Food intolerances are quite frustrating. My second little "TEDling" (Total Elimination Diet) is very different from his older brother when it comes to food intolerances. We've tried six solid foods now?
Bananas (constipation, sleep disruptions)
Pears (constipation, sleep disruptions)
Carrots (constipation, sleep disruptions)
Oats (eczema rash)
Green Beans (rash and acidic diapers)
Sweet Potatoes (reflux...but possibly due to the grain-free transition?)
With the sweet potatoes I had just gone "grain-free", so I'm not sure if the reflux symptoms were due to the potatoes or the change in my diet. I'm suspecting that coconut is an issue for us, but I can't be sure until I eliminate it and try it later. Currently he hasn't had sweet potato in over a week and he is still having some reflux symptoms.
It's hard because I feel like we are going backwards. We were doing pretty well until we started solids. Now I just don't know, so I am going to scale back to the foods on our diet known to be the least allergenic. There is still a chance that something not as well known to be a trigger is bothering him, but I am hoping to find a baseline. It bothers me that he is 8 months old and doesn't have any solid food meals yet, although I read that solid foods for breastfed babies is more for the experience until the first birthday.
Wednesday, February 12, 2020
Friday, February 7, 2020
Seeking
In a recent sermon, our Pastor talked of seeking the Lord actively. It's nothing new to me, I've heard it all before, but I heard God's voice emphasizing Pastor's words in me. I want to seek the Lord. I want the passion that I've seen in others where they just can't get enough of Jesus.
I have never been that way. I want to know Him better, have that deeper relationship, and find that confidence in faith that others seem to have so easily. My faith ebbs and flows. It is a firm faith, a steady faith, but not that passionate faith others often speak of.
So if you think of me, you can pray for me, that I will put seeking God first and make those better choices. I don't think having that passionate fervor for the Lord is what I necessarily need; I just want to value Him more than the little things that I allow to take away His time with me. And I will pray the same for you. :)
Sunday, January 12, 2020
New Year, Re-newed Motivations
January feels like spring cleaning season to me. The excitement of the holidays and Christmas has passed and it is time to pack up the decorations and get back to normal life. Rearranging and organizing and then re-organizing always energizes me. My main priorities are seeing re-newed energy from me in getting our routines and daily living hammered out into a workable lifestyle.
I'm working on feeding my family well. Hubby and I are adapting our diet to be more anti-inflammatory and lower carbs/sugars. I spend a lot of time cooking these days. Often at least an hour in the kitchen. I haven't mastered being a chef by any means, but I have developed many new skills and am starting to learn shortcuts to help me do things more efficiently. My newest short-cut is a food chopper. No more crying from the onions and I can hand the chopping off to one of the kids to help me too.
Our homeschool routine got revamped and we are tweaking our subjects to fit into a Unit Study format so that all of my kiddos can participate in learning at their own levels. It is helping us to be more productive with our learning time.
I'm also in the process of viewing an online video recording of a recent High School Seminar so I can learn what I need to do to successfully graduate my oldest...she's almost a high-schooler! It seems so odd to say that, but it is true! I'll be logging hours, creating transcripts and all that fun jazz next year.
I'm considering going to a Total Elimination Diet for my little guy. We'll see how the next couple weeks go. He has had some really bad diapers lately and I think I need to cut out most grains if not all of them for a period of time to see what else might be triggering him. I hate to do it for my own selfish desires of enjoying food and I hate to have to do it because it means he is struggling, and I am concerned with how old he is and the fact that he doesn't have any safe foods yet.
I'm working on feeding my family well. Hubby and I are adapting our diet to be more anti-inflammatory and lower carbs/sugars. I spend a lot of time cooking these days. Often at least an hour in the kitchen. I haven't mastered being a chef by any means, but I have developed many new skills and am starting to learn shortcuts to help me do things more efficiently. My newest short-cut is a food chopper. No more crying from the onions and I can hand the chopping off to one of the kids to help me too.
Our homeschool routine got revamped and we are tweaking our subjects to fit into a Unit Study format so that all of my kiddos can participate in learning at their own levels. It is helping us to be more productive with our learning time.
