Wednesday, July 31, 2013
Friday, July 5, 2013
Time for a name change!
I have changed the name of this blog from "allergybabynz" to "EarthMamaHealth". Recently I decided that this would be the name of my future Health Coaching Practise (which is incredibly exciting) and hopefully it means this blog sees a lot more action!
Hope everyone is happy and healthy out there, thanks for reading this post. If you get a chance, please let me know what you think of the name and what images or words it brings up for you.
The facebook page for my new business is https://www.facebook.com/EarthMamaCoaching?fref=ts
xo
Hope everyone is happy and healthy out there, thanks for reading this post. If you get a chance, please let me know what you think of the name and what images or words it brings up for you.
The facebook page for my new business is https://www.facebook.com/EarthMamaCoaching?fref=ts
xo
Sunday, March 17, 2013
I am an allergy playgroup dropout...
It's been a while since I posted on this blog. Mostly I keep an eye on my Facebook page "Healing Food Allergies... Naturally" in between my study to be a Health Coach through the Institute for Integrative Nutrition which is a year long online course. I love doing it.
Where are we at? We've started seeing Dr Leila Masson, a biomedical paediatrician who we saw for the first time a few months ago. According to her, we're doing okay but could be doing a bit better. When we saw her, S had a bit of eczema back due to being back on eggs, had some bags under her eyes and a pale tongue. But her total IgE figure was pretty low, as in within normal range, and although she'd acquiried a soy allergy on paper, she didn't appear to react to it, certainly not in the small amounts she has been exposed to thus far.
Our diet has come off gut healing protocols somewhat - bone broths are an occasional thing, we don't eat sauerkraut anymore, probiotics are most days but not all. Trying slowly to get back into good healing habits but I just don't want to spend all my time in the kitchen anymore, especially during this stunning summer. Her eczema disappeared as soon as we took eggs out of our diets again, and its looking good right now. Her next lot of blood tests are not due for another few months but we need to get back into things as she occasionally gets very small hives so we're not done just yet. We still not having excessive amounts of grains other than rice which we both adore, and stick to mostly meat, fruit, coconut milk and vegetables.
I left my allergy playgroup not so long ago, I definitely wasn't feeling any love! It takes guts to go out on a limb to do your own thing, and I've found support for this can sometimes be lacking. It was a fabulous place to start but as our results improved, I began to feel a certain chill and so I decided it was time to go. Knowing my daughter and I are so lucky to be part of another (non-allergy) playgroup which is full of fabulous and supportive mothers, we all do things differently but it doesn't matter, we don't judge for it. We encourage each other when things go well and when they don't. I've also started my study in Health Coaching and my knowledge is being broadened in ways I didn't actually think was possible, so I'm grateful for the whole experience thus far.
I do think its a good thing to start off each allergy journey being cautious and very responsible. Talk to as many people and professionals as possible to get an idea of where you sit. Somewhere along the way, you should start to swing back to the middle however slowly, especially if you begin to see the results of your efforts. And remember, different things work for different people. Don't take other people's advice as gospel no matter how convincing they appear to be. Research a number of different and contradictory theories, and then figure it out for yourself. And allergies are not a competitive sport. No-one wants to play it, but once you're on the team, come up with a game plan and remember to play nicely.
Where are we at? We've started seeing Dr Leila Masson, a biomedical paediatrician who we saw for the first time a few months ago. According to her, we're doing okay but could be doing a bit better. When we saw her, S had a bit of eczema back due to being back on eggs, had some bags under her eyes and a pale tongue. But her total IgE figure was pretty low, as in within normal range, and although she'd acquiried a soy allergy on paper, she didn't appear to react to it, certainly not in the small amounts she has been exposed to thus far.
Our diet has come off gut healing protocols somewhat - bone broths are an occasional thing, we don't eat sauerkraut anymore, probiotics are most days but not all. Trying slowly to get back into good healing habits but I just don't want to spend all my time in the kitchen anymore, especially during this stunning summer. Her eczema disappeared as soon as we took eggs out of our diets again, and its looking good right now. Her next lot of blood tests are not due for another few months but we need to get back into things as she occasionally gets very small hives so we're not done just yet. We still not having excessive amounts of grains other than rice which we both adore, and stick to mostly meat, fruit, coconut milk and vegetables.
