It’s been a while since my last blog post, mostly since my every waking minute nowadays is spent looking after my five month old twins, but my experience in the past few months made me think it was time for another!
Being a dietitian in addition to suffering from gastrointestinal issues all my life has made me well versed in the many reasons why someone might have to eliminate certain foods or food groups. Whether for allergy management, GI issues or weight management as someone increases the number of foods or food groups they are avoiding, healthy eating becomes more and more difficult.
As many of you know I have had to eat gluten free for years, but when my son was born he suffered from colic. For those of you unfamiliar it’s defined by your child crying for 3-4 hours per day for non apparant reason- and boy did he ever!!! When I brought this up at a doctor’s visit, his paediatrician recommended that I start eliminating dairy as well as there is evidence to support dairy avoidance in reducing the symptoms of colic.
Now, I am the kind of person who loves her food, and basically goes to bed every night thinking about breakfast. And the breakfast I think of consists of some sort of protein rich dairy (greek yogurt, cottage cheese etc) and coffee with REAL milk! Snacks consist of more of the same, and living without feta cheese is something no one should be put through! And that’s not even starting with all off the packaged foods I needed to avoid because they “may contain dairy”. Needless to say I was not impressed by the idea. But when your baby is screaming ALL the time and someone offers you a way to make it stop…you don’t bother asking questions.
The change in my son when I stopped eating dairy was undeniable. His skin cleared up and the crying spells stopped almost immediately. And while I was THRILLED to be able to do this for him, it has been quite the challenge and has required a lot of creativity to find new meal and snack ideas that fit within these dietary requirements.
So on that note stay tuned for new dairy free recipe ideas coming your way!
Have any of you needed to change your diet for a short period of time?
