The First Food Elimination

The hardest food elimination is the first one..... And the one you crave the most.... And the one that's most convenient to cook on a busy evening.

Who am I kidding? They're all hard in their own way!

But when it's for your baby it's worth it.

My first elimination was dairy in October 2008. Now, I am a self proclaimed cheesaholic so this elimination was frought with despair. I chose this path in hopes of stopping the constant ear infections my 18 month old daughter was experiencing, even though my pediatrician said I was crazy and there was no correlation. The naturopath I was seeing at the time agreed with my decision to eliminate dairy and set me up with a nutrition plan to do that and also to lose weight (40lbs in 4 months!).

My daughter was 18 months when I started this journey and it took a few weeks until I "got it". You see, even though. I knew dairy was an issue I didn't WANT to believe it was. One evening early in this elimination process we had my inlaws over for dinner and ordered in from Chilis. Not wanting to miss out on the nachos (cheesy cheesy nachos) my husband had ordered and still in denial based on my WANT for it not to be a real problem I "enjoyed" some nachos. My, were they tasty with all their cheesy goodness.

48 hours later my daughter had a raging double ear infection and the guilt I felt was astounding. I did this. This is MY fault. Was it REALLY worth the few minutes of cheesy delight? Seeing my daughter in so much pain because I couldn't resist the cheese-demons cut me to the core. My heart ached with regret and sadness that I had been selfish to the point that caused so much pain for my child. It had finally hit home that dairy was the enemy, needed to be eradicated from my life and thus .... Au Revoir le fromage. Good bye old friend, I shall miss our interesting culinary adventures.

It wasn't evident to me at the time, but it is now. You can see the dark circles under her eyes which is a telling symptom of a food allergy. Her complexion is pale as well. Her belly, which isn't pictured, is bloated and since birth she's had breasts. Once dairy was removed the breast tissue went away. Two years later when we finally went gluten free her bloated, pregnant belly disappeared. "Is This Your Child?" Is an excellent environmental and food allergy resource. http://www.amazon.com/This-Your-Child-Doris-Rapp/dp/0688119077

One additional incident with dairy consumption furthered my drive to keep her safe. In January we went to my inlaws for dinner. We had mashed potatoes (is it odd I remember nothing else from this meal?), and they were delicious. My MIL used chicken broth in the potatoes for mashing and adding moisture which makes them out of this world. Not exactly butter and sour cream out of this world but fantastic in a dairy free sort of way. Anyways, upon returning home from a meal where my daughter and I both consumed a fair amount of these delicious starch mountains my MIL called to say that while washing the cans she realized the broth contained milk and she's SO sorry she didn't check. Yes, we were sorry too that she didn't check and we were trusting that she had. This brought us another raging double ear infection, fever, vomiting, and a ruptured ear drum.

This is the "whey" dairy hurt my baby. My resolve to keep her safe strengthened at the time and I became somewhat of a control freak with food.

Our daycare was very good about it, for the most part...but they didn't convey the information to the woman who subbed as my daughters teacher. Even though the room had signs everywhere saying my child couldn't have dairy she was still given a bowl of pudding one day! What happened? You guessed it - ear infection, vomiting....and it was so bad after a bowl of pudding that we ended up at the children's hospital because we couldn't get her to stop and she became dehydrated. From pudding. Yes it's really that important to avoid an allergy all costs.

For what it's worth my daughter had never had a skin reaction to food. Her stools as a breastfeeding infant were textbook normal and allergy testing had ALWAYS come back negative for dairy. Obviously though, it's a bad choice for her body. I fired my pediatrician because he told me I was nuts (more or less). I beg to differ, but if eating x food leads to vomiting and illness I'm going to avoid that food.

My husband was not dairy free but he did agree to not have dairy at home. It wasn't fair to us to see him have cheese when we couldn't and besides those cheese demons are so strong....it's not enough to be dairy free. You have to really eliminate it from your house 100% so you don't cave to the pressure. The cheese speaks to you, it taunts you, and it beckons you to come closer. DO NOT EAT THE CHEESE!
          
A note added by Jamie;
"The momentary "high" and pleasure you get when you cave to the temptation to eat the cheese is not worth the nuclear level fallout after consumption. No amount of enjoyment and pleasure from a food of ANY kind is worth seeing your child tortured and torn apart from the inside out. Dairy free seems simple to me now. At first it was Mt Everest and I was climbing in off season with no guide and a storm brewing. I made it to that summit. I pushed past the addiction and the happy feelings dairy brings, and I did it with zero regrets. We all say we'd die for our children, but are we willing to let the part of ourselves that is hurting them die? In the climb you find a passion for a healthy life. You realize Mt Everest was no taller than the dirt fort in your backyard as a kid.