I left my allergy playgroup not so long ago, I definitely wasn't feeling any love! It takes guts to go out on a limb to do your own thing, and I've found support for this can sometimes be lacking. It was a fabulous place to start but as our results improved, I began to feel a certain chill and so I decided it was time to go. Knowing my daughter and I are so lucky to be part of another (non-allergy) playgroup which is full of fabulous and supportive mothers, we all do things differently but it doesn't matter, we don't judge for it. We encourage each other when things go well and when they don't. I've also started my study in Health Coaching and my knowledge is being broadened in ways I didn't actually think was possible, so I'm grateful for the whole experience thus far.
I do think its a good thing to start off each allergy journey being cautious and very responsible. Talk to as many people and professionals as possible to get an idea of where you sit. Somewhere along the way, you should start to swing back to the middle however slowly, especially if you begin to see the results of your efforts. And remember, different things work for different people. Don't take other people's advice as gospel no matter how convincing they appear to be. Research a number of different and contradictory theories, and then figure it out for yourself. And allergies are not a competitive sport. No-one wants to play it, but once you're on the team, come up with a game plan and remember to play nicely.
Monday, February 18, 2013
Breastfeeding My Allergic Baby
Copy of blog that was originally written for The Natural Parent Magazine page back in March 23, 2012 (along with the comments it received, as of Feb 2013)
I like to share this with breastfeeding mothers who are new to the allergy world!
Here it is :)
I like to share this with breastfeeding mothers who are new to the allergy world!
Here it is :)
I’m
sure many people wonder why I continue to breastfeed my infant given
the range of foods I can no longer consume. It’s not easy but then I’m
not sure anything truly worthwhile ever is. I wanted to share our story
so far, that is the one that belongs to my daughter and I.
Our beautiful girl was born just over a year ago, while we were living overseas, after many hours of labour that resulted in an emergency caesarian. On her second night in hospital, the night nurse, frustrated perhaps at my regular bell ringing while she had a full ward to oversee on her own, gruffly suggested I give her formula to help her sleep. I wanted to exclusively breastfeed for six months, but at that point – exhausted, sore and vulnerable – I said okay. She showed me how to use a bottle, and my little girl hungrily guzzled 10mls of standard formula then promptly fell asleep. The next day my milk came in and for the rest of our stay, the other nurses encouraged lots of nursing especially to help her jaundice clear.
After we bought her home, I realised how committed I was to breastfeeding – not really having thought too much of it beforehand. I loved watching her grow and the constant physical closeness. While it certainly wasn’t easy, it took me ages to get the hang of latching and positioning her against my large breasts and the right side hurt like hell for several weeks, but I persevered and grew more confident.
When she was maybe a month old, my husband and I noticed that her skin was very dry, especially on her torso and face. Our midwife told us this was normal as her skin adjusted to being outside the womb. We tried all sorts of oils and creams but nothing worked for more than a day or two. Our daughter was alert and happy, putting on weight and sleeping well so we kept up the moisturising while we waited for her to grow out of it.
Halfway during her fourth month, we moved back home to Auckland and straight away I took her to Plunket to get her weighed as she hadn’t felt like she had grown much. The first clue that something was up was when she hadn’t put on any weight since we left Australia, but we explained it away by saying she could have been unsettled with the traveling as well as the different weighing methods. Around the same time I saw a GP for her skin and was prescribed a stronger strength steroid cream. I mentioned the possibility of a food allergy causing her eczema and was told not to be silly – this was just something some babies had. However, it wasn’t enough to shake an overwhelming instinct that I was beginning to feel, that every time I was feeding my daughter I was poisoning her – a sobering thought when feeding your child every one to three hours. I found a new GP and luckily she agreed to run the RAST blood tests which would identify and measure the levels of IgE antibodies in her blood. These are the proteins made by the immune system associated with allergic reactions.
I no longer got comments from strangers on how beautiful my daughter was, and even friends looked a little dubious. As a mother does, I just saw my lovely baby, but looking back at photos now I see she was strong but thin with a large head, the skinniest legs and arms, swollen lymph nodes, cradle cap and weeping eczema on her cheeks.
Her test results came through on the same day we weighed her again to find she had lost 400g, a sign that something was wrong. She had dropped from around the 25th to the 3rd percentile within 6 weeks and was deemed Failure to Thrive.
The RAST results showed that she was severely allergic to dairy, eggs and peanuts (as well as cats and dogs). A food allergy is basically when the immune system overreacts to the protein in that food. Reactions can range from eczema to digestive issues to anaphylaxis, a potentially fatal systemic shutdown of the body if not treated immediately.
