Eating out.

My low salt diet fills me with anguish about eating out.  Salt is such an integral part of cooking that I wonder how I can explain my diet in such a way that salt doesn't happen to sneak its way on to my plate.  I have to trust that the cook will know enough about salt and how much of it is actually hidden within practically everything to be able to avoid it altogether.

Well a couple of months ago I made it out for breakfast for the first time since starting the diet. Porridge and fresh fruit are two options that are very low in salt.  Since then I have been out for a few breakfasts, but I have never been game to order something salty and have the chef modify it for me.

Recently I decided to try going out for dinner.  This was a huge step for me.  We picked the restaurant ahead of time and I browsed their online menu.  I found something that would be easy to modify and rang up the restaurant for assurance that they could modify their meals.

On the day I made it very clear to the waiter that my low salt diet restriction is for medical reasons and I made it extremely easy for him by ordering the fish, chips and salad.  Fish with no batter, just plain grilled.  Chips with no salt.  Salad with no dressing.  The waiter even came back after placing my order to inform me that he had made my order very clear to the chef.  After my meal he asked me if everything had been OK.  I was actually pleasantly surprised by the service and my meal came exactly as asked.  Not a hint of salt to be seen on my plate, either by the shaker or by dressings or sauces.

I used to take for granted...

..things like.. going to the toilet by myself and having a shower in peace.

Now I have a little person following me where ever I go.

Not that I mind, but having to entertain a little one in any situation does take a bit of getting used to.

Guess what?

I have big news.  No I am NOT pregnant again, which is the first guess everyone makes for some reason.

Yesterday Greg and I bought..... a house!!

We were actually looking for a unit, which of course is more affordable.  Then this house came along in our price range.  It met all our criteria.  We got our act together and finally applied for a loan.  Got our preapproval.  Went to the auction yesterday.  And next thing you know.. we're bidding and we've bought a house!

Here's some pictures of our new place!

Just after we bought the house.

Lounge room - ignore the dodgy furniture. :)

Kitchen.

Backyard.

Paapa.

'Paapa' is Maya's word for pasta and my favourite word of hers at the moment.

Over the last couple of weeks Maya has been ramping up her vocabulary.  Suddenly she seems more willing (or more able?) to repeat words she hears.  And better yet she remembers them and what they are associated with.  She uses "Mama" a lot more now too, which is lovely to hear.

Communication is still very limited but she is able to ask for a few things now, which makes it so much easier than trying to guess what she wants all the time.  Though there are still times when I don't understand, which often results in her (and I) getting frustrated.

Maya has been babbling for such a long time now.  It seems like she's always carrying on conversation with me.  She even pauses and does little laughs and sighs in between some 'sentences'.  It really does seem like she's telling me stories, or about her day, or things she's seen.  Just in a language I can't understand.

Speaking of books..

Staying on the topic of books from my previous post, I thought I'd mention my favourite baby/toddler books:

• "The Going to Bed Book" & "Hippos Go Berserk" by Sandra Boynton - Love the rhythm and rhyme.


• "Time To Sleep" & "Where's The Green Sheep" by Mem Fox - Love the rhythm and pictures.


• "Pants" by Giles Andreae & Nick Sharratt - Love the rhythm, rhyme, pictures and topic.  A silly, funny little book.


• "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" by Eric Carle - A classic and Maya loves poking her fingers through the holes in the pages.


• "The Animal Countdown" by Frances Bacon - Love the rhythm, rhyme and pictures.


• The "When I go to" series by Jill Harker - Great pictures (something hidden on every page), good rhythm and rhyme.


• "Miffy At The Zoo" by Dick Bruna - Love the rhythm and rhyme.


• "Nighty-Night, Fox" by Nancy Parent - Great pictures, rhythm and rhyme.

Maya does like the books above too, but her favourite books tend to be those with flaps you can open (like the "Spot" books by Eric Hill), or things you can touch (like the "That's not my" series by Fiona Watt) or pictures and words/counting books (like 1 hat, 2 children, etc) or any book that has a picture of a cat in it.  And while I do enjoy reading them the first twenty times, I do tend to tire of them after the one hundredth read.

I didn't know..

.. that I would be reading the same couple of books to Maya over and over and over again, because they would become her favourites and no other book would do.

.. that those couple of books that I would read over and over again would start to drive me crazy and any attempts at reading a new book would fail.

.. that I would get so sick of reading those couple of books over and over again, that I would eventually hide them away somewhere just so I could read something new.

.. that Maya would then go and select another couple of books to become her favourites and I would have to read them over and over and over again...

It's life Jim but not as we know it.

As I mentioned in my previous post I had another vertigo attack while away on holidays and I think it was caused by something I ate.  I have been on a very strict low salt diet for months now and prior to this recent vertigo attack I'd been attack free since the end December 2009. 

There's no way to know the reason why I've been attack free for so long.  Is the diet helping?  Is the medication I'm on working?  Or is it just time?  But I've stuck to the strict diet just in case it helps. 

I've found myself doubting the diet's affect, despite reading that it supposedly helps the majority of sufferers, because when I was diagnosed 7 1/2 years ago I went on the same diet and then came off it after some time and was attack free for many years. 

But there is a difference between this time and last time.  This time I have had many, many more attacks than last time.  This time a lot more damage has been done.

So while we were away I decided to eat something I didn't know the salt content of.  The next day I had an attack.  It seems plausible that the food was high in salt and the higher salt content triggered an attack.

