Our oldest son was diagnosed with asthma when he was just two and a half. That was four years ago and every doctor that we’ve gone to see about it has given us the same two medicines as treatment. One is a daily inhaler, flovent, to take during the times of the year when he has the hardest time with the asthma, which for him is winter and late summer. The second medicine is albuterol, which is an inhaled medicine to be taken as needed to ease his attacks. Both medicines help tremendously but I’ve always wondered if there was a better way to ease his breathing. Maybe there was a way to get rid of the asthma, rather than just live with it and treat it with these medications. This winter he needed to use his inhaler a great deal, which concerned me. That fact, combined with meeting our town’s naturopathic doctors (the wife is in my mother/baby group) gave me the push to make an appointment to see if they could offer some help.
The first visit was a long and thoughtful one. The office was very warm and inviting, unlike most doctor’s offices and Dr. Porrino really listened to what I was saying and asked good questions about my son’s symptoms and health history. He explained that asthma is like a cup. That your body is built with a ‘cup’ in it that fills up full of irritations and inflammation. Seasonal allergies fill the cup, daily stress, food allergies and sensitivities, colds, sicknesses, all go in the cup. And when your cup overflows you begin to have asthmatic symptoms. The difference between all of us is that some of us have been given large beer stein sized cups at birth and others, like our son, were given small shot glass sized cups. So the idea is to keep that cup as empty as possible.
Given that we already know what environmental allergies our son has (dust, cats, grasses) we focused on food sensitivities. Apparently sensitivities are different than food allergies. The doctor gathered five drops of my sons blood onto a special card and sent it to the lab for testing. When the results came back (and on this very nice, colorful chart, I might add) his charts looked pretty good, but it did show a high sensitivity to eggs. The recommendation was to cut eggs out of his diet for about four months to see if this makes a difference. Really bad news when you have six laying hens, I’ll tell you! That trial along with adding in a daily dose of a good probiotic and a teaspoon of Cod Liver Oil![""](http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=&l=as2&o=1&a=B0006GZC38&camp=217145&creative=399349")
As I went home I started to lament the idea of keeping eggs out of his diet – no ice cream, mayonnaise, and baked goods! As it works in a small community, as soon as I shared this news with one friend, she told me of a mutual acquaintance who’s son has an egg allergy. I contacted her and she told me that in baking you can substitute 1 T. vinegar + 1 T. liquid + 1 t. baking powder for each egg.
As soon as I learned this I pulled out our very favorite oatmeal, chocolate chip cookie recipe and gave it a go. Would you know, they came out perfectly delicious? The only change I noticed was that the cookie was slightly crisper than normal, which was just fine.
Hopefully all this sacrifice of irritants and the addition of good supplements will help our little guy out. Nothing is harder than watching your child struggle with taking breath. And hey, now we know we can at least eat cookies along this journey.
What a great tip. That makes vegan cookies for my neighbors much more possible! My niece is a naturopath, but she lives really far away, alas.
I hope you get good relief from this change.
Glad to hear that the no-eggs seems to be working. Want more eggless recipes? I recommend Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar!
I hope this helps him find relief. And thanks for the egg substituting tip. I’ve heard adding local honey to your diet can help reduce seasonal allergies, as well. And, I’ve heard, through a mom with a son with asthma, Yogi breathe deep tea is helpful. Good luck.
Good to know about the allergies – the cup is a great analogy! and thank you for the egg substitution info. Had to share this on Delicious.
Keep us posted on how your son fairs with the removal of this allergen.
Hi,
I’ve been a long time lurker here, and I have a son who is turning 2 this friday. I believe he may be developing asthma (he has started taking albuterol when necessary this past winter), and your post was very interesting – thanks for the egg substitute! The cup analogy was a great one for me to envision. Please keep me updated about your son’s new diet and supplement additions (the probiotics and the oil). I hope your son finds relief.
Hi, I grew up with asthma and I know how hard it is. When I was a vegetatian I used to use 1 tbs of sour cream for every egg for baking. The cookies, bread and one time made a wedding cake comes out super moist!