We saw a private specialist, one of the best. He wanted me to stop breastfeeding, to accept the best thing was to put her on an hypoallergenic formula called Neocate and bring her weight up quickly. I didn’t agree but then he suggested that I was likely in the 1% of women who just couldn’t produce sufficient quality breast milk to nourish and grow my child. He also asked if my daughter was exclusively breastfed. At first I said yes, then I remembered and corrected myself, actually she had a very small amount of formula at two days of age. This was when I found out that he had seen a pattern with his young patients – many had received formula early and while it may be coincidence, there may also be something in it. Well, talk about guilt! I spent several days kicking myself for going against my original decision, and vowing to do what I could to help my daughter given I felt responsible for causing it. This was my first defining moment as a breastfeeding mother I think.
The same day we saw a registered dietitian. Again she pushed Neocate onto us, and told me I needed to get her “hooked”. I protested but she told me I could look at re-establishing breastfeeding in a few months time, we just needed to get my daughter’s weight up first. So I left their offices that day with an agreement. I had two weeks to try it my way. If by the end of this time she hadn’t put on 700 grams, I would wean her onto Neocate.
Immediately I cut out the offending foods from my diet and spent literally hours on the internet while baby slept, reading hundreds of articles. Not only did I have to avoid what we knew she was allergic to, but also soy and fish/seafood to reduce the risk my daughter would become sensitized to those also.
After a few days of soul searching and speaking to Plunket, I decided to defer to what everyone had been telling me and give my daughter top-ups of Neocate so that she would put on weight. Everyone seemed happy at my decision to mix feed and she hungrily drank the bottles. My husband supported me no matter what I decided, but he also seemed happy he now had the opportunity to feed her as well from time to time.
Over the next six weeks I started giving her more and more formula until she was up to three bottles a day, our breastfeeds becoming quicker and shorter and it felt like a slippery slope. I had a good hunch that breastfeeding an allergic child was the best thing to do for her, but it wasn’t until I decided to follow up on something I had read online that something changed. I had read about an alternative diet based around eating foods that would heal our guts, but to be really effective we’d have to ditch the formula. So after a few weeks, I did that – phasing out the Neocate by replacing it with bottles of mineral-rich chicken bone broth for her to sip on while also nursing as much as possible and trying to increase my supply.
Since then our whole lifestyle has changed considerably. I didn’t (and still don’t) consume any foods that contains milk products, eggs, peanuts, tree nuts, soy, gluten, shellfish, most fish and many grains. I contacted LLL to get advice and a few more hundreds of articles. It wasn’t just about cutting foods out, it was also about working out what foods and supplements we should incorporate. I ditched the dietitian after two sessions of not feeling listened to, and decided to work with a traditional foods nutritionist who educated me on the power of real food and who kept me motivated when it all just felt like too much work. Now instead of eating out, I have become somewhat of a kitchen maestro spending countless hours every week researching, shopping and preparing food. It prevents me from going back to paid employment work any time soon, but that’s okay – I have the best job in the world right now.
You have to be committed, courageous and tough to do this, you can no longer eat many of the foods you’ve merrily enjoyed for years. There is no just one bite of chocolate or one little peanut. And while I don’t generally miss the way I used to eat, some days I could weep with longing for a softly poached egg served with fresh bread and butter. That’s not to say occasionally accidents don’t happen. Many people don’t understand allergies or how serious they can be. We recently went to a local cafe for breakfast and carefully explained to our server what things my meal couldn’t contain. We know many cafes are great and willing to oblige, however despite nodding and saying reassuring things, we found out later she decided not to write anything on the docket that went into the kitchen. My meal came out with a gorgeous little pile of pan-fried mushrooms. It was only after I had one or two bites that I realized it was cream dripping from those mushrooms and dairy is my daughter’s highest scoring allergy. Suffice to say, we had a lengthy conversation with the manager and our meals were left uneaten.
It took many months for my daughter’s skin to become soft and supple. It also took some time for us to accept our new reality. Some days are better than others. The reality of raising an allergic baby in today’s frantic world where so much of our food is based around convenience and profit, and constantly trying to explain this to others without sounding paranoid is difficult and sometimes lonely. A big part of me is also still angry that I received little support to keep breastfeeding… and yet another part is grateful for everything I have learnt about nutrition and health since.
At one year of age, my daughter is no longer underweight. In fact we weighed her earlier this week and she has just reached the 50th percentile in both height and weight for the first time ever. She has a willful, strong personality and loves feeding herself with the food I lovingly make for her and exploring different textures and tastes.
