Diet update

We are still working our way through the food challenges.
Since my last post about the diet we have tested
* Goats milk
* Amines
* Nitrates

I think the goats milk had a mild reaction, but it just made her a bit spewy. So I'm not completely sure that it was the goats milk. But I hated the taste so much of the goats milk that I couldn't be bothered continuing the test.

The amines seemed OK, but again the test required eating 3 bananas a day and I don't like bananas. I'm now eating foods with amines but monitoring it carefully. I must admit there wasn't that much I could add that had amines but not Salicylates, so I'm not to worried about them.

In the last few days we have tested nitrates, this has meant eating bacon and ham. YAY!!! I've really missed these. Thankfully they don't seem to have reacted, but I'll keep monitoring for the next few days.

I'm not sure what I will test next, it will either be milk or soy. I'm thinking soy as I'm pretty sure the milk will react and we'll need a few days afterwards to recover.

Flavours in Breastmilk

I found this article very interesting. The fact that their research showed that it only takes at the most 8 hours for the taste to disappear is interesting in relation to Saana's response to food I've eaten.
When doing the food challenges I can always tell if there is a problem with the food within 12-18 hours. IF she hasn't reacted after 24 hours I can pretty much be assured that the food is not a problem for her.
I must admit I've always suspected that breastfeeding helps develop a babies tolerance to flavours. I also think that a broad diet while pregnant help to develop the babies tolerance to different foods, but I don't know how you would research that idea.

Diet update

I've lost track of exactly how long we've been doing the diet now. Miki has been very grateful for all the foods I cooked and froze before Saana was born, I don't think he would have coped on the diet. Each time he eats my food he comments how bland it is. But that's life.
We have tested several different foods
She no reaction to
• Wheat
• Yeast
• Eggs
Her nappy rash flares up if I have lots of yeast, but generally OK.

But last thursday I tested Salicylates and we knew about it by that night.
Over the day I ate
• 150gm of canned peaches
• 1 granny smith apple
• Pumpkin soup (cumin & onion)
• 150 ml of freshly squeezed apple juice
• Half a mango

Approximately 10 hours after first food was consumed she started to react. Our evening and night ran like this
• Noisy reflux sounds but very little vomit
• Started making her “I’m in pain” cry
• Would start to fall asleep then wake up with a jerk and start crying again
• The strong reflux occurred for her evening foods on the 10th and her overnight/morning feeds the next day.
• Her day feeds on the Friday still had reflux, but wasn’t as intense.
• Friday afternoon and Saturday she appeared to have colicky tummy pain
• On Friday her stools had blood in them
• By Saturday evening she was pretty much better.

So now I've accepted that for now I'm not eating anything with even moderate salicylates> After we have finished all the other food challenges I will test her tolerance levels.

Diet update

oday I had an appointment with a nutritions, after the MACH nurse recommended I see her to check that my diet is OK while on the elimination diet.
Well the nutritions suggested I go the whole hog and do the complete elimination diet recommended by the Prince Alfred Hospital in Sydney. I was pretty overwhelmed by it all when I left. The diet combined with what I have already eliminated doesn't leave me with that much to eat. As I was driving home I was sure I wasn't going to do it, but I've changed my mind now.
If I'm going to do this it is worth doing well. So now I'm learning all about Salicylates (I can't even say it yet), Amines and other natural food chemicals. I've found at lot of information and resources at Sue Dengates website. So we'll see how it goes.

Sling, Pappose or carrier

Hi. My name is Sally and I'm a sling-o-holic!

I now have 3 slings and I love them all. Let me tell you about them.

When I was pregnant my mum brought me a baba-sling.
I used this when Saana was very little and she could lie in it. She would often fall asleep while in it and it was so easy to get on and off while she was tiny. I must admit that as she became bigger it became uncomfortable to wear and she didn't seem to like it much either. I now keep it in the car for when I want to duck into a shop or something and I want at least one free hand.

Then my dad brought me an ergo. I think this one will be a favourite for a long time. It is great for walking and outside things. The only time it is not perfect is for around the home which brings me to my third sling.

I brought myself a hug-a-bub. This one is for around the home, while wearing Saana is the HAB I can cook, clean, deal with washing etc. I think this is Saana's favourite because she can face outwards and see everything that is going on. It took me awhile to get the hang of putting it on, but it gets easier pretty quickly.

Now I've written all this, I'm going to go and put Saana into the HAB because she is sik of playing on the foor or sitting in my lap.

sally

Diet & Breastfeeding

I have decided to do an elimination diet to try and see if what I'm eating is triggering Saana's reflux. Before her UTI and kidney infection were diagnosed I stopped eating anything with caffeine, including chocolate :( and tomatoes.
We've now cut out
* dairy
* wheat/gluten
* soy
* rye
* eggs
* Plus all the original things.
I'm planning to do this for at least 2 weeks and then I'll start testing foods.

feeling a bit better

Well 24 hours on and we are all feeling much better.
DD slept for 7 hours last night, I woke up with milk running every where but feeling much rested.
I tried the 2 hours between feeds and I do think it has helped a bit. I posted on the ABA forum and one girl made the suggestion that maybe I was over-stimulating her when I thought I was settling her. I had a thought about this and I think it might be right. Instead of doing lots of things I just held her tight on my chest while sitting in the rocker, she slowly stopped crying and went to sleep, that happened twice today.

My big realization today was how the 45mins sleep cycle works. Because I was tracking time for the 2 hourly feed breaks, I noticed that on her first sleep today she woke after a 45 min sleep.
On her 2nd sleep she stirred after 45 mins, but settled back to sleep, I suspect before I would have gone to her and she would have woken up. this happen twice and she ended up sleeping for 3 45 min cycles before waking for a feed.
I'm waiting with baited breath to see how it all goes tomorrow.