People tell me all the time "I wouldn't survive without ______" usually dairy, or gluten. Those are the two hardest to give up because they speak directly to the happy spot in your brain. They deceive you into feeling warm, safe and happy. When you're smack dab in the middle of the withdrawal from these things, you may honestly think you're going to die. But on the other side, you realize that you weren't truly living before. You begin to understand what all those healthnuts have been saying. Feeling healthy is worth far more than the drug like high created by dairy. After a while, the very thought of eating it makes you shudder."

"The Gluten/Casein Peptides Test can determine the inability to digest wheat, rye, barley, and milk. These undigested proteins, called peptides, are associated with gastrointestinal, neurological, and neuro-developmental disorders.

Urinary peptides are incompletely broken down pieces of protein. The peptides from gluten and casein can react with opiate receptors in the brain, thus mimicking the effects of opiate drugs like heroin and morphine. These compounds, called neuropeptides, have been shown to react with areas of the brain's temporal lobes that are involved in speech and auditory integration. Neuropeptides also decrease the ability to feel pain and effect cognitive function.

Most people who have food allergies to milk and wheat also have problems with peptides from these foods interacting with their brain and causing an opiate-like effect. However, some individuals may not show a food allergy to milk or wheat, but have the peptide problem and vice versa. Because of this, we recommend the Gluten/Casein Peptides Test be taken in addition to our food allergy testing." http://www.greatplainslaboratory.com/home/eng/peptide.asp

Dairy is also an opiate like drug -- http://home.iae.nl/users/lightnet/health/dairyfoodaddiction.htm

This is my baby girl now, 4 years dairy free. Since the we've also eliminated eggs, soy, corn, wheat and then all gluten, grains.

~Stacey

The High Cost of convenience.

Why Jamie eliminated dairy, and has zero intention of EVER going back;
"I can't afford to eat healthy, there is just no room in the budget"

I've been there. Truly. Just about 2 years ago we were in a place where we ate on $160 per month, for 4 people. We shopped the salvage grocery store, the bread outlet, the thrift section in the meat dept. We survived it, but the majority of what we ate was bulk pasta, sandwiches, toast or biscuits.

Before that, we ate basically whatever we wanted. Lots of pasta, I was a mac and cheese addict for most of my life. 5 boxes for $1? Who could refuse THAT kind of a deal? Add in some sour cream, velveeta and a whole stick of butter and your taste buds are reeling in happiness. Even with the not so cheap additions, it was still a very very cheap side dish. Or meal, if you chopped up a package of hotdogs that were 2 for $1. A full blown meal for less than $1. Wow. Maybe if I was feeling guilty I'd heat up some sweet corn on the side, for a veggie.

For all of my life I had dark circles under my eyes. These were relieved somewhat with allergy and asthma medications, but I was never one to claim being "healthy" or athletic. As a child I was sick. A lot. I remember a few times of going to the Dr, when he'd look at my throat and diagnose strep without even running a culture. I was allergic to penicillin, we knew this early on, but he RXed a drug named Bromfed. It was a broncho dilator, and it helped me feel better. Until it gave me what looked like the chicken pox, numerous times. When we asked him about it he said "This does have a small dose of Penicillin in it, but its so small I didn't think she would react" hmm.

For almost a year, I was in that office close to every 2 weeks and put on yet another round of anitbiotics. It was almost always confirmed Strep throat. I was even given antibiotics when it was viral. I remember clearly when Z-packs hit the market because it was only 6 pills to swallow instead of the usual 2-4 a day for 10 days. We had no insurance. I honestly do not have any idea how much money was spent on antibiotics and doctor visits for me. But we didn't have it. That's partly why we ate so many meals of hotdogs and mac and cheese.

At some point, Mom said "enough" I truly don't know how old I was, somewhere between 10 and 12. We went to an ear nose and throat when my throat hurt after coming off yet another round of antibiotics less than a week before. We were both sick of it. I couldn't live sick forever. We hadn't been to the ENT before as it was believed they would want to remove my tonsils. There were no funds for surgery, and we didn't want them out as they DO benefit you. We knew that much.

