Emily’s food sensitivities 

My girl doesn’t like me talking about her digestive system…

All I can tell you is that Emily has had a tummy ache probably from the moment she had her first drink as a newborn. 

Over the years we’ve changed her milk, changed her diet, added bran and prunes, removed dairy, added it back when it didn’t help, removed bananas and added them back…  we tried many things but never figured out how to help her tummy. 

As a mom, even though my girl is 18, I still want to help her so this past summer, I took her to a naturopath and decided to have blood work done to look for food sensitivities. 

I know it’s a controversial subject. Many don’t believe in the results from the test but I felt like this could give us a new path to explore. 

As my lovely husband pointed out that the veracity of that particular blood analysis isn’t proven, I reminded him that Emily’s diagnosis comes with a proven list of “will never”.  

Never walk, never talk, never understand or even recognize us…

It’s proven!  But we all know that it’s not true!  Emily does all those things and more so with that in mind, we went to get her results this past September. 

My fabulously amazing daughter flagged for 35 food sensitivities. 

35

That’s a big number!

Our naturopath wasn’t sure how we would react to all of this but we had decided to take clear steps towards eliminating the food that Emily can’t process properly in order to help her. 

Jonathan and I were ready to follow the same rule as Emily. 

In no specific order:

  1. Cow milk 
  2. Goat milk
  3. Sheep milk
  4. Egg yolk
  5. Egg white
  6. Casein
  7. Mushroom
  8. Potato
  9. Rice
  10. Corn
  11. Pea
  12. Bean (red kidney)
  13. Bean (white haricot)
  14. Soy bean
  15. Lentil
  16. Cabbage (savoy/white)
  17. Baker’s yeast
  18. Brewer’s yeast
  19. Blackberry 
  20. Raspberry
  21. Hazelnut
  22. Cashew
  23. Almond
  24. Peanut
  25. Brazil nut
  26. Pistachio
  27. Sunflower seeds
  28. Barley
  29. Oat
  30. Wheat bran
  31. Durum wheat
  32. Rye
  33. Gliadin
  34. Wheat
  35. Mustard seed

Before removing gluten, we had Emily tested for Celiac and I’m happy to say she’s not allergic to gluten, just sensitive. 

After the celiac test was done, it took us a day to remove everything in the kitchen that contained some of these items and we are slowly finding new ways to eat although some food we haven’t quite figure out how to replace or substitute.

Don’t worry, we still have lots of good things we can eat, here are some examples!


We’ve had something that kinda felt like pasta once…. 😳

I haven’t found a good cookie recipe yet 😢

And pizza without cheese is not really worth it 😳

On the positive side, Emily’s tummy felt better within a week of cleaning our eating habits!  We are not ready to start reintroducing items yet but we are looking at lowering her medication. 

I call that a win!

Emily’s Hopes & Dreams – Art Gallery

Emily will be adding new vases soon and she’s working on coffee cups. Come visit and follow her Facebook page to see what Emily is up to and follow Lesson from my daughter on Facebook for more timely updates.

Between her art, managing her newly found food sensitivities and planning her transition out of school in June, life is extremely busy but we are doing fine!

Pascale LeBrasseur's avatarLessons from my daughter

Emily is ready to show some of her art to the world!


So in order to help, I’ve looked at opening an Etsy shop for her which looked like a great idea but sounded like a lot of learning for me.

A friend suggested to create a Facebook page only and see how the world would react.


Well, this was 48 hours or so ago.

Saturday night we opened Emily’s Art Gallery – Emily’s Hopes and Dreams.

This morning, I am exhausted but Emily is beyond proud and excited.


Since going live…

We’ve posted 18 hand painted vases and some of her paintings


We’ve sold/received orders for close to 30 vases and Emily has been commissioned 2 painting.


Some of the orders are local some will ship Internationally. I foresee a lot of driving to the UPS store in my future.

We’ve delivered her first order.


Emily painted and signed…

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