“Wot No Dairy”

We got a special delivery in the post yesterday morning, 10 lovely pots of “wot no dairy” pudding for bear!! They are finally back in stock in local shops too! I know they have been criticised after having to recall products that could potentially contain milk but I am all for giving them another chance! Bear had only tried vanilla ones before today (it was all that was available in shops). We received a mixture of fruity flavours and today’s lucky dip gave bear a strawberry one! He loved it, the whole pot was gone in an instant and not a drop was wasted.

I like these puddings as they are dairy free and soya free, something else that bear is sensitive towards. He can have them just as an allergy free baby would have a yoghurt (albeit a little more pricey than a small pot of yoghurt). It makes it feel that there is an alternative than just fruit pots, fruit pieces or biscuits as a quick and easy snack for bear.

I am sure he is going to need all the energy he can get now he is very good at getting into mischief.

Baby wearing and other things Bear

So, after a rather failed attempt of trying to push our push chair across a muddy field whilst walking the dog on Sunday we have decided to purchase a new baby carrier. After a lot of research to find something that would suit myself and Bear I have ordered a mei tai carrier (complete with camper van printed fabric, with a plain black reversible side for dad! Will post a picture when it has arrived). The carrier we had before was not very comfortable for me and I couldn’t wear it on my back. I also often wondered if it was comfortable for bear, although he never complains. We are very excited for it to arrive, hoping it will be here by the weekend so we can take the dog to the field again, instead of sticking to paths.

In other news, nanny discovered that the Aldi block margarine is dairy free! She made us all a delicious dairy free Shepard’s pie for dinner last night (The rest of us didn’t even miss the cheesy topping) Bear loved it, although did seem to get a little grumpy if it wasn’t shovelled quick enough. Nanny also made bear some strawberry jam muffins, which he loved. She is also planning on making some mince pies that he will be able to eat….she is so good at adapting her recipes for him and nobody ever notices either. Spoils him rotten with delicious food!!

Also, a quick update on the nappies….we are working hard to battle the nappy rash before it takes hold and we think we are keeping it at bay, it is hard with bear teething so badly and are hoping that once his first few teeth have broken through it will settle down. We are also worried his eczema is also coming back, we have decided to start reusing a small amount of steroid cream to hopefully fend it off before it gets itchy and upsetting for bear. So far so good as he is barely paying attention during nappy changes. Even with the new set of nappy issues, it still isn’t as bad as when he was in disposables and I love using the cloth nappies so we will be sticking with them permanently now!

First week done…..and, WOW!!

We have completed our first week in cloth nappies and WOW!! what a difference!! (I will confess at this point that bear has had 2 disposables on this week, the first as he needed changing earlier than usual last Sunday and we were enjoying a lie in and it was all we had up stairs, the other was on Thursday, after going out Wednesday night to celebrate my sister-in-laws birthday we just didn’t get them cleaned in time, that wont happen again now we have doubled our stash!)

We have had 3 days completely steroid cream free and the eczema hasn’t returned, and it normally returns after a day! It must be feeling better for him too, he has completely stopped grabbing at his nappy when we first put it on now and he went the entire bath time without grabbing himself, normally we have to cover it with a cloth and pull his hands away constantly. He does occasionally grab at himself during change times but what little boy doesn’t?? The general nappy rash seems easier to control now too, we are battling teething symptoms at the moment too so it is a bit of a battle, but we vary the cream we apply during changes (a combination of sudacrem, metanium, drapolene and bepanthen…this is due to finding that no one cream suits bear better than another and we have ended up buying them all to try, so we may as well use them up!)

I had a few people asking about my decision to switch, is it worth the hassle and whether it was worth the initial expenditure, the answer is simple…..YES! The difference it has made to our bear is amazing. Now we can all just focus on weaning, teething and bears newest trick, pulling himself up on everything (with the consequential falling over, bumping his head and a few tears).

Trust & Allergies

I experienced something yesterday and although it was not to do with our little bear it made me think a lot about bear and his CMPA. I would like to share my story with you, apologies for the long back story, but I feel it relevant to the overall story.

Last year, after wearing latex gloves at work, I experienced a rather nasty allergic reaction. Although the gloves usually made me feel ‘itchy’ I never really thought much of it, but this reaction was beyond anything I had experienced before, I became very clammy with a shortness of breath. I formed a rash all over and began to sweat, severely. If it wasn’t for over a double dose of antihistamines I would definitely be heading to the hospital, this reaction left me feeling very unwell for days. I went straight to the doctors, who confirmed a severe allergic reaction to latex. After this scare work removed all latex objects that they knew of so that we wouldn’t be faced with it again. About 2 months later I accidentally came into contact with some more latex at work and a similar reaction too place. Although the reactions were severe I wasn’t given an epi-pen due to not calling 999.