He looked in my ears and throat, asked me 3 or 4 questions, and said "She gets sick so much because she has allergies. The allergies keep the protective coating of her throat damaged and she can't fight anything off. I can see by the scars on her tonsils that this is not a new problem. She should have been on allergy meds long ago"

I left there with samples of Claritin D, Singulair, two inhalers and a handful of paper prescriptions for the same.Within a week, my tonsils shrunk so much I choked on my food. I'd been so acustomed to my tonsils blocking off my throat, literally almost touching even when I wasn't sick, that I had to learn to swallow again. Mom went to work for a pediatricians office, and was allowed to use the samples for my needs. I was also being seen by new doctors and we added Advair to the list of meds, and I was told that when my allergies got bad seasonally to add Sudafed AND Benadryl on top of the Claritin D (yes it already had Sudafed) to take the edge off as needed.
Several years later, Enter heart palpitations. I try weaning myself off of the Sudafed and Benadryl. Altho my allergies were worse, my heart was better. Thought provoking.

Lets take a jump ahead, I'm a new mommy again. My daughter screams from gas pain, has green mucus in her bowel movements and a rash that blisters, bleeds and refuses to leave. Enter Stacey and the words on a forum "Maybe you should try to eliminate dairy, it helped me in many ways" Ok, said I. I'll cut the dairy out, I've done it before with my son, I can do it again. But I had never taken it to an extreme. I simply stopped eating cheese and using milk. I cut out obvious dairy. It took me about 6 weeks to finally eliminate all traces of dairy. Casein, Whey, Lactose, and all the various forms of hidden milk.

About that time, I ran out of Claritin and we didn't have the money to buy more. I ran out of Advair, and didn't have the $75 copay to refill it. 3 weeks later I realized my allergy symptoms were gone. GONE. I had taken no meds for almost a full month, and I felt better than I ever had in my whole life. The change? Dairy. The dairy was gone. Not even counting the added amazing bonus of the new, healthy and happy baby I had almost instantly. My life long dark circles were gone. I no longer needed the medication that I had discovered to be causing heart palpitations and even seen a cardiologist for. I was free.

Eating healthy can be expensive. It IS expensive. Going from spending $160 per month to $200-$300 a week was shocking. Now, we moved in that time to a very high cost of living area, from a very low cost of living area, so that number is inflated. But I began to understand what my brother, Dr Kenneth Wingrove DC, had been telling me. "Eating healthy IS expensive, but can you afford the cost of NOT eating healthy?" This hit home even more after my mom, at 50 years old spent $30,000 in medical testing without insurance to try and diagnose lifelong illness. We thought Lupus, MS, Chrohn's, IBS, or some combination of all of it. They couldn't find a medical reason why she was dying. But dying she was.

My sweet little baby girl, Abigail. So obviously, blatantly intolerant/allergic to dairy.
"Mom?" Said I, "Perhaps you should try this too. I obviously have a problem with it, and so does Abigail. It makes sense that you would too."
She took little convincing, and tried it. Her life has been saved by realizing food intolerances. That is NOT an exaggeration in any way. First dairy, then gluten eliminated. Then a simple blood test for food allergies and eliminating what came back positive and my mom, for the first time in my life (or hers) can go shopping for more than half an hour without feeling too sick to keep moving. She didn't have to sleep all the time. If someone had told her a year before, or even as a child what food intolerances and a lack of real nutrition can truly cost, she would have led a very different life. We all would have.

Without the amazing blessing of our Abigail and her unmistakable dairy allergy, we would probably not have my mother around to spoil my babies. I would still be living on allergy and asthma medication that was causing cascading problems with my heart.

Is living healthy expensive? Yes. But can you truly afford the cost, both the monetary and physical COST of not getting healthy? The cost of not doing everything you can to be truly healthy is far higher than a grocery bill. It's higher than the inconvenience of learning or re-learning to cook. It's more important than having to navigate through nutrition labels on food and personal care items. The cost of convenience food, the cost of convenience, altho it may have a lower price tag, is exponentially higher than the cost of eating healthy.

~Jamie

Tongue Tie, Food Eliminations, and Baby#2

Four months after eliminating dairy and starting on this journey I discovered that I was pregnant again. I was shocked and elated all at once, such are the emotions of a newly pregnant woman. I was on my way to a healthier me having recently lost 40lbs and gone off the antidepressants I had been on for ten years. I had eliminated dairy and eggs, two huge no-nos for my body and the world was looking brighter. I had conquered some unknown demon and was finally healthy!

