NESCorF diet

If you want to lose weight, have I got the diet for you!

When Grant was 4 months old, I discovered blood in his (dirty) diaper. After discussing the situation with his pediatrician and a nurse at Riley Children's Hospital, I decided to try going onto an elimination diet. I took the most common allergens out of my diet, which I remembered by using the acroynm NESCorF: nuts, eggs, soy, corn, and fish. In addition to these, I eliminated dairy. Eventually, by adding the foods back into my diet, I saw that he was allergic to dairy and corn. I kept those foods out of my diet until I stopped nursing him. He is now a healthy, allergy-free two-year-old!

During my pregnancy with Caroline I was so worried that I would have to repeat this process and wondered if I would even want to do it again. At six weeks I found the same symptom of an allergy with Caroline as I'd seen with Grant: blood in her diaper. Ugh! I opted to try removing just dairy to see if this would cure the problem. The bleeding stopped but other GI issues continued. I figured, since corn had been Grant's other trigger, I would cut that out instead of eliminating everything. However, she seemed to continue having GI problems. So, I am currently dariy, nut, egg, soy, corn, and fish-free (but may add back corn soon).

What do I eat? This is a question many people ask. I still eat oat bran for breakfast (cereal often has soy or dairy or corn), and for lunch I eat hummus on pitas, matzo bread, or rice cakes. I have a list of meals that I ate during my last stint with this diet so dinner is a bit easier than it was last time. The foods I really miss are glasses of milk at dinner and peanut butter for lunch. Yum!

As difficult as this diet is, I love nursing my daughter and will continue this diet as long as is necessary. It is such a special thing, and I'm thankful that I can do it!