I have mentioned through a few posts that our daughter has some food allergies. It is not that she is hyper allergic to foods but, there are so many things that upset her stomach, cause rashes, discomfort and a huge amount of sleep issues.
We had dealt with it while breast feeding but, it got too hard on my wife's body to continually restrict her diet for very little change. So, we moved to amino acid based formula (Neocate LCP) and then onto solids.
We have a rotation schedule for testing foods that takes 4 weeks before it is approved or discarded. It is not a lot of fun but it has meant that now we have at least some foods that she can eat and we supplement with formula (Neocate Junior).
Even the approved foods have to be boiled and frozen to break down the proteins to minimize reaction potential which means a lot of planning, cooking and having no space in our freezer. A lot of time and energy has been spent on this and even now we have a relatively good routine for it, it still requires a lot of work.
Our daughter however is a very happy (when no reactions), intelligent, healthy little 18 month old that learns well and seemingly enjoys life immensely. The food restrictions put some limitations on our travels of course but, it is a small price to pay for a healthy child.
My wife has more trouble dealing with the idea of 'restriction' than me even though I am not a fan of restrictions in general. My wife used to think that this start has been hard but on our daughter but, perhaps it is the best thing for her as in reality, her diet is pretty awesome and if more people ate like her, the world would most likely be a lot healthier.
She is on the 'Baby Cavegirl Diet'.
She has a range of suitable vegetables (sweet potato, pumpkin the mains), a small amount of pureed fruit, some frozen berries (lingonberry, rasberry), plain meats (reindeer, pork, lamb, chicken, beef), seed flour porridge (Teff), corn pasta, a potato starch porridge. All of this is unseasoned and unsweetened and she loves it. Twice a day she also gets very good quality macrobiotic (Vivomixx) to hopefully build up a healthy gut flora to support her later.
Now, is it lacking some things? Yes. We have to introduce some additional calcium and there are many nutrients in the formula also but all in all, it is a relatively healthy diet. She has been on solids for over a year now and is yet to have a piece of chocolate, a french fry, a slice of cake, a teaspoon of sugar or a sip of soda. Is the diet a a restriction or, a stroke of luck for a child growing up in this generation?
In a few years, she should be mostly over the worst of the reactions but as someone that has an extremely sweet tooth myself, I am hoping that she will be content enjoying her food as she does now. Relatively unprocessed, natural.
I do not know what effects it will have on her body or brain function in the long run but at least from an observational point so far, she is outstripping our expectations in regards to her development and surprises us (and other people) every day.
The foods we eat as children must have an effect on our development and therefore future capabilities but is something that large parts of the global population struggle with. In some places there just isn't enough variety or volume while in others there is a wide variety but over consumption of highly processed, sugared goods.
Diet is something few people agree on but everyone wants to be 'healthy' yet, very few actually take the steps to understand what that means. Depending on experience, for the most part, healthy eating requires restriction but how many are really willing to impose it on themselves if they have lived a life of unrestricted access?
Being a parent is difficult these days in many respects as the range of options makes decision making hard plus, advertising the 'rights and wrongs' influences opinions heavily. I have a post or two to write on some of this later but it is more controversial perhaps than this.
All I know is our daughter, runs, laughs and talks a lot like a child who is happy. For now, that is enough.
Taraz
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The picture is from her first ever feeding around a year ago... it seems so long ago.