She's 'helping' shovel

These are from last Monday when we got six more inches of fresh fluff. You can see she's working so hard at helping me - she shoveling the snow back onto the sidewalk and driveway.  The snowpack has turned glacial so she could plow through the new snow on top of the already three feet.

She's a different kid!

Well...Morgan's been completely dairy free since Monday afternoon and we have a TOTALLY different kid! 

Up to this point many of you have listened to our fears about Morgan's behaviors - all the whining, not eating, power struggles over food, time-outs, her ambivalence to time-out in terms of eating...  We were getting so worried that we asked for a referral to a child psychologist and have our first appointment in 2 weeks! It was the earliest that we could get in for a new patient (I made the appointment back in December!) But now we are going to cancel the appointment.

Why? She's a totally different kid! Yes we still get some whining - but maybe a few seconds once in an evening, or her favorite word - NO.  But this is normal -she's 3! What we experienced was not. It just makes me so sad to think that she was that uncomfortable for SO long and we did nothing about it.

For the first time ever she is saying, "Mommy, I'm hungry!" She actually asked for seconds at dinner the other night.  This entire week we have been astounded at how much food she's been packing in.  I've also noticed that she's not as sedentary, nor does she have purple smudges under her eyes when I pick her up from school.

She's adjusted to Rice milk very well - almond tastes a bit better, but Rice Dream has 160 calories compared to almond's 60.  She's also already telling us what she can't have, "I can't eat butter now" or "I can't have cheese".  I think the biggest disappointment for her was taking away dark chocolate. So many cheaper brands have milk solids, or butter in the ingredients.  But the more expensive brands like Black and Gold only come in full bars and it would take her months to work through a bar since she gets so few sweets.  Oddly enough Pillsbury Simple chocolate chip cookies are OK, so she can have a treat every now and then. Thank God for Kashi cereal bars and Cliff Bar z-kids - her staple snacks that she can continue to eat.

News on Morgan's Test Results

Because of Morgan's behavior and slow weight gain, as well as Samantha Webster talking about Fraya and her food intolerance, we decided to get more information. Fortunately Moorhead has a new naturopathic clinic where we could have Morgan tested for IgA & IgE allergies. Three weeks ago Morgan was a trooper sitting through the blood test and today we heard the results.

There's good and bad information. Good - I was terrified she was going to come back with wheat/gluten and or soy intolerance and she has NONE! YEAH!

Bad - she's severely lactose/dairy intolerant. We knew through food trials that lactose was an issue, what we are learning now is what else milk gets listed as and what it really is. The biggest flag on her test was WHEY. Whey is in everything!  For the next 6 months Morgan has to be completely dairy free - no more whole milk lactaid, she tried and like chocolate rice milk tonight; no more butter (after reading every margarine label finally found one with no milk or whey - smart balance light); no more whole milk yogurt. These have been staples for us for higher calorie food. 

Now we need to take the leap and trust, hope and pray that taking her off her high fat dairy will be OK and that the replacements  - even though less in calories, will allow her to absorb more nutrients and calories and hence gain weight and have easier BM's. 

Tomorrow? breakfast - her regular Naturade Total Soy powder mixed with unsweetened almond milk - we'll let you know what she thinks!

Montessori Method

Part of the Montessori curriculum is learning about food prep and serving. Morgan has been working on cutting pickles (full pickles with a sharp kitchen paring kinfe!) and serving her friends at school; at home she's been helping make meatballs, cut up fruit for fruit salad and stir hashbrowns!

Using Morgan's blog as a platform for other issues...

Some of you know - many of you don't...My dear friend Mel's 8-year old daughter Eva(Ava) was diagnosed with Ewings Cancer on Christmas morning this past year. Of course it has been a whirlwind of activity and emotions. Many people are trying to help and one way Lynne and I are helping is by taking care of Charlie. So meet Charlie...Charlie$ Change

Lynne and I are trying to reach as many horsey and pet people who understand the need to care for our 4-footed family members.

This is Eva (and Mel and Max and Liesl)

This is Eva and Morgan strawberry picking