No cheese, please.

I wish the title of this post was "More cheese, please". I am seriously impressed by those of you who have to go completely dairy free, either by choice or due to allergy. I am a big dairy fan, often times during University I would have cereal for breakfast, lunch, and sometimes dinner... Grilled cheese is one of my go to dinners (paired with a nice cold smoothie), and I have milk in my coffee every morning.

Since having Nathan, I haven't changed my diet much. I do pay attention when I am eating new things, or having an excess of something to make sure it wasn't bothering him- but for the most part he seemed totally fine. I did notice he didn't poop every day, however everyone assured me that breastfed babies can go up to ten days without pooping. Perhaps they can, I don't know how comfortable that would be, but I digress. As Nathan got older, at around the three month mark we noticed he was becoming increasingly more gassy and really straining to poop. It was noticeably uncomfortable for him as his little tummy was working to digest, and while he didn't have the "tell-tale" signs of a dairy intolerance (pin prick rash, diarrhea, reflux) we decided to cut it from my diet to see what kind of difference it made.

Within a week we noticed a pretty significant improvement. He poops every day! (Only a mother would celebrate that haha!). He is far less gassy, and doesn't strain when he is digesting now. I've eliminated the "main" culprits, such as cheese, yogurt, milk etc. I do still eat things with milk as an ingredient since it seems like he only has an intolerance not a severe allergy and often babies outgrow these sensitivities. The health clinic nurse at Nathan's last set of shots said to try re-introducing amounts every once in a while to see how he does... so we'll see.

I've thus entered the world of being very cautious to what I eat- and man alive, dairy is in everything. I have found some tasty lactose free ice cream options as well as cheese (thank you Costco!)- but I'm grateful that it's just an intolerance and not a severe allergy. As for those of you who notice a difference for yourself going dairy free- I'm glad for you... I really am, however I honestly noticed ZERO difference. I didn't all of a sudden feel better off dairy- and honestly I miss real cheese dammit! I love breastfeeding Nathan, and I'm glad it's gone well for us- but there will be a small part of me that is happy when I can have my normal milk back instead of almond milk etc.

Those of you who are dairy free, feel free to hit me up with your recipes! I'd love to try them out!

xo -Heidi