Living with the knowledge of the severity of my allergy but without an epi-pen I avoid all latex products like the plague. I obsessively ask “is that latex-free” so much that my dentist makes a point of showing me the glove box every time I go.

So, out of everyone I come into contact with who is it that I should be able to trust to keep me safe? Who has knowledge of my medical history? who should have the facilities to accommodate my latex-free need?

So this brings me to yesterday….I went to see the nurse for a routine examination and she seemed to like to chit-chat. As she was gathering some equipment and some gloves I half joked “I hope that it is all latex-free” to which her reply was “well the equipment is, but my gloves aren’t, would you prefer me to use latex-free?”

would I PREFER??? I don’t think it is a preference!

After having to explain that I was allergic, she was very good, letting me check all the packaging but there has been a nagging feeling lingering with me all day.

1) why was my allergy not highlighted as soon as she accessed my notes? she had my ‘file’ open on her computer, get still had no idea. It isn’t like I am allergic to fish, which I am unlikely to come into contact with at the doctors surgery.

2) why are latex-free gloves not standard in EVERY dr’s rooms? The nurse had to pop to a different room for gloves which were labelled as “for special use only” as if they were so expensive and precious….they are not! We bought a box for our house so that I could use them for gardening/washing up/general messy jobs.

3) why do I now feel that allergies are not taken seriously enough!!

It is my 3rd point which concerns me the most, more so raising a child with an allergy. If I cannot even trust a nurse, or the Dr who I 1st reported my allergy to or any of the other medical “professionals” to take my allergy seriously how could I possibly trust a member of staff in a restaurant to know for sure if an item is dairy-free, they may think a knob of butter is ok, or that they used margarine not butter so its not got dairy in (a common misconception).

I find it difficult to trust people to make food for bear as it is without me watching or checking and this has made me feel worse. I had reached a stage where I was happy with bears diagnosis and am able to cope with weaning perfectly fine, but other peoples attitudes towards allergies concern me. If someone doesn’t suffer from an allergy, I feel that they may not respect the allergy that someone else may have. I will be looking in to this issue further I am sure.

If you have experienced similar situations then please feel free to comment. Thank you

Eating out and a special delivery!

So, today we all had a day off together so decided to go shopping for a few Christmas presents and groceries. Whilst out we decided to have some food in the supermarket restaurant. We love taking bear out for food, he really does make us proud by sitting nicely in the high chairs and never makes a fuss, but we do often find it awkward deciding what off our plates bear would be able to have. So, today dearest hubby and I decided to have a delicious pulled pork baguette, coleslaw and chips. This particular meal left bear with a choice of chips or chips as the only 100% ‘safe’ food on our plates (don’t worry, we always have a little snack box with us for situations like this).

Here’s our little bear sitting nicely in the high chair and drinking from his new bottle we got for him yesterday (its a MAM one and fantastic for those mummies would are searching for one which is easy for them to use themselves but doesn’t leak out when held upside-down).

OUR SPECIAL DELIVERY!!

So, this morning our new delivery of more nappies, inserts, liners and our new cloth wipes arrived. They have all been washed, dried and set up ready to use.

Here’s a snapshot of our nappies….we now have 20 and we are hoping that that will be enough. We have 3 ‘sets’ of wipes in snap-lock sandwich boxes, one for the changing bag, one for in the house and a spare. We have added a few drops of tea tree oil to the water in the boxes after reading some reviews as it is a natural antiseptic and has a nice smell.

And finally, just a little picture to spread a little happiness.

(Don’t worry, this was just daddy’s little joke in a stationary car whilst I was refitting his isofix base in the back. Bear loved it, thought it was the funniest thing ever!!)

Thank you!!

Wow, just wanted to say a big thank you to everyone who took the time to view my blog yesterday, there were quite a few of you!!

It seems that the main purpose of my blog, to share my experiences in the hope that it helps someone may be working. I had a very good response from a few facebook friends who are very interested in our cloth nappy adventure. Also, thank you if you left a comment. I will be trying to reply to any comments made on any post, so if you have any suggestions, questions or even a funny, related story to share please do!

Day 4 of cloth nappies shows real signs of improvement. The steroid cream has really shifted the most stubborn eczema spot so we will be ending bears course soon and hoping it will stay away. The patch on his bottom has turned a little weepy and sore, but I expect this is more to do with the 6 dirty nappies yesterday (we normally have 1 or 2 a day) but judging by his overall mood, I would guess it was teeth related. Sods law it would be the week we start reusable nappies for him to have tummy issues….nothing like throwing me in at the deep end! We ordered some more nappies yesterday, went for little bloom ones as this fit bear well, as well as some reusable wipes and some more fleece liners, we are all in now, no going back!!

