Thank you for all of your hard work and congratulations on your breakthroughs with minifob. Way to go supermom!!

Walgreens has a store brand for the lactaid tablets. They're not quite as expensive.

But those are for lactose, not casein. These are the ones for casein. 1-2 pills per meal equates to anywhere from $22.50 to $45 a month. Not that far off from a prescription copay, sure, but don't forget the insurance deductible, and the occupational therapy copays, and the gluten-free foods which cost three times as much (no shit, $6 for a small loaf of bread, $8 a gallon for rice milk)... plus the fact that you may or may not be able to trick the toddler into taking it with every meal. The most I can guarantee is one dose a day, sometime during the day.

That doesn't look like it addresses whey proteins either, which I think is the bigger problem.

Fantastic, Fob. You sooo rock. I have more to say about that, but others have said it already so, I'll STFU and grin like an idiot on your behalf :D

Ouch. Do you have time to make your own? Evidently there's a bread machine now with a gluten-free cycle. Dunno how good it is.

Clod where are you getting your rice milk? Walmart has Silk and Rice Dream in 1/2 gallon containers in the milk section for less than $3. Silk also comes in single serves, like juice boxes, by the case for like $18.

IMO unsweetened Silk is the closest to cow milk in flavor/texture.

The bake-it-yourself mixes cost about the same, the advantage is they taste better. (That's what I eventually succeeded in getting him to eat, a mix called Bob's Red Mill Homemade Wonderful Bread... I'd say "wonderful" requires a pretty big stretch of the imagination, but it's edible.) If I were to go completely hardcore old-school-grandma-style, I could mix my own flours and buy things like xanthan gum, and then it would be cheaper. But I'm having a hard enough time coming to grips with the fact that I'm going to have to spend 4-6 hours a month baking bread and waffles for the next 16 years of my life. You may recall I don't enjoy cooking, and baking even less so. The things we do for our kids, eh?

My grocery store sells Rice Dream quarts for $1.99, no half-gallons. At this point he's still refusing all cereals (that aren't Cheerios) anyway, so smaller packages means less spoilage until he gets back into the groove. On my to-do list is to go check out the local Costco; a dietician friend of my mom's said they've actually got a really impressive selection of special-diet foods. They'll probably have it cheaper.

Back when my wife was a vegetarian, we let my Sam's card lapse and signed up for Costco because of much healthier foods available.

OK here's the plan: Fobette being ready for preschool will co-incide with the beginning of the economic recovery, and those first green shoots will be heralded by companies wanting training videos for their new hires and authoritative voices for their commercials to inspire confidence in the market place. You'll reem in the money and be able to emply a cook to deal with all that special diet crap. better still, you can write his/her salary off as a medical expense on your taxes :D

The reward, the hard won reward, revel in it! :thumb: No no no no, we want every stinkin' detail, type until your fingers fall off. Moar!

Heh... we were talking about that just the other night actually, how if we find a winning lottery ticket on the street the first thing we're doing is hiring a full-time chef. :) But you better believe the medical expenses are getting written off next year. 7.5% is a high threshhold to meet, but a lot of ancillary costs count, like paying for daytime care for your other kids so you have time to deal with the one kid's therapy.

Oh, be still my beating heart...! I have discovered a completely GFCF cafe just a few miles from our house which specifically caters to children.

And there are hints that they sell "family portions" to go, like I could maybe order 50 of their chicken nuggets and freeze them at home for future use. Assuming they're any good; we'll be finding that out soon.

AND if nothing else, they have a little retail pantry section too, and they sell two Minifob-approved snack foods (Glutino pretzels and Kinnikinnick animal crackers) at prices cheaper than the health food store I've been buying them at.

Awesome!
As time goes on, you will find more and more resources. It's hardest when you're just starting!

Having some nearby alternatives for the days that there is no time, or you're overwhelmed, is fantastic. Even the days you don't need them, just knowing they are there is comforting. :thumb: