Somehow today I rather fortuitously found my way to the nonchalantmom blog and came across her piece about children's food intolerances. When my daughter was born she was intolerant to every major food group. Intolerant versus allergic, for us, means that our daughter would pass out for the day, have a (ridiculousy) trotty botty every 15 mins, have giant blisters on her bottom, be sick, be in pain, be bloated.. the list goes on. We were unable to get anyone to help us for nearly a year. By this time she was unconscious (although not anaphylactic), had refused milk and food for nearly a week, she lost a huge amount of weight and we were seriously worried. We couldn't get help because I was 'an older mum' so my judgement was questioned. God knows why. We were then ripped off by a private doctor who charged lots and made her worse.So in our stressed-out and sleep-deprived state, we opted for the expensive decision that I wouldn't return to work but instead would watch, listen, read and learn as much as I could about my daughter and her rather peculiar and complicated digestive system! So another year or so followed of her and I at home, cooking, being ill, testing, watching, comforting...
Now she's nearly three and is through most of it. So these photos of her having chocolate ice cream this summer, warm my heart enormously. I now chat with a few people who have simimlar experiences, which is fantastic. It can be very isolating as you are just not having the same time as other new mums and in my experience, I was told not to trust my isntincts. In fact, my instincts were incredible and now I can tell by looking at her face that there might be stormclouds a-brewing... In our house, it seems quite unanimous that I'm pretty much always right... well, when I say unanimous... I definitely agree with me..Thanks to nonchalontmom