Her second lot of blood tests late last year showed a significant reduction in all three allergies however they all still fall in the moderate to severe categories. Her specialist knows that we are no longer using Neocate and he reserves his opinion other than to say the changes in results we saw in such a short time frame doesn’t happen often. I don’t plan on stopping breastfeeding any time soon and am grateful that for us, we have that option. I know of many babies who truly needed hypoallergenic formula to be healthy, and I’m glad we also had that option available to us.
Our journey isn’t over yet, we still have a long way to go. I have become a staunch supporter of breastfeeding and would love to see more support and education for it general. I plan on studying more about nutrition and natural health, and one day hope to work with other parents of allergic children to let them know that they have options, and they have support.
Our beautiful girl was born just over a year ago, while we were living overseas, after many hours of labour that resulted in an emergency caesarian. On her second night in hospital, the night nurse, frustrated perhaps at my regular bell ringing while she had a full ward to oversee on her own, gruffly suggested I give her formula to help her sleep. I wanted to exclusively breastfeed for six months, but at that point – exhausted, sore and vulnerable – I said okay. She showed me how to use a bottle, and my little girl hungrily guzzled 10mls of standard formula then promptly fell asleep. The next day my milk came in and for the rest of our stay, the other nurses encouraged lots of nursing especially to help her jaundice clear.
After we bought her home, I realised how committed I was to breastfeeding – not really having thought too much of it beforehand. I loved watching her grow and the constant physical closeness. While it certainly wasn’t easy, it took me ages to get the hang of latching and positioning her against my large breasts and the right side hurt like hell for several weeks, but I persevered and grew more confident.
When she was maybe a month old, my husband and I noticed that her skin was very dry, especially on her torso and face. Our midwife told us this was normal as her skin adjusted to being outside the womb. We tried all sorts of oils and creams but nothing worked for more than a day or two. Our daughter was alert and happy, putting on weight and sleeping well so we kept up the moisturising while we waited for her to grow out of it.
Halfway during her fourth month, we moved back home to Auckland and straight away I took her to Plunket to get her weighed as she hadn’t felt like she had grown much. The first clue that something was up was when she hadn’t put on any weight since we left Australia, but we explained it away by saying she could have been unsettled with the traveling as well as the different weighing methods. Around the same time I saw a GP for her skin and was prescribed a stronger strength steroid cream. I mentioned the possibility of a food allergy causing her eczema and was told not to be silly – this was just something some babies had. However, it wasn’t enough to shake an overwhelming instinct that I was beginning to feel, that every time I was feeding my daughter I was poisoning her – a sobering thought when feeding your child every one to three hours. I found a new GP and luckily she agreed to run the RAST blood tests which would identify and measure the levels of IgE antibodies in her blood. These are the proteins made by the immune system associated with allergic reactions.
I no longer got comments from strangers on how beautiful my daughter was, and even friends looked a little dubious. As a mother does, I just saw my lovely baby, but looking back at photos now I see she was strong but thin with a large head, the skinniest legs and arms, swollen lymph nodes, cradle cap and weeping eczema on her cheeks.
Her test results came through on the same day we weighed her again to find she had lost 400g, a sign that something was wrong. She had dropped from around the 25th to the 3rd percentile within 6 weeks and was deemed Failure to Thrive.
The RAST results showed that she was severely allergic to dairy, eggs and peanuts (as well as cats and dogs). A food allergy is basically when the immune system overreacts to the protein in that food. Reactions can range from eczema to digestive issues to anaphylaxis, a potentially fatal systemic shutdown of the body if not treated immediately.
We saw a private specialist, one of the best. He wanted me to stop breastfeeding, to accept the best thing was to put her on an hypoallergenic formula called Neocate and bring her weight up quickly. I didn’t agree but then he suggested that I was likely in the 1% of women who just couldn’t produce sufficient quality breast milk to nourish and grow my child. He also asked if my daughter was exclusively breastfed. At first I said yes, then I remembered and corrected myself, actually she had a very small amount of formula at two days of age. This was when I found out that he had seen a pattern with his young patients – many had received formula early and while it may be coincidence, there may also be something in it. Well, talk about guilt! I spent several days kicking myself for going against my original decision, and vowing to do what I could to help my daughter given I felt responsible for causing it. This was my first defining moment as a breastfeeding mother I think.
