BEGINNING DAIRY FREE

Patrick is dairy intolerant, it came a little out of left field but wasn't completely unsurprising given his history the past few months. I'm glad that we've got an answer to all of his health concerns and hopefully it means we're on the road to wellness again. Seeing your baby constantly poorly is never going to be an experience you take on the chin, it has been really hard and I'm so happy to wave goodbye to those times now. But, it means we're on a new journey and it's one without dairy. Now I'm an 'allergy mum' it only feels right to document the highs and lows on here, it isn't all plain sailing and whilst you might hear of allergies much more in today's society, they still aren't wholly catered for which did shock me a little, hence why I wanted to share everything with you guys. I've sought a lot of support amongst mothers and fathers of children with allergies, and some of them even helped me get answers to Patricks sickness, which I'm forever grateful for. So if I can shed some light onto things for someone else, I'm more than happy to document our updates over here in my little corner.




As soon as I realised Patrick would be without dairy for the time being, my first answer was a milk! This boy loves his bottle and while he only has one before bed at night, which will soon be swapped for a beaker any day, it was something I knew he couldn't really go without. The soya milk we were using was heavily sugared and that didn't sit comfortably with me, so we quickly found Alpro growing up milk, which is completely dairy free - bingo! Everything else I could work around, if it meant removing dairy from the household, we'd do whatever it took to ensure our baby was happy and healthy. A trip to the supermarkets saw me realising just how much or little some stores cater for allergies, with the likes of Morrisons being top of the charts for us, their selection is amazing especially for children, whereas Asda and Tesco seemed to focus their 'free from' aisles on zero gluten, as opposed to anything else which was a little disappointing. If anybody knows any other places I need to scout out, please do let me know because although an aisle seems like a great deal, it's going to get boring very quickly. Snacks are the biggest suffering, there doesn't seem to be too much for children that doesn't contain the dreaded milk powder - that shit really is in everything!

Since the removal of dairy well over a month ago, Patrick hasn't been sick once, we've seen one day of loose bowel movements which I believe to be a slip up along the way by someone but those things are bound to happen and every day is definitely a learning curve on this road. As for Patrick himself, his sleeping has seen such an improvement, he will occasionally wake and now I feel back in tune with my baby, I know whether he's waking because there is a nappy surprise or if he's under the weather, and sometimes, of course, just because he damn feels like it. Those nights are few and far between now and on the whole he's generally a very good boy at night time.