Wednesday, September 3, 2008

Trauma for Mama!

Well, Jack has had eczema for most of his 15 months of life. We tried many different lotions, tried having him take codliver oil (which tasted like lemon but made our cloth diapers and everything they touch smell like fish- yuck!!!), and I even have resorted to hydrocortizone cream which I really really hate puting on my baby! But I could never really get rid of the rough red patches that Jack would inevitably start scratching. So, I have started thinking that Jack must have an allergy so I took him into the naturopathic doctor today and he said that eczema is caused by an allergy 85% of the time and that the biggest offender is dairy. So, Jack and I have to GIVE UP DAIRY for atleast 3 weeks (if this doesn't clear up the eczema then we have to try eggs next). No biggie for Jack since he has never eaten more than 2 tablespoons of table food in a day, but for me this will be challenging. I do love healthy food. I enjoy my salads, vegetables and fruit, but I LOVE icecream, cheese, yogurt, vanilla lattes and butter on banana bread...All of my comfort foods are gone. I will do anything for my babies though. If you have any favorite non-dairy food (no whey, casien, casinate either- they are dairy), especially yogurt or icecream, let me know! Jack still breastfeeds so much and I really need those calories to keep me going!

3 comments:

fiona said...

Ugh! I'm sorry!! We didn't have those issues, so I'm no voice of experience there...if I think of any good dairy-free ideas, I'll pass them along...oooh, coconut milk! it's yummy, lotsa good fat/calories...maybe a Mango rice sorta thing...mmmm. I don't have any specific recipes, but I love adding coconut to stuff, esp. when the twins' weight lagged for a checkup because they had been sick. Good luck, I hope answers are forthcoming. And we had to take codliver oil when I was a kid and I don't remember it tasting like lemon -- yuck! It has obviously improved ;)

Julie said...

It's been 24 hours now with no dairy and I am still alive! Soy icecream is really really bad. The doctor suggested one particular brand, but it is $6 a pint.. so my icecream habit is going to be broken. sniff, sniff. I have had ice cream every night for 6 years at least... Coconut milk is a great idea Fiona! Maybe smoothies with it and mango and pineapple. And non dairy cookies with coconut and lots of dried fruit. num! Yes, codliver oil isn't so bad anymore! I am taking a Tbsp. of it a day to help Jack without our home smelling like the sound.

zachariah said...

At one point we were trying to figure out why Bran was having bad stomach pains when he was about 1-2 months old. One of the suggestions we found was to stop eating chocolate, Fiona stopped the chocolate for a while but luckily for her it didn't help Bran and she was able to go back.