The same day we saw a registered dietitian. Again she pushed Neocate onto us, and told me I needed to get her “hooked”. I protested but she told me I could look at re-establishing breastfeeding in a few months time, we just needed to get my daughter’s weight up first. So I left their offices that day with an agreement. I had two weeks to try it my way. If by the end of this time she hadn’t put on 700 grams, I would wean her onto Neocate.
Immediately I cut out the offending foods from my diet and spent literally hours on the internet while baby slept, reading hundreds of articles. Not only did I have to avoid what we knew she was allergic to, but also soy and fish/seafood to reduce the risk my daughter would become sensitized to those also.
After a few days of soul searching and speaking to Plunket, I decided to defer to what everyone had been telling me and give my daughter top-ups of Neocate so that she would put on weight. Everyone seemed happy at my decision to mix feed and she hungrily drank the bottles. My husband supported me no matter what I decided, but he also seemed happy he now had the opportunity to feed her as well from time to time.
Over the next six weeks I started giving her more and more formula until she was up to three bottles a day, our breastfeeds becoming quicker and shorter and it felt like a slippery slope. I had a good hunch that breastfeeding an allergic child was the best thing to do for her, but it wasn’t until I decided to follow up on something I had read online that something changed. I had read about an alternative diet based around eating foods that would heal our guts, but to be really effective we’d have to ditch the formula. So after a few weeks, I did that – phasing out the Neocate by replacing it with bottles of mineral-rich chicken bone broth for her to sip on while also nursing as much as possible and trying to increase my supply.
Since then our whole lifestyle has changed considerably. I didn’t (and still don’t) consume any foods that contains milk products, eggs, peanuts, tree nuts, soy, gluten, shellfish, most fish and many grains. I contacted LLL to get advice and a few more hundreds of articles. It wasn’t just about cutting foods out, it was also about working out what foods and supplements we should incorporate. I ditched the dietitian after two sessions of not feeling listened to, and decided to work with a traditional foods nutritionist who educated me on the power of real food and who kept me motivated when it all just felt like too much work. Now instead of eating out, I have become somewhat of a kitchen maestro spending countless hours every week researching, shopping and preparing food. It prevents me from going back to paid employment work any time soon, but that’s okay – I have the best job in the world right now.
You have to be committed, courageous and tough to do this, you can no longer eat many of the foods you’ve merrily enjoyed for years. There is no just one bite of chocolate or one little peanut. And while I don’t generally miss the way I used to eat, some days I could weep with longing for a softly poached egg served with fresh bread and butter. That’s not to say occasionally accidents don’t happen. Many people don’t understand allergies or how serious they can be. We recently went to a local cafe for breakfast and carefully explained to our server what things my meal couldn’t contain. We know many cafes are great and willing to oblige, however despite nodding and saying reassuring things, we found out later she decided not to write anything on the docket that went into the kitchen. My meal came out with a gorgeous little pile of pan-fried mushrooms. It was only after I had one or two bites that I realized it was cream dripping from those mushrooms and dairy is my daughter’s highest scoring allergy. Suffice to say, we had a lengthy conversation with the manager and our meals were left uneaten.
It took many months for my daughter’s skin to become soft and supple. It also took some time for us to accept our new reality. Some days are better than others. The reality of raising an allergic baby in today’s frantic world where so much of our food is based around convenience and profit, and constantly trying to explain this to others without sounding paranoid is difficult and sometimes lonely. A big part of me is also still angry that I received little support to keep breastfeeding… and yet another part is grateful for everything I have learnt about nutrition and health since.
At one year of age, my daughter is no longer underweight. In fact we weighed her earlier this week and she has just reached the 50th percentile in both height and weight for the first time ever. She has a willful, strong personality and loves feeding herself with the food I lovingly make for her and exploring different textures and tastes.
Her second lot of blood tests late last year showed a significant reduction in all three allergies however they all still fall in the moderate to severe categories. Her specialist knows that we are no longer using Neocate and he reserves his opinion other than to say the changes in results we saw in such a short time frame doesn’t happen often. I don’t plan on stopping breastfeeding any time soon and am grateful that for us, we have that option. I know of many babies who truly needed hypoallergenic formula to be healthy, and I’m glad we also had that option available to us.
Our journey isn’t over yet, we still have a long way to go. I have become a staunch supporter of breastfeeding and would love to see more support and education for it general. I plan on studying more about nutrition and natural health, and one day hope to work with other parents of allergic children to let them know that they have options, and they have support.
