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).

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.

This is what it feels like to have a healthy child

I haven’t written in a long time, which is due to a wide variety of factors, including the fact that Ellie’s given up her nap, which means I’ve lost my regular writing time. But the biggest reason is that I really cannot believe what’s happening. I keep pinching myself. I’ve been taking my glasses off, wiping them, putting them back on and squinting at this situation – trying to tell if I’m seeing it clearly.

It was less than two months ago that I was sitting in a doctor’s office with a cranky Ellie in my lap, enduring an intake interview with Ellie’s third gastroenterologist.

“How often would you say she has abdominal pain?” the GI asked me.

“All the time,” I answered. “Every day. All day. All night. She tells me she has tummy aches all the time.”

I know I said that, but I can’t believe it. Because Ellie’s all better.

What 7 days as a vegan taught me about life

I've been meaning to write this post for a few weeks now, and this is the perfect time to share. It's about self-care for us mamas with a kiddo in a challenging health situation, and just in time for Mother's Day! How can you prioritize taking care of yourself - can you find the space in your life for a little self-care?

Recently I underwent a weeklong cleanse. What on earth was I thinking!?! 

I’m a busy mama taking care of a 2-year-old with a really confusing set of symptoms and food allergies. The nutritionist we have worked with for over a year now offers seasonal cleanses as part of her practice. Each cleanse focuses on detoxing and supporting a particular organ and each time a cleanse has rolled around I’ve been equally interested and skeptical and 100% sure I was not up for it. But this spring I’ve felt a gathering strength as I’ve gradually gotten a handle on my adrenal fatigue and Hashimoto’s.

Putting our hopes in Ketotifen

Back when we started our SCD/GAPS adventure I really believed food could fix everything. I believed that if we took the right foods out and put the right foods in that we were guaranteed success. I was wrong.

A lot of people behind GAPS, the Weston A. Price approach, the raw food movement - whatever! - push the idea that food truly can heal all that ails you. And that's just not true for everyone. Believe me, I've tried.

There is something about Ellie's system that causes it to react to whatever she's eating. So we trial dairy and it seems fine, and then one day dairy's no good anymore. Ditto for grains, or soy, or whatever. Finally we got her on a very, very clean diet comprised primarily of meat, vegetables and limited fruit and what happened? She started reacting to fruits and vegetables. The explanation in GAPS is that in a situation like this we need to heal Ellie's gut with bone broths and fermented foods and a high-fat diet. Well, we tried that and we landed here anyway.

When a grain-free diet isn’t working, look to salicylates

Over the course of the past month or so we’ve done some skin prick testing that has revealed some surprising food allergies for Ellie. She’s tested positive for allergies to: parsley, spinach, celery, carrots, lemon, grapefruit, walnuts, cinnamon, cod, bananas and oysters. Ellie’s allergist made a comment that perhaps Ellie was sensitive to salicylates, since many of the foods she tested positive for are high in salicylates. Some of the other foods are high in amines, another food chemical. It seems that often times if a person is sensitive to salicylates, or amines, they are also sensitive to the other.

I had never heard of salicylates and didn’t think much of the comment for days, feeling overwhelmed at the task of removing all these foods from Ellie’s already very limited diet. (Some foods had been removed long ago, but others were still a huge part of her diet.)

But time went on and Ellie continued having the same reaction to a variety of food. On two days I fed her raspberries, which she hadn’t had since last summer, and she became crazy hyperactive, had bright red flushed cheeks and was suddenly fussy and clingy. Another day I gave her some cherry tomatoes and the same reaction happened. I gave her some freeze-dried blueberries another day and – again – same reaction. I tried giving Ellie a homeopathic nasal spray of quercetin, which is a natural chemical found in foods and is believed to help support the immune system and suppress allergy symptoms. Well I found out the hard way that this type of quercetin is often sourced from parsley and citrus, which are very high in salicylates, and Ellie had the same. damn. reaction.

Fresh food allergy testing, going off allergy meds

Last week I took Ellie in to her allergist's office to do fresh food allergy testing. The way this works is a lot like traditional skin prick allergy testing. First the nurse used the food extracts, taking plastic pins that had been submerged in food extracts and then poking them into Ellie's back. With the extracts, Ellie had positive results for parsley and spinach. Because the results were so clear, we did not follow up with the fresh foods for parsley and spinach.

Next, came the fresh food testing. I had brought in a bunch of foods that I suspected for causing problems for Ellie. I focused on foods that cross-react with birch tree pollen since we've been suspecting Oral Allergy Syndrome, but I also threw in random foods my mama instincts told me were suspicious. It was actually very cute because Ellie was not keen on doing a second round of "pokes" but the nurse encouraged Ellie to poke the pins into the fruits and vegetables which really helped settle her down. With the fresh food testing Ellie tested positive for celery, carrots, lemon, grapefruit.