At just two months Princess was covered from head to toe in eczema. She cried all the time. She never slept. She nursed every 1-2 hours around the clock. My husband and I were at a loss. We visited our pediatrician for a well check and came home with the instructions that I was to change my diet, drastically, if I wanted to continue to nurse and provide breastmilk for my daughter. His tentative diagnosis was a mild milk and soy allergy.
From that point on I began to look at labels. And I was shocked! Why was there soy in my crackers or milk in my lunch meat?
Long story made short. I ended up eliminating the top 8 most allergenic foods from my diet. My daughter's eczema cleared, she began sleeping better, and stretching her nursing sessions to ever 3-4 hours. I slowly added the food groups back in one at a time to determine what she was sensitive too. I learned that she could not tolerate milk or eggs in my diet.
When pregnant with Wiggles I proactively went on a milk and soy free diet during the last month of my pregnancy. No research said that this would help but I knew in my heart that I would have to do an elimination diet at some point and decided to start there. I started out just eliminating milk and soy but later learned that Wiggles was also sensitive to wheat and oats.
I learned so many things during the 27 months that I spent breastfeeding my girls. I learned how to cook. I learned how to read an ingredients list. I learned exactly what a food allergy was. I learned to think about where my food was coming from. Most importantly I learned to pay attention to what I was feeding my family. Food allergies were the start of my journey toward REAL FOOD.
My journey to REAL FOOD WITHOUT has had many twists and turns (and new diagnoses) along the way but that is a story for another day.
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