Our first week of dairy

After Monday’s appointment, I thought we would ease back into eating dairy. After over a year of being dairy-free, I knew it would be a big change. Not the case. So far we have had dairy almost every meal. Pizza, pesto, yogurt, ice cream. A little sauce on the side, as seen above. Only the eggs are holding us back from countless shakes and flan. Oh, Mama’s Pesto from Whole Foods, you are so delicious. And We, The Pizza on Capitol Hill, I am forever in love with your pizza by the slice. Finally. But we still haven’t bought any form of a gallon of milk. For now I’m sticking to Almond milk in my coffee. It is quite delicious. And other than Henry opening THREE little containers of YoBaby yogurt for breakfast this morning, I’m likely to stay away from yogurt, as well. Because I can already feel it. The pain radiated through my stomach today when I laid down for a nap after lunch. Ugh… And once I started walking around, I grabbed a couple of Tums. After my very first meal of pizza at Matchbox, I felt like I had been drugged. I was heavy and it took more effort to walk down the sidewalk, like there were weights on my legs. Granted the humidity was like a nice weight blanket and we walked to Matchbox without our stroller. It is so nice to never have to carry anything. But that leftover pizza was too much to carry. Then we ate some ice cream after dinner. The egg-free choices were limited to four. I selected Banana and a strawberry gelato. Lucy was repulsed at first, but eventually started crying for more. Since then, she has eaten cheese, ehh on yogurt and will taste pesto on pasta, but not bread. She is handling it great. In hindsight, I believe that she only had a very minor aversion to dairy. She is allergic to egg. I discovered that around the end of March. But I was never egg-free. I just didn’t give her straight eggs. So for a lot of the items that I eliminated because of the dairy, also had eggs in them. And when I would slip and let her have dairy, it was something like a cookie, which has eggs in them. This only reinforced my belief that she was allergic to dairy. The doctor explained that her rash on her neck was actually a form of cradle cap. So it was not allergy-related at all. Good to know. The rash is much better, by the way. I suppose that early on I could have tried an elimination diet, but that seemed like a lot of work. And honestly, I learned all about dairy and stuck with that. Now I need to start over and learn about the hidden nature of eggs in food. A few weeks ago, we ate dinner at Jaleo, which serves several dishes tapas style, or small plates you share. We had a lot of different foods, including fish and shrimp. They have allergy menus, but they are on different menus. So I was juggling between an egg-free and dairy-free menu. I ordered my favorite green salad minus the cheese. That night, Lucy was miserable. I ended up having her sleep in our bed and sent Henry to the couch. I was shocked by how awful her breathing sounded. She was wheezing and sounded like sleep apnea. The following night we were at Henry’s parents’ for only one night. We decided it wasn’t worth the expense and hassle to take her little bed. She slept with me. And her breathing was smooth and easy. So she was having some sort of allergic reaction. But to what? I hoped that it wasn’t something new. I thought the allergist would provide the answer. But we only tested for four foods: egg, dairy, strawberry, and beef. The egg showed a reaction. The dairy was slightly larger than a pin head. The strawberry and beef were all clear. The answer to the allergy came this week when we returned to Jaleo and ordering strictly from the egg-free menu. The green salad was not listed, meaning there must be egg in the dressing. I’m so relieved. And I fully expect that she will outgrow the allergy in the next year or so. Since then, I have decided that milk is no longer a staple. I won’t return to cheese-less pizza. But dairy is instead a treat to be eaten in moderation. Or even better, rarely. Unlike the amount I was eating before I went dairy-free, which was upwards of 10 servings a day. Considering serving sizes are always less than you expect, I may have been eating more than that. Looking back at my wish list on a very low day last year, note that Carnation Instant Breakfast was at the top of the list.