Corn allergy?

[imabrat]

Does anyone here have a corn allergy? Does someone you care for have a corn allergy?

I have to create a menu for a 6 year old child with a corn allergy for my Child Development class. The menu is Mon. through Sunday and is breakfast, lunch, dinner, and a snack.
I'm googling corn free foods now, but I'm not having much luck.

If you could give me an idea of the foods you/someone you know eats, I would greatly appreciate it. Any and all help is appreciated.
TIA.

 

[Talking Hands]

DEpending on the degree of allergy it is very hard to be on a Corn free diet. Corn is a secret ingredient in so many things. It is listed in so many different ways. Good luck with this assignment. The kid probably would be vegetarian and have everything prepared from scratch.

 

[mommy*RN]

Try googling corn allergy and you will have more luck.

http://www.cornallergens.com/food/corn-free-recipes.php

 

[bumbershoot]

Corn is very difficult, and the levels to which people are allergic varies a great deal.

DS can have actual corn, and even cornstarch, but process it any further and it becomes poison to him. So no corn syrup, no corn syrup solids (bye bye Dole Whip), and no high fructose corn syrup (not a loss).

Those ingredients are in the most surprising places. You have to read EVERY label, EVERY time (they change ingredients more often than you'd think). I recently found out that even with the same "thing" you can have different manufacturers and they have different ingredients (specifically Girl Scout Thin Mints...one baker uses cruddy ingredients including HFCS, the other baker does not).

Instead of figuring it out from scratch, I would strongly highly 100%'ly urge you to have a long and detailed conversation with the child's parents. Unless this is a new diagnosis they will know what he can and cannot have. If it's new and they haven't figured out how sensitive he is it's best to be as careful as possible.

With my guy, the corn products cause scary behavioral problems, so we know almost immediately if something he has eaten has a forbidden ingredient and we all just work through it and get through it. In a childcare situation though he would probably be kicked out after a corn syrup reaction. And if this child's allergy is life-threatening then obviously it's even more important (understatement of the universe). Talk with the parents. It's vital.

 

[mommy*RN]

I'm thinking this is for a homework assignment and not an actual child??

 

[bumbershoot]

I'm thinking this is for a homework assignment and not an actual child??

Ohhhh. When I took Child Development we had actual kids that we fed actual food, so I jumped to that.


If it's just a hypothetical, actually, my advice is the same, sort of. The project is useless unless full knowledge of the allergy is given. In that situation in a classroom, they would HAVE TO talk with the parents.

IF you can't talk to the teacher about that, then just go with foods that are actual foods, not processed junk. If you want something snacky go with organic and read the ingredients (there is such a thing as organic corn syrup and organic corn syrup solids). Fruits and veggies avoiding corn of course. If the child is a meat-eater, simple meats...probably want to avoid anything with flavoring in it b/c you never know what those flavors are derived from.

But I would definitely start the project off with the statement that you would always have a detailed convo with the parents, b/c corn issues are varied between people.

 

[mommy*RN]

Ohhhh. When I took Child Development we had actual kids that we fed actual food, so I jumped to that.

You could be right...I was asking the OP. Should have been more clear. Sorry!

 

[imabrat]

No, it's a homework assignment. I'm only a sophomore in HS so we're not working with kids yet.

Thank you for all the help! The recipes were very helpful in planning a menu.

 

[Soarin08]

My best friend has a corn allergy. She can't drink any soda unless it's diet, nothing with any trace of corn in it whatsoever (her dessert choices and such are pretty limited because alot of them contain corn syrup). If she eats anything corn-related, her throat closes up and she breaks out in hives.

Not sure of a list of foods I can help with though.