Today we spent two hours in the doctor's office to find out what I already knew, that Thea was severely allergic to milk. And yet, somehow knowing that definitively is wonderfully uplifting.
It's funny how as mothers - parents - we have gut instincts about things, but our society isn't really set up to indulge gut instincts. I knew back when Thea was an infant that she had a problem after I ate milk products - cheesecake, milk shakes, ice cream - they all produced the same result. Nights of writhing pain and 30-minute naps followed by hour-long cryfests. And then the extreme response to her own ingestion of dairy, I knew for sure but still didn't know. And then when she smeared cheese all over her face and got red blotches all over, I knew again, but still didn't know.
Today, I knew.
They tested her back with little pin pricks of everything from dust to feathers to roaches and pollen. And the one that swelled up like crazy? Milk.
But, also swelling pretty substantially was beef. And swelling very slightly was wheat.
But not swelling: Soy! Dust! Cats! Dogs! Mold! Not that I'm going to let my house fall into a dusty, hair-ridden place now, but I'm just happy to narrow things down a bit.
The biggest challenge I walk away from this with is the fact that if I don't offer her a varied diet, she will likely develop other allergies. And I can't feed her beef and fish is off limits until they are a year old, so that leaves ... chicken and pork, right? Well, we are going to start some new things now - buffalo, for example. The goal is to not feed her the same thing on a four-day cycle. Quail? Duck?
Anyway, I am overjoyed and energized by the things I now know, and trusting of my instincts more than ever about the things I knew all along.
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