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. ;)
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