The 30 day "No Dairy" trial

Joel has a history of occasional wheezing and a while ago (from age 1 to 2) others noticed that he would wheeze when drinking cow's milk.  I cut that out immediately and put him on soy milk flavored with vanilla and I added canola oil.  We did that for about a year and then I reintroduced cow's milk around age 2.  Hm... if you read my Vitamin C megadose trial blog you will see that his major problems began right around then.. at 24 months to 30 months.

I also suffer from frequent sinus infections, and those are much worse and more frequent when I am pregnant, which has been a lot lately! I am proceeding with megadosing Vitamin C during pregnancy, which I mentioned previously.  After some dosage adjustments (higher) it seems to be helping tremendously. However, I am still pretty congested from time to time.

Joel had an ear infection over Thanksgiving (only his first, maybe second, since adding daily vitamin C), but this one seemed pretty bad as he had a fever off and on for 1.5 days.  I did not treat with antibiotics but eventually took him into the dr. after 7 days to make sure it was totally gone. At this point he was completely symptom free, but I just wanted to be sure.  Our Dr. said his ears looked great but that he was wheezing.  He suggested a maintenence med to control and prevent his wheezing, but, due to my hesitations, we agreed on a 1 month non-dairy trial instead.  My dr. agreed that Joel might have some type of allergy or intolerance to dairy and thought it would be a good idea as long as we re-evaluate in January.

I decided to take part in the trial myself to see if it would help with my congestion.  I also decided that whatever milk Joel was going to drink, the rest of the family would also drink.  Yes, more expensive, but also healthier and more convenient for mom.  There's no way I'm going to make 3-4 different meals with 2-3 different types of milk on the table.. ha ha, funny.

After lots of research and taste-testing with the boys, we settled on a 1/2 almond milk 1/2 goat milk combo for their drinks and mostly goat cheese for Joel 3 and myself.  (I caved slightly and allow Judah and my husband to have real cheese) The almond milk was added in order to give the goat milk a little better flavor.  I couldn't switch entirely to almond or rice milk or coconut milk due to their low protein content.  Joel has never really liked meat and I felt like I couldn't assure that the protein deficit would be covered by his diet.  We tried some vegan cheeses but the taste and texture just didn't seem worth it when the goat cheese has worked so well for us.

I have not had to be too strict with the trial.  I would allow yogurt, sour cream and even cream cheese as long as it was the only 'questionable' thing of the day that Joel had.  That way if he had a problem out of nowhere (congestion/wheezing/etc.) I would know what it was from.  However, after adding many of these common dairy foods back in, I did not notice any problems.  We are literally just avoiding cow's milk and cow's cheese now.  All other dairy foods, even if they have whey or casein high on the ingredient list, have been fine.

Since the trial began Dec 5th, I have been listening to Joel's chest 3-4 times a day with a stethoscope (yes,  long time ago I was an active and working RN!) and keeping track of his food intake.  I did think I might have heard slight wheezing twice.  Both times he did not have a runny nose or cough or any other symptoms...looking perfectly healthy. Both times the wheezing was so slight (and we were on the go) that I did nothing and found that 2 hours later when I listened again, it was gone. He was sick the first 1-2 weeks of the trial but since then has been healthy.

It is hard to know how much the lack of dairy is helping.  Before the trial I would only listen to Joel when he had a fever or when he had considerable congestion or cough.  Those were the only times when he wheezed from age 1-2 1/2.  At age 2 1/2 we introduced vitamin C and other supplements.  Since then I have continued to listen when he has a fever or congestion or cough and have heard nothing at all.

Personally, I have felt much less congested since starting my 'no dairy' trial.  However, when I do cheat from time to time I notice considerable congestion either that night or the next morning. I also notice way more 'fullness' during digestion...if you know what I mean ;)

So...the jury is still out. We are still making advances with nutrition in other areas but they are coming very slow due to this new focus.  Fresh fruits have been an easy transition and after that came cooking with only whole wheat flour or whole wheat pasta.  We have also significantly decreased our red meat portions and try to only eat only organic ground beef.  Raw veggies are still a bit difficult with the kids, but we are working on it with tomatoes, avacados (yes, when it comes to kids I consider those to be veggies), cauliflower, and carrots.  Once Judah finally has all of his molars, we will have another baby ..so I assume it will always be a challenge.  Soon I will attempt some sort of 'blended salad' approach for them since Judah is getting much better with a spoon.  With guacamole at the base, other veggies can be blended in, and the hope is that they eat it like yogurt! ha. I will keep you posted.

