What I did for love....

Bread. Just typing the word is making me cry.

Please dear Lord, grant that my child will not remain sensitive to wheat. Because if I ever walk by a bakery and smell a whiff of rising, yeasted glory then I will burst through the window (the door is nowhere near dramatic enough) and push my face into whatever bread is around and I. WILL. EAT IT.

Food sensitives in newborns are apparently "uncommon", but lucky me, my kids have them. My girls were highly sensitive to dairy so for eleven long months while I was breastfeeding and pumping I avoided anything with even a hint of butter, whey, casein, and obvious cow's milk products. It was tough but I had been a vegan for nearly two years, so going dairy-free was nothing new. This time around, however, I have been on a journey to figure out why my little guy was gassy, reflux-y, and green poop...y. First I eliminated dairy and saw improvement, but I knew there was more. After doing some research online (do new parents do anything else besides take care of babies and look crap up on the internet?), I realized that I needed to do a type of elimination diet to figure out the real problems here. So, as recommended by the ever-awesome Dr. Sears, for a few days I ate only turkey, rice, potatoes, and squash. ONLY that. Seasoned with olive oil, salt, and pepper. Water to drink. Done.

By day two I was dying.

No coffee? Not even tea? You're talking to a mama of two toddlers and a newborn. Sleep is a luxury, a rare occurence, a sweet and precious gift from Jesus that only comes every once in a while. Mama needs caffeine and she needs it to pass her lips roughly thirty seconds after awakening.

Coffee reentered my life on day three.

Thank you Jesus it did not seem to affect J's reflux. I had one of my vices back and it felt so good. I did one week on the diet and then since his poop was normal, I decided to try and reintroduce foods and see what happens. I thought to myself, "I bet he's really only allergic to dairy and it's just not out of my system yet. I'll be able to eat everything else." I probably said that to myself as I was eating an enormous bowl of popcorn for dinner while watching The Voice. And definitely that next morning my baby had mucousy green poop with blood in it...
Hold the phone. CORN? He can't tolerate corn?? Does this include corn tortillas, corn syrup, cornstarch, and my beloved near-nightly bowl of popcorn? How will I live without eating a whole bowl of corn chips when I go to a Mexican restaurant? Corn is in everything!! But alas, the corn I ate was wreaking havoc on his sensitive little intestines and thus, I am now corn-free.

That HAS to be all. Dairy and corn, done. I can handle this.

And then I had a delicious soy latte one afternoon. The brisk fall air coupled with the warm drink in my hands while I listened to my children scream and complain about everything made me feel like Life Was Great. Sure I have really tough days with my three monsters but hey, I can get a pumpkin soy latte from down the street and caffeinate my troubles away. And exactly 24 hours later the green poo monster returned, and my poor baby felt the negative affects from my soy latte. SOY?? No way. Soy, like corn, is in everything. How can I do this? I can't eat anything!! Sigh....Another one bites the dust.

And so the next of my tests is wheat. There is a history of wheat and gluten sensitivities in my family, and I fear the worst. I did a mini-test the other day which was basically me eating my children's leftover toast out of sheer starvation, and there was a bad poop reaction but I'm not 100% sure it was from the wheat. In a few days I'm going to THROW IT DOWN with bread of all types and see if my carbo-loading has an affect on Baby J's system. If it does, you're looking at a dairy-soy-corn-wheat-free mama who adores her baby so much that she's willing to eat pretty much fruits and vegetables until he is weaned. Breastfeeding is so special to me this time around (with the girls it was one problem after another) and there is a 0% chance that I'm going to stop and switch him to formula because of his food sensitivities. Plus, formula is pretty much made of dairy, corn, and soy. The only kind of formula he would likely be able to tolerate is a hypoallergenic type that I've heard costs, wait for it, $200 PER. CAN. I did not type that wrong. Boobies it is.

We all have made crazy sacrifices for our kids, whether it be with food, sleep, money, but in the end we never regret it...what have you done for love?