Juliettables

At 16 months, Juliette is nursing twice an hour through the day, and every two hours at night.  75% or more of her nutrition is still coming from breast milk.  And now we have realized that her allergens found in my breast milk (after I eat those foods to which she is allergic) are really affecting her.  Over the last month I have been eating her diet (only fruits, vegetables and meat, with the occasional almond flour patty.)  Unfortunately, I have been starving and irritable and miserable.  It's hard to grab a quick meal that is filling, so I have sometimes gone without.  More often than not, I've accidentally consumed something that contained something bad and she's been affected.

So finally yesterday morning I came to the conclusion that it was time to wean her.  This was after a very obvious confirmation that she is being affected by breast milk (I caved the day after Hallowe'en and went down in spectacular fashion as I gobbled up about 10 little chocolates and chased it with a small bite of pizza.)  Juliette woke up with puffy, dark eyes (known as allergy bruisers) and was awake for 3 hours during the night with a gut attack.

I prepped James (who would have to take the night shifts) and myself (I have to keep her occupied out of the house during the day to distract her) and was ready to begin last night.  Then, as I drove home from a band concert last night, I started bawling in the car.  Thinking about weaning, about not nursing, about not sharing that with Juliette, was too much.

Instead I've decided to hang in a little longer.  The naturopath we are seeing says there is a good chance that Juliette will be able to tolerate small amounts of these allergens within the year, so I'm hoping that she'll be able to take it in breast milk sooner than that.  So maybe, just maybe, I can hang in there for another month or two and then see how it goes.