Dairy Free Update...

...about the time I'm ready to write it all off, I notice change. We started the dairy free on Tuesday full force. The only dairy by-product that I'm knowingly giving Natalee is a whey product in margarine b/c it's the least amount of dairy in margarine/butter I can find so far. Up until yesterday we hadn't noticed much, except that a patch of eczema on her wrist was drying up. We still battled a runny nose and the likes. However, Natalee did have the flu on Friday night and a high temp last night so in the middle of this dairy journey she's been sickly in other ways. That makes it hard to know if the runny nose is sickness or runny allergy nose.

This morning her nose has been pretty dry (and her temp is going down from being sick). And as I had her in the highchair mid-morning feeding her vegan soy yogurt (hey, she likes it!)I realized that her face looks almost porcelain. So clear and, well, baby-like. She never had major face skin issues but would occasionally show up with a patch here or there (like in her 1 year photos next to her mouth) and did have small red bumps frequently and dry skin.
So then I really started looking...the patch on her wrist is all but gone...her ankle, which was almost to the point of cracking and bleeding (it was flaming red) is very dry and just pale pink. The back of her neck, behind her knees, on her back...all disappearing. And to top it, her fingers, which I had always blamed on her sucking them at night, are not red, flaming and scaly...they are sweet and almost soft little baby fingers. A little of me was hoping she wouldn't clear up...just because a dairy free life style is quite a commitment, and life most people, I'm selfish. But children are a commitment, aren't they? And so it is very worth it...

I'm already learning tricks of the trade that make this dairy-free'ness' not so challenging. Thanks to a co-worker whose husband is a dairy-free man, I know a lot more than when I started. She knows how to make it mangable and not so costly and I'm grateful. It's also awesome that I knew I could message her/talk to her and ask her things like what kind of butter/margarine she uses and know that she's already been the guinea pig and I'll get an honest answer (she said Aldi's brand, in case you are wondering...just got to get myself there!). Sunbeam brand breads and also the bread from the Wal-Mart bakery (french bread) are dairy free, which will be much less costly than the "special" loaf I bought in the whole foods section at Hy-Vee. Bisquick baking mix is dairy free so I can make pancakes and biscuits using it and just use soy milk. It's not so hard...very manageable and we're very lucky to have a child as healthy as we do. I recently stumbled on a blog of a family who is losing their 2 year old to cancer...and I'm grateful for our dairy free girl.

We're praying the flu and high temp are it for sickness at this house. But to leave you with a funny...
just now as I was typing I noticed Natalee was very quiet. So I looked over to where she was sitting and noticed she had the temporal scan thermometer off the table was was sitting on the floor. You can use a temporal scan in 2 ways--to run it across the forehead or hold it behind the ear for 6-7 seconds. When we take her temp we usually do both to make sure we're getting an accurate reading. So there she sets, thermometer on the top of her noggin...and then pretty soon she put it back on her neck and was so very pleased with herself!!