It's been awhile since I posted...I need to get back into cooking more meals during the week! I've been eating gluten/bread for the past 3 weeks and it opens up so many more meal possibilities. My goal was to only eat it once a day, as it does make Noah a little uncomfortable. It's amazing, though, how once you add it in, it's hard to remember how to eat without it!
It was a pretty rough week last week. Our 4 1/2 year old got a stomach virus (again!) and didn't feel good. She ran a fever, as did Noah for about 24 hours. We could only assume that Noah felt pretty icky also. He continued to nurse well and seemed to have a good appetite, however was so horribly fussy. HORRIBLY. He wasn't so bad when awake, but when he got tired it was this awful event to get him to sleep. He would scream, and only be soothed by this outrageous bouncing/jumping/jiggling act cuddled in our arms that actually felt like it had his body suspended for a millisecond. Hubby and I both had the thought independently that we were giving him shaken baby syndrome from such hard bouncing. It was THE ONLY thing that would stop his screaming and put him to sleep. We were so uncomfortable with it, that we stopped and let him scream it out in his crib. If we were taking 20 minutes to get him to fall asleep in our arms, walking around, bouncing, etc., screaming the entire time, he might as well just scream in his crib. It worked quite well! If only we had tried sooner. It did take quite a toll on our 4 1/2 year old....she was very bothered by him crying so much. She's a tender soul!
So we really deliberated. Was Noah upset because of the likely tummy issues, or did the gluten finally catch up to him? Or could he normally semi-tolerate gluten, but with the tummy upset it pushed him over the edge? We resorted to formula for the next 18-20 hours while I avoided gluten so my milk could clear out. Interesting factoid...while on formula, he still had some gas. While nursing with me avoiding gluten, he still had some gas. When I eat gluten, he still has some gas. I'm at a total loss! I'd rather eat it and have a bit more sanity on the TED diet if he's still going to be gassy. So it's back to the old guessing game and just not knowing how to proceed! I began eating gluten again yesterday after a 2-3 day break, so we'll see what the future holds! Other than bread, I haven't added in any new foods. Oh, I did have oatmeal Friday and Saturday. I couldn't see any change in his behavior.
This is week 18 on the TED - no meat, soy, dairy, eggs, corn/corn syrup, bread (for 4 months), nuts, chocolate, many fruits and vegetables. I'm not sure how much longer I will last...
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You're doing a great job. You have a healthier baby during these winter months than you would have without breastfeeding. He's benefitting from your immunity not to mention all the other health properties of your milk. Just keep reminding yourself, "It's one year out of my life." Before you know it, he won't be a baby anymore and you'll be so proud of what you accomplished.
ReplyDeleteWow Holly, it is interesting to read your experience. I wish I would have known more about the TED with Esther. I have just been playing the guessing game. My pediatrician told me that unless there was blood in Esther's (my baby) stool then it didn't have anything to do with an intolerance/allergy (she was very gassy, fussy, and with certain foods had green, mucousy stools). I went on a diet of rice and canned peaches for 3 days and she was a different child, but I didn't know how to add things back in so I just started adding things randomly (and not always one at a time). Basically I figured out that's she's very sensitive to dairy, soy, corn, eggs, as well as nutritional yeast. Then there are quite a number of other fruits and vegetables that make her very gassy, but don't seem to affect her stool much (those seem to be improving now that she is 10 months old.
ReplyDeleteThe thing that really caught my attention is your comment about the very vigorous bouncing being the only thing that would put Noah to sleep. Esther was exactly the same way. She liked (in my words) violent motion. It was exhausting for me, but was one of the few things that calmed her down and would eventually put her to sleep. Crazy!
--Shelanne (from Union)