

Makes 2.4kg of dough or approximately 3 loaves.

This recipe is from the book 'Bourke Street Bakery'.

It does sound kind of strange that you were told to avoid yeast, yet sourdough is allowed? Maybe clear up whether it is commerical yeast that is the culprit? Also, I would be very wary of somebody telling you to avoid fruit for 6 months (especially a child).

Seriously? Some people need to proo fread their posts before castigating a parent who is asking for a simple recipe. Following the advice of a health care professional is probably better than the advice on a forum....Dairy....not diary.....

 I know what you mean about what on earth can I eat that isn't on some list somewhere.  I have a number of wheat free recipes and I'll post the links to them for you.  Most of my bread is flour, water and salt so you don't have to worry about milk or sugar.

Barley Bread.

Rye Bread.

I have made a 100% spelt bread but have yet to post the recipe.  If you understand baker's percentages here is what I did to make Spelt Bread.

Spelt Flour 100%

Water 66%

Spelt Sourdough Preferment 66% hydration 25%

I'm going to make a Spelt Kamut loaf in this next week that would be good too.  The flour is milled and ready I just need some time.

There is also some threads on this board for gluten free sourdough.  You might take a look at them and see if they will be okay.

Dear DesperateMeasures,

First I apologise for not posting a recipe that I have worked up myself or even eaten myself. In a perfect world I’d have time to make some and test it on my allergicly (citrus and dairy with wheat intolerances) sensitive girlfriend. So I’m afraid that this post is verging on good intentions.

I have heard that Kefir leavened bread is particularly good for these problems. And that even wheat when processed with Kefir is ok for some wheat intolerant people.

You can find some recipes at:

http://maria.fremlin.de/recipes/kefir-recipes.html

The way we deal with the problem in our house is by using Spelt and sourdough. If Spelt works for your dietary needs it is the easiest option basically opening up a world of fairly standard baking to you. The only problem is cost which is what makes the Kefir ferment interesting to me.

A note on Spelt flour. I have found that the imported flour (Canadian and German) is good to have on hand as the Australian flours I have found are stoneground and just not as “white” and are harder to handle.

Regards,

Chow

P.S. I have been thinking of trying to work up a sourdough spelt bread maker recipe for my neices and nephews. Would this be of any interest to you?

Isn't spelt a member of the wheat family?

[quote=benh]

Isn't spelt a member of the wheat family?

[/quote]

Sure is but does not seem to be as much of a problem for many people. There are plenty of theories and facts about how it differs and how modern wheats were selectively bred to create hi yield types and that in the process it became harder to digest. Look around on this site and you can find the details I'm not sure on them myself. 

Hi DesperateMeasures,

Since my previous posts obviously weren't helping I thought I would let you know what Hamelman's Bread has to say about Spelt and Kamut, two alternatives to wheat flour.

Spelt

...It has attributes similar to regular wheat in bread baking, such as a high protein level and sufficient gluten to produce breads with reasonable volume. It is nutritionally similar if not superior to regular wheat. Another important benefit is that it can be tolerated by people with certain wheat allergies.

Kamut

A registered grain, originally from Egypt, kamut has been grown for approximately forty years in the United States. Its protein level is high and gluten quality low. It is also a grain that can be tolerated by certain people for whom common wheat is toxic.

Here is a link to a 100% spelt recipe, along with some comments from someone who tried it.

Happy baking,

Mike

[quote=DesperateMeasures]

Hi-

After a very eventful trip to an allergy specialist, I have been told my 3 year old son has a candida infection,[/quote]

 

Hi,

 

Could you ppppplease let me know who the allergist in question was? Finding a SPECIALIST who treats candida seems so difficult. It seems that only alternative Gps and natropaths treat the condition.