Important Supplements
Get off the Fence! Try the TED!
by Becca Anne, Facebook
So you’re on the fence about doing the TED diet.
Whether you’re a “breast is best” advocate or simply can’t afford formula, I say start the TED diet as soon as you’re done reading this. Here were my top three biggest reasons why:
1. Your motivation will wane. Breastfeeding is hard. So go ahead and commit to you and your baby, and give this a 100% fair shot. At least you’ll know you did everything you could.
2. Your baby will change. Sickness happens, so does teething, weird sleeping, etc. just go ahead and eliminate food being an issue.
3. I knew this would help me figure out what I could feed her when she started solid foods. As you’ll see – no rice for us!!
At this point, I assume you understand the basis of the total elimination diet. If not, please read the rest of the infantreflux.org Total Elimination Diet page, and all the links there.
I had loosely been tracking what I ate for two and a half months – but absolutely no dairy, soy, egg, wheat, or corn. Not even bi- products. My daughter still had green mucousy poop, and on and off cheek rashes. Finally I was ready to give it 100% with TED.
To start my diet, I was very strict. I had turkey, yellow squash, pears, and white potatoes. Also olive oil (the ranch brand because it is very pure), rice, salt and pepper. I stuck with that for two weeks.
I felt incredibly disheartened when there was no change after two weeks. However, with some encouragement from the Infant reflux: support for gerdlings facebook group – I kept going. I dropped rice because I was too lazy to make it – and all of a sudden her cheek rash was finally gone!! After another week of the original items minus rice, I added sweet potatoes.
After three days of no change in her skin or poop, I added apples. Next: bananas. Then we tried avocado and it failed with green mucousy poop. It didn’t make sense, and that’s ok.
About that time she started daycare, almost caught my cold, and got her vaccines. So I stopped changing anything. I had enough to not feel deprived, and I knew any of those experiences could impact her gut and therefore poop. I wanted the women at the daycare to know her behavior and temperament, and that she would usually only cry if she was hungry or tired. I also wanted them to know what her poop normally looked like, so they could tell me of any changes.
Throughout this whole process keep this in mind: You aren’t eating for yourself anymore. You are eating to give your child the precious gift of breast milk. You have the rest of your life to eat bananas, cupcakes, or ice cream. Or whatever it is you miss terribly. But you only have this tiny moment in your child’s life to provide breast milk for them. You are making a huge sacrifice, and even though your baby cannot thank you – they are grateful. This is hard, it isn’t meant to be easy. And you ARE strong enough to do it.
Have fun!