I'm also in the process of viewing an online video recording of a recent High School Seminar so I can learn what I need to do to successfully graduate my oldest...she's almost a high-schooler! It seems so odd to say that, but it is true! I'll be logging hours, creating transcripts and all that fun jazz next year.
I'm considering going to a Total Elimination Diet for my little guy. We'll see how the next couple weeks go. He has had some really bad diapers lately and I think I need to cut out most grains if not all of them for a period of time to see what else might be triggering him. I hate to do it for my own selfish desires of enjoying food and I hate to have to do it because it means he is struggling, and I am concerned with how old he is and the fact that he doesn't have any safe foods yet.
Being Ready
A frequent thought on my mind lately is my loved ones who don't follow Jesus. I've been praying for them a lot lately. Our world is quickly falling deeper into chaos and sin, His return is coming soon and I can feel it deep within my heart.
Bible prophesy doesn't mention the United States in the end times. But we won't be able to support Israel when they are attacked. Watching our country become more and more divided makes me wonder what is to come that prevents the US from being involved in that battle. The pieces are mostly in place and we are simply waiting on God's timing.
Watching and being ready, isn't simply standing back and passively letting things happen around us. God has called us to be actively anticipating His soon return. It's something I have been pondering lately.
Saturday, December 28, 2019
Learning and Growing
I'm slowly leaving the survival mode and moving into a phase of growth and learning how to deal with my new circumstances and struggles.
I'm working on figuring out how to make sense of the chaos that I call my life and that means getting my priorities back on track. Getting my devotions done each day is challenging. I can't always do it at the same time each day because of the random demands of having an infant and a preschooler. I've been improving and making time to do it most every day the past couple weeks.
I also received a wonderful book called Hope Unfolding by Becky Thompson. She was/is a blogger I followed when my preschooler was a baby and she had a Facebook group at the time called Midnight Moms, where she was up in the middle of the night caring for her babies and working to encourage other moms in the same boat. I always found her words encouraging and very down to earth -real. Time went on and she moved out of the season of midnight feedings, and God opened doors for her to write a book encouraging moms. I have only made it through one chapter (since my Secret Santa gave it to me for Christmas), but it is so refreshing and really is what I need right now. My goal is to read a chapter a day if possible, if I have completed my personal devotions that day. God's word needs to be more important than another mom's.
In other news I discovered a food trigger for my littlest guy! I was so excited to finally have figured out one of his problem foods so I could remove it from my diet and his.
We have a new pediatrician since we moved and I like him for the most part. He doesn't push vaccines and actually has said that some are more necessary than others and he doesn't think babies have to have all of the ones recommended by the CDC. There are some that he does recommend, but he doesn't pressure parents who want to delay or refuse. Unfortunately I am learning that he is uninformed about food intolerances and I suspect he doesn't quite believe me when I talk about food causing issues.
The newest medical advice is to introduce solids earlier again in hopes that earlier exposure will help to reduce kids who have severe allergic reactions. So our pediatrician told me that at our 4 month visit and encouraged me to try with our little guy. I was skeptical and should've followed my gut, but I really wanted a doc who understood food issues, so we tried. We tried pears at 4.5 months, and baby had painful gas and trouble sleeping. We tried carrots a few weeks later and then some homemade ground oats with breastmilk. No luck. All caused the same symptoms, but the oatmeal caused him to break out in a red angry rash all over his face and ears, down to his chest and back. The doctor said it was eczema and not related to food. When I told him it flared with oatmeal, he said eczema just does that sometimes and isn't usually due to any foods...that's when I knew he was not the support I was hoping for. I kept my mouth shut and will continue to do what I know to be right for my baby. I'm back to my own research and the support of my TED Mamas group online. They are going through similar situations and we share our research, experiences, and knowledge with each other. They are so helpful.
After cutting oats from our diet, the eczema cleared up except for a little area under his neck that stay moist most of the time from his drooling. His horribly waxy ears cleared up (I've never seen anybody with as much ear wax as he had before!), and he was a much happier baby! So happy that we figured out one more of his triggers!
I'm working on figuring out how to make sense of the chaos that I call my life and that means getting my priorities back on track. Getting my devotions done each day is challenging. I can't always do it at the same time each day because of the random demands of having an infant and a preschooler. I've been improving and making time to do it most every day the past couple weeks.
