What is Bugging Us? Dairy Elimination {Part 2}

July 25, 2012 By 1 Comment

In my previous post, I talked about some interesting symptoms my family has been having, specifically Ella.  Today I will share what we tried in order to figure it all out.

Finding Help

After seeing a few doctors who seemed to ignore my concerns and suspicions, I contacted a holistic nutritionist to see if she could be of help.  Tracy Stevens of Intuity Wellness works with clients all over the country through phone and web conferencing but, luckily for me, we live in the same area and were able to meet in person.  She instantly put me at ease, understanding my mother’s instinct and need to investigate this further.  I started working with Tracy to not only figure out this situation, but also to further my own health goals of better eating, more energy, etc.

Our Plan

Under Tracy’s guidance, we decided to do a 10 day dairy elimination, since that is what I initially thought might be the problem.  For this elimination to be effective, we had to remove every bit of dairy from our diet.  This meant scrutinizing food labels and asking questions at restaurants.  We became familiar with more obscure sources of dairy, like whey, lactose, caseinate and others.  If we ate dairy during the 10 day period, we would have to start over.  On day 11, we would then add dairy back into our diets for the next few days and note any changes or side effects.  Go Dairy Free has some great information on products and methods that do not use dairy.

How Did We Do?

Initially, the elimination was hardest on Ella.  She loved her bottles and since, in the beginning, she rejected milk alternatives anyway, we decided this was just as good of a time as any to ditch the bottles.  After a few days, she was better and happily drank almond milk from a sippy cup.  I missed my morning yogurt and cheese the most, but was surprised at how much I enjoy almond milk in my latte.  As the elimination went on it was pretty easy to handle at home.  The season certainly helped – we have been cooking simple meals on the grill or roasting vegetables with olive oil.  Winter would have been more difficult, when I typically use more butter  or cheesy sauces.

And as you can see from the photos, popsicles are an equally delicious substitute for ice cream on a hot summer day. ;o)

I was nervous about removing such a major source of calcium and protein from our diets.  Mark Bittman recently wrote an article on milk and why we don’t really need it in our diets.  Perfect timing for me.  The article caught some controversy, but it was helpful for me to hear how we don’t actually need to drink milk for good nutrition, something that has been ingrained into our thought by the USDA and dairy industry.  I’ve added a lot of calcium rich foods to our diet, like kale, beans, salmon and sesame seeds.

Eating out was the most difficult.  Apparently restaurants like to put butter on everything (and I totally get it – it makes a sandwich taste so much better!).  We had to be diligent in asking about everything.  Not just removing cheese from a sandwich, but making sure there was no dairy in the bread (which I found in almost all sandwich bread).

Our Results

We completed the elimination almost perfectly.  Jackson had some crackers on Day 5 that we didn’t realize had “natural cheese flavoring” in them.  After that, we still kept to our dairy free diet to see if by Day 10 we could still see anything.  On Day 11 we added dairy back in and I noted some changes and side effects.  Officially, however, our results were inconclusive.  There was nothing so drastic or obvious to say that dairy was an issue, which is great!  Could some of our symptoms be because of dairy or maybe it was a placebo effect?  To find out for sure we are going to try it again, especially since Jackson wasn’t fully complaint the first time.

Ella’s diaper rash went away completely during the elimination.  When we added dairy back in she got a slight rash, but not as awful as it had been.  For me, I noticed changes in my energy level, mental clarity and digestion.  These were all slight.  If I get the same results from the next elimination, I will have to decide how diligent I will be in my dairy consumption.  Should I eliminate it forever?  Or maybe just have some once in a while.  We shall see.  In the next few weeks I will have more information to share with you.

Until then, I have been working on some dairy-free recipes that I will post soon…

 

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What is Bugging Us? Could It Be Food? {Part 1}

July 17, 2012 By Leave a Comment

It has been a little quiet here on the blog the past few weeks.  I’ve been a little lazy with the heat of the summer, but I’ve also been thinking about some issues and I wasn’t sure how to share them.  Well, I’m finally ready to talk about it since I feel I have a good plan.

