Thursday, May 19, 2011

Day 29: An unlikely menace

Spinach. Go figure.

So two nights ago Ellie slept through the night. Yesterday I fed her some soup with well-cooked spinach pureed into it. The spinach gave me a terrible stomach ache, which was the second time that had happened for me. Then, this happened (from my food/symptoms journal):

Ellie wouldn't go to sleep at bedtime - needed extra patting and singing. Up crying at 10:30 - reflux - nursed and went back to sleep. Up again 15 minutes later crying - Ian held in rocking chair for 45 minutes then back to sleep in crib. Up again shortly after that - I went in and not very kindly told her to go to sleep. Slept til 5:20 - tummy hurt - nursed and back to sleep in crib. Up at 6:40 - nursed/slept in bed until 9:30. 

All of that for a small bowl of soup with spinach in it? No, thank you. This morning I looked back in my food journal to find the last day we ate spinach and found this:

Went down for bed fine but up 20 minutes later with reflux. Gave water and a song - back to sleep in crib. Up FOUR more times in the night to nurse. Up at 7. 

I have NO idea why spinach is a problem, but it obviously is. Fiber? Oxalates? Salicylates? Who knows...

Doing GAPS Intro has felt a lot more like going backward than going forward. Beside the successful addition of duck eggs, I feel like we are finding more foods Ellie (and I) react to rather than adding foods we weren't able to previously eat. We are supposed to be gradually expanding our diet through Intro and I feel like it's shrinking and it's got me in a bit of a panic.

Tonight I gave Ellie probiotics and S. Boulardii for the first time. I gave her the tiniest smidge, measured out on the edge of a knife. Wondering what tomorrow will bring...

4 comments:

  1. Oh Annie,

    I so remember the frustration of doing intro the first time! The whole 'one step forward two steps back' piece of identifying problematic foods, yeah. It's such a bother! Hang in there... Oh, you've just inspired a new post in me!

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  2. Glad I inspired you! It is totally one step forward two steps back at this point. I'm curious ... over the course of time were you able to add all the quirky foods you couldn't tolerate back in, or do you still need to avoid them ...? I mean, it's one thing to live without chocolate, but another to give up spinach and broccoli (surprisingly, the latter being the worst scenario!!!)

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  3. Hi Annie,

    Yes. Early on we had to leave out eggs, almond flour, fibrous parts of broccoli, celery, fruit and celeriac. Maybe other stuff, too. And I kept dairy except ghee out for six months or so. We were able to re-include everything except celeriac which always gives me intense nausea and heat.

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  4. So there is hope! Thanks for sharing :)

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