I also received a wonderful book called Hope Unfolding by Becky Thompson. She was/is a blogger I followed when my preschooler was a baby and she had a Facebook group at the time called Midnight Moms, where she was up in the middle of the night caring for her babies and working to encourage other moms in the same boat. I always found her words encouraging and very down to earth -real. Time went on and she moved out of the season of midnight feedings, and God opened doors for her to write a book encouraging moms. I have only made it through one chapter (since my Secret Santa gave it to me for Christmas), but it is so refreshing and really is what I need right now. My goal is to read a chapter a day if possible, if I have completed my personal devotions that day. God's word needs to be more important than another mom's.
In other news I discovered a food trigger for my littlest guy! I was so excited to finally have figured out one of his problem foods so I could remove it from my diet and his.
We have a new pediatrician since we moved and I like him for the most part. He doesn't push vaccines and actually has said that some are more necessary than others and he doesn't think babies have to have all of the ones recommended by the CDC. There are some that he does recommend, but he doesn't pressure parents who want to delay or refuse. Unfortunately I am learning that he is uninformed about food intolerances and I suspect he doesn't quite believe me when I talk about food causing issues.
The newest medical advice is to introduce solids earlier again in hopes that earlier exposure will help to reduce kids who have severe allergic reactions. So our pediatrician told me that at our 4 month visit and encouraged me to try with our little guy. I was skeptical and should've followed my gut, but I really wanted a doc who understood food issues, so we tried. We tried pears at 4.5 months, and baby had painful gas and trouble sleeping. We tried carrots a few weeks later and then some homemade ground oats with breastmilk. No luck. All caused the same symptoms, but the oatmeal caused him to break out in a red angry rash all over his face and ears, down to his chest and back. The doctor said it was eczema and not related to food. When I told him it flared with oatmeal, he said eczema just does that sometimes and isn't usually due to any foods...that's when I knew he was not the support I was hoping for. I kept my mouth shut and will continue to do what I know to be right for my baby. I'm back to my own research and the support of my TED Mamas group online. They are going through similar situations and we share our research, experiences, and knowledge with each other. They are so helpful.
After cutting oats from our diet, the eczema cleared up except for a little area under his neck that stay moist most of the time from his drooling. His horribly waxy ears cleared up (I've never seen anybody with as much ear wax as he had before!), and he was a much happier baby! So happy that we figured out one more of his triggers!
Friday, December 13, 2019
Too Busy?
Living your faith in real life is never easy and nothing like the wonderful story books we read. It takes a continuous striving, determination, and a frequent willingness to press the reset button to return to the beginning when we go astray.
Our oldest is a deep soul. She thinks in terms of the eternal frequently and asks all new friends she meets about their faith. Most of the neighbor kids on our block have affirmed that they do believe in God, but do not go to church because their families are too busy. One neighbor, she gifted a bible from church. Not a flimsy little paperback bible, but a solid, tabbed, hard-cover, shiny and colorful new bible. Sometimes it is simply amazing to be her mom. She commented how she has been learning that God works all things for His good and He has a purpose and plan for each of us. Maybe, she says, "Maybe we moved so we could share Jesus with people here."
Her reports of the "too busy" reason resonates within me. I often feel too busy. Pressured and strapped for time. The reality is that we all have the same amount of time in a given day, it is simply how we choose to spend that time that is different. I try to remind myself of that whenever I feel like there isn't enough time in a day. God gave us a certain amount of time. How am I choosing to spend it? How are you spending your time?
Our oldest is a deep soul. She thinks in terms of the eternal frequently and asks all new friends she meets about their faith. Most of the neighbor kids on our block have affirmed that they do believe in God, but do not go to church because their families are too busy. One neighbor, she gifted a bible from church. Not a flimsy little paperback bible, but a solid, tabbed, hard-cover, shiny and colorful new bible. Sometimes it is simply amazing to be her mom. She commented how she has been learning that God works all things for His good and He has a purpose and plan for each of us. Maybe, she says, "Maybe we moved so we could share Jesus with people here."
