On the Road (Toward Healthy and Happy) Again
The experiment seems to be working.
I decided not to include squash in our initial diet, since one of my sisters can't tolerate pumpkin. I knew that if I included all 6 foods and Baby E didn't improve, then I'd want to remove the squash and see how she did without that. So better to start without it in the first place and then add it later.
Our five foods are chicken, brown rice, broccoli, pears and bananas. Water, unrefined sea salt and black pepper are the only allowed additives at this point.
Thankfully, there are lots of different varieties of brown rice, each with unique properties, so that makes things a little more interesting. Yesterday I made a big pot of sweet (sticky) brown rice, and today I'm making basmati rice. Tomorrow we'll have jasmine rice.
I've discovered that sweet rice, with its extreme stickiness, is a little messy and difficult for Baby E to eat as it ends up after the initial cooking. But it really makes a nice substitute for pancakes. You just flatten the cooked rice into patties and fry them--no other ingredients necessary. They end up crisp on the outside and gooey on the inside. Today I'm going to try grinding the leftovers with some water in the blender and making crackers or something like that out of them.
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DH went to the store and stocked up on our 5 ingredients for me, but the bananas and pears he could get were too green to eat, so yesterday we just had the first three foods to work with.
Baby E was thrilled. The foods we're down to are her favorite foods. We'd been out of chicken for a while, so when DH came home with a bag of Foster Farms frozen chicken thighs (the only choice we're pretty certain is corn-free) I immediately cooked some.
Baby E had eaten very little for the last several days, but when offered chicken and brown rice she went wild. She ate a huge pile of brown rice, two entire chicken thighs, and a few broccoli florets. She was hungry! I'm so glad she finally decided to eat.
Since then she's been much happier. She is eagerly eating at meals and is much more cheerful between meals.
Yesterday she finally started taking small sips of breastmilk from a bottle or sippy cup without gagging and spitting it out. I was careful not to pressure her, but I'd set a bottle or cup of it on her tray along with a cup of water. I tried it in various containers, both warm and cold. She wasn't drinking it, but she'd occasionally taste it.
When she was down on the floor playing, I pretended to feed the milk to her doll. She liked that, and kept handing me the doll and gesturing for me to feed it.
Finally, last night at dinner, Baby E actually drank some chilled pumped milk. She drank the two ounces I'd put in her bottle, then asked for more. She's been drinking milk from a bottle or cup just fine since then.
By the way, the pumping is going much better now. That first day I was storing the pump elements in the refrigerator between pumping sessions, then taking them out and going straight to pumping with the chilled pump. Cold pump = no letdown. Running the attachments under hot water first makes quite a difference in the milk yield (not to mention the comfort level).
She's still not nursing, but she's showing some interest. I'm making a point to be available to her without pressuring her.
Honestly, I don't really care that much whether she nurses again or not. I'd be happy either way as long as she's happy. All I want is to know she's getting adequate nutrition and is healthy and happy.
Thankfully, we seem to be back on the road toward that.
I decided not to include squash in our initial diet, since one of my sisters can't tolerate pumpkin. I knew that if I included all 6 foods and Baby E didn't improve, then I'd want to remove the squash and see how she did without that. So better to start without it in the first place and then add it later.
Our five foods are chicken, brown rice, broccoli, pears and bananas. Water, unrefined sea salt and black pepper are the only allowed additives at this point.
Thankfully, there are lots of different varieties of brown rice, each with unique properties, so that makes things a little more interesting. Yesterday I made a big pot of sweet (sticky) brown rice, and today I'm making basmati rice. Tomorrow we'll have jasmine rice.
I've discovered that sweet rice, with its extreme stickiness, is a little messy and difficult for Baby E to eat as it ends up after the initial cooking. But it really makes a nice substitute for pancakes. You just flatten the cooked rice into patties and fry them--no other ingredients necessary. They end up crisp on the outside and gooey on the inside. Today I'm going to try grinding the leftovers with some water in the blender and making crackers or something like that out of them.
#################
DH went to the store and stocked up on our 5 ingredients for me, but the bananas and pears he could get were too green to eat, so yesterday we just had the first three foods to work with.
Baby E was thrilled. The foods we're down to are her favorite foods. We'd been out of chicken for a while, so when DH came home with a bag of Foster Farms frozen chicken thighs (the only choice we're pretty certain is corn-free) I immediately cooked some.
Baby E had eaten very little for the last several days, but when offered chicken and brown rice she went wild. She ate a huge pile of brown rice, two entire chicken thighs, and a few broccoli florets. She was hungry! I'm so glad she finally decided to eat.
Since then she's been much happier. She is eagerly eating at meals and is much more cheerful between meals.
Yesterday she finally started taking small sips of breastmilk from a bottle or sippy cup without gagging and spitting it out. I was careful not to pressure her, but I'd set a bottle or cup of it on her tray along with a cup of water. I tried it in various containers, both warm and cold. She wasn't drinking it, but she'd occasionally taste it.
