Cow’s Milk Protein Intolerance

Where is this year’s snow?

Wednesday 18th January 2012Friday 11th May 2012Baggie

So before we know it the mid-January hangover is upon us. Christmas is a distant memory (apart from the collection of new toys strewn across the lounge floor) and Summer an eternity away. Not that this Winter has been that hard, forecasts in the Autumn were indicating it was going to be a harsh winter, but hey weathermen and meteorologists have been wrong before. The jetstream is sitting much further north than the last few years hence our winter (at least for the southern portion of the UK) has been much warmer than recent years, shame really as I enjoy a bit of snow.

So what has been happening in the Bagnall household in the first part of 2012. Well it is a case of getting back into the old routines. Éowyn now goes to school 3 times a week. She has only be back at school for one week so it is hard to say exactly how she is coping with this. Unfortunately, Lucinda’s work days fell mid-week on that week so not only did Dad have to take her to school each day, she was at Jo’s (the childminders) on one of the other days and we had to ask Lucinda’s dad to pick her up on two of the days. Therefore she has not spent too much time with Lucinda this past week (which is unusual and I think she has missed her Mommy). Éowyn loved being picked up by her Granddad because Lucinda’s dad has a flat bed truck and so, as three year old, it was one of the most exciting things that could have to have to ride home in the cab of Granddad’s truck (she probably will not think that in 10 years time!) and when we told her that on Friday that Lucinda would pick her up from school, she said, ‘Can Granddad pick me up in his truck?‘ which no doubt delighted Lucinda’s dad but is a bit of a kick in the teeth for Lucinda and me.

The main news though from the Bagnall household is the fact that Amélie has been discharged from the paediatrician. As you know when she was first born she had severe reflux and wasn’t feeding correctly. With hindsight it was probably part of the same problem: cow’s milk protein intolerance but at the time both aspects were being treated. She therefore was given drugs to help lower her stomach acid and relax the stomach to help prevent reflux and she was tried with a variety of artifical milks until we hit upon Neocate (which she is still on). The reflux went away but was that the drugs or was it the fact that her body wasn’t being poisoned with a chemical it couldn’t handle (the cow’s milk protein!). The Cow’s milk intolerance is being treated under the supervision of a dietician while the reflux was treated under the supervision of the paediatrician. As we suspected, it appears that the reflux wasn’t caused by any physical issues with Amélie’s digestive tract and was more than likely due to the intolerance. However, we are extremely grateful that we were taken seriously and she was fully investigated and now given a clean bill of health. We just have to hope that she grows out of the Cow’s milk protein intolerance, and we will be testing her for that again soon. The intolerance has not made her a fussy eater though and she has quite a prodigious appetite, quite often eating more than her sister!

Amélie is still not walking unaided, however Nanny Fran bought her a pushchair for Christmas and she can motor along with that at a fair pace. It is not just in straight lines either, if she wants to turn around or take a sharp left then she swings that pushchair round and tootles off in the new direction. I think that it is just a matter of confidence and as soon as she realises that she doesn’t need to hold onto something then she’ll be off. However, for some reason she doesn’t like a doll being in the pushchair and a squashy green ball seems to be her favourite passenger (you can see it in the photos below). Her vocabulary has also started to increase and I don’t think it will be long before she will start surprising us with words. She has always been a little chatty and will gurgle and mumble away to herself quite merrily (sometimes at 0300!) but the other day she drank her milk and handed me the bottle saying ‘Here you are,‘ or as close to that for my ears to interpret it that way. I know my place.

It is strange how the two sisters are quite different in temperament. Amélie is far more laid back than her older sister but at the same time quite cuddly and will wander over to you give you a kiss and cuddle then go back to whatever it was that she was doing beforehand. She doesn’t seem quite as intent on sitting down and learning but will quite happily play with you without need of the television. Éowyn is much more independent (when she knows that you are about) and will rarely give you a spontaneous cuddle but if you are not about she can get a little anxious and is always glad when you are back. She is always keen to learn and to impress you with what she knows (doesn’t that remind you of anyone?) but will easily waste an afternoon watching a film or just banal television (again, like anyone you know?). Éowyn does like her home and her home comforts especially when her parents are about. Lucinda picked Éowyn up from school last week and she said, ‘Are we going home? I like being at home and when Daddy is there it is the best place in the world!‘ The little sweetie!

I currently have a week off work (using up the remainder of last year’s leave entitlement) and Lucinda has done the same, so it really will be the best place in the world when they get back from school and Jo’s. It is not all that exciting for Lucinda and me though as we are trying to fit all the new toys into our already crowded house. There is a lot of consolidation going on and toys that have not seen the light of day or they are too old for are either heading down the charity shop or being boxed up and put in the loft. To be honest it is probably something that both Lucinda and I should be doing to our own stuff. Kids first!

