Na-na-na-na-na-na Let’s Go Bananas!

(Strangely enough, I miss The Fresh Beat Band on Netflix…)

Before I begin today’s post I want to share that I’m home, and my fears about too-soon weaning are fading into the ether.

As soon as Zac saw me, he started pulling at my shirt for boobie. He immediately nursed for 20 minutes, and an hour later came running up to me making the sign for ‘milk’ with both hands!

At dinner we gave him a bowl of goat milk ice cream, but when he finished the bowl and asked for more I told him no. He whined for a minute, then climbed into my lap and pulled on my shirt again.

So it seems that he was simply expressing a preference for “from the tap” breast milk, and we’ll have to get creative on ways to make sure he consumes more when I’m gone next time. As long as he continues to behave this way when I’m home, the increased goat milk when I’m gone won’t worry me very much at all.

Whew!

Now, on to today’s story!

I know I’ve mentioned about how the corn-allergic people all said that tropical fruits like bananas and avocados are off-limits because of the ethylene sprays used to ripen them.

That. STINKS.

We LOVE bananas in our household; we could all eat bananas all day, every day here. So being told bananas would be an almost certain unsafe food was very disheartening for us.

Then I had an idea…I’m a Flight Attendant, right? I travel all over the country. There are “You-Pick-It” Farms in every state, right?

What if there were organic You-Pick-It BANANA growers in Florida that DIDN’T use sprays? What if I could rent a car on a layover and go pick up some bananas fresh from the trees with NO SPRAYS to trial on Zac?

If it worked, I could keep getting layovers and go back for more, or we could call our friends down in Fort Lauderdale and beg them to go mercy-banana-picking for us.

Then we got distracted with finding safe pork, researching other foods, and sort of back-burnered that idea.

Until two weeks ago.

I was making Jed pancakes for breakfast, and since he is egg-free, I was using mashed banana in the batter. Darrel remembered the back-burnered picking banana idea, and went online to see if he could find any such places.

He didn’t find You-Pick-It places; but he did find a link to local tropical fruit growers in Florida. On Monday, I called Robert Is Here and had a fantastic chat with the owners son.

I asked about what they spray their fruits with for pest control. He said they don’t spray with anything. While they are not a certified organic grower, thanks to the many hoops that the government requires for that certification, he said they’re essentially an organic grower and eschew any treatments during the growing season.

I asked if they used ethylene spray.

His answer tickled me: “Why would you do THAT?”

Smiling, I explained about the corn sensitivity and that most tropical fruits are gassed for ripening. He responded with “Oooh, you’re talking about Chiquita or Dole type fruits. They gas their stuff because they pick it when it’s still green. Our stuff is all ripened on the vine, so we don’t need to spray it with anything.”

I promptly put in an order for 25 bananas.

Our bananas arrived last Friday; the same day that we declared goat milk a safe food. Unfortunately I was leaving for work the next morning and did not want to begin a food trial while I was out of town.

When Zac reacts, he often wants to comfort nurse. No Mommy=no boobies to comfort nurse with!

Also, as much as my parents and Darrel love and know Zac, I’m the one that has been with him 24/7 for most of his life. I will be far more likely to pick up early signs of a reaction than anyone else will.

Then there’s the fact that Zac may behave differently with me out of town, which could cause confusion in a food trial.

No, all in all, it was better to wait until I was back home to start the trial.

On the plus side, that gave Darrel time to freeze and dehydrate a bunch of bananas for future trialing texture purposes! (He’s such an awesome guy!)

Yesterday, when I got home, there were whole bananas, frozen bananas, and dehydrated bananas just waiting and ready to trial.

So we did.

After the glorious reception and nursing session I got from him, I gave Zac one whole banana to eat.

Don’t worry. I didn’t go insane about food trials and decide to bombard his little system with too much food too soon. These aren’t NORMAL bananas. These are the cutest little baby bananas you’ve ever seen.

These are called Mysore Bananas. I had no idea they were so tiny when I ordered them! Apparently the lady at Robert Is Here knew that and mailed us the equivalent of 25 regular grocery store bananas. Thank goodness!

(Oh, and as a plus? The order taker at Robert Is Here used to work at an allergist office! She hadn’t heard of FPIES but understood about non-IgE mediated allergies and was VERY receptive to our unique needs! I love it when I’m not treated like I’m crazy!)

At first, Zac made the funniest faces. It was easy to think he really didn’t like banana at all. See?

But he kept eating, and by the end of the banana he was bringing it to me to peel it some more. When I asked him if he liked the banana he grunted “Uh huh!” around a mouthful.

The clock on reactions had begun, and we watched carefully.

Nothing. Not a thing.

Four hours later he had an absolutely perfect poop.

So day 1 of banana looks really good. Today he’ll get two whole bananas, and if that goes well we’ll break out the banana chips and let him snack like a normal toddler.

I’m pretty excited, actually.

The only thing that has me a tad concerned is that after we ordered the bananas I learned that they’re a high histamine food. So for the duration of the trial poor Zac won’t get any pork, because we’ve already observed that pork causes histamine problems for him.

To avoid confusing trial signs, it’s safer to avoid pork for now.

Once bananas are safe (see how optimistic I am? ONCE they’re safe – not IF they’re safe!) we’ll add pork and see if the same thing happens with bananas as happened with eggs. If so, we’ll get a calendar out to schedule his rotational foods.

But I’ll worry about that later.

It may have been an excellent start to a food trial, but it is just Day 1, after all.

(I really hope this is a pass! I’d love to be able to eat bananas again!)

What’s your favorite way to eat bananas? Plain? Baked in something? Dehydrated chips? Frozen ice cream?