Julie
We have a very similar situation at our house. My 13 year old was diagnosed with asthma around age 1 and is allergic to eggs. He was on 6 or 7 medications for years and now we have it down to the albuterol, zyrtec and the flovent. At our house we use something called Egg replacer. They sell it at most natural food stores and it works great. The only thing we have a hard time making is brownies. http://www.amazon.com/Ener-G-Egg-Replacer-16-454/dp/B000QSS2C4 We’ll have to give the cod liver oil and probiotics a try.
My daughter also has occasional asthma mostly related to allergies – our Chinese doctor recommended no wheat when it flares up, and although a big bummer since she loves bread, it has helped a lot! We found some good bread substitutes (Udi’s) so it is less and less difficult to avoid wheat. Hope your son’s asthma clears up really soon.
Right! I’ve never been able to get eggless brownies to come out the way I want – arg!
My mom can’t eat eggs and I make her these cookies all the time. I like them so much that I also bake the cookies for every potluck. http://www.vegetariantimes.com/recipes/10870?section= . There is also a recipe for eggless pancakes on the website that are delicious!
Your blog is so amazing. It’s such a breath of fresh air! Thank you for all the information you impart and share. Hey, I know how you feel about watching your child struggle for breath. I’ve been through it with both of my boys. Years ago I took my son off wheat for 2 months. It was a struggle b/c he was in daycare and they ended up giving him a cupcake 2 days in a row! I finally gave in. However, that break seems to be just what he needed. The asthma disappeared! (well, except for one reappearance a few years later when he got a nasty case of pneumonia). I also, sometimes, go on a flaxseed kick with him. I put it in banana nut muffins, but most importantly, there’s this delicious, liquid smoothie flavored flax seed (Barleans). I wish you and your family well!
In your substitution for eggs, does it matter what you use for the ‘liquid’? We don’t have egg sensitivities here, I just thought I’d try it without after reading your post. Thanks!
I used water for the liquid in the cookies, but you can use milk or juice or what ever makes sense for what you are making.
Thanks so much for this post, for the wonderful metaphor that helps explain asthma and sensitivities, and the egg substitution tip. I hope these changes have positive results for your son; you’re very fortunate to have found this doctor.
Thanks for the info, I’ve been recently diagnosed with asthma and your analogy really helps me understand what’s going on.
Here’s another idea for egg substitute: 2 tablespoons ground flaxseed meal with 3 tablespoons water replaces 1 egg, and another plug for Vegan Cookies Invade your Cookie Jar – yum!
This is so interesting. My boyfriend has terrible allergies, so maybe addressing some food sensitivities might do the trick. Thanks for the info and best of luck with your little one…he’s lucky to have such delicious-looking egg-free cookies! =)
When my daughter was 3, she was diagnosed with asthma, and was placed on albuterol and flovent. Our pediatrician recommended removing dairy and sugar from her diet, which helped. We also consulted with a naturopath, you recommended probiotics, which you mentioned. We also found she was allergic to nuts. Removing these items made a huge difference in her health and, over time, reduced her need to use medications. And we encouraged her to exercise and play outside as much as she was able. She has since outgrown most of her allergies. There is light at the end of the tunnel!
eggs were responsible for my bouts of diarrhea. I suspected that was the case for a while, but it just didn’t make any sense because I had been eating them all of my life. My neighbour is also allergic, but only to the yolk. Her naturopath says this is common. It really sucks, I made a potato salad minus the eggs and it wasn’t the same. I really miss having one poached on an english muffin. I tried to fight it, but it wasn’t worth it.
I’m so glad to see this recipe! I eat eggs but am always looking for ways to improvise ANY recipe, whether it be for cooking, baking, making house and bath products, etc. I love to practically everything I can and oddly enough, I have always heard that there isn’t really a subsitute for eggs which would upset since I know there are vegan cookies out there. Thank you SO much for the tip, I look forward to trying it out this weekend!
Just curious if you’ve tried growing kefir–it’s a really easy and inexpensive way to come up with a really awesome home grown probiotic drink. We keep it on a jar on our counter, strain out the kefir grains each evening, and blend the kefir with mango or raspberries (and sometimes a little sugar) and serve with dinner.