Rice is nice.

I had another follow up with Dr. Natural yesterday and I used the opportunity to ask about the rash around Ella's mouth. It's been going on since November-ish and doesn't ever go away though some days are better than others. Recently I've started slathering A&D Ointment on it at night which seems to help a lot but I hate the idea of putting petroleum on her face. We took the pacifier away in the beginning of December, hoping that would help since it was right in the pacifier region. Unfortunately, that was successful at doing nothing but pissing her off. Dr. Natural seems to think the rash is an allergic reaction from the oatmeal that I have been giving her. I know I really shouldn't because it can contain traces of wheat but I'm so desperate for things that this kid WILL eat that I was hoping that the traces would be minimal enough that it wouldn't be an issue -- especially since her wheat RAST was only 0.55. Oh well, guess I'll have to try my luck with a different hot breakfast cereal and pray that taking away the oatmeal makes a difference in her rash.

Then we moved onto me; Dr. Natural seems very pleased with my progress. My weight loss has leveled off, which is great. My current weight is the goal weight I had set for myself before our wedding and I am quite comfortable with this number. I expressed my frustration with the fact that this elimination diet has been very difficult to do on a budget and the prospect of keeping this up for another 4-7 months is pretty overwhelming. After talking it out, she agreed to let me start re-introducing some foods!!! She said I can start with rice and go from there, waiting a week in between new foods and only eating my triggers every four days so as not to re-sensitize myself to them. I'm beyond ecstatic and can't wait to have some brown rice with our pork chops tonight! This opens up a whole world of gluten free products that have been off-limits until now.

Just when I thought I'd be eating normally again soon

I had an appointment with Dr. Natural a couple weeks ago. The timing was perfect since I had come down with a cold that weekend & was anxious for a medical professional to assure me that it wasn't the dreaded swine. I felt awful. My throat was on fire, I sounded like an 80 year old emphysema patient and I had chills and body aches. Dr. Natural assured me that it wasn't anything more than a cold, instructed me to gargle with warm salt water every hour, gave me some herbal throat spray (tasted SO gross!) & some chinese herbs that would also help Ella (by way of my milk) if she caught my cold ... which she DID NOT!

After that was out of the way, we moved onto the real reason for my appointment -- to check in and see how my diet was going. We discussed re-introducing the offending foods and I was really hoping for some good news with Christmas right around the corner -- I really really really wanted to eat like a "normal" person or at least be able to take advantage of more "normal" GF products that contain rice and corn and maybe have a cup of hot chocolate. Unfortunately for me, Dr. Natural told me that while the written information she'd initially given me suggested avoiding the foods for 60-90 days, she was suggesting more like 9-12 MONTHS. Ugh. No food for me!

I'm curious to know how much more weight I'll lose by keeping this up for another 5-8 months. I'm currently the weight I was in the 8th grade. Wowee!

Now that I've gotten all the backstory out of the way

It's been about 9 weeks since I started my elimination diet. My acne has cleared up dramatically and I've lost 15 lbs. For the three months before our wedding, I was in the gym six days a week working out with a trainer, taking spinning classes, running on the treadmill, doing body pump classes AND I was on the South Beach diet. I only lost 3 lbs. Oh boy do I wish I'd known then what I know now! My belly bloat is completely gone and the weight is just melting off of me.

The first couple weeks were rediculously hard and I did a lot of crying. I was so hungry and felt like I couldn't eat anything we had in our cupboards. Instead of focusing on what I COULD eat, I was more fixated on what I could NOT eat.

Now that I'm a few weeks in, I've really turned my attitude around. Instead of wallowing in my misery, I've decided to look at this as a challenge and have set out to learn to cook with new ingredients. I've discovered the versatility of quinoa, the fact that goat cheese is actually pretty tasty and have learned many different substitutes for eggs. I've expanded my food horizons and have even gotten my super picky hubby to eat lentils!

Feeding Ella seems to be pretty easy in comparison to feeding myself. Most gluten free (wheat free) foods are made with rice. Or oat. Neither of which I can have. Luckily, she's pretty easy going and loves fruits and vegetables so we stick to those, for the most part. Cheerios have been replaced by Oatios and I scour food labels to make sure her juice doesn't have corn syrup, etc. It is difficult and grocery shopping takes twice as long now that I have to read and re-read every package but I feel better knowing that what I'm giving her is safe.