Suddenly I found myself full of grief.  I'd been thinking this diet would again be temporary.  But what if it's not?  What if I have to stay on this diet for the rest of my life?  Of course given the choice between being on a strict diet for the rest of my life and having vertigo attacks, I choose the diet.  But the diet means forever reading food labels.  It means forever cooking things from scratch.  It means no take away foods.  It means carrying food on me at all times in case I get hungry because I can't just pop into the closest food store for something to eat.  It means not being able to pop out to a cafe or restaurant for a bite to eat (I've been told it is possible to eat out with forward planning by talking to the chef beforehand to meticulously explain my diet - but even this seems like a chore, means I can't just decide to go out somewhere, limits me on where I can eat out and also means I have to put my trust in someone I don't know to follow the diet accurately).  It means having to carefully explain my diet to hosts and trusting them to follow the diet or providing my own food.  It means a lot more planning would have to go into trips away, especially overseas (can I even go overseas on this diet??).  It  means standing around at parties and morning tea at work, watching other people devour goodies.

I love eating out, getting take away and travelling.

I know there are plenty of people out there on all kinds of restrictions when it comes to diet, but salt really does seem to be in nearly everything, including a lot of things people would assume weren't high in salt (cakes, biscuits, bread...)  Yesterday I saw that Lindt has made a new chocolate with sea salt!!  So how do I manage explaining to people what I can and can't eat?  Then how do I manage that in a foreign language? 

I guess right now not only is my diet restricted but I feel like my life is restricted because of it.  It is something that I still need to comes to terms with and learn to live with.

First family holiday.

In April we went on our first family holiday.  We have had a few overnight stays but this is the first time we've been away for a week since Maya was born.

I was worried about how Maya would cope with sleeping in a strange cot at a strange place.  The first couple of sleeps were shorter than normal but after a couple of days she was in her normal routine.  She loved the house we stayed at and she loved 'holiday'.

This trip was very different to previous trips I've ever been on.  I found myself looking for the family activities.  We took Maya to a farm where you can pat, feed and hold the animals, visited many parks and the beach, as well as satisfying both her and I by visiting a couple of different chocolate shops. :)

As for myself I booked in for a couple of hours at a day spa, which was bliss.  But I also had a vertigo attack while there.  The first one I've had since December.  It was so disappointing. It was intense but over very quickly compared to normal.  I think the attack was triggered by something I ate, which if that's the case means that I do have this disease under control as long as I stick to my strict diet.  But I cannot be sure that the attack was triggered by food, so it did undermine my confidence somewhat.

Overall I enjoyed getting away and found it to be very relaxing, which is just what I needed.  Greg and I are already talking about where to go for our next trip...

Oh a goat!	Patting a goat.
Patting a guinea pig.	Feeding a rabbit by putting food on top of its head.
Patting a chick.	At the beach.

Advice.

Being a mother seems to invite people to give you advice.  The problem is there's conflicting advice, different beliefs and wrong advice given by well meaning people.  I realise the irony here when I am also giving advice, which I'm sure conflicts at times with other's beliefs and I'm not immune to making errors or being biased in what I think.  But my advice is to trust your instincts and do your research from credible sources. 

Some of this advice is given by people who are experts (paediatricians, maternal child health nurses, etc) but they make mistakes too and have their own agendas and beliefs.  I know what it's like to be given incorrect and even ridiculous advice by experts.

As I've said in previous posts, Maya was born at a large birth weight but from there never put on much weight.  In hospital I was told that I needed to express and feed her more by the midwives (experts).  I was told that "I must not be feeding her correctly".  They undermined my confidence.  Then they would watch me feed Maya and exclaim "Oh everything looks good."  But they still kept telling me something must be wrong.  I was lucky to have a paediatrician who told me that Maya was doing fine and I didn't need to change anything.  But it was worrying when one person was telling me everything was OK versus many who were telling me that everything was not OK.

I'd read a lot about breastfeeding prior to birth from sources such as the Australian Breastfeeding Association.  I knew that if babies were given bottles before breastfeeding was established then they might end up preferring the bottle over the breast or have trouble learning how to breastfeed because of the two different methods.   I knew that formula was no substitute for breast milk and breast milk was all the food they required.   I knew that babies wouldn't starve themselves.  I knew that they would take what they needed and that when they needed more they would take more and my supply would increase to meet the new demand.  I knew that I didn't need to express to increase my supply because the baby would do that at their own pace and when needed.  But when faced with the pressure from experts I began to doubt what I knew and questioned what I was doing.  I tried expressing to increase my supply (and ended up with blocked ducts many times, which is painful and can lead to mastitis) and I gave top ups of formula.  Both of which were exhausting to add to my already busy schedule and at the end of the day made no difference to Maya's growth.

When I moved house last year I had to find a new health nurse who pressured me to give up breastfeeding because of Maya's lack of weight gains.  She even told me to feed Maya chocolate, cream and butter to 'fatten her up'.  Needless to say I walked out that door and never returned to see her.

I'd like to think that I am now able to recognise when to follow advice and when to leave it.  But when worried and wanting the very best for your child it is easy to lose trust of yourself and your instincts and put your trust in the 'experts'.

I know it's hard to trust yourself and to know which and whose advice to take.  My advice is to trust yourself and the expertise of a few reputable sources whose advice you gel with

You can take that or leave it.

Maya does the shapes puzzle on her own.

We were given a shapes puzzle for Maya a few months ago and I started by showing Maya how to put the shapes in the holes, then helped Maya put the shapes in the right holes and then a couple of weeks ago she started doing it on her own.  She can get most of the shapes in but I wasn't able to capture it on this video because she lost interest.