Not the most exciting set of photos below but it is January and the year has only just begun. Hopefully none of you suffer from friggatriskaidekaphobia and if you did you managed to survive last Friday unscathed! If you do suffer from friggatriskaidekaphobia (or paraskevideatriaphobia as it is also known), then 2012 is probably a bad year for you as there will be 3 this year, so keep an eye on April and July!

Peace and love

Baggie

Me and my old friend Mr Snowman!

Bye bye Mr Snowman, until next year!

Like my new hair?

I like breakfast!

I like toast!

I like spaghetti

Cheeky smile!

Can I have my ball please?

Camera, please!

Dinnertime’s great!

Nothing to see here…

You can’t see me!

Don’t stop me now!

Like my hat?

Or an Angel with a wand…

2012

Monday 2nd January 2012Wednesday 29th May 2013Baggie

Another year begins and if any of the apocalytophiliacs are correct it will see the end of the world. Pure poppycock but judging by the amount of books generated, television programmes produced and even films directed there are a lot of people out there who believe it. For any of you that don’t know what I am talking about apparently the world will end around the winter solstice this year (2012).

What is this based on? Well apparently the winter solstice 2012 marks the conclusion of a b’ak’tun (the 13th – which is probably why many Westerners have such an easy time believing something bad will happen), a time period in the Mesoamerican long count calendar equivalent to 5,125 years, (in truth the precise end of this b’ak’tun is in dispute as it is not a precise art to deduce when the b’ak’tun began). So the Maya believed that this would mark the end of the world? No. There is no suggestion that they even viewed this more momentously than the turn of a year. So where has the ‘Mayan 2012’ prophecy industry germinated from? Probably it says more about our own Western Apocalyptic view of the world, with a Newtonian view of time as an arrow without any understanding of the meaning of time to the Maya or comprehension of their culture.

Maybe I am being a little dismissive. There is one stele in the relatively obscure provincial town of Tortuguero that mentions (it is the only mention) of the end of the 13th pik (b’ak’tun) unfortunately there is a large chunk of it missing and so anything that anyone infers from the remaining words is open to a large dollop of conjecture. If you actually read peer-reviewed translations of the stele, you get a completely different picture to most airport paperbacks. ‘[On 13.0.0.0.0] will happen, the witnessing/attending of the display of Bolon Yokté in the great impersonation (envelopment in costume and regalia).‘ For me this is reminiscent of a more contemporary source: ‘Say, say, two thousand, zero, zero party over oops, out of time. So tonight I’m gonna party like it’s nineteen ninety nine.‘ Now Prince could be a time travelling Maya from the planet Nibiru come to save the world with his purply music (and if anyone sees a book on that in their local shop – that was my idea!) or perhaps you will still need to buy Christmas presents this year.

If you need any more convincing then there are many inscriptions mentioning future events and commemorations that would occur on dates beyond the completion of the 13th b’ak’tun. On the west panel at the Temple of Inscriptions in Palenque refers to the 21st October 4772 A.D. another at Coba gives an impossible date that is 41 octillion years in the future (this date is 2 quintillion times the current estimate for the age of the universe). So let us not get dewy-eyed over the infallibility of Maya prophecies and hope that the 1000 or so (I wonder if there are as many as 2012) eschatologists that have written about the 2012 apocalypse have put enough of their savings away to see them into their old age. Then again, they maybe correct and if they are then there will be no one around to tell me ‘I told you so!’ Win/win for me then.

So what will 2012 bring for this little enclave of the Bagnall family? And what have we taken from 2011?

2011 has been an interesting year (and not in the Chinese curse kind of a way) we have adjusted to being a family of four. We have learnt all about milk-protein intolerance. We have survived the terrible twos (for the first time) and we have discovered the beauty of a Merlin Pass and the joys of Peppa Pig and Peppa Pig world. We are still in the process of adapting to the four of us being in different places at the same time. Which usually means Lucinda getting up at the crack of dawn to start her shift at the airport, then me getting the girls up and dropping one off at the childminder’s and the other at pre-school before heading into work. With Lucinda doing the opposite after working her shift to pick them up and get an evening meal ready for when I arrive home (unless it is a late one for me, then Lucinda has to put them to bed). It is something that countless other families do up and down the country and I, now, struggle to understand the amount of hours I must have wasted when I was single or when it was just Lucinda and me. The amount that we (have to) manage to squeeze into a day (although we always need more time) is significantly more than before we had kids and it feels like work and chores tend to just get in the way.

