Yesterday I got the news that we could use the probiotics on Mr. Happy. We decided to use the same probiotic on Mr. Charm, since the children’s had corn it in. So today, my boys both got probiotics in their beverages. (Mr. Charm had been taking the corny one for a few days.) I am hoping so very much to see an improvement in them over the next couple of days.
In fact, Mr. Charm is already showing signs of improvement, at least as far as attitude goes. Today he was most definitely TWO – wanted to look at what he wanted to look at, didn’t want to listen, etc. – but he was somehow more mellow and agreeable about it all. We had a blast today, and he was downright affectionate…more than he normally is! I hope this is what “Mr. Charm” is like underneath his food irritations and unhealthy gut flora…THIS is the boy I remember when he was younger. He’s only shown up sporadically for a while, so I hope he’s here to stay.
Well, on to the diet. This morning I made potato pancakes. I took mashed potatos and browned ground beef, mixed them together, and fried 3 inch rounds of them in olive oil. Quite yummy! The Geek and I each ate 6 and Mr. Charm – thank the Lord! – ate 3.
Then the Geek and I each ate a bowl of cantaloupe and honeydew melon, but, again, Mr. Charm wasn’t having any of it.
I went over and checked on the dehydrator, as I had sliced up a whole cantaloupe and put it in the dehydrator the night before last. They looked pretty done, so I took them out and put them in a Ziploc bag. Mr. Charm was curious about them, and when I handed him a piece he scarfed it down!
We finally found a way that he will eat melon – dehydrated! He ate the equivalent of about a quarter melon today in dehydrated fruit. Score!
Then I had to go to the dentist. I’ve been having pain in my lower right jaw/teeth, plus I was due for a cleaning. So off I went with the two kids in tow.
I was planning to head the opposite direction and make another shopping trip to the health food co-op, so I had the car loaded with food to return, snacks for us, and an ice chest for perishables in case I needed to be out longer than I planned.
We got to the dentist and let me tell you – Mr. Charm was an absolute angel! He stayed in the stroller the whole time, playing with my car keys and a flash drive, and snacking on his dried cantaloupe. Mr. Happy was actually the difficult child – he got tired of being in the carseat and I had to hold him on my lap for the last half of the cleaning! But really, it went a ton more smoothly than taking two small children to the dentist should go.
Turns out, I’ve been grinding my teeth, and that’s the reason for the jaw pain. So, I’m wearing a night guard now. Joy.
On my way out of the office I saw I had a missed call. With an area code where Mr. Happy’s pediatric GI is based. Great. I finally get a call back and I missed it.
So I pulled over on my way out of town to call him back.
Turns out, it wasn’t the doctor, it was his nutritionist calling me. She wanted to go over Mr. Happy’s caloric intake, because I’d left a message asking about the 8/8 versus 6/8 formula to water ratio experiment last weekend. They were concerned, I guess, that I was starving my child.
Well. Here I am, needing to talk to the stinking doctor and instead he has his nutritionist call me to make sure I’m not starving my child. No, I’m NOT starving my child – I’m starving ME FOR my child, though, and would like your input on the matter! Ugh!
I talked with her for a while, though, hoping she’d have a few answers to some general questions I had. Then she transferred me and I left another message for the doctor.
By that point, I knew Mr. Happy had a diaper, and as he was wearing the last one we had I decided to swing by Wal-mart to pick up some more.
Mr. Charm had a great time in the store, as always, and amazingly enough, was really pretty good. Only towards the end did I have to break out the middle name to get compliance (which never works on him, by the way, but I keep trying). We got my new night guard and diapers and headed back out to the car.
By then, it was 4:30 p.m., and frankly I was too tired and it was too late to try and make it back to the co-op. So, we just went home.
When we got home, Mr. Charm helped me eat the huge bowl of melon I had packed to take on our errands. He actually ATE melon! I was so excited! He took his time with it at first, but finally started snacking away. And it was so cute – he wanted very much to feed me. So I got pretty good at chewing even larger mouthfuls of food than I normally take. He’s very persistent, after all.
The allergist sent over some Ele-care for us to try, and we immediately started Mr. Happy on the new formula. It’s too soon to tell if it will work for him or not, but he did seem to like the way it tasted better.
Dinner tonight was leftover pot roast from last night. Tonight, Mr. Charm ate very well. I was so relieved!
I was planning on expanding my food repertoire a bit for this diet, using quinoa and other items in creative ways. I will still do that for the Geek and Mr. Charm, but I got some input from the FPIES message boards that has me rethinking my 33 item menu. The new plan is for me to stick with what I’ve eaten for the last two days, and eat nothing but those things until I’ve been nursing him for about 4-6 weeks.
The whole idea is for me to clean out my system so Mr. Happy won’t react to anything I’m eating. The ladies pointed out that it’s safer to start small and grow, because it’s easier to find the problems if and when they arise. So I’ll go smaller, and if he has problems with my diet after a few weeks of nursing on it, I’ll drop to extremes – 2-4 items on my menu. Let’s hope it doesn’t get to that.
So, if I wait another week or two to start nursing him again, we’re talking 6-8 weeks of eating nothing but: beef, potatos, carrots, onion, garlic, olive oil, salt, pepper, honeydew melon, cantaloupe, decaf tea with stevia, and orange juice.
I’m not thrilled, actually. It’s going to be hard to get the caloric intake I need to keep my milk production up high enough. I *may* consider adding in the three ingredients I would need to make my homemade ice cream, just for the fat/calorie intake. Then again, I may not.
Today, Mr. Charm and I did well on the diet. We ate all day long, but we stuck to the menu. The Geek, on the other hand, cheated while we were out, and finished off the last of the bread we had with some turkey sandwiches. Well, it’s not as important the he follow the diet, and now there’s less tempting food laying around the house for me to see!
Mr. Happy was his normal happy baby self. He did throw up twice, and had a couple crying episodes that weren’t explainable, but otherwise he grinned and smiled and was a happy little boy.
Tomorrow I’m planning on more potato cakes for breakfast and another roast for dinner. Yum!
