Let's talk about why I feed Hudson in fours! 

 

After many recommendations at check-ups with our allergist, reactions to new foods, and testing, we finally decided to pull the trigger and get serious about organizing a rotation diet for Hudson. Some of the reactions he was having were to foods that were our new replacement for a previous allergenic food and others were to foods that he rarely ate, such as hazelnuts.  I felt like we were starting to run out of safe foods to feed Hudson.  Our allergist explained to us that when foods are eaten several days in a row, the histamine levels in the blood continue to rise and never have a chance to come back down low enough to eliminate an immune response.  When this happens, the body can begin to have adverse reactions to the food.  To *hopefully* prevent this from happening to additional foods down the road, she suggested we put him on a rotation diet, where he does not eat the same food more than once every four days.  These four days in between the same food allow the histamine levels to come back down and ultimately prevent additional foods being added to his allergy list.  We knew it was the best thing for him, but we also knew it would be very time consuming and complicate his seemingly already complicated diet.

 

When I first began, I was extremely overwhelmed.  It’s hard enough to organize your meals and snacks to rotate every four days as an adult, but throw in a sometimes-picky toddler palate, and it seemed almost impossible some days.  It was tough to find a good amount of resources to help organize and plan out meals and snacks, so it made the process even harder. I originally started documenting my meals, recipes, and snacks for him on Instagram as a way to have a journal for myself with notes about what recipes worked and did not, along with what meals he enjoyed.  I still find myself scrolling back a few months when I feel like I’m feeding him the same things every few days to try to incorporate older meals and food combinations again.  Through my Instagram page, @feedinginfours, I have found so many amazing mamas out there who are also trying their very best to make it through this food allergy life with their kiddos and it is so encouraging to follow along with them too.  As I find my way on this journey and figure things out for my little boy, and the rest of the family, I’m hoping that documenting my journey will help someone else who has also been tasked to feed in fours!