So, our little Benjamin officially has a dairy allergy (womp womp…). Which means, I’m about to do something I swore I would never do (again!): give up foods for my baby.
Yes, we’re all quite sad about it.
I used to work with someone who nursed her baby for over a year, and the baby had various food allergies, so she gave up those foods. At the time, I thought breastfeeding past 3-6 months was weird anyway (yeah, yeah, I know, I know), and couldn’t for the life of me figure out why she would do such a crazy thing like give up foods so easily. “If I ever have a child with allergies, it will be a cold day in hell that I inconvenience myself and give up the foods just so I can continue breastfeeding,” I exclaimed to myself.
And yet, here we are. Embarking on a minimum of a 6 month dairy-free journey.
I guess you can’t say you’ll never do something until you’re presented with the situation. (Motherhood teaches me this every day!) Now that Ben has eczema (due to the allergy) AND the dairy allergy, I feel like it’s even more important that we keep nursing, so I’m going to suck it up and continue on.
Ask me how I achieve that Pinterest-fashion ombre hair. It’s called, no-highlights-in-8-months!
In the grand scheme of things, it’s not THAT long. A few months out of my life is really not that big of a deal, and it will make Benjamin healthier and stronger in the end (Who am I?!).
Years ago, I couldn’t imagine ever making this choice, and now, I can’t imagine NOT making this choice.
Peeps, let me tell you, dairy is not just cheese, milk, and butter… it’s EVERYWHERE. In practically every food you can think of, and even more you can’t. Like some pretzels. Who knew? Eating in a restaurant? NIGHTMARE.
THEORETICALLY, I will become very thin on this diet, since pretty much all processed foods are out, and “whole” foods are in.
Except when you realize that the following foods do not contain dairy:
And when I say, cake mix, I mean actually making the batter with oil and water (no eggs), and eating it raw out of the bowl. There is constantly a bowl in our fridge. I am embarrassed to tell you how many boxes I’ve consumed since the diagnosis. Or the fact that I ate an entire box in one day last week…
Yes, I’ll be REAL thin, REAL soon.
Stay tuned peeps, since I’m thinking of starting a “Dairy-Free Faves” series soon!
Heather two months ago: "Yeah I may give up dairy. I don't drink a lot of milk so it shouldn't be too big of a deal."
ReplyDeleteMegan: "Dude, there is dairy in EVERYTHING. Except Oreos. You're welcome for that one."
:)
I'm proud of you. I just ate like 12 lactation cookies, but kept telling Eli, "It's for my milk!"
Ha, diets rock.
Just found you from the girl behind the blog link up. We're also a dairy free family due to the little guy's allergy. It's a hard change to make, but so worth it!
ReplyDeleteI was enjoying reading your blog... until I hit the part about uncooked cake mix in your fridge... now I'm just hungry. :)
ReplyDelete