After I posted last I talked to our pediatrician and she put Lauren on a stronger reflux medicine - Prevacid. She said that this new medicine could take 2 weeks to make a difference and to go ahead and get her started on that. She said that ideally we wouldn't want me to change my diet at the same time we are switching her medicine because we wouldn't know what made the difference if she got better but that if I felt the change was needed we could go ahead and do it and add in a little milk later to see if it bothers her. If so, we know she does have a milk allergy. Adam thought there was more wrong with her than just the reflux so on Thursday I went to the grocery store and started my new diet.
Here are some things that I've learned.
-Hy-Vee has dietitians on staff. They can help you shop the store at no cost. I called ahead and when I got there she had printed off a list of information for me including all the ingredients I had to watch for and some of the products in the store that I could have. She then took me around and pointed out some of those things and helped me read the labels. She was very helpful.
-Health food stores aren't just for people who eat all organically or are Vegans or stuff like that - they are really great for people with food allergies. Most stores have a "Health Mart" like Hy-Vee or an isle with heath foods in them.
-There are brands out there dedicated to helping people with food allergies.
-All labels are required to have allergy information on them. After all the ingredients it will say Contains: Wheat, Milk, Soy, etc. However, this is a fairly new law so something that has a really long shelf life may not say it on the packaging since it could have been manufactured before the law was passed.
-There are many different types of milk that aren't from animals. Rice milk, almond milk, coconut milk - to name a few.
-There are many crazy and unnecessary ingredients in many products once you start reading labels. I can't have caramel coloring. Who cares if your product is caramel colored? Just to make it more appetizing? IDK but I sure wish A-1 didn't put caramel coloring in.
-Many ingredients are greatly different in one product from one brand to another.
-It's crazy how much stuff milk is in - but yet there are still so many different foods you can have. You just have to find the brand w/o the milk in it!
-Many labels say natural flavorings. This is the bane of my existence. Most things probably won't have milk or soy in them but since you never know, you can't have anything that says natural flavorings. Could be butter flavoring. Could mean a presence of soy. So many things I want probably have no milk or soy in them but say natural flavorings so I can't have them! UGH. Just tell me what it is already.
-Some labels list all ingredients and they are all fine...but then at the end they say "May contain soy". What? Another UGH.
-I'm amazed at how little I miss the presence of cheese in some things. A taco w/o cheese really doesn't taste a ton different.
That's all for now. I'm sure I'll have more to add later.
AND, I went to the Dr. today and my blood pressure was 118/63. Woo Hoo! And I didn't even take medicine today (and haven't been that great at it some days lately) so I don't have to worry about medicine anymore.
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