As we began to near the end of our official 30 days a while back I started thinking about what I did and did not want to add back in. I decided that we were going to do a test day for each of the four groups that the book It Starts with Food talks about: grains, gluten, dairy, and legumes, regardless of whether or not I intended to add those groups back in.
I did this for two reasons.
1. I know that the book says that if you don't miss a food group, don't worry about adding it back in. But since there are four of, just because I don't necessarily miss something doesn't mean the handsome husband or one of my little men doesn't miss it.
2. The second reason is that I feel like no matter how prepared I am, there will be times when eating some of those things will be the best (or only) choice we can make at those times. I want to know if any of us have a gluten or dairy intolerance or if it is simply something we prefer to keep out of our diet. I feel like the more information I have about our health and bodies the better equipped I will be to provide the best diet possible for us.
With that being said, I really had given a lot of thought to dairy, and ultimately came to the conclusion that I probably was not going to add much, if any, back into our normal routine. This was even if we didn't really have any 'reactions' to it. (I am sure this was just the Holy Spirit preparing me for what would happen on dairy day.)
This news was a little disheartening to my biggest little man, who loves dairy. But we had talked about choosing foods that made us healthier instead of less healthy and he understands.
So, dairy day comes. Here is what we ate:
Breakfast: Frittata as usual plus all three of the men had a yogurt and berry parfait.
Lunch: Chef salad topped with cheddar cheese.
Dinner: Chicken breasts topped with marinara and a ton of mozzarella and zucchini pizzas. (Which is basically just zucchini sliced thin topped with pepperoni, pizza sauce, and cheese.) The boys also both had a glass of milk with dinner.
After dinner we all shared a pint of vanilla ice cream.
Like I said earlier, everyone was hoping for no reactions but that isn't what we got.
My littlest man started crying about an hour after breakfast. Now, when I say little man, he isn't two, he is seven, so crying is definitely out of the norm for him. Actually he is by far my least emotional child. He was so whiny all day long. We went to a birthday party that afternoon and he cried because I got sunscreen on his back. I was putting sunscreen on him because it was a swimming party. He cried because he and his brother didn't have matching forks at dinner. He cried because dog was lying close to him. All day long. At bedtime, about an hour after the ice cream, he cried because my husband told him that he couldn't sleep in our bed. He was inconsolable. I had to get him bed with him and convince him that Daddy wasn't trying to mean. I eventually just moved him to our bed and moved him back to his own bed after he fell asleep. (I know, parenting fail on my part.)
This behavior was very out of the ordinary. Especially for the last 30 days. We certainly didn't eat dairy at every meal before the Whole30 and I think going a month without it cleared it out of his system and made him have a greater reaction to it.
When my little brother was young he couldn't eat dairy or bananas without losing it. He would bounce of the walls, go crazy, and generally be uncontrollable.
Just a quick internet search let me know that my poor kid isn't the only one who goes crazy on milk. Poor dude (and poor MOM!).
Now, my biggest little man. This is the kid that loves dairy.He has actually said over the last 30 days "man, I hope my eczema isn't from dairy." I was really hoping for his sake that it was only corn or soy (which I already knew about) but alas he woke up the next day with two dry, scaly, patches on the inside of his arms, right where he gets eczema outbreaks. I didn't think that he would have a reaction that fast even if milk was a trigger. The other thing that he noticed is that he woke up with a LOT of snot. This would happen from time to time before the Whole30, and I knew it was probably food related but now we know exactly what caused it.
The oldest boy comes by his snot naturally. My husband really struggles with this. And it was bad the day after dairy day. He also seemed to get hives quite a few times on dairy day and the days following as well.
Now, on to me. I don't drink milk, eat yogurt, or really consume a lot of dairy. I do like a few good cheeses but when it comes to every day food, I would much rather have a burger without cheese than one with it. But I wanted to know exactly what dairy did to me so I ate everything they ate on dairy day with the exception of the glass of milk at dinner and yogurt at breakfast. I didn't sleep well at all that night. I also woke up the next morning very bloated. My stomach hurt the whole next day and within 48 hours of dairy I had THREE ZITS. On my face. Noticeable zits. My kind and ever so sweet husband even looked at me one, pointed to the mountain growing out of my face and said "that looks painful". No cheese is worth zits.
So, while we hoping for no reactions we all a reaction to dairy. I have made the decision that we are not going to keep it in the house or eat it here. Brandon, knowing what dairy does to his body, can make his own decisions about what he eats when he eats out for lunch or something. I also told the oldest boy that since he is a little older, that when we go out to eat, he can make most of the decisions about what he eats. If he wants to order a burger with cheese on it then he can. I am not so sure about the little one. We might try a smaller dose of dairy at some point in the (distant) future and see how he reacts to that. Since I didn't really eat much dairy to begin with, I am not really going to miss it and on the rare occasion that I do decide to have something with dairy in it. I am going to make sure it is really really worth it. Like the lobster bisque from Texas de Brazil. :)
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