Done with the diet

After several days of tossing pros and cons back and forth, feeling frustration, crying, praying, etc. we decided to stop the diet on Friday. I have meant to let everyone know sooner, but the weekend has been busy. In the wee hours of the morning Friday, Micah was awake for nearly three hours crying and screaming for food, we believe. So, we were all awake and after a couple of hours decided “Let’s give the boy some food!” He was much more content and has been since we have been back to our old, normal ways of feeding him.

As you saw in the last posting, it was just too difficult and the drinking was not getting better. We had visions of a continuing pattern of blood draws to see if he was close to dehydration followed by hospital visits for IV fluids...not our idea of a fun way to spend time. We also felt Micah was just miserable because he wasn’t getting enough to eat. After talking with one of Dr. Raja’s nurses on Friday to let them know we were ending the diet she said she felt like we had gone above and beyond, tried as long as we could to stick with it, and that we deserve a reward! She also has suspicions that maybe the diet was not calculated correctly for our little tall boy. She said he should have been hungry, but not hysterical.

Micah has been much happier and energetic since Friday, so it’s good to see him smiling, laughing, and moving around again. He's also drinking just fine now! One thing that’s happening that we feel like is a repercussion of the diet is that he is still getting upset after meal times, even when we KNOW he’s had enough. I think he was getting used to little food and getting upset and so we hope it is a pattern that will soon fade. He has had a huge appetite! I think he’s trying to say “you people starved me for two weeks and now I’m going to eat you out of house and home.” Not really, it’s just amusing how he can’t seem to get enough food!

Another weird thing is that he is starting to throw major temper tantrums at nap and bed time or if he wakes up in the night and we try and lay him back down. He can literally scream for half an hour before he will settle down. When he used to wake up he was just wide awake and ready to play, but not fussy. Anyway, kids are a mystery sometimes!

Thanks so much for your encouragement, prayers, phone calls, emails, etc. We love it. We’ll continue to keep you updated!