When Ava was about 3 weeks old, she started to get really fussy. She would cry and cry and was very hard to console. The doctors kept telling us it was colic and it would pass eventually... maybe when Ava was about 3 months old. Nathan and I both agreed that the thought of our daughter crying for no reason was torture, for us and her. So after talking to our pediatrician and reading as much as I could, I decided to remove all dairy from my diet. For a short period of time I even cut out coffee.... I soon found out that was a crazy idea and added it back in. Thank goodness flavored creamers are non-dairy! It took some time to see the results, dairy can stay in your system for about 2 weeks, but Ava seemed like a different child almost immediately. Since then, I've slipped up once or twice, but since correcting the problem, we've been doing quite well. And I figure Ava is much happier this way, especially since her tummy doesn't hurt anymore.
Ava is now 5, almost 6 months old, and two weeks ago I finally added dairy back into my diet. Its been nice to add a few things back in, and I know Nathan is happy that I can go back to making "good" dinners again. I had been cooking with soy milk so I could eat things too, but there are only so many things you can make without dairy. I'm still trying to be careful with dairy, I know its not the best thing for you, but I am enjoying making caseroles again and having cheese on my burgers, not to mention a glass of milk if I really want it. (I love milk with pancakes on Saturday mornings) It took some time to get used to not being able to eat/drink dairy. I guess I was lucky that Ava wasn't super sensitive to it. I was still able to eat things that were made and baked with dairy, ie cookies and cakes, I just had to stay away from dairy in its raw form... if that makes sense. The hardest thing I guess was the holiday season. There was tons of great food around me all the time and I couldn't have half of it. But we made it through, and I've already said that if we are blessed with another child in the future and I have to do this again, I'll do it, its worth it.
I thought I'd end this post with some pictures of our little one... she seems to be the reason everyone reads this blog anyway! Enjoy!
Ava was trying out our new bed, we finally got bedroom furniture....and it all matches! After it was all set up last week, Nathan and I both thought that our bedroom finally looked like it belonged to adults and not to kids right out of college with mismatched furniture.
our fly girl... just having some fun
oh so happy
2 comments:
Way to go! I'm sure that was quite a challenge for you to eat well, but without dairy. I love dairy products myself, and I know it would be hard for me to figure out what else to eat!
And, way to go, bf-ing mama!
So cute! I can relate to the difficulty of the non-dairy diet! I had to follow it, too, after I found out about Cooper's allergies to eggs and milk. Thank goodness when we weaned him I got to have cheese again!!! Poor thing, though, he has no idea what cheese is, except that you say cheese when Mommy points the camera!
Post a Comment