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.