First Year Of Motherhood | A Reflection Part 2
I’ll never forget that night Eric cried and cried when we tried to lay him down for bedtime. Josh and I were beyond the point of exhaustion with a 6-month old that was waking 3+ times a night. Christmas was fastly approaching and our holiday season was anything but cozy. I was exhausted and stressed out taking care of our new baby, still adjusting to life as a mom. We had tried everything to get him to sleep, but with no avail. As a last resort, we worked with a professional sleep trainer to guide us in beginning to sleep train Eric.
That first night we tried to let him cry it out was horrible. I went in and checked on him every 5-10 minutes but something was not sitting right with me. I knew something else was wrong. I was messaging with my sleep consultant and told her I don’t know what is wrong with him other than he might have separation anxiety. She said most times unconsolable crying is related to ear infections. So I ran out and got my trusty otoscope from amazon. I’m a firm believer in being prepared and I knew it was most likely just a matter of time until I needed an otoscope so why not get one right? I checked his ears, and what do you know? A double ear infection. To say I felt bad would be a grave understatement. I felt like I could win the Worst Mom award of 2018. I knew he was in pain so we bundled him up, took him to the doctors, and it was confirmed, he had a full-blown double ear infection. I gave him some Tylenol just to relieve him of his discomfort and he was much more comfortable after that. I did give him the antibiotics but they only gave him diarrhea and wrecked his little tummy. The 100% did not clear up his ear infection.
After I realized that the antibiotics did not work a stitch for Eric I knew that there had to be something underlying causing this problem. I didn’t know it at the time, but the reason those antibiotics didn’t work was that his ear infections were not caused by a viral infection. They were being caused by an allergy. I was still unaware of what was causing the ear infections until a few months after his first ear infection. It was Christmas morning and I decided to give Eric his first scrambled egg. I was so excited to see if he’ll like these nutritious scrambled eggs that would surely heal him of all illnesses. Well turns out the last thing he needed was eggs. It was barely a minute after he took his first bite of eggs he started to itch his eyes, he started coughing and started to cry like something was hurting him. He was having trouble breathing and began wheezing. At first, I thought he might have a little piece of egg stuff so I got him out of the highchair to help him with it when he suddenly vomited everywhere. His eyes were all pink and his breathing was constricted. I was well versed enough in allergic reactions (thanks to Josh) to know what was going on and was trying to stay calm. I filled up the bathtub with some warm water to wash his vomit away and he threw up again. He threw up one more time and then was totally fine.
After that, I obviously knew that he was allergic to eggs so I made sure that I didn’t give him any foods with eggs in them. But you guys, I am such a slow learner, obviously. It took me another 2 months to realize that he was still being exposed to eggs through my breastmilk! Duh! He was still having reoccurring ear infections and had a cold literally for 3 months straight. I was having a hard time connecting it to my breast milk because I wasn’t eating eggs every day so he wasn’t getting ear infections all the time. Just randomly, or so I thought. I’m not a huge egg fan so I was only eating them maybe once or twice a week for breakfast. But I cannot even begin to tell you the extreme frustration. He wouldn’t want to lay down to sleep because of the pressure that it put on his ears, he couldn’t take a nuk because his nose was clogged, and when he would fall asleep he would only sleep for an hour or two. It was one of the most stressful times of our life.
After I cut out eggs from my diet his ear infections stopped immediately. They cleared up within 48 hours. His cough was gone in a week’s time. Wouldn’t you know any time that I forgot and ate eggs or he accidentally got in direct contact with eggs he had a massive ear infection and congestion within 12 hours? Then they would clear up and disappear within 48 hours.
Eric still has reactions to eggs,he vomits three times, cries, and then acts like nothing ever happened. The thing that frustrated me the most tho? The fact that I did all the ” right things” and my baby was still sick. I was paleo, dairy-free, gluten-free, made sure he wasn’t over stimulated but ya know, stimulated enough. I limited my sugar intake, had a home birth, breastfed, ALL THE THINGS. And he was an absolute miserable baby for 4 months straight.
To be continued….
