Much to the dismay of my husband I took the kids to see a naturalpathic doctor yesterday. When he tried to argue with my my response was: “If you want to take time off work to stay home with them every time they are sick, and to drive them to their many doctor and specialist appointments you are welcome to have an opinion!” It was probably a bit harsh of me but some days it seems I am at my wits end. My middle child, Eileen, seems to always be sick. Last September she had tubes put in her ears, after 8 rounds of ear infections, and developing an allergy to two antibiotics. I made the appointment for Eileen but I couldn’t find a babysitter so I had to take all 3 kids. It turns out that Eileen is actually sick right now – not really a surprise. We have all had cold for a week, and Michael is getting over croup. By the time we left we had an action plan for all three kids. There are all on Pleo Not to try and get them all healthy and the girls are on an immun booster and a supplement to help build the good bacteria in their tummies. This was all good and fine with me until she said they needed to come off wheat and dairy for 10 days.
I do not necessarily subscribe to the opinions of many naturalpaths that you need to take your kids off dairy but thought it might be an interesting experiment for a week. I agreed to do it until we leave for our trip to Great Wolf Lodge next week, it will just be too hard to do well eating out for 4 days. She also gave me comfort by saying it was only a temporary thing and after 10 days they could go back on dairy and wheat.
So I have decided to share our experiences with you. The girls will both be wheat and dairy free while Gord and I will not be following as strict a diet. We will however be eating the same dinner as the girls which will be wheat and dairy free.
Our our way home from the Natrualpath yesterday we stopped at the Natural Food store to stock up on supplies. With a bit of help we were able to find the gluten free section of both dried and frozen varieties. I also found some dairy free cheese. We had to stop a the grocery store to get the almond and rice milk.
Tuesday Dinner – I had already done my week’s meal plan and grocery shopping before our new adventure began so I had to make some alterations. The plan for dinner was Tortellini and Bean Soup from Today’s Parent and a salad. The only alteration I needed to make was the pasta in the salad. I switched from fresh Tortellini to rice macaroni. It still tasted pretty good.
Beverages – The biggest challenge will be beverages for the girls, they drink alot of milk. Last night we tried the chocolate almond milk. They loved it, and when I tried it I realized why – it is very sweet. I have decided to break my own rule of limiting juice for the upcoming week and I am letting them have more apple and orange juice. I am also pushing the water pretty hard.
Packing Kaitlyn’s Lunch – We have been experimenting with Bento boxes for Kaitlyn’s lunch so I didn’t have to make too many changes. I made her the Ladybug Picnic from Yum-Yum Bento Box. It consisted of 2 rice lady bugs, Savory chicken & veggies, a hard boiled egg, and a couple grape tomatoes. I put some of the chocolate Almond milk in a drink container for first break and apple juice for the second. She also had an apple for snack, and a small container of Outback Animals chocolate cookies. She isn’t home yet but I will ask her what she thought when she gets home from school. I had to tell her to just bring home her milk she gets as part of the milk program.
Breakfast – For breakfast the girls had apple sauce with their Natren Healthy Start System added and they also had wheat free waffles.
Snack – Snacks aren’t much of a change as they usually have fruit. Eileen’s morning snack was grapes with her Outback Animals Vanilla Cookies.
Lunch – I picked up a couple of cans of Campbell’s Chicken with Rice soup and Eileen and I had that for lunch. I knew she would want crackers so I gave her some plain rice crackers and she added them to her soup as she normally would her saltine crackers.
So far we have survived without too many complaints. Kaitlyn had one slip up last night eating a piece of chocolate. As it was in her mouth she asked: “Mommy is chocolate dairy?” Eileen tried to get yogurt out of the fridge this morning so I have now moved it to the garage fridge. We will see how day 2 goes.
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