We have also learned that no two children are the same – even (and some might say, especially) sisters. Éowyn was much more forward than Amélie, crawling and walking much earlier than her younger sister. Now this could be that Amélie had a bad start, for her milk protein intolerance wasn’t diagnosed very early (although much earlier than some – thanks once again to Kate our Health Visitor) and those first few months must have been agony for our little one. For when every meal that you have is causing you so much pain that it prevents you from sleeping however the urge to eat overwhelms the memory that food will cause you pain, the last thing you feel like doing is exploring this evil place. Then once this condition is recognised and now you can enjoy your food, Mum and Dad have the kitchen ripped out, followed by the flooring in the lounge and dining room so there is nowhere for you to practise your crawling. Plus, what is the point in wasting valuable energy for all you have to do is cry and an attentive big sister will go and find something to entertain you.

Amélie is far more laid back than her sister and has never been as clingy as Éowyn was, and to some extent still is. Whether this is because Éowyn had our undivided attention as she was exploring the world, while Amélie has always had to share us. Or whether it is just as parents, we are more laid back with the experience of three or so years under our belts and subconsciously that relaxation is felt by our youngest. Or maybe it is just in the genes perhaps we will see as she develops over the coming year.

The other major lesson learned in 2011 was how to diet. Lucinda joined Slimming World and as a dutiful husband I agreed to support her with her dieting and so did the same regime. However, the competitive side of my nature took over (which has actually been good for both of us) and we have lost nearly 6 stone (84lbs/ 38kgs) between us! That is impressive in anyone’s book. It has meant that we have both had to buy new wardrobes (clothes – not actual wardrobes that would just be silly). So if you haven’t seen us in a while you might not recognise our new svelte figures.

So what can we expect from 2012?

Obviously, the macro-economic situation is going to dominate the news and global events and one hopes that it doesn’t have a direct affect on one’s own personal economic situation. But that notwithstanding (and to be honest there is not a lot I can personally do about the possible breakup of the Eurozone and the unravelling of the debt mountain that the world finds itself in) it will (hopefully) be business as usual in the Bagnall household. Éowyn will move to 3 days a week at pre-school at the start of the year and we may be thinking of introducing Amélie to pre-school at the end of the year. We will be testing Amélie’s cow’s milk protein intolerance early in the New Year and hopefully she will have grown out of it, or we need to be prepared to accept it for longer (if not life).

Éowyn keeps asking about going on a ‘plane again and so we may pluck up the courage and take two toddlers on a plane. It is not necessarily the act of taking them on a ‘plane; it is more the paraphernalia that one has to take on such a trip. It also makes it all very expensive, with 4 tickets, something we are just going to have to get used to I suppose. Interestingly, this year Lucinda and I will have been married for 5 years, which is traditionally celebrated with a wooden gift however the modern travel anniversary present is airline tickets so maybe it is a sign that we should pay a visit to Heathrow Airport (it is just round the corner after all).

A little personal project I have set up has been given its own website. Baggies Projects will be a forum for me to explore a couple of things that I have been meaning to do for some time. Now I am not saying that there will be useful insights, or even far reaching conclusions that will change your life when you read this new website. That is not what it is about. It is simply a channel (project zero if you like) for me to explore some of things that often crop up and are never allowed to bear fruit. Some may develop and warrant a website all of their own, others may wither and die a forlorn (but public) death but at least they will all be given the same opportunity to flower. Hopefully it may even inspire some of you to do the same. Then again, Strictly-come-X-factor-in-the-jungle is on.

If, for any reason, either this website or Baggies Projects have inspired you to start your own website then may I recommend WP hosting as a medium for your projects. They offer a simple one-stop shop for all your website needs. Register your domain, WordPress install and hosting in one simple place. Think it is too complicated then they can help too, either directly or with many self help tutorials on their support pages. So go on, it’s 2012 what are you waiting for? If I can do it…

So all it leaves me to do, it wish you all a Happy New Year and paraphrasing a traditional Irish Blessing: ‘May the 2012 bring the warmth of a home and hearth to you, the cheer and goodwill of friends to you and the hope of a childlike heart to you.‘

Peace and Love

The Bagnall Family

Éowyn’s Third Birthday!

Thursday 20th October 2011Friday 11th May 2012Baggie

Less than three weeks after our youngest turned one our oldest turns three. Time is definitely travelling faster than a superluminal neutrino for the Bagnall family at the moment (although the closer you approach the speed of light the more that time dilates so probably not the best analogy – but you get the idea). Again it doesn’t seem five minutes since we were in St. Peter’s hospital and we were looking at our first born through the perspex window of an incubator in the ICU. Not quite as romantic as sitting there with her in your arms but as you may remember she was quickly rushed to ICU after her birth as she was born with pneumomediastinum and hence there was no time for cuddles before she was whisked away. She has not suffered any ill affects due to that initial condition and indeed it has not stunted her growth either physically or cerebrally.