One of the major reasons why I started this blog was to focus more on how I feed my children.  I wanted to make sure they grew up eating healthy, flavorful food that would give them a good foundation of eating habits throughout their lives.  All summer we have been working on eating a real food diet, with natural ingredients and fresh, unprocessed foods.  So far I’ve enjoyed this transition and I do not see going back to processed food at all.  My taste buds have evolved and I prefer homemade foods.  I found that convenience is not enough of a benefit to sacrifice taste and health.

No one in my family has any history of problems with food, and I never thought my children would have any issues… until this spring, just after Ella turned one.

The Backstory

During the week of Ella’s birthday, I started transitioning her from formula to cow’s milk.  I mixed it in gradually in each bottle, each day using more milk and less formula.  She did fine with the transition and really enjoyed her new milk.  She had already been eating table food for a few months, which included other dairy like cheese and yogurt.  About three weeks after her birthday, I started noticing some annoying issues.  She was spitting up again after her bottles, something she hadn’t done in months.  She developed a diaper rash that wouldn’t go away.  This was worrisome, since she never had diaper rashes, only having a few as an infant.  And I also noticed more rashes on her body.  Rough patches on the back of her arms, red itchy dots on her neck.

Something wasn’t right, but I didn’t really know what.  Separately, all of these issues are common in babies.  But all at once?  The diaper rash was the most concerning, since it was itchy, red, angry and blistering.  Looking at all of the changes that had happened along with the timing, I had a hunch it was the milk.  And it clicked for me a little more when I remembered her reflux diagnosis as an infant that wasn’t helped by medication.  It wasn’t until I put her on a low lactose formula that she seemed better, which also worked well for her older brother.

Doctors Visits and Nutrition

So I made an appointment with our pediatrician’s office.  After presenting all of the information and my thoughts, the doctor prescribed a steroid cream for her diaper rash, said her skin rash was manageable  and to keep an eye on it and then tried to send me on my way.  The doctor didn’t think milk was an issue, but agreed to order an allergy test at my insistence.  While I waited for the results, I turned to the internet and my local library to try to find more information on what was going on.  I found many resources on symptoms of food intolerances or sensitivities versus food allergies.  By the time I received results of the allergy test 10 days later, I wasn’t surprised that it was negative.  Thankfully, she had no allergies, but it is still possible to have a sensitivity.  Meanwhile, Ella’s diaper rash went away the steroid cream.  As soon as we stopped using it, the rash returned.  We used all of the cream that was prescribed and the rash still returned.  We were advised to return to get another steroid prescription.  I was frustrated that the doctor only seemed to want to treat the symptom, and not look for the cause.

From my own research, I learned that sometimes goat milk is easier to digest than cow’s milk and could help.  I was excited since it was similar in nutrition to cow’s milk.  I immediately started serving Ella the goat milk in her bottles and removed all sources of dairy from her diet otherwise.  And guess what?  Her rashes and spit up went away!  I was thrilled, but a few weeks later… her symptoms returned.

Was she finally reacting to the goat’s milk, or could it be something else?

Stay tuned for the rest of this story…where I turned for help and how a little detective work and an experiment can hopefully give us an answer.

 

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Mise en Place: A Mom’s Best Friend in the Kitchen

May 21, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Mise en Place [MEEZ ahn plahs]: French for “putting in place.”  In the kitchen, it means to organize equipment and ingredients in preparation for cooking.

We’ve all been there.  It’s 5:00 (or more like 6:00 some nights), everyone is hungry, tired after a long day and dinner needs to be made.  At home with toddlers, it can be the hardest part of my day.  Cooking a hurried meal with cranky little ones almost always ensures something goes wrong.  An interruption to mediate a toy battle means a forgotten ingredient or not enough time to get the chicken diced before the onions too dark.  This is where mise en place comes in.

