The clue’s in the title… HE DID IT! We’ve been told that after today’s successful challenge with oats, we should gradually introduce it to L’s diet.

As I mentioned in the last post, this challenge felt quite a lot different to his cod challenge a few months ago, as his blood tests actually showed he was allergic to oats (unlike cod, which came up negative).

I felt a lot less worried and stressed this time round. Partially, I guess, because I knew better what to expect. It was the same process, but it also turned out to be in the same room and with the same nurse and play specialist as with the cod challenge. The main reason for me feeling so calm though was because I’d been praying about this challenge and I knew we had a prayer army behind us in the form of my extended family. I was perfectly content knowing that whatever the outcome, it would be part of God’s plan.

As before, we really struggled to get the oats into him! We used Flahavan’s organic Irish oats, which was the only one we could find in Sainsbury’s that didn’t have a “may contain” for something like wheat or barley. However, gloopy, cooled-down oats (cooked only with water) isn’t the most appealing thing as it is, and L is nobody’s fool: mixing it into fruit and into his lunch, or even offering it to him raw and dry didn’t really work wonderfully well, but we got there in the end.

***TIP ALERT*** If you’re taking your child for a food challenge and you’re worried they might not eat whatever it is you’ve prepared, take alternatives. For example, when the nurse suggested today we might need to abandon the challenge if he didn’t eat enough, she said perhaps we can make some sort of flapjack next time using things L had eaten before (Vitalite and honey, I figured). She also said some sort of oat milk could work. 

Including the initial rubbing of oats on his lips, we had five rounds of giving oats, each with 20 minutes in between. L was allowed to have breastmilk in-between, and he had an absolute ball running around and playing with all the toys in the waiting room.

Four hours later he was absolutely exhausted, and thankfully we were free to go.

His next challenge will be to soya and he’s been booked in for in five weeks’ time. In the meantime, we’ll gradually introduce oats-based foods into his diet. I’m particularly excited about making him flapjacks and porridge, and trying Oatly products, as I know they are very popular in the CMPA community. It will also expand our snack repertoire, with Goodies oat bars. And nursery is excited about messy play with oats. I don’t know what the obsession with messy play is all about, seriously, but there you go!