When Your Mother's Intuition Is Trying to Tell You Something

Y'all- this Mother's Intuition business is REAL.  Like, full on- no joke mmkay....you might remember that we are almost to the end of our very first contest/giveaway here on the blog.  This one is dedicated to helping YOU make better eating choices and get in more fruits and veggies so you live a nice, long life.  But what you may not know is that the subject of Veganism has been weighing heavy on my heart for the last year.  If you are a fan of the Homeschooled Housewife, you'll know that we already have a pretty clean diet and rarely eat meat.  But GOODNESS do we ever love our cheese, sour cream and ice cream!  So while I desperately wanted to move my family towards a vegan diet, I just didn't think it would work for us.  I'm already asking my boys to give up quite a bit and make some pretty BIG food and lifestyle choices that I felt terrible asking them to give up even more.

Guilt y'all.

But then the kiddo started experiencing some truly horrible stomach issues.  I knew that it wasn't the flu or a temporary illness because we Mama's know when our kids are sick like this.  This wasn't it.  But it was weird y'all- seeming to come on out of nowhere, fierce and painful- debilitating even.  At first I thought perhaps he was just eating too much sugar and not getting enough sleep.  So we started eliminating the sugars, not that there was a ton of it but sorry kid no more early morning donuts with Daddy.  Boo.

Things seemed to get better.

And then they didn't.

And then whenever he would eat out, he would start feeling ill.  We thought perhaps it was just the greasy food but the reality is that we don't really eat this type of food.  When a Chipotle brown rice bowl is making your child not feel well- you know you got problems.

My Mama gut said he was allergic to dairy because seriously- with our diet, what else was there?

And so I made an appointment for him at the naturopath.  I wanted to rule out some weird illness, perhaps he needed more sleep or was a bit dehydrated...but the truth is that at this point, I pretty much knew it was the food he was eating.  I just didn't know WHAT exactly was making him ill or to what extent.

So let's just go back to this subject of wanting to adopt a vegan diet.  For the last year or more, I have been adding in more vegan dishes even though I didn't feel we were ready to cut the dairy cord completely.  Why was I doing this?  Why did I have such a burning desire to adopt this dietary lifestyle?

My kid y'all.  This Mama KNEW even when she didn't know.

The Mother's Intuition.  It's no joke.  Add in the fact that I started a contest focused on eating VEGAN and vegetarian foods at the precise time that the kiddo's food allergies were coming to a head.  Yeah- sometimes the timing is just on point and you know before YOU KNOW.

Turns out that I was right.  Tests confirm the kiddo is allergic to all dairy and eggs.  Well shit.  Life changing stuff here and I'm doing the best I can to help him understand that his most favorite foods are now gone.  This is pretty hard for a kid- especially at this age when socializing with his friends is such a big part of his life and FOOD is of course a major component to that.  But he's handling it much better than I probably would have at his age- most likely because he doesn't want to feel awful anymore, he's willing to do whatever needs to be done.  Even if that means giving up his beloved cheese pizza and mac n cheese.

Poor kid.

At this point, we are just learning of his allergies.  As in, we found out 3 days ago.  I am extremely thankful that we had already started towards this path of veganism- makes the transition much easier for sure!  But we are all still a bit shell shocked.  This diagnosis tips our world on end and will take even more work to make sure he's getting his protein and other missing vitamins and nutrients.  Because another issue we discussed was that since the kiddo is so very active- he will need a higher amount of protein to keep his body running as it should.  That's a LOT of beans and lentils y'all.

I am also feeling thankful that it is not worse.  I think every parent has this reaction.  Yes, it sucks.  But Praise Jesus it is NOT more serious than it is.  At this point, if the kiddo eats the foods he's allergic to- he will simply get sick and feel nauseous.  The nausea is debilitating and will completely ruin his day.  However, he won't swell up, get rashes or need to inject himself with an Epi Pen and rush to the ER.  So yes- it most definitely could be a much different situation and for that- I am thankful.

I'm just starting to fully do my own research but for now, we are working on getting our child feeling 100% healthy again.  Keeping his body running at top condition, eating the right foods, supplementing with missing vitamins and helping him come to terms with this life changing issue.  But y'all- I am suffering some serious Mama guilt over it.  I keep wondering if he's had these issues all along and I never noticed.  I feel bad that I dismissed his stomach issues at first or perhaps didn't take it as seriously as I should have.  Was it something I fed him as a baby?  Did I introduce certain foods too early?  Should I have been more focused on organics and GMO free from the very beginning?  Ugh.  Being a Mom is not easy sometimes.

So where does this leave us?

Well, three days out.  That's seriously not long when making a life long change.  But we quite literally have NO other option.  If we want a healthy child, we need to help the kiddo adopt a more vegan diet.  Period.  Since we don't eat much meat and now all dairy and eggs are out- vegan it is.  And as his Mom, I feel that I should support him and do this with him.  So some pretty big changes are happening for us but let's be honest- my Mama gut already told me so.

Listen to it ladies.  Do NOT ever underestimate the power of a Mother's Intuition.

Although the husband has firmly stated that he will NOT be giving up the cheese and sour cream.  BWHAHAHA- I don't blame him.  Cheese is delicious and sour cream is the business.

I suppose that I will just update you all in a month or so.  For now, we are eliminating ALL the foods he's allergic too (and there's quite a list you guys!) and then slowly adding one back in at a time to try and identify the major triggers.  If we can pinpoint the exact foods that seem to exacerbate the situation, it will be much easier than avoiding everything completely.  And perhaps allow the kiddo to occasionally enjoy a real ice cream cone.

Gah.  That makes me want to cry.  My kid never again getting to experience the simple pleasure of a real ice cream cone while on vacay- I just can't.  I'm out.