July 18, 2010 Carol's Journal Entry
“Lactose Intolerant” should have been the words my pediatrician used when he described my infant daughters vomiting back in 1968. Her distressful condition developing after I was forced to stop nursing her. Instead he told me “She’ll grow out of it…it’s nothing” As a brand new mother at the tender at of nineteen, I believed him. I had no way of knowing it would take her over 35 years to do so.
The trusted person who controlled my daughter’s youth and well-being…failed us. “Colic” was the label he placed on her miserable condition. Chronic and intense stomach distress, accompanied by projectile vomiting and constant “spit-up’s” was her “norm” as her stiff little body tried to fight “the good stuff”…Wholesome, good for everybody…Cow’s milk. “Switch her to evaporated milk” I heard later as I begged for help from my limited resources, “there’s less fat in it…that’ll help”, they said.
And she endured…until our first “parent’s weekend off” where MeMa and BePa were left in charge of our crying baby. “Catnip and Fennel” arrived immediately into her small world…and for all I knew they were feeding my baby girl poison…but it helped! They confessed upon our return that they “had to do something!” and they knew what. This old wives herbal remedy of diluting 2 to or 3 drops in a teaspoon of warm water, remembered from their own baby boy’s distressful infancy 24 years prior, broke the awful gas bubble in the famous “burp” all babies endure. Saving Noelle’s sweet disposition and solving our weary, sleepless nights with our beautiful, crying and screaming baby.
We took her back from Boston to the sleepy little college towns of Center Harbor and Center Sandwich, New Hampshire with the picturesque “On Golden Pond” lakes and mountains where sheep and goats roam freely…contented we’d found “a cure”. Fast forward now 42 years and I’ve learned many new terms as Noelle has worked her way to this new point in our lives together. Age and intelligence and a community as educated in all things “natural” banded together in a magical place called Asheville, North Carolina where she has received answers for her symptoms. Our relief is contagious…she endured, I grieved, I mourn her youthful years where science and tradition ruled our lives through blissful ignorance only to find ourselves being able to do something about it. “Conversion”…So simple…Convertible recipes with natural products that remove the harmful irritant(s) before its ingested, I finally had my answer.
The old cliché’ states “Out of the mouth’s of babes”…I’ve stepped in to do the job I should have done for her so many years ago… simply converting my recipes into the wholesome meals she can tolerate to make her life better and improved. Each step in the process is LOVE produced as my virginal eyes, mind and taste-buds discovers these unfamiliar resources and discuss them through this new electronic channel.
“Trying to do what’s right and not knowing… it was wrong” has exhausted me. I’m setting my goals on learning, laughing and enjoying “the Good Life” with my child…free from those distressful attacks. Won’t you join me?
It’s going to be a fun ride in this “Convertible” together. Grab your sunglasses as I drive with you out of the darkness and into the light.
Here’s to Better Eating,
Carol