We are about to begin another 30 day trial involving nutrition which I will blog about soon.  I'll give you a hint: this one involves my husband. ;)

It's a...

Yes, the Penton family will welcome into the world another little BOY!  Yes, I must be crazy.  We are so happy for this little blessing and we are praying for the boys to be spiritual leaders and great friends.

My due date is April 9th and, based on my history, this one will probably arrive after that.  His kicks and movements seem to get larger and larger each day.  He weighed 11oz at my 19.5 week ultrasound which was the 50th percentile.

It has been really fun to talk with Joel about his 'new baby brother.'  He seems to remember sooo much from when Judah was born.  We like to ask him "Joel how many brothers do you have?" and he says "Two!" "one" - pointing to Judah and "two!" - pointing to my belly. So cute.

Is it too late to blog about Halloween?

ok, I admit. If I saw this title to someone else's blog post I would say, um, "YES!" But, I will write about it anyway, taking the chance that only a few might listen.

Halloween this year for the Pentons consisted of 3 opportunities for dress up.  Joel was a cowboy and Judah was a frog.  The Hilliard Library "Costume Ball," our church's "Harvest Celebration" and of course Trick-or-Treat.  Daddy was not able to make 2 out of 3 of the events, but attended the Library Costume Ball for the first time.  Here's a video of Joel 3's much improved throwing skills at the Library.

Judah and Joel did not do well at all at NW Bible's Harvest Celebration and I my friend Amy and I pushed hard to stay there a full hour.  Here's a video of Joel refusing to stand up in the bounce house at NW Bible.



Trick-or-treat went much better than expected, Joel had a blast and wasn't scared to go up to people this year. However, he would not go up to a house.  He only went up to people if they were waiting in the driveway (which is actually quite common in my neighborhood). Judah was not allowed out of the stroller due to Mommy's laziness in not wanting to lean over/squat down to pick him up after he fell on his face/ran into the street/etc.

The craziness that followed Halloween
We left early November for Van Wert and stayed there for a week while Joel and Ryan had assemblies and Concerts in the area.  Then home for 2 days, then Cincinnati for 3 days. Then home for 5 days, then (Thanksgiving week) back to Van Wert for 3 days, then to Cincy for 4 days, now we are finally all home! Joel has 1 more 3 day trip and then things finally settle down.  I am feeling so incredibly overwhelmed and exhausted!  The good news is that I got to spend more time with Joel than I expected for November.

Thanksgiving was also a high point.. there is good news to report from the Groskopf house!  The evening was discussed thoroughly by all parents involved in order to achieve some sort of peaceful evening (or as much as can be expected with 5 kids, 4 of them under 5). A plan was made, and the night went extremely well and I know all of the adults were encouraged by it.  Here's a video of Groskopf Thanksgiving.



Life at home
Judah is speaking ever so slightly.  Right now his favorite words are "Is that?" accompanied by a pointing finger, and "Ju-dah!" yes, he likes to say his own name... for no reason.  He also can now consistently sign for "More" and "All done" however, "All done" is usually accompanied by numerous loud shouts of "ahhhhh - daaaa!!!!" He quickly races to any open door and can easily open it if it is not all the way closed.  He also goes up the stairs constantly while laughing his little dolphin-sounding laugh.  Yes, he is a handful.

Joel is having a hard time knowing how to play with Judah without being "too rough."  It has been a challenge. It doesn't help that Judah laughs whenever he is tackled by Joel. Oh speaking of that, Joel's most favorite game right now is to run around the house in circles saying "I'm a football player, tackle me!" Joel tries to tell him that is not a good strategy but it isn't sinking in.

The boys are taking to their new nutrition plan very well.  Joel's now likes edamame and 'white trees.' (Cauliflower) and of course any fruit I put on his plate.  Judah will eat almost anything, like a dog.  With all of the travel and being around other sick kids I am not surprised that they are both sick.  Also, it was difficult to eat raw veggies and fruits and limit sweets while we were traveling. With time and consistency, I do hope for a healthier family as evidenced by less illnesses or at the very least shortened and less severe illnesses. More on this later.

Joel is arriving home tonight from his last trip for the calendar year.  Thank the Lord!  I don't know why but for some reason, this Fall seemed much harder than 'normal.'  Perhaps it is the pregnancy, or insanely crazy 1 year old & 2 year old.