Total Elimination Diet (TED)

The poop saga continues. Last time I posted, I was struggling to figure out how to solve sweet Charlotte’s green, mucousy blood poops.

Since then – just under two weeks ago – I have been on Dr. Sears’ Total Elimination Diet. The diet consists of literally turkey (range-fed), yellow squash, zucchini, pear, sweet potato, olive oil, salt/pepper and rice. That’s it! However, as of a week ago, I eliminated rice, as it seemed to be bothering Charlotte. So now, I’m surviving on turkey, sweet potato, pear, and squash/zucchini.

The point of the diet is to totally strip down your intake to make it easier to identify what is bothering her tummy. Once her poop has become regular, the idea is to add in one food every 4-5 days and track what is okay and what bothers her.

BUT, of course, it’s not so simple. I was on the diet for a week with no real change, so I did end up putting Charlotte on prescription formula (neocate) for a little over 2 full days. Once on the formula, Charlotte’s poop FINALLY became regular. It was yellow, no mucous and no blood.

On that third day – after 1.5 weeks of clean TED eating – I went back to breastfeeding. However, 2.5-3 hours after nursing her for the first time since formula, she had bloody mucous.

Her poop since then has been really pretty varied. Diarrhea this morning, yellowish green, yellowish brown, mucousy, no mucous. Jury is still out I guess.

I’ve spoken with two lactation consultants, multiple people from La Leche League, and women from my mom’s group… Consensus? Nobody has any real idea.

It could be an allergy, it could be an over supply… Or maybe she just has an intolerance to my milk in general?? I don’t know.

Most people say that if it doesn’t seem to bother her, just keep breastfeeding. Although they aren’t sure if that has any long term effects.

Unfortunately, that’s not really settling our minds. So, we scheduled an appointment to see a pediatric GI specialist in two weeks… And until then, I will continue to choke down sweet potatoes three times a day.

I’ve been trying to spice things up in terms of meals, but it tends to be quite similar day to day.

Breakfast:
Sweet potato/zucchini hash browns and/or turkey & pear sausage (aka cut up pear cooked in a mini homemade turkey burger)
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Lunch:
Turkey breast (cooked in olive oil and water in the slow cooker) with zucchini/pear slaw (aka chopped zucchini and pear) on sweet potato peels (I microwave a sweet potato, scoop out the insides, and use the skin as bread)

Dinner:
Homemade turkey burger with shredded zucchini and/or squash in it with either zucchini hash on top or zucchini slaw and sweet potato dipping sauce (aka puréed sweet potato, water and salt), sweet potato crisps (chopped sweet potatoes tossed in olive oil and salt and cooked at 450 until crispy), and sautéed squash

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22 Week Update

Sweet little Charlie had her first Christmakkuh party this week! This is an annual tradition we have with friends. Our friends have an adorable little 18 month old and it seems that Charlotte is finally at an age where she can appreciate their little girl, Madison. She was smiling at Maddie, reaching out to her and just all around loving on her…


Even better, Charlotte was SO good with our friends (let them hold her without crying and all that good stuff). THEN, she went right to sleep in a pack and play in their guest bedroom and let mom and dad enjoy a night out. So fun!

Charlotte also had her first Chanukah celebration with her cousins! I decided to start a new holiday tradition… MATCHING JAMMIES for the cousins!!! YES! I am that person. I searched forever to find inexpensive matching jammies in boys, toddler and infant… and finally, found some cute penguin jammies made by Carters. Only $12ish each!

Check out the cuteness…

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I think I’ll have to do a separate post with the rest of these cutie pie pics!

And now, here are Charlotte’s 22 Week photos…

 

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Yeee Haw… 23 Weeks of Fun!

I still need to put up Charlotte’s 22-week photos, but while my memory is still fresh, I’ll focus on this past week. Little Charlie girl is getting big. It’s crazy how fast time is flying.

This week, she’s really been working hard to get moving. In fact, check out her attempt to inch worm!!

She’s such a little love and soon, she’s going to be on the move. We had her on the carpet the other night and she literally rolled herself across the room. This girl’s gotta go!

She also celebrated her first Chanukah this week. I know I mentioned this before, but the little one loves wrapping paper. Here she is opening her presie from Nana…

And here are her pics from this week… please excuse her silly outfit. I was feeling a little “hipster meets cowgirl.”

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A Present for Dear Charlotte

Last night, Marky and I created an email account for our little one. Not for her use, but as a gift.

Someone recently told Mark about an idea to create an email address for your babe and use it to send advice and stories for your child to read at a later time. We loved the idea, so that’s exactly what we’ve done.

I don’t know when we will give her access to the account, but it seems like such a special gift. A priceless collection of love and memories and advice for our sweet little one.

And until then, we will continue to email her recollections of our sweetest moments and finest advice.

We hope you love it, Charlie! Xo

Shiny, Happy Lights

Tonight we took the princess downtown to check out the Christmas light display. Being that her fifth favorite thing (only behind mommy, toby, daddy, and pinching/clawing faces) is lights, we figured she’d love it.

Unfortunately, miss thing has an early bedtime, so we didn’t get as many smiles as we hoped… But she did seem pretty mesmerized by the lights! And, we even got a swing session in. All in all, a successful fun time!

No one needs to know that she cried the ENTIRE 40 minute drive home, right?

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High School Mommas’ Play Date

Today I got together with six other mommies from my high school. We all graduated 11 years ago and many of us haven’t seen each other since then. However, with Facebook, somehow we’ve all kind of “kept in touch.” So, with everyone home for the holidays, we decided to get together for a little play date.

I have to admit, the whole thing gave me anxiety. I’m not the most outgoing and tend to avoid situations like this, but I knew it would be nice to be around other mommies (especially ones I know) and more importantly, it would be great for little Charlie to play with other mini people.

All in all, it really was a great time. It’s just way too much to see so many little pumpkins in one room. Charlotte doesn’t get as much time with tiny ones as I would like, so it makes me happy to see her lunge towards other babies, laughing all the way. She’s a little hug lover.

For your enjoyment, here’s the baby gang…

All the babes... 7 weeks up to 12 months!

All the babes… 7 weeks up to 12 months!

Mini people

Mini people

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Baby chaos.

Baby chaos.

Charlie was such a good girl!

Charlie was such a good girl!

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This is one of my faves. So funny.

This is one of my faves. So funny.

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Dairy Elimination Update

UGH! I’m feeling really defeated right now. I’ve been on the dairy/soy elimination diet for over two weeks now and there has been no improvement in Charlotte’s stool. In fact, yesterday I saw blood again. I called my doc and she’s recommending switching Charlie to a special formula for a week while I totally detox my body (only eating whole food prepared by me), but said that if I want to give it another week, that would be fine.

I’m a total breastfeeding lover, so of course, I don’t want to give my sweet baby formula. BUT, I’m worried that I’m being selfish.

My plan is to totally cut out anything and everything that could be a culprit. That includes dairy, soy, nuts (almonds), beef, eggs, wheat, corn and shellfish. I’m not sure what that leaves to eat, but I’d literally eat only celery if it meant that I could healthily continue breastfeeding my sweet pumpkin.

But in the meantime, while I’m detoxing, I feel like I need to give her the formula and it pretty much breaks my heart.