Her reports of the "too busy" reason resonates within me. I often feel too busy. Pressured and strapped for time. The reality is that we all have the same amount of time in a given day, it is simply how we choose to spend that time that is different. I try to remind myself of that whenever I feel like there isn't enough time in a day. God gave us a certain amount of time. How am I choosing to spend it? How are you spending your time?
Saturday, October 12, 2019
A Little Angry, A Little Sad
Sometimes it feels like arthritis is stealing my husband from me and my children's father from them.
I guess it is so rare a thing, that I don't always realize how much arthritis has taken from us. Tonight I got a glimpse of the father my children could've had and it breaks my heart that he can't be the father he wants to be and they can't either.
It was the Fall Family Night at our church. It's a small church so there were a few games to play, a cardboard box maze, mini-golf, craft area and refreshments. Set up as an "open house" type agenda, families can come and go as they please. I had mentioned possibly going to my hubby and he surprised me by saying he was going to come along too! I was thrilled to be going as a complete family unit and relieved for the added support he gives with our two littlest ones. The kids were just as happy to have Daddy going as well -he had not been to our church yet or met their teachers.
My hubby took our preschooler around to all of the games and helped him play. One game set up in the church's backyard was a potato sack race. He got our older girls to join in and to be goofy, when the race started he scooped up our preschooler and ran him across the grass! It was so funny and I even got part of it on video!
That one little sprint cost him dearly. His feet suffered neuropathy pain worse than he's had in ages. His ribs/chest spasmed at the slightest movement, as well as other back spasms he has had lately. After we got home and put the kids to bed he had to spend time with his heating pad and ergonomic chair rather than a night together as a couple.
I adore the video of him. And I hate it. I love the joy in his face and the children's faces. I hate that this was a rare moment rather than a common one. I love his ability to play with his kids. I hate that it costs him so much, costs us so much. It's not fair. The person he is inside isn't free to be expressed the way it naturally would if his body were healthy.
As with many other times when I have a silent conversation with God in my head about my struggles, he challenges my thinking and changes my perspective.
There are families out there who don't have a father at all. Or fathers with disabilities that don't allow them to have any moments like this one. Ever. So, I have to tweak my perspective and rather than my focus being mourning the loss of what can't be, I can appreciate the gift of the moment we were given. It is a memory 'captured on film' that will bring joy in the future. The children will know that their daddy was there and he was an involved Daddy.
I guess it is so rare a thing, that I don't always realize how much arthritis has taken from us. Tonight I got a glimpse of the father my children could've had and it breaks my heart that he can't be the father he wants to be and they can't either.
It was the Fall Family Night at our church. It's a small church so there were a few games to play, a cardboard box maze, mini-golf, craft area and refreshments. Set up as an "open house" type agenda, families can come and go as they please. I had mentioned possibly going to my hubby and he surprised me by saying he was going to come along too! I was thrilled to be going as a complete family unit and relieved for the added support he gives with our two littlest ones. The kids were just as happy to have Daddy going as well -he had not been to our church yet or met their teachers.
My hubby took our preschooler around to all of the games and helped him play. One game set up in the church's backyard was a potato sack race. He got our older girls to join in and to be goofy, when the race started he scooped up our preschooler and ran him across the grass! It was so funny and I even got part of it on video!
That one little sprint cost him dearly. His feet suffered neuropathy pain worse than he's had in ages. His ribs/chest spasmed at the slightest movement, as well as other back spasms he has had lately. After we got home and put the kids to bed he had to spend time with his heating pad and ergonomic chair rather than a night together as a couple.
I adore the video of him. And I hate it. I love the joy in his face and the children's faces. I hate that this was a rare moment rather than a common one. I love his ability to play with his kids. I hate that it costs him so much, costs us so much. It's not fair. The person he is inside isn't free to be expressed the way it naturally would if his body were healthy.
As with many other times when I have a silent conversation with God in my head about my struggles, he challenges my thinking and changes my perspective.
There are families out there who don't have a father at all. Or fathers with disabilities that don't allow them to have any moments like this one. Ever. So, I have to tweak my perspective and rather than my focus being mourning the loss of what can't be, I can appreciate the gift of the moment we were given. It is a memory 'captured on film' that will bring joy in the future. The children will know that their daddy was there and he was an involved Daddy.
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