Elimination Diet: Day #1

As I mentioned previously, our poor little monkey has really had a rough first couple of months. Between the casts, surgery, and now brace for his foot and what we have been assuming is colic, he is just rarely very happy (though when he is, he is super giving of his smiles and love!).  Yesterday, we hit a really low point. After the general fussiness (and all out screaming) had been escalating for weeks, yesterday I realized that over the past week I was getting maybe an hour a day when Logan was awake and happy. Then, last night, Logan and I were both up for all but about 4 hours (this was rare - usually he sleeps fairly decently) with him squirming, crying, and obviously uncomfortable. Obviously this affects all of us. I don't get anything done around the house or for work, Aedan doesn't get the attention from me he deserves, Matt barely sees Logan smile, and poor Logan is just miserable.

So - in the wee hours of the morning, we decided to go drastic. We are now on a total elimination diet to determine if some of little monkey's discomfort might be caused by food allergies or sensitivities (which between symptoms and family history seems likely...) For those of you who don't know (and really - I hope you never have to!), the principle behind a TED is that by eliminating all but the least allergenic foods in each food group, you can 1. Get baby (or you!) to a baseline of comfort and then 2. Identify what food(s) are the allergen culprit(s) as you slowly add things back to your diet one at a time.

The first two weeks are pretty rough. Until Logan reaches his "baseline" (which will hopefully be a much happier, healthier little boy!), I am eating the Dr. Sears recommended elimination diet of  rice, potatoes, squash, pears, and turkey with sea salt, black pepper, and (my additions after online research) sugar, cinnamon, and canola oil. That's it. On one hand, it is a CRAZY proposition that involves a lot of label reading (for instance, did you know that a Butterball turkey roast has corn starch in it?) and some creative thinking about food. One the other, though, I was amazed at how many products I was actually able to buy on my grocery trip today. Here's my stash:

RICE:

Brown and white minute rice, rice flour, rice cereal, rice couscous, rice cakes, and gluten free rice krispies.

POTATOES:

This is what made me believe this was a do-able diet plan... I love potatoes. Yum.

 SQUASH... self explanatory. Yellow and zucchini.

PEARS:

 

 Canned (check the label for additives!), fresh, and baby...

TURKEY: 

 (Ground, turkey burgers, organic no-filler lunch meat, breast tenderloins, and breast cutlets... and if anyone can explain the difference between a breast tenderloin and a breast cutlet, I would love to know!) 

DRINKS: 

(rice milk and baby pear juice (to be dilluted) 

Today I ate a baked potato with sea salt for breakfast (the only thing I already had in the house that fit the diet!). 

For lunch, I browned all of the ground turkey (seasoned with sea salt and pepper) and cooked almost an entire small box (3 cups dry) of Minute Rice. I poured the ground turkey (and drippings) into the finished rice and mixed. Seasoned with a bit more sea salt and pepper, this was actually really good. I ate a plate full and put the rest in a tupperware container in the fridge. Not wanting to cook tonight, I ate some more for dinner.

So far for snacks, I have just done a little munching on the potato chips...yummy. For dessert tonight, though, I put half a can of pears into a bowl with some cinnamon and sugar and popped it into the microwave. The result was not as yummy as a true baked pear or apple (especially since no butter could be used :-() but it was actually very good and satisfied my dessert craving way better than expected.

Today was a MUCH better day than yesterday. Logan is sleeping now and I am hoping for a much better night as well... We will keep you posted!