4 Responses to Breastfeeding my Allergic Baby
Saturday, September 8, 2012
One year after diagnosis
So, we got Sasha's latest RAST blood test results a few months ago - mid July in fact. I was pretty nervous as soon as they had her blood despite feeling quite confident in the weeks leading up to it, but then all of a sudden I began to doubt it would be good news. However her results were fantastic.
I don't have the actual numbers in front of me but I do know that in just under 12 months, her dairy allergy went from 100+ down to 12, her egg allergy went from around 10 to just under 2 and the peanut was around 4.5 down to 0.2 or something, low enough to be a zero score on paper.
So that was pretty incredible really and I sat stunned for several minutes afterwards! We booked Sash in for a baked egg challenge at the specialist's office for around 3 weeks after those blood test results and she passed - yay! In fact, about two weeks ago, I trialled her on scrambled/fried eggs based on a gut feeling and she appears to be tolerating those just fine also. We're still avoiding tree nuts for now (almonds, walnuts etc) as well as seafood for her. Last time I gave her a piece of salmon sushi she came out in hives on her face for the first time ever, so she won't be having fish for a little while but I still have it from time to time and she doesn't appear to react to it via breast milk.
This is what I wrote on my personal facebook page not so long ago to sum up where we were at:
"Just taking a second to blow our trumpets here so bear with me... Just under a year ago, almost to the week, I was sitting in a specialists office with an eczema covered, failure to thrive baby being told she had severe multiple food allergies and it would take 5-10 years to outgrow them. After persevering with breastfeeding while also embarking on a fairly restrictive healing diet, today I'm pretty stoked to say both Sasha and I had a fried egg for breakfast, that her milk scores have reduced by almost 90% and her peanut allergy is currently at zero although it's still yet to be challenged... she loves food and eating and is active and lively and has a very healthy size puku (tummy for non-New Zealanders). So even if we still have a few backward steps because our allergy journey isn't over yet, we've made fantastic progress in under a year and I just wanted to share that with everyone because I'm pretty damn proud of us, including my husband who does some pretty long hours so that I can buy the food we need, and has been as supportive of this as anyone could ever expect. "
Am currently contemplating going grain-free as much as possible, so pretty much doing paleo but without fish or treenuts (will review this in a few months) so currently running down all the grains in our rice. I think I'll keep rice noodles for her because they're just so slurp-tastically fun for her to eat. Plus I'll probably still have sushi and a bagel from time to time - just less of the stuff on a day to day basis.
Next on the list is study online to become a food coach/mentor to help other families transition to a completely new way of eating, especially for those dealing with allergies or intolerances - quite excited really.
I've also started a Facebook group called "Healing Food Allergies... Naturally" if anyone is interested in joining! Just a place to chat and share stories or ask questions where natural options and healing via nutrition are safe topics and everyone feels supported :)
I don't have the actual numbers in front of me but I do know that in just under 12 months, her dairy allergy went from 100+ down to 12, her egg allergy went from around 10 to just under 2 and the peanut was around 4.5 down to 0.2 or something, low enough to be a zero score on paper.
So that was pretty incredible really and I sat stunned for several minutes afterwards! We booked Sash in for a baked egg challenge at the specialist's office for around 3 weeks after those blood test results and she passed - yay! In fact, about two weeks ago, I trialled her on scrambled/fried eggs based on a gut feeling and she appears to be tolerating those just fine also. We're still avoiding tree nuts for now (almonds, walnuts etc) as well as seafood for her. Last time I gave her a piece of salmon sushi she came out in hives on her face for the first time ever, so she won't be having fish for a little while but I still have it from time to time and she doesn't appear to react to it via breast milk.
This is what I wrote on my personal facebook page not so long ago to sum up where we were at:
"Just taking a second to blow our trumpets here so bear with me... Just under a year ago, almost to the week, I was sitting in a specialists office with an eczema covered, failure to thrive baby being told she had severe multiple food allergies and it would take 5-10 years to outgrow them. After persevering with breastfeeding while also embarking on a fairly restrictive healing diet, today I'm pretty stoked to say both Sasha and I had a fried egg for breakfast, that her milk scores have reduced by almost 90% and her peanut allergy is currently at zero although it's still yet to be challenged... she loves food and eating and is active and lively and has a very healthy size puku (tummy for non-New Zealanders). So even if we still have a few backward steps because our allergy journey isn't over yet, we've made fantastic progress in under a year and I just wanted to share that with everyone because I'm pretty damn proud of us, including my husband who does some pretty long hours so that I can buy the food we need, and has been as supportive of this as anyone could ever expect. "
The support was really cool to read, so thank you to anyone who commented with their encouragement!