The weeks between Amélie’s birthday and Éowyn’s have been relatively quiet, work has still been busy (although I am now at the start of a fortnight off work) but I have been able to get home at a more reasonable hour each night. (It brings it home to you when you drop your daughter off at Nanny and Granddad’s before heading to work when she asks ‘Daddy, will me and Amélie be in bed when you come home tonight?‘. Sometimes it is hard to remember why you are doing what you do).

Éowyn’s birthday celebrations started the on the first day of my vacation (two days before her birthday proper), with a party at Nanny and Granddad’s with her cousins and Lucy’s family, a kind of precursor to the Badger Moot. It was a relatively sedate affair as the elder cousins keep our two little ones entertained for the majority of the afternoon allowing us to have some adult conversation and actually enjoy our meal for a change rather without the interruptions or encouraging Éowyn to carry on eating. After the meal we allowed her to open her pressies and cards and sang happy birthday to her as she blew the candle out on her Peppa Pig cake. A perfect ending to birthday number 0ne.

The following day was a joint third birthday party at the Egham Leisure Centre’s soft play area with the other couples from our NCT group. We hired the same place last year and so we knew what we were in for. The booking allows you exclusive use of the soft play area and the adjoining room in which they provide party food (Jamie Oliver wouldn’t be happy but chicken nuggets, chips and crisps go down far better than the cheese, ham and jam sandwiches that are also provided). Nanny Fran and Auntie Liz met us there and Auntie Liz brought her face painting case to practise on Éowyn’s cohorts. The two hours seemed to fly by but with one eye on the kids there was hardly a chance to actually have any lengthy adult conversation with the fellow NCT-ees (is that the correct term?).

Nanny Fran and Auntie Liz then followed us back home where Auntie Mary came over to complete the Bagnall side. Again we allowed Éowyn to open the pressies from her Bagnall relatives. She was very happy to be the centre of attention for the second day in a row. It must feel to poor Amélie that she is forever in the shadow of her older sister. It doesn’t seem to bother her though and she is quite unassumingly progressing and will grab the attention of someone in the room and demand that you sing ‘Row, row, row the boat’ to her. Demand is probably a strong word but will encourage by starting you off with ‘Rowrowrow‘. That person tended to be Nanny Fran on Sunday. She has also started to pull herself up onto her legs now, so you have to be careful where you put things, for the number of safe places is beginning to dwindle.

Monday saw Éowyn’s actual birthday and so we decided not to take her to pre-school but Peppa Pig World instead. The weather forecast implied that it was going to be dry if a little cooler than late (probably still average for the middle of October) and so it seemed like it could be the last opportunity of the year (unless we head to Santa’s Christmas Wonderland at Paulton’s Park). The weather forecast (for once) was fairly accurate (apart from a short sharp shower) and we took full advantage of the diminished crowds and managed a significant more of the rides than the last time we went. It didn’t start out too well though for all the way down to Peppa Pig World Éowyn was asking if she could go on the Windy Castle ride. So the first ride we headed to in the park was the Windy Castle ride but as she looked up at the tower she freaked herself out and decided that she didn’t want to go on it anymore. We feared that this was going to be the precedent for the day, fortunately it seemed to be just a blip and she went on every other ride without a second thought. We even managed to enter the Peppa Pig shop and leave without buying anything!

So Éowyn’s three day celebration of her birthday came to a close and once again she was blessed with a multitude of cards and presents, thank you to everyone who sent either or both, it is most appreciated by us and more significantly by Éowyn herself as she becomes more aware of birthdays (and Christmasses) and what they mean (presents!).

Although this instalment is mainly about Éowyn’s third birthday, Amélie has some important news too. Since she has reached the grand age of 12 months it is time to test her milk protein intolerance. We went to see the dietitian yesterday and she has given us a timetable of what to test her with and what to look for. It begins with half a biscuit that contains milk (the milk in the biscuit will have been cooked at a high temperature and therefore changed its shape. In a highly intolerant person the body will still recognise the protein structure and they will have a reaction, more usually the body fails to recognise the protein and nothing happens) and ends with diary being introduced into her diet as usual (assuming she has grown out of her intolerance. Obviously this is a long process especially if she has any reaction to the milk protein (in whatever form) along the way but of course we will keep you informed. The dietitian has also warned us that even though she may have grown out of her intolerance there is a strong possibility that she may just not like dairy products and she has not grown up with the taste or has a deep memory in her subconscious of her early encounters. A little like me with cheese! She was also weighed and measured and now tops the scales at 9.88kg (21.7lbs) in the 75th centile while her length has her in the 98th centile – so another tall child. The weight gain is very pleasing it has to be said for she was born in the 75th centile and before her milk protein intolerance had been diagnosed she had dropped below the 25th centile, so it is good to see her maintaining a good weight.

I shall leave you there and as I am off work at the moment there will hopefully be another instalment in the next week or so. Look for the photographic evidence of my weight loss, you maybe impressed.

Peace and love

Baggie