Fish is in! (I think)

Day 34

Despite the fact that Ellie didn’t have a great night last night, this morning I felt ready to forge ahead. When I opened the fridge this morning to contemplate breakfast options, our neighbor’s trout peered out at me from inside the clear meat drawer. Alright, I thought. Let’s give you guys a try. I rinsed of the six small fish and lined them up on a foil-lined cookie sheet. I let Ellie take a look (she was very intrigued!) and put them under the broiler for 5 minutes on each side.

I served the fish alongside pureed cauliflower soup with raw egg yolk and man we were both excited! Fish! I never knew I could feel so grateful for fish! I carefully pulled the meat away from the tiny bones and plopped bites on Ellie’s highchair tray. I could not keep up with her! And every time I feel behind she pleaded, “more fish!” I know that when you’re trialing a new food you’re supposed to start with a small amount, but for some reason Ellie and I struggle with that rule. So between the two of us we ate two entire (small) fish. Ooops. 

A year ago, I was eating oatmeal for breakfast. Now I'm broiling trout!

Another note about trailing foods: for people like me who are doing GAPS with a kiddo with lots of allergy issues, it’s a good idea to trial new foods at breakfast. It gives you the entire day to observe for reactions and increases the chance that you’ll be up with your wits about you if there is a reaction, rather than dead asleep in the middle of the night. (I got this very helpful tip from Dealing with Food Allergies in Babies and Children, which I totally recommend checking out.)

That being said … our day was great! Ellie didn’t develop any rashes and took a good nap. She didn’t become obsessed with nursing and her mood was great for the majority of the day. She did complain of a tummy ache after naptime, but that’s within the realm of normal these days. If tonight goes well, I’ll be ready to declare fish – or at least trout – safe.

This is very exciting! It would feel like our food options were practically doubling! What if we can eat creatures from land and sea!?!

I’m not going to claim that GAPS healed Ellie’s fish allergy because frankly I have no idea if Ellie had a fish allergy. I do know that she got sick every single time she had fish, but like I’ve said before, I’m pretty sure she had eggs (mayo) or lemon all of those times and she was/is for sure allergic to both of those.

What is remarkable is that GAPS has helped us get Ellie to a healthy enough place that I felt confident we could trial fish and understand the results. The last time we tried fish was early last fall, and since then there just hasn’t been a good stretch where we’ve felt comfortable trialing fish. So that says a lot about the progress we’ve experienced so far. I am so excited to continue this good streak so we can keep introducing foods we’ve been suspicious of, but just haven’t had the time to test out.