The End of my Elminiation Diet

Yesterday I had my first slice of pizza and grilled cheese sandwich in about nine months. I was on a diet free of milk, eggs, peanuts, tree nuts and soy in order to continue feeding my son, who has severe allegies. I had very mixed emotions about eatting the pizza and grilled cheese. While I love these foods A LOT and really missed them I was torn. Eating them meant that I was officially done nursing my little guy. I had originally planned on nursing him until he was 18 months old, but he may have additional allergies and must go on a more restrictive diet and I think that being on the restrictive diet has already really messed with my body. The doctors also told me that nursing him any longer than 12 months would not make any difference in his allergies.

I nursed all three of my children past their first birthday, but T is the only child that I went on an elimination diet in order to nurse. When T was diagnosed at 4 months I was told that he either needed to go on hypoallergenic formula (which is super expensive and still contains milk and soy) or go on an elimination diet. I opted to go on the diet. The allergist tried to persuade me to put him on formula, but my husband and I decided that nursing him was the best for us (by the way we are no longer at that allergist, but that is a long story!).

I loved nursing all my children even with the difficult times (I only had one child that would take a bottle) and the elimination diet. Nursing gave me a bonding experience I could not have gotten any other way. Eating all the food that I ate yesterday meant I was done nursing and as much as I missed them I would have gone another year without if it would benefit his health, but we are done. And you know that pizza and sandwich did not taste as good as I anticipated.