Since I prefer cooking our dinner right before we eat, I have found that a little prep work earlier in the day or week can totally save my sanity.

How to make mise en place work for you:

1. Menu plan: Having an idea of what you will be making ealier in the week can ensure you have all the ingredients you need, and hopefully you won’t be heading to the grocery store last minute.

2. Read through your menu or recipe early in the day (or, better, the night before): I always hate when I forget to marinate meat or make a sauce early enough to let the flavors blend.  When you read the recipe, work backwards.  If I want to eat at 5:30, the meal will take 30 minutes to cook and 2 hours to marinate, I need to have my chicken in my marinade by 3:00.  That means getting started no later than 2:30 or 2:45.

3. Steal moments throughout the day:  I used to prep and cook during nap time, but lately nap times have been varied or even non-existent.  Now I start as early as possible.  Kids are sleeping in late?  Let me slice some onions.  Ooh, look.  They’re playing so well together right now.  Perfect time to make the salad dressing.  Anything that makes my hands messy (like pie dough or raw meat) I like to do when kids are sleeping or when someone else is around to minimize interruptions that require so much hand washing.  And if I am cutting up a carrot for lunch one day, I might as well cut up the whole bag for the rest of the week.  This goes back to number one – check your recipes, your carrots can be sliced, diced or grated at the same time for use in dishes throughout the week.

4. Use an assortment of dishes for your prep:  While I love my small prep bowls, I don’t use them exclusively for mise en place.  In an effort to reduce the amount of dishes, I try to use the least amount bowls possible.  Measured rice goes straight into the rice cooker.  The cherry tomatoes are held in the cup used to measure them.  Minced garlic gets added to the bowl of chopped onion, since they will go into the pan at the same time.  Olive oil goes straight into a waiting pan.

5. Relax: This is always a good one to add to any list.  Taking some time to prep in advance has made weeknight dinners so much more pleasurable.  Having things measured and chopped allows me to relax and I find I invite my son into the kitchen to help me more often, which is something he loves to do!  If you didn’t get it all prepped, no problem.  At least you shaved off a few minutes of work at one of the roughest parts of the day.

What is your weeknight dinner strategy?

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To Everything there is a Season

March 30, 2012 By Leave a Comment

For the past few months that I have been blogging, I have kept things pretty lighthearted.  Wanting to focus on the things that make me happy, inspired and proud.  I love that I have this outlet and I will continue to share the things “feed my sunshine,” if you will.

But there is another side that I haven’t yet shown you.  You know, like, real life.

Real life is the half-hearted dinners I’ve made that I din’t even want to eat for leftovers (and I eat everything).  Real life is the 8 other closets in my home that desperately need some love too.  And real life is the current limbo we’re living in right now.  Our little family unit has had a lot going on lately.  Nothing terrible, just a little bit more than your usually stresses.  I know it will all work out in the end, with us in a better place emotionally, financially and all the rest.  It’s just getting there that is the struggle.

I wish I could say that my life is full of puppies and rainbows all the time, but if it were, maybe the good stuff that we come across wouldn’t be as good.  Like these:

Best $5 bucks I ever spent.

I also like to remind myself to be patient.  That where we are is where we are supposed to be.  And I think of this song.

The lyrics are straight from the Book of Ecclesiastes in the Bible (thank you, Wikipedia) but since I’m not very religious, I always think of The Byrds and sing this song in my head.  Hopefully soon we will get through this season we are in and then move on to another one (with its own set of issues, of course).  I feel fortunate that in all this, our foundation as a couple and as a family is strong and supportive.

Thanks for listening to my babble.  I’ll be back in a few days to share some happier moments – cupcakes, sock monkeys and 20 preschoolers bouncing around.  J + E are celebrating their birthdays this weekend!

 

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