Most of you reading this blog right now probably eat corn, or at least eat something that contains corn or is derived from corn on a daily basis. It’s hard not to. Our 3 year old son is allergic to many foods and one of the foods he is allergic to the most is, unfortunately, corn.

Corn is in almost everything. According to some research that I have come across, it is almost impossible for a food manufacturer to claim that it is 100% corn free. Isn’t that scary?

Corn also has many many different names on labels such as dextrose, fructose, gluten, HFCS, etc. Just go pick up a product out of your pantry and read the ingredients list. Chances are that it will contain corn in some form. There are also man things derived from corn such as citric acid and sodium citrate. To get a better idea just follow this link to see all the things with corn (Unfortunately that list is not exhaustive).

We found out that our son was allergic to corn almost a year ago. He’s been avoiding everything he is allergic to as well as corn since that time. With the help of steroids most of his symptoms cleared up or so we thought. What was really happening was that the steroids were just masking his symptoms. During the time that our son was taking steroids we faltered some and allowed him to have some foods that contained corn syrup such as snacks and cereals simply because the steroids kept him from puking. However, yesterday at our son’s regular allergist appointment we collectively decided to take him off of steroids because it is not meant for long term use to control EE. This decision meant that we had to go “mostly” organic and completely remove all traces of corn out of our house. In addition to our son’s corn allergy, he is also allergic to many other foods that in my opinion are much easier to remove from one’s diet.

Going down this road is not going to be easy but it’s best for our son’s overall health.

Did I mention that we (hubs and I) are going organic and corn-free too? This means no more popcorn, no more tacos, no more fast food, no more frozen dinners, no more cereal, no more cookies, candies, and all those yummy bad-f0r-you things that I love!