I keep reminding myself that all things considered, we're pretty lucky. We've caught these allergies early on and can learn to live with them. She will never know what she's missing out on because she's never had peanutbutter cups or icecream and hopefully, she'll outgrow some of the allergies and be able to live a "normal" life.

The results are in!

On September 11th, we returned to Dr. Natural's office, anxious to learn the fate of my diet. I'd lost 4 lbs in the last three weeks and the redness around my nose appeared to be fading.

First, she revealed Ella's IgE test results (<0.35>Cockroach: 0.50

Dog Dander: 1.36

Egg White: 17.30

Milk: 0.76

Peanut: 36.10

Soybean: 7.30

Wheat: 0.66

And my IgG test results:

• Almond (+1)
• Celery (+1)
• Cherry (+1)
• Coco-Chocolate (+1)
• Coconut (+1)
• Corn (+1)
• Eggplant (+1)
• Grape (+1)
• Milk, Cow's (+1)
• Mushroom (+1)
• Oat (+1)
• Peanut (+4)
• Pineapple (+1)
• Radish (+1)
• Rice (+1)
• Rye (+1)
• Sesame (+1)
• Soybean (+1)
• Sunflower (+2)
• Tomato (+1)
• Wheat (+1)
• Yeast, Baker's (+2)
• Yeast, Brewer's (+3)

It looked like I was going to have to get used to being hungry. It was also a relief to know that Ella was allergic to dogs because it certainly explained why she would randomly break out in hives at the homes of friends & family who had pets!

To the Naturopath we go

On August 21st, we had our appointment with the Naturopath. After my awful experience with Dr. Itsallyourfault, hubby agreed to come to this appointment with Ella and me. Dr. Natural did a full exam, checking her fingernails and her tongue, looking in her ears, listening to her gut... such a difference from the allergist who didn't even acknowledge that she was in the room!

We did a lot of talking, discussed both her diet and mine (since I'm still breastfeeding) and then Dr. Natural started asking questions about my health. She pointed out some redness around my nose and the skin blemishes on my chin and asked if I was aware that I had food sensitivities. Ummm... say what? I thought I just had crappy skin. Yes, I'm nearly 30 and my skin still acts like I'm 15 but it's because of what I'm eating?!? Seriously?!? Turns out that my food sensitivities could have been inherited by Ella and/or aggravated by the fact that I'm breastfeeding and not avoiding the foods I didn't know I was sensitive to. Dr. Natural asks me to have an IgG Standard Food Family Sensitivity Assay and suggests that Ella have an IgE test done. Finally, we're getting somewhere!

Before we left, Dr. Natural put me on a pretty strict elimination diet in which I was to avoid all "mucus causing" foods. This included wheat, dairy, oranges, potatoes, corn, grapes, bananas, soy, peanuts, shellfish and chocolate. In addition, I was also supposed to avoid eggs since Ella's skin test showed she was reactive. I was hungry already.

I can't have cheese or peanutbutter anymore?!?

On August 11th, after a lengthy conversation with the nurse at our pediatrician's office and several conversations and e-mails with my La Leche League leader, I decided to cut dairy and peanuts out of my diet. The peanut thing was a no-brainer really after I saw the size of the welt that peanut protein left on Ella's arm during the skin test. It seemed serious. And scary. Although it was a no-brainer, it still left me a little depressed -- no more peanutbutter cups (MY FAVORITE), no more PB&J (always good for a quick lunch on-the-go), no more peanut butter and crackers (a favorite late night snack), no more peanut butter and chocolate smoothies at the mall (OK, so my thunder thighs really don't NEED these).

Dairy took a little more convincing. Ella had never had a reaction to by breastmilk despite the fact that I'm a real milk and cheese all over everything kinda girl. I ate dairy like it was my job. My LLL leader finally pointed out that if I removed the milk proteins from her diet completely, the chances of her eventually outgrowing this would be much greater. And who knows, maybe I'd notice a change in her behavior that I never realized was an allergic reaction.

Sold.

Let the elimination diet begin.