No such luck

For the past three months now I have eliminated dairy completely from my diet. If you would have told me I would be doing this even a few months ago, I would not have believed you. Boy do I love my milk, chocolate, etc. The things we do for our kids!

So after the first two and a half months of Natalie's life, I discovered that she suffered from a milk food allergy. Call it mother's intuition, I don't know, but after what seemed like a lifetime of nonstop blood-curdling screams I knew that it was something other than "colic." I think that is a term doctors use when they are clueless and want you to stop bugging them. We attempted treating her for acid reflux especially since Weston suffered from that as an infant, but these treatments did nothing for her. She still screamed all day and all night, sometimes for hours on end. After much research, I determined that it had to be a food allergy. I took her completely off of formula and started strictly breast feeding. I then eliminated all dairy and wheat from my diet. This is no easy task! I never realized that practically everything has these two ingredients. I started dreading looking at the ingredient lists. Cooking became a lot more difficult, but certainly more healthy as sweets were now completely cut out and we ate mainly fresh fruits, vegetables, and meats.

Slowly Natalie started to calm as these products started to leave her system. I noticed a complete and total change in her demeanor. She was actually happy! It was such a relief to not see her suffer all day every day. The sacrifices were definitely worth it. As this diet became more and more difficult, I let wheat back in as I assumed it was more of a milk issue. Luckily, that didn't cause any problems. We went three months with absolutely no milk, whey, etc. This was so difficult and I craved chocolate, ice cream, and just a good 'ole glass of milk. I decided since she was getting a little older and they tend to grow out of these things, that I would try to slowly incorporate milk back into my diet.

My first attempt was with a cream of chicken soup in a casserole (daring, I know). Surprisingly, no issues. I built up courage and tried a clam chowder soup, and also started eating things with milk further down on the ingredient list. She wasn't seeming to really care. Then, I just lost all restraint this past week. I had some chocolate (oh it was divine) and even splurged on a piece of pizza! Let's just say the pizza did a number on my own digestive system after not having any dairy for three months! I now know that Natalie has definitely not outgrown it. I feel terrible!

We spent a good two hours last night trying to calm the poor little thing down. She was in so much pain and just kept crying. I don't think I have ever wished so badly for her to have one of her "blow out" diapers! She has now mastered these diapers and has at least one a day (I should have bought stock in "Shout"). She is now going on two and a half days with nothing. Poor little thing. I guess it is back to the boring diet for me!