My second pregnancy was easy and I felt great. Compared to my first pregnancy this was a breeze and we excitedly awaited the arrival of Jackson. Or Abigail. We weren't sure since the baby wasn't showing the goods!

I distinctly remember saying at one point in my second trimester, "Watch, this baby will be allergic to something else, like soy or wheat." Did I have a crystal ball that told me this? Did I know deep down I was headed for what came next? Or did I know on some level I had issues with these foods and just needed the kick in the pants to see it?

We welcomed Our second daughter in November 2009. From the start she was bumpy and rasht but I was told ny our new pediatrician this was baby acne and totally normal. By 3 days old the baby was losing suction while nursing and the THREE different LCs I presented this to said the baby's as doing this because she was done and sleepy. No no no that didn't seem right and no one listened to my concern. Once the milk stopped flowing freely she'd lose suction and struggle at the breast. No one thought it was an issue and chalked it up to my being over anxious. We plodded along this way since she was gaining well and having adequate wet and dirty diapers.

At 10 days old I gave in to my extreme cheesecake craving (and don't I deserve that after a surprise home birth?). We went to Whole Foods and picked up a MooCluck cheesecake, made from soy. It was quite delicious for a cheesecake void of all cheese. Anyways, by the next morning my daughter was covered in bumps. As I was nursing I was watching the bumps appear on her body and it was obvious that soy was an issue. I laughed about that a lot that first day but being that I needed to test my theory I held off on the cake for two days and tried again. Same reaction. I had proved to myself it was an issue and the soy elimination began.

Did you know soy is in everything? EVERYTHING. One of the main ingredients in Stovetop Stuffing is soy protein isolate and oddly enough that stuffing (as delicious as it was) always made me sick. Huh. Go figure.

Along with the bumps came green poop. Baby poop should be yellow and smell sweet but my poor soy allergic baby had green, slimy, mucous filled diapers that were just....wrong. Her weight gain continued to be adequate but her stools were weird - green - with the occasional "normal" stool thrown in to give hope.

The details are a little fuzzy but over the next month I ended up eliminating peanuts, nuts, fish, shellfish (which I know I'm allergic to) in addition to our dairy and eggs. Another month went by and I eliminated wheat (THAT was scary). On day 3 of my wheat elimination I woke in the middle of the night with diarrhea and extreme nausea. I ran a fever and felt absolutely hideous until my husband made me a slice of spelt toast and after a few nibbles I felt normal again. Sounds weird, right? I was going through withdrawal! Remember how we talked about dairy being a drug? Wheat and gluten are as well, and my body was not happy with the elimination.

http://www.wheatbellyblog.com/2012/04/wheat-is-an-opiate/

http://www.livingwithout.com/issues/4_8/giving_up_gluten-2024-1.html

http://www.livestrong.com/article/246282-gluten-free-diet-and-withdrawal-symptoms/

At this point my daughters stools were still green and mucus, and they had zero smell at all. In early March I tested my wheat theory and both the baby and I were very sick. At that point, and grasping at straws, I eliminated gluten. I had to psyche myself up for it because going gluten free in our society is no easy feat when you don't know where to start.

My daughter was now 4 months old. She's still rashy, still pooping green and mucus, she wants to nurse all the time and on top it off it all she stops sleeping. I can't eat bread or peanut butter or pasta or anything thats tasty and oh.my.goodness I'm so hungry all the time and every food seems to be the enemy. Breathe.....

I'm tired, I'm beyond frustrated, and I'm mad at the world. No really, l was so angry I could spit nails or breathe fire. I saw no joy in life because it was all such a struggle and all anyone could offer was "why not use formula?" Yes that's the easy I-dont-have-to-do-all-these-food-eliminations way but have you seen the ingredients in formula? They're dairy or soy based. That makes formula a no no from the start! I'd also like to remind you of my resolve from my first child to eliminate dairy as not to hurt her. My resolve is strong as steel now and isn't nobody getting between me and breastfeeding. Nobody.

This is also when I discovered my older daughter was allergic to corn....a bumpy itchy rash on her behind. We tested this theory too and within 20 minutes of eating Ian's gluten free chicken nuggets (corn in the breading) she hd a red, itchy, bumpy rash on her behind. It took awhile to get rid of all the corn because it hides in everything by weird names.

