Challenge Failed

I have been a bit slack with the blogging. I apologise.

A few things have happened, Thali has been successfully babysat - twice! The Royal Children's Hospital have disappointed me - again! The dietician has provided a few new resources. And I got to eat a mango, and a carrot AND have a cup of tea! But most importantly Thali failed the salicylate challenge. 


After my last post Thali continued to improve. She was only waking once a night, at most, and would have a quick feed and go straight back to sleep. I was having success at getting her to sleep during the day which was incredible. So, after four days of her being really good we decided to start the salicylate challenge. To do this we had to pretty much overdose on salicylates (a natural food chemical found in almost all fruit and vegetables, as well as many other daily things like toothpaste.) I was advised to eat six, 1 cup portions of high salicylate foods a day. Thali was to eat as much as we could get her to. So I finally got my carrot, we shared mango, rockmelon and watermelon, overloaded dinner with pumpkin, sweet potato and capsicum and I got to drink lots of tea and apple juice. 
We started on a Tuesday, by Thursday Thali was getting sooky and clingy. We could see teeth coming through so put it down to that, her sleep was still ok after all. On Friday night she was a little more difficult to get to sleep, but then woke at 9.30pm. There was no resettling her. We had the old Thali back, she was rolling, kicking her legs, crawling around in her cot and looking at us as if to say "what? I'm not sleeping, it's party time!" After an hour of trying to settle her, I got her up. She played happily until I decided to try and put her down again at midnight. She went to sleep - eventually, she wasn't screaming but would lie there for 20-30 minutes or more just staring at nothing, if we made a move she'd start crying. 


On Saturday morning Rhys tried to put her down for her first nap. She went totally crazy. I sat on the couch and bawled my eyes out. I couldn't believe that the wild, inconsolable animal that was kicking, screaming and arching her back was the same girl from 3 days earlier. I couldn't believe that only two weeks earlier, this was 'normal' for us, what we did every day or that we had let it go for so long. I felt resentful that no-one could help us earlier, that we had seen two doctors at the Royal Children's, several GP's and nurses, sleep school staff, friends and family and no-one could help. I wonder where we would be if I hadn't joined an online forum and found a wonderful, supportive network of other mums - one other who was also on the failsafe diet. I couldn't believe that people were telling us to "let her cry it out" and "stop being so soft on her." This was not 'normal' baby behaviour, there was something wrong with my daughter - now I had an answer. 


We stopped giving Thali salicylates after that. Four days later she is still difficult to get to sleep, but has continued to sleep well overnight. She is clingy, sooky and temperamental during the day but is slowly getting better. Hopefully over the next few days things continue to improve further. Once we feel we have our happy, easy-going baby back we can start giving salicylates again. This time in foods that have a much lower chemical content and in a lower dose, so perhaps one of Thali's hand size piece of apple a day and see how she goes.  If she is ok we can increase - slowly!


Tomorrow my parents arrive from interstate to stay with us for three weeks. We also have lots of other things happening this month. The dietician advised holding off on challenges until things are back to normal for us and to keep Thali strictly to the diet but not be too hard on sticking to it myself. Thali may be able to tolerate the chemical levels through breast milk, there is no research as to how much of the chemical passes through, nor how long it takes to leave the system. I will stick to it as much as I can but I know that in some instances, like an upcoming wedding, I won't be able to. I went to the Hen's party last weekend and drank a glass of champagne, had chocolate mousse, coconut ice-cream and cake. It was glorious! But, I didn't have anywhere near as much as I would have, had I not been on the diet. It's all a big balancing act now. 


The dietician provided a list of foods and whether they fit into a low, moderate or high category of food chemicals. She also suggested we look at a cookbook called 'Friendly Food' it is put out by the RPAH in Sydney and looks very impressive and inspiring. We are currently using the 'Fed Up' cookbook by Sue Dengate which although it has a lot of recipes and good information it's doesn't have a very good lay out and no pictures. I'm looking forward to some new ideas now that it looks like some variant of the diet will continue long term. Once we have worked out Thali's tolerance levels things will get a little easier, and as she gets bigger her tolerance levels will increase. Unfortunately there is no simple test, no immediate reaction, no one size fits all solution, but this is our answer. 

This is a new Thali that we are so excited to see more of.