When she was down on the floor playing, I pretended to feed the milk to her doll. She liked that, and kept handing me the doll and gesturing for me to feed it.
Finally, last night at dinner, Baby E actually drank some chilled pumped milk. She drank the two ounces I'd put in her bottle, then asked for more. She's been drinking milk from a bottle or cup just fine since then.
By the way, the pumping is going much better now. That first day I was storing the pump elements in the refrigerator between pumping sessions, then taking them out and going straight to pumping with the chilled pump. Cold pump = no letdown. Running the attachments under hot water first makes quite a difference in the milk yield (not to mention the comfort level).
She's still not nursing, but she's showing some interest. I'm making a point to be available to her without pressuring her.
Honestly, I don't really care that much whether she nurses again or not. I'd be happy either way as long as she's happy. All I want is to know she's getting adequate nutrition and is healthy and happy.
Thankfully, we seem to be back on the road toward that.
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Posted by purple_kangaroo at 9:53 AM[Permanent link]
12 Comments:
I'm so happy to hear your plan seems to be working!!! What a relief that must be.
Just wanted to let you know we're rooting for you. :)
Hooray for eager eating! And I'm impressed with your rice pancake idea. That is so cool.
My sister made her own maple syrup last year from the maple trees on her property in Vermont. And she said they didn't use any oil or anything, just boiled it down.
I wonder if there's a way for you to get some organic maple syrup with absolutely no additives?
I'm so thrilled to hear it! And the rice pancake idea is brilliant -- I'll have to try it. Did you buy the rice in bulk or was it a particular brand that you use?
Thanks, Parodie! It is a relief. I'm very happy that she seems to be well today. Now, the real test will be if she starts sleeping better at night again (that hasn't happened yet) and if her wellbeing lasts longer than a day or two.
Cat and Liz, thanks!
Phantom Scribbler, the rice was Lundberg Organic Brown Sweet Rice. It's a short grain rice, and the kernels are rounded kind of like barley. It came in a 32 oz. plastic bag, and I'm not sure where I bought it. I hope I can find it again! LOL.
The rice was really sticky, so I had to put it in the pan and then flatten it with a spatula. I thought about flattening the patties between waxed paper, but I wasn't sure what the wax on the paper was made of and didn't want to contaminate my rice. :)
Liz, actually it turns out that apparently I'm allergic to maple syrup. I feel tons better since cutting it out for Baby E's sake. Figures, since I'm allergic to maple tree pollen.
(Liz's head hits the keyboard)
Holy guacamole, PK! Is there anything aside from chicken, brown rice, and broccoli that doesn't cause an allergic reaction in your family????
PK, you deserve some kind of award for your patience and perseverence in dealing with all these food allergies. Here's hoping your diet (and Baby E's) can eventually expand.
Wow, what an ordeal! I feel you on the pumping thing, but I am so glad you're figuring it out.
PK, I really hope she starts feeling well enough to sleep better. In my opinion the true brilliance of your plan is that if it doesn't work you have a very strong case to take to your doctor (though of course I seriously hope it works!!!).
Liz . . . um, lamb? Probably taro, LOL. Seriously, if you include the extended family I think you'd find at least one person who is allergic to just about everything. It's a terrible genetic heritage to pass on. Thankfully DH's side of the family has very few allergies, and at least 2/3 of our kids seem to have gotten some anti-allergy genes from him.
Thanks, Rev Dr. Mom. I think we're going to try adding a new food that we're pretty sure is also safe tomorrow. We may add the ones we're pretty sure aren't problems two at a time, until we hit the foods we're less certain about.
Miraclebaby, good to see you! I hear you on the nursing/pumping/non-nursing issues! How's it going for you?
Parodie, one of the main goals of what we're doing right now is to create a baseline . . . how Baby E is when we're pretty sure she's not being negatively affected by something she ate.
Hopefully the process will reveal either exactly what foods are problems, and/or unmask any problems (hopefully none!) that aren't food-related but that we might have mistakenly been attributing to allergies.
so glad things seem to be going better today. bigs hugs and encouragement to you- the great creative mom/dietician!
So glad the diet seems to be working! Poor kid, she must have been feeling so bad :(
IF broccoli is okay, it seems like the broccoli-cognates would also be? Cauliflower and cabbage are techically the same species, so they might give you some variety in the Greens department?
Warm packs on you might make the yeild while pumping even better, BTW. *someone* makes gel packs in half-circles that can be cooled or warmed for the purpose... they were new when I had baby #2 - Medela or Lansinoh, maybe?
Thanks, Bridget and Sara.
Sara, I was thinking that adding all the other cruciferous vegetables all at once might be okay. I'm going to ask my naturopath about that today.
The warm pack idea is a good one. If I seem to be having trouble with milk production in the future, I'll have to remember that!
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