Ever since Caylen was born, she had a problem with her stomach. As a newborn/infant, it was called Colic, and as she got older, those around her referred to her as temperamental or fussy. I knew something was wrong in the beginning, but being a young mom, with my husband overseas, I felt a little isolated and clueless.
I nursed Caylen for 12 months + 3 weeks. I wanted to go longer, but she was absolutely ready, and therefore so was I. My breasts were not, but that is another story. So, we started her on cow's milk. Every time she drank cow's milk, she threw it up. I had, of course noticed this and informed her daddy, who was now at home with us, out of the military. We thought it might have been lactose intolerance, or just a phase she would outgrow so we used milk substitutes. She seemed to be okay with other dairy products like cheese, but we did know that she did still seem to have stomach viruses often, which produced vomiting, and that she pooped several times a day, but she was still technically a baby, so we didn't know. Also, her daddy has always had stomach issues too, and can throw up on command, so I figured she inherited some odd Burkhead gene.
Fast forward a year or so. In the throes of potty training, Caylen is taking herself to the potty when she needs to go, but is still having a hard time getting on the potty in time to not poop in her pants. I had heard this was a common problem, so no big deal, but she was still not progressing at the age of 3. She back on eating cheese and dairy, since the throwing up had since disappeared and her doctor could find no reasonable excuse not to eat it. I was also trying to get pregnant. Which was totally not working.
So, in the spring of 2012, Caylen was 3-- she was mostly potty trained, with quite regular, unexplained accidents, accompanied with pooping about 6 times a day. Was this normal at this age to still be pooping this much? I had no idea since she was my first child, but I wanted to try something. There was a diet I had heard about that was supposed to be great for people with stomach problems especially, and given the fact that 2 out of the 3 people in our household do have stomach problems, I was all for it. Also, it was great for those who wanted to lose weight, which I didn't necessarily need to, but I did want to get leaner, if you will. It was called the Paleo diet, and it was restrictive! No dairy, grains, legumes, or sugar. It was hard to think up meals at first, since it is so different from the American diet as we know it, but I felt great. Even better was the fact that within 3 days, Caylen was fully accident free, which was a total miracle! She went from having 6 poops a day to 1-2, and I was amazed. She seemed to feel a lot better, and I did too! I managed to lose about 3 pounds in the month before we went to Disney, and Caylen and her Daddy's stomach problems were becoming a distant memory. Little did I know what would happen next!
After a almost 2 years of trying (everything) to get pregnant, I missed my period and cursed the hormones that were obviously so messed up that I had apparently had an anovulatory cycle (meaning I didn't even pop out an egg that month). My doctor had scheduled for me to start Clomid, a fertility drug, but I decided against it, since the side effects are so notorious. Well, lo and behold, that cheapie, blue dye Equate test had a positive! I cursed the test for its false hope and figured it was wrong, since it was after all a blue dye test. This was the first positive home pregnancy test for me! I had 6 negatives with Caylen, with 1 positive blood test. Well, the test was correct! And, now I have a 6 month old bouncing baby boy to prove it! He is an absolute miracle, and I am sure that he was conceived due to our family changing to the Paleo diet.
As for Caylen, she is doing great still. Through trial and error, we have found her sensitivities definitely include dairy and gluten, with legumes bothering her still, but the least of all. She is not as sensitive to grains or dairy as she was, but she still cannot tolerate them. However, there are foods with hidden ingredients, so when we go out, she usually gets something that makes her somewhat sick. So, we are still working on it, and probably will continue for some time.
If you are curious about the Paleo diet, I highly recommend that you read The Paleo Solution by Robb Wolf. It will change your life!
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