our new journey is re-establishing our family rhythm and learning to nurture oneself. part of our plan is being helped through new services my son is receiving. the wonderful part of the program is that the occupational therapist comes out to your home, observes and offers suggestions. there was high hopes that after we determined his intolerance to milk protein and eliminated milk protein from his diet that he would start eating in a healthy manner and his poor feeding would discontinue. everyone also hoped that my son would outgrown his milk protein intolerance after his first birthday. so we have kind of been in limbo, until recently.
after introducing milk to my son's diet, very slowly, for the past six weeks, we determined that he can not tolerate milk protein. he also has tracked consistently at the 5% for weight on the growth chart, so we still are working with his poor feeding.
our new plan includes:
1. helping establish a healthy eating and sleeping pattern for my little guy. we have adjusted his eating routine where he will eat 5 times a day, instead of every hour and a half. (he needed meals every hour and a half back before. he was so small and constantly active. he now will take some time to sit and read a book and he also takes some time to cuddle so we felt we were able to work with changing his eating routine) now that we are establishing a consistent eating routine, with meals spaced out more so he could experience a feeling of hunger and the ability to feel fulfilled with food, it has already greatly helped his napping routine. he now sharing a bedroom with his sister, which brings us to
2. getting mama a healthy block of sleep. transiting my son out of our bed and into his crib was a very hard decision. i had too many people that love the both of us urging me to do this and ultimately i decided that this was the best decision for our family. i slept on the floor many nights and watched the sun rise, but this is getting better
3. cooking without milk protein and eggs. (eggs is something that we will try in his diet in the future. my daughter was allergic to egg until she outgrew it at 3 years of age, so this is why he has been egg free)
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4 comments:
Mama knows best and what a terrific and mindful job you are doing.
Namaste, Nicole
It sounds like you are doing a great job caring for your son's allergies and weight issues. Isn't the library a great resource for cookbooks? My favourite allergy-related cookbooks are: The Allergen-Free Baker's Handbook, The Whole-life Nutrition Cookbook, The Whole-Foods Allergy Cookbook, and the Gluten-free Vegan.
We also dealt with the under-weight issues, sleep problems, and various allergies. I think the three must be related issues for some children. Getting the weight back into the 10-15% range helped with the sleep (or else it just took that long for him to learn to sleep). I thought he would never sleep through the night (or I would be happy with only being up once or twice in the night) but now that he's two and a bit he really does sleep all night.
Quinoa has been our miracle food. My son eats a bowl every morning for breakfast, and I have a quinoa salad with veggies in it every day for lunch. It is very healthy, contains a good amount of protein, is quick to make and is yummy.
Has your son seen an allergist? After testing for various common allergens we discovered my son had several allergies that we had not figured out on our own.
Thank you Nicole. I have enjoyed going through your blog. The prospect of a new home is exciting. I'm crossing my fingers for you.
Thank you Eagle Loft for your support once again. I'll definitely be checking out your recommendations on the cookbooks and even exploring your blog as well.
Yes, we have under-weight, sleeping problems and intolerances. We visited our allergy specialist (my daughter had an egg allergy until age 3) and had our son tested. He did not have any main allergens. We work with a Gastroenterlogist for our son's milk protein intolerance. Everything seems to be gi symptoms (bloating, feeling full, stomach cramps, stomach pains) that he had at some point, which caused his condition of poor feeding, refusal of food and drink.
Quinoa, was my son's first food. I look forward to doing more with it. Your salad looks delicious!! To be honest, i do have a little we computer time, which is my escape. But our lives have revolved around his feeding schedule. We work with a feeding team as well and their recommendations were meals every 1 1/2 hours, with high calorie foods. So we have been concentration on this and now that his weight has been consistently in the 5%, we are trying a new feeding schedule to see if he will "feel" hungry and eat a larger quantity of food. And also to get some balance within our lives and especially with my daughter. These issues do take over, as you know. They become your world and you are just trying to survive.
My son just started napping consistently a few weeks ago and we have had 3 nights of him sleeping almost all the way through the night. He's been getting up at 5 am, but i'll do a diaper change and then sooth him back to sleep. So, it will be interesting to see if this does help his weight gain. And hopefully he'll remain sleeping this way or better.
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