Fructose intolerance

The other day I fed Ellie a banana.

We have been eating very limited fruits and when we do have them we primarily eat low-sugar choices like blueberries and apples. But there was a banana lying around the house and Ellie asked for it and I thought, “why not?”

She ate the whole thing up enthusiastically – along with some almond butter – while we were at the park and a warm feeling swelled inside me. I have been really struggling with feeling like Ellie’s diet is far more restricted than necessary right now, and I wanted to believe in my heart that the banana was going to be OK. We had our snack in the park and afterward I pushed Ellie in the swing and then we watched our dog Pepe run around the field. About 30 minutes later, suddenly, Ellie practically doubled over. She looked up at me and said, “Mama, I have a tummy ache.”

Heading back to safe territory

Oh, if only I could learn a lesson in a day, or a week – life would be grand. But sometimes life has to unfold for months or years before I can look back and see the big picture and – if necessary – see where I lost my way.

Over the course of the past couple months we’ve moved away from GAPS and toward the Body Ecology Diet, meaning we added quinoa and buckwheat to the rotation. We also did a coconut trial that went down in flames. My family went through a lot of stress this winter and overall we’ve been on a downward slide since the fall. Ellie’s been complaining of stomachaches on a regular basis (which has frustratingly not been resolved by removing coconut, though she is much improved).

And the last straw was that this past week blood work showed that I am well on my way to being diagnosed with Hashimoto’s. 

Months later, the coconut trial goes down in flames

So, here's what happened.

Here's what we know. Ellie can't digest fats well. She's on two supplement - digestive enzymes and bile salts - that help her body digest fats and even with that she cannot tolerate some foods high in saturated fat, like beef, ghee and coconut. No doctor has ever been able to tell us why this is so, but it is what it is and we work with it.

Knowing all that, and feeling really confident that Ellie had come a long way, we decided to trial coconut in November. I wrote that post, saying that coconut had gone amazing, on Nov. 22. Two days later my grandma had a stroke and two days after that we relocated up to my aunt's house to spend a week with my grandma in Hospice. Our live went into major upheaval mode and the next month included a funeral, family holiday parties, Christmas and a week-long vacation. And over the course of that time Ellie's health fell apart. Suddenly she wasn't sleeping through the night anymore. She was waking up screaming, having terrible reflux, crying and unable to tell me what was wrong, except that she had a tummy ache.

A challenging time

I've been quiet here on the blog for a month now and thought I should write a quick post ... not that I imagine anyone is out there waiting with baited breath!

This has been a really challenging month for me personally. On Thanksgiving my beloved Grandma had a stroke. Initially we believed she would be able to recover but after about five days in the hospital the family decided it was time to move her to Hospice. Her last night in the hospital I received news that she was not doing well and in a flurry I packed bags and food, planning to stay at my Aunt's house and not knowing how long we would be gone. I feel extremely lucky that I live nearby and was able to spend an entire week with my Grandma at the end of her life.

Coconut!

This past week has been dedicated to trialing coconut in Ellie's diet and I am super excited to say it passed with flying colors! Horray!

I can't believe it's been since June that we last trialed coconut. It didn't go well. For a long time we thought Ellie was sensitive to or allergic to coconut but through a looooong discovery process we realized she wasn't able to digest foods high in saturated fat.

Things have been crazy since then and it just was never the right time to try something so risky. But Ellie's been doing great and we decided to take the plunge.

Falling off the wagon & a big discovery

A lot has happened since I last wrote. Where do I begin...?

Two weeks ago our little family flew down to LA to spend the week for Ian's work. On the flight Ian and I ordered a gluten-free snack pack. I ate the olives, he ate the chips, I ate the almonds, he ate the hummus. Since weaning Ellie I had really done quite well at sticking with our diet parameters and strategically adding foods that I was fairly sure would be healthy additions for me. But that snack box had a square of dark chocolate. And that chocolate had sugar in it. And I took a bite. I only had a teeny tiny bite of one teeny tiny corner. I congratulated myself on my restraint. It was my first taste of sugar in 11 1/2 months. Within an hour I could feel something was wrong. I was anxious, agitated and my brain suddenly felt foggy. Getting from the airplane into the rental car was too much for me to handle.

Making mistakes

I'm wondering when I'm going to stop writing "weaning is hard" posts. Not today, apparently! This week I have encountered a really unexpected challenge with weaning. I thought that getting Ellie and I on separate diet paths would be good for both of us - I'd be on an expanded diet and she'd be able to stay in the holding pattern that's working well for her. But it's not that simple.

What I didn't anticipate is that with my newfound freedom, I'd want to bring Ellie along with me to enjoy a host of new foods! It's not that I had specific foods in mind that I was desperate to add to her diet, but I just wanted my newfound sense of liberation to include her.

And so this week has been an absolute mess of unplanned food trials. This week I've exposed Ellie to citrus, red peppers, a pinch of raw brownie, potatoes and a buckwheat cookie. Not smart.