800 oz of Milk On The Truck

When Little Man was diagnosed with food allergies, my first reaction was to be happy that we knew what was causing his problems and could easily fix them. My second was what the heck am I going to do with all the milk in my freezer that he can't have. Well, it took me about two months to find somewhere to donate it, get the blood test, and get all the other approvals like doctor's signatures, phone interviews, and more but I finally shipped all the milk down to the Mother's Milk Bank in Austin, TX. They were fabulous to deal with and it's a good feeling knowing that all that milk will go to help premature and/or sick babies. Milk donation is really something that should get more attention. I couldn't help but post a picture of all that milk on it's way out the door. With the dry ice, it was a total of about 70 pounds! And there's another 250 ounces in the freezer already that are safe for Little Man. I may find myself donating even more...

Sick Little Man = Extra Milk (Weekly Tally)

I haven't posted in a few days because my Little Man was really sick. He had a fever and threw up all over his dad. It was lovely. We also kept him home from daycare for a few days. It's the first time he's really been sick. Fortunately, he perked back up yesterday afternoon and we expect him to be fine this morning. While he was sick though, he was drinking about 5 ounces less milk each day so we have an abundant surplus this week. My average per day also went up for the first time in about a month. Not by much, but I'll take. And, I finally got approved to donate all the milk that Little Man can't have because of his allergies so I'm excited about that. I'll post more once I pack it all up to ship.

7/26/09-8/1/09
Total Pumped: 238.5
Total Used: 273.5
Surplus: 35
Average Per Day: 39.07

Betty Crocker Gluten Free Yellow Cake

The last of the Betty Crocker Gluten Free mixes. This one is the yellow cake and we made cupcakes. Like the chocolate ones, they are fantastic. I used the rest of the Betty Crocker Milk Chocolate frosting. I still don't know what happened to the Brownies. I must have measured something wrong. My husband things I used the wrong powder to water ratio for the egg replacer. He might be right so we'll have to try them again. Other than that, I highly recommend the Betty Crocker mizes. The cookie and cake mixes were delicious even with the egg replacer and I have a feeling we'll be making them often. You could bring all of these to an event with non-GF/allergy people and they wouldn't even know they're gluten free.

Where is it going?! (Weekly Tally)

My milk supply has been decreasing for the past few weeks and I have no idea why. I'm drinking enough, eating extra, and getting enough sleep and nothing seems to help. I've gone from 43 ounces a day to about 38. I'm still outpacing Little Man by a few ounces but it's frustrating. Fortunately, he's now eating some solid food although a few ounces of rice cereal or a veggie doesn't really have many calories anyway. But, at least we're on our way to me not being his only food source. He's doing very well so far with the food. We've tried rice cereal, sweet potatoes, and carrots and he sits nicely and eats very well. I've been making my own baby food which is surprisingly easy. We put a Cuisinart hand blender and I highly recommend it. Yesterday I made peas for him. I put the frozen peas in the container that comes with the blender, added some water, microwaved them, drained them a little, and then blended them. Aside from the time in the microwave, it took less than 5 minutes and made about 6 meals for him. Very easy and much cheaper than buying the little jars.

7/19/09-7/25/09
Total Pumped: 249
Total Used: 272.25
Surplus: 23.25
Average Per Day: 38.89

Betty Crocker Gluten Free Chocolate Cake

Amazing. Simply amazing. Betty Crocker's gluten free devil's food cake actually tastes like cake. We used egg replacer and put Betty Crocker's milk chocolate frosting on top. They were really moist and had a normal cake texture which is so unusual for gluten free cake. I was a little concerned since the brownies didn't come out so well but we didn't have any issues with these. I will definitely make them again and can't wait to try the yellow cake which we already have in the house. Now I'll be able to make Little Man a birthday cake when the time comes that's safe for our family and really good.

Should we test everyone for celiac disease?

A new study by the mayo clinic found that celiac disease is far more prevalent today than it was 50 years ago and that those with undiagnosed celiac disease are more likely to die earlier. It raises the question of whether we should be testing everyone for celiac disease like we do for cholesterol, blood pressure, etc. Here's the link to information about the study:

http://newsblog.mayoclinic.org/2009/06/29/celiac-disease-prevalence-and-mortality/

As someone who struggled for my entire childhood and into my early twenties, I believe we should test everyone for celiac disease. It should be part of our preventive care. It may not be a yearly test like cholesterol but maybe it could be something we test every five years or whatever length of time seems appropriate. I can think of several people off the top of my head that I'm fairly sure have undiagnosed celiac disease. I know for some the diet is a huge challenge but I choose to look at it as such an simple way to be well. Could people avoid other autoimmune diseases, infertility, and just missing out on life if we could identify celiac disease earlier?

Rethinking Pumping as the Ultimate Weight Loss Plan (Weekly Tally)

I posted before about how I've lost more weight than I gained when I was pregnant. This is supposed to be a good thing. But, after losing another pound this week, I seem to be losing about an ounce a day for each pound I lose. My all time high was 44 ounces a day and now I'm down to a little over 39. Little Man drinks about 36 oz a day. I'm still ahead of him but this doesn't leave me with much of a cushion. I'm still pumping on the same schedule that I've been on for the past two months and I even increased how long I pump lately since I'm not getting as much but that hasn't really made a difference. So, my husband and I decided that I may just need to stay a little plump to maintain my production. Ah, the things we do for our kids.
Part of why I've been losing weight is because of the foods we can't have. Before we found out about Little Man's allergies I would eat trail mix with nuts or hard boiled eggs or gluten free cookies as sources of protein and fat but I can't do that anymore and I don't think I replaced those snacks with anything except fruit. Great plan for losing weight, not so great for milk production. We bought me whole milk (I usually use skim) and cheese to see if that makes a difference. I'll keep you posted if this week's tally goes up. Here's the stats for last week:

7/12/09-7/18/09
Total Pumped: 278.75
Total Used: 252
Surplus: 26.75
Average Per Day: 39.82