Cloth nappy update and Christmas dinner!!

So, yesterday my mum put on the BEST Christmas dinner, guests included bears parents, grandparents, great grandparent, cousins, aunties and uncles!! It may seem a little odd having Christmas dinner in October but we often have them at random times of the year as its a family favourite and also, with us all having our own little families and in-laws we aren’t having the chance to do it this Christmas!

The attention to detail was great, where the only thing that bear couldn’t try was the cauliflower cheese (we haven’t even bothered to try any dairy free cheese for him as we heard it tastes vile and he isn’t going to miss something he has never had) and the eton mess (had to be on the menu, its my favourite and a Christmas tradition) the custard, dairy free chocolate button muffins and the stuffing were made using oat milk (our chosen substitute).

The menu included: Turkey, sausage meat, sausages wrapped in bacon, boiled potatoes, roast potatoes, swede, carrot, cauliflower, broccoli. bear tried a little bit of everything and loved it. Some was given as finger food and some was given on a spoon mixed with gravy, he is also beginning to self-feed from a preloaded spoon. He fell asleep part way through his dinner though, much to the amusement of everyone, he has never done that before!!

He completely missed pudding, where everyone else had; Toffee, fudge Eton mess, Christmas pud with custard and/or muffins. Although he has some custard and a muffin for today!

Bear can always be fed at nanny’s house now, he even has his own biscuit box, skips, milk and marg with a selection of spreads incase he fancies toast or a sandwich…..everything selected off his ‘safe’ list.

CLOTH NAPPIES!

on another note, we are on day 3 of the cloth nappies….although we are still having to use some steroid cream to help shift a very stubborn patch of eczema it is looking good. I am really enjoying using them and I think bear’s daddy is getting into it too! I find it really annoying having to get a nappy bag out every change though to put the used wipes in, so I am going to invest in some reusable wipes too. I like to think I am doing my bit to cut down on waste and ‘save the planet’ but that is really not why I am doing it, I made the choice as it was best for bear and the reusable wipes are more for convenience, I can just chuck them in the used nappy bag ready for washing!

Fun at Nanny and Grandads!

Mr S went out with his work colleagues last night so bear and I went for dinner at nanny and grandads house! Bear loves it there and was spoilt as always. Nanny gave him a pear and he loved it….he wont entertain the idea of having ‘finger’ slices of pear, he wanted to eat the thing as a whole. It was very messy and very fun

For dinner we had sweet and sour chicken stir fry….mummy’s favourite! Ted enjoyed his meal, minus the sauce, didn’t seem to keen on that! And nanny had made him some dairy free raspberry muffins, which he demolished! We always try to give him the food as they are served to us, so he had a bit of all the veg in finger/stick style and some noodles to play with. We did spoon feed him some rice, just to make sure he had eaten something. This is our typical style of feeding bear, to encourage self-feeding but also teaching him how to eat off a spoon too. I would advise other mummy’s and daddy’s to just go with what they feel comfortable with and pick a style to suit them and their little one. There really isn’t a ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ way to do anything….despite what the ‘professionals’ say!

He had so much fun and was so messy that he needed a bath, so mummy, nanny and grandad all bathed him. He loved splashing everyone by kicking his legs into the water as hard as he could.

He was exhausted after all of that fun!

On another note: today is day one of cloth nappies….I have just done my 1st change (only a wet one) but already feel that it is love. This opinion may change when I am faced with a pooey one! I have already noticed a reduction in the amount of times bear grabs at his crotch area!!

These are the nappies I have chosen for this morning 🙂

Cloth Nappies!!

Bear has been suffering with a very sore nappy region for months now. Dr says it is Eczema and has prescribed steroid cream for him. He has since been back for some stronger stuff and it still hasn’t cleared fully. We have pretty much tried every cream on the market too and some have helped a little, some not at all. We also don’t think it is caused by what he eats, as he eats such different things every day. So, having eliminated in our own minds all of these factors we think it may be a reaction to the nappies (pampers really didn’t suit our bear, kiddicare, aldi and boots were ok for a while) so we have decided to invest in cloth nappies and hope for the best!!

They arrived in the post today so will be washed and dried a few times (as per the instructions) over night and will try them out as from tomorrow. We have our fingers, and toes, crossed that it helps him. So far I am in love with the idea of them, they have such cool designs and the inserts are so soft. We even went for the reusable fleece liners as to steer clear of all ‘disposable’. I will write an update on the nappy experiment after the weekend…..gives us a few days to see if it was money well spent!