Monday, July 23, 2012

Two diets, one life


Ever since introducing grains a couple months ago – and really for a long time before that – I’ve been struggling to balance my needs and Ellie’s needs. This just comes with the territory when you become a new mom. A small baby has only needs and a mama’s job is to address them as accurately and promptly as possible. But at a certain point there becomes a mix of needs and wants and this begins the long and nebulous process of drawing boundaries. Like I said, every mama and baby goes through this.

Our process has a more complex layer added on, and it’s about food and wellness. This has sprung up recently as a very big issue. You see, I added grains back into our diet on the hunch that it might help Ellie’s IBS symptoms and they did help – tremendously. But what I noticed over time was that grains didn’t serve me as well. And it’s not exactly that grains don’t serve me well – it’s not quite that black and white. It’s that I have to watch the glycemic load of my food very closely, as it has a huge impact on my health and energy.

Over the course of several months these truths seem to be revealing themselves: Ellie’s biggest issue (aside from her allergies, which are blessedly under control with medication) is IBS symptoms and that is best addressed with a diet high in soluble fiber (grains fall into that category, along with many fruits and vegetables) and relatively low in some fats. My biggest issue, on the other hand, is blood sugar control and that is best addressed with a diet with ample fats and limited carbs (grains fall into that category).

Tuesday, July 17, 2012

An unexpected hiccough

It didn't take long. Ellie started doing well after we added Ketotifen to her routine and Ian and I started talking about wanting to have another baby. I always knew I wanted more than one kiddo but for quite a while, in the thick of Ellie doing poorly, we had resigned to the fact that she very well might be our only kiddo. I imagined having kids fairly close together and as she got older and older I wondered if our chance had passed. But here we are. Our baby girl is 3 now and doing so well that our thoughts have turned toward having another one.

I discussed this goal with my doctor, who is treating me for Hashimoto's, and she asked me to go in for a thyroid ultrasound just to get it checked out before considering getting pregnant again. I went in a couple of weeks ago, feeling slightly concerned but mostly just slightly irritated at having to go through more medical crap. I fully expected to hear back that there was nothing noteworthy.