Am currently contemplating going grain-free as much as possible, so pretty much doing paleo but without fish or treenuts (will review this in a few months) so currently running down all the grains in our rice. I think I'll keep rice noodles for her because they're just so slurp-tastically fun for her to eat. Plus I'll probably still have sushi and a bagel from time to time - just less of the stuff on a day to day basis.
Next on the list is study online to become a food coach/mentor to help other families transition to a completely new way of eating, especially for those dealing with allergies or intolerances - quite excited really.
I've also started a Facebook group called "Healing Food Allergies... Naturally" if anyone is interested in joining! Just a place to chat and share stories or ask questions where natural options and healing via nutrition are safe topics and everyone feels supported :)
Monday, January 23, 2012
One Tired Mama
Eeek, has it really been 2.5 months since my last post! Never underestimate the need for sleep as a complete lack of it for the last few months has really affected me. DD's sleeping nosedived in early November and I finally concede it's no longer a phase. We went from a little girl who had 3 good naps a day, most of which she went down pretty easily for... to an anxious, overtired baby that needs to be fed to sleep and prefers rather strongly to sleep in our arms. It takes me/us 2 hours to get her to sleep many nights even when you see she is incredibly tired, only for her to wake 45 minutes later. Day sleeps are generally reliant on being in the car or pram but I think that at least is getting a bit better - she still clearly needs two naps a day but can't seem to resettle after the first sleep cycle so isn't getting enough during the day. We don't use sleep training (with daily encouragement from the Natural Parent magazine group on Facebook which we also have a subscription to) so are just going with it, but not getting much zzzz's either which means I have been pretty exhausted and since getting her to sleep takes so much time, it hasn't left much for food preparation and meal planning. It has been lovely to see her personality emerge recently though - I think she's rather feisty too, just like her mum!
We still do organic chicken broth (thanks to my mum who makes some for us every fortnight) which I use to make her food and I eat sauerkraut most days but haven't been doing the necessary level of cooking, probiotics and supplements that the diet requires. Baby seems to react to eating sauerkraut in terms of having a red face and hands but she does seem to really like the taste of it (who would have thought!), so I really need to ramp things up and start making my own.
There has been some good stuff though - her RAST blood tests taken 4 months after diagnosis showed no new allergies (as per the RAST anyway, the skin prick did show sensitisation to soy, wheat and fish) and all the results halved or better so that is encouraging! I've met some fantastic mums recently through the Allergy NZ Facebook page who have babies with allergies too and we're getting to know each other but it's both a relief and refreshing to meet others in similar situations. Plus there is another mum doing GAPS. Yay! We speak the same language!
So what's next... well this is a list of things I'd like to do over the next few weeks:
1. Read the Gut and Psychology Syndrome book - so far all my info has come from the internet or Sherry so I need to actually read what Dr Natasha Campbell-McBride wrote and then develop an plan for the next 5 months to take us too the next RAST blood test
2. Buy Fermented Cod Liver Oil and start taking along with daily probiotics and the other supplements sitting on my kitchen bench
3. Experiment with water kefir and maybe Kombucha
4. Read the No Cry Sleep Solution by Elizabeth Pantley!!
5. Try NAET therapy - our first session is booked for next month
6. Give baby new foods to try - I've been really scared to do this but her diet is very restricted right now and we could definitely widen it a little so that she gets the nutrition her growing body needs.
7. Get into a good weekly routine that involves spending fun times with baby, developing as a mum, walking by the beach, seeing both old and new friends, spending time with family, preparing and eating the right foods, healing, sleep, reading, relaxation, occasionally giving our fur-girls a good pat (Reeks will take any attention she can get right now even if it is baby pulling handfuls of her fur out) and reconnecting with my husband.
8. Post more regularly on this blog
9. Investigate studying to be a holistic nutrition coach specialising in childhood allergies - I think there is a real gap for this...
Wish us luck xx
We still do organic chicken broth (thanks to my mum who makes some for us every fortnight) which I use to make her food and I eat sauerkraut most days but haven't been doing the necessary level of cooking, probiotics and supplements that the diet requires. Baby seems to react to eating sauerkraut in terms of having a red face and hands but she does seem to really like the taste of it (who would have thought!), so I really need to ramp things up and start making my own.
