Meet my sweet little Cloe Mae. She is all things sweet, kind, giggly & girly. Everything that I mother could hope for in a precious little girl. She is a wonderful friend to others & great big sister. She loves everyone she meets and honestly doesn’t have a mean bone in her body. She amazes me daily, I have never seen a young child have such empathy for others.
When she was a baby we struggled with acid reflux and all kinds of tummy issues. We were using formula, since I was younger and honestly had no support in breastfeeding! I didn’t have a strong community of other nursing mothers and really wasn’t very educated in breastfeeding. So formula it was! We tried everything, she always struggled with her tummy. We were switched to soy, alementum, and all the different brands.
Around her 1st birthday we switched to whole milk and a lot of her tummy issues stopped! However…. as we introduced more and more table (and processed 🙈) foods, she developed AWFUL eczema. Like her skin would crack and bleed.
We were immediately told to take her off dairy & eggs. This helped a little bit but the eczema and tummy aches remained. This battle continued for years.
As I became more aware of what was in our diets (overly processed food & GMOs), the situation would slightly improve. However, it still wasn’t great.
Then one summer day…. Cloe took a bite of a rice crispy treat (something she has actually never really had before). That is when our world changed! Within minutes she started swelling and breaking out in a rash! I poured about 1/2 a bottle of children’s Benadryl down her throat & rushed her to the ER. SCARIEST DAY OF MY LIFE!
The next week we saw an allergist. And we’re given her list of allergies.
They are:
- Rice
- Corn
- Soy (yep we had been poisoning her with her baby formula)
- Peanuts
- Cottonseed oil
- Dogs
- Cats
Needless to say life changed a little bit! We immediately eliminated everything in our house that had those ingredients! And Cloe started carrying an EpiPen Jr.
We also sought out a holistic doctor who helped us with a nutrition plan. During that time we discovered that Cloe (&myself) had dairy intolerances. Our best plan for sanity in our diets was to go on the Paleo Diet!
All of this has turned Cloe’s world upside down. There has been so many changes in her diet that sometimes she is excluded from others! Birthday parties, family gatherings, school lunch, and classroom activities have become things we have to prepare & plan for.
In all of this my sweet girl has become known as The Allergy Girl. She even refers to herself in that way sometimes. We have to constantly remind her that she is SO MUCH MORE than her allergies. We also have to see God’s blessings in these allergies as well! Our family eats way healthier than we did before, and Cloe is learning healthy diet & lifestyle choices at a very young age.
In all things, we have to look for the positives, and how we can turn the situation to good!
Make sure to subscribe to this blog, I will be sharing recipes and tips for survinging with multiple allergies in the future.
The Life of Heather Alyssa 
I had NO idea you all struggled like our family. I’m so sorry first that you didn’t have a support for breastfeeding. . I would have soooooo helped you. I have 3 of our 4 kids with these similar severe food allergies. the exclusions are hurtful for sure.. but it was also why I started baking 14 years ago..We def. need to talk more. Again . I’m so sorry that I didn’t know and I am so glad you have in the mean time been able to get help for sweet chloe. It definitely is another part time at least job to meal and snack plan. In the process of this all I too am now GF and have zero tummy problems. it’s amazing how our govt. allows such Crap to be put in our food. Call me any time.
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