Is your head spinning yet? I'm off dairy, eggs, soy, nuts, peanuts, fish, shellfish, wheat, gluten, and now corn.

But the acne I've struggled with since I was 11 is gone. I've lost all my baby weight plus an extra 15lbs. Wow.

But my baby, 6 months old now, has only gained 5 oz in two months. I'm starving my baby. I'm not producing enough milk. Here come the comments....formula...you can't nurse....formula is better....you're failing...

You know what? I didn't do all this to fail. This is my child, my chance, and I'm not giving up.

A friend gave me the number of a holistic lactation consultant and I met with her that week. She gave me a list of things to try, suggestions to pump after feeds, and sent me to see her chiropractor of choice for body work for the baby. I felt like someone was listening. Finally.

I saw the chiropractor and within the first 5 minutes she confirmed there was a posterior tongue tie. WhAt?! How did this go unnoticed for 6 months? Oh yes, I had no pain and she was gaining well. Remember the loss of suction I mentioned? Tongue tie. Remember the green poop? Tongue tie and food issues. Remember how I said I wouldn't fail? I won't!

To be continued....
~Stacey

Who Are We?

We are Stacey and Jamie, stay at home moms who share a passion for real nutrition from real food sources. Each dealing with our own set of food intolerance's, we share common intolerance's of gluten, dairy and soy and a love for all things coconut.

We "met" through an online forum in 2009 when we were both expecting babies in November of 2009. We found through general chatter that we had a few things in common, but it wasn't until a bit later that we discovered we had much more in common that we first thought.

Our girls were born 5 days apart, and actually share a common name. Among sharing a love for natural birth, cloth diapers, breastfeeding and attachment parenting, we soon realized that was just the tip of the ice-burg. Shortly after our girls were born, we celebrated their first holiday.

                                                                   Thanksgiving

AHHH Thanksgiving; dressing, potatoes, sweet potatoes, cakes and 4 or 5 different pie varieties. Vegetables are served drenched in butter, heavy cream and cheese. If you HAVE to eat vegetables, hide their true flavor as much as possible so no one has to actually TASTE a green bean. The beautiful green salad, sits there because someone felt there should be a salad, and it goes un-touched. Was there a turkey? Who can even remember?

                                                                "The Last Supper"

That Thanksgiving is where Jamie's journey into real food began. Stacey's journey began much earlier, but that's a separate post entirely. At that time, Stacey was dairy and egg free. Food intolerance's discovered through her eldest girl a few years before. The day after Thanksgiving, un-affectionately known in the retail world as "Black Friday" seems rather fitting. The day after our girls first Thanksgiving, after nursing tiny newborns at the dinner table and eating leftover pie for breakfast, The girls were fussy. Very fussy. Then came the diapers. This wasn't right, it was so far from right there was something drastically wrong. At this time in Jamie's life, the term "food intolerance" had never entered her frame of mind.

                                              It doesn't seem like much of a pyramid anymore 

Fast forward a few months and Stacey's life has been turned upside down by intolerance's and dealing with an infant who had a severely damaged digestive tract. Jamie has discovered that by removing dairy 100% she had a different child, but still had a long way to go.

Another year, and both Stacey and Jamie have taken their families gluten free, doing it because of the needs of the children, and realizing their own intolerance's along the way. Stacey's diet consisted of grass at this point, and she began a journey into the world of gut healing. A world that helped open Jamie's eyes to the bigger picture of what was happening within her own family.

Through their separate journeys, they came together as friends, and co-conspirators into developing recipes that were not only delicious, but healthy. With an added bonus of not feeling ill after eating. What an amazing concept!

                                                             Green Bean Casserole
          Gluten free, grain free, dairy free with the added bonus of bacon. Who doesn't love bacon?

Stacey has a degree in Special Education, mother to 3 beautiful girls, ages 5, 3 and Newborn. She lives in Connecticut and enjoys knitting in her "spare" time. She is currently a Stay At Home Mom (SAHM) and spends the majority of her time making muffins and playing My Little Pony.

                                                                        Stacey

Jamie is a homeschooling SAHM to two children, a boy age 7, and girl age 3. Due in late July 2013 with #3. In her "spare" time she enjoys reading, Facebook, gardening and sewing. The most favorite of her pass times is gardening, or "playing in the dirt" Jamie also spends a large majority of her time in the kitchen.

                                                                        Jamie