There has been some good stuff though - her RAST blood tests taken 4 months after diagnosis showed no new allergies (as per the RAST anyway, the skin prick did show sensitisation to soy, wheat and fish) and all the results halved or better so that is encouraging! I've met some fantastic mums recently through the Allergy NZ Facebook page who have babies with allergies too and we're getting to know each other but it's both a relief and refreshing to meet others in similar situations. Plus there is another mum doing GAPS. Yay! We speak the same language!
So what's next... well this is a list of things I'd like to do over the next few weeks:
1. Read the Gut and Psychology Syndrome book - so far all my info has come from the internet or Sherry so I need to actually read what Dr Natasha Campbell-McBride wrote and then develop an plan for the next 5 months to take us too the next RAST blood test
2. Buy Fermented Cod Liver Oil and start taking along with daily probiotics and the other supplements sitting on my kitchen bench
3. Experiment with water kefir and maybe Kombucha
4. Read the No Cry Sleep Solution by Elizabeth Pantley!!
5. Try NAET therapy - our first session is booked for next month
6. Give baby new foods to try - I've been really scared to do this but her diet is very restricted right now and we could definitely widen it a little so that she gets the nutrition her growing body needs.
7. Get into a good weekly routine that involves spending fun times with baby, developing as a mum, walking by the beach, seeing both old and new friends, spending time with family, preparing and eating the right foods, healing, sleep, reading, relaxation, occasionally giving our fur-girls a good pat (Reeks will take any attention she can get right now even if it is baby pulling handfuls of her fur out) and reconnecting with my husband.
8. Post more regularly on this blog
9. Investigate studying to be a holistic nutrition coach specialising in childhood allergies - I think there is a real gap for this...
Wish us luck xx
Monday, October 31, 2011
Food
I think a few people wonder what I actually do eat, given I currently don't have any dairy, eggs, nuts, soy, gluten, sugar (other than what's in fruit or raw honey) grains or starches and heavily restrict fish and seafood. I'm breastfeeding so I need to get some calories! For me right now, it means vegetables, fruit, lentils, meat, bone broths... and even sauerkraut. Hmmm. So I took photos of breakfast and lunch today (PS the plates look so full as they are side plates, not dinner plates)
Breakfast: Henderson's Dry Cured Bacon (no chemicals or preservatives) with mushrooms, guacamole, sauerkraut and a tomato on the side.
Morning tea: A small banana at home followed by a Grande Starbucks Chai Latte made with hemp milk while catching up with a friend. I am not actually allowed this - but it means I can still feel somewhat normal occasionally. I'm phasing these out which will be much easier as we start moving into summer. But goddamn, I miss my skinny flat whites!
Lunch: Munched on leftover lamb shanks from last night's dinner (which went into the pot to make a bone broth) with a side plate of tomato, cucumber, guac and mushrooms again along with that good old sauerkraut!! (Not really a fan but it's an important part of the eating protocol, especially the juice, so I mix it in with anything else on the plate I can until my taste buds learn to love the bloody stuff.)
Dinner: still only mid afternoon here, likely it will be salmon with asparagus!
Breakfast: Henderson's Dry Cured Bacon (no chemicals or preservatives) with mushrooms, guacamole, sauerkraut and a tomato on the side.
Morning tea: A small banana at home followed by a Grande Starbucks Chai Latte made with hemp milk while catching up with a friend. I am not actually allowed this - but it means I can still feel somewhat normal occasionally. I'm phasing these out which will be much easier as we start moving into summer. But goddamn, I miss my skinny flat whites!
Lunch: Munched on leftover lamb shanks from last night's dinner (which went into the pot to make a bone broth) with a side plate of tomato, cucumber, guac and mushrooms again along with that good old sauerkraut!! (Not really a fan but it's an important part of the eating protocol, especially the juice, so I mix it in with anything else on the plate I can until my taste buds learn to love the bloody stuff.)
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
We also had a highly allergic baby and at 4 months, after seeing an Auckland allergy specialist, I was told that Neocate was the only thing that would help. I also suggested that I would cut out all the foods she was allergic to and got told that it was not a good idea as there was no way to know how many foods she was allergic to.
Tearfully we had one last breastfeed when we got home and then switched her onto formula. Within 3 days her skin was remarkable clearer.
She is now 14months old and is allergic to wheat, gluten, eggs, dairy, peanuts, soy, rice, some vegetables, cats. Part of me wishes we had persisted with the breastfeeding regardless of specialist recommendations, perhaps with somewhere to find support for breastfeeding with food allergies it would have been possible to continue. She also had formula within the first month, I wonder if its related.