The Back Story

Baby #3 was born just over a year ago, and for the first nine months of her life she was in near-constant pain. I have never met a baby with that much gas and digestive upset before! Since she was being breastfed, everything in my diet was a suspected culprit, and I tried eliminating several different potential offenders without success.

Our family doctor kept insisting that she would eventually outgrow the problem, and that adding solids (when she was old enough) would likely help. For a little while, it seemed to. The more fruits and veggies she ate, the less she nursed, so whatever I was eating that was bothering her was showing up in smaller concentrations in her diet.

I was optimistic, and thinking that the worst was behind us. I even started to think it might be possible that there may be sleep in my not-so-distant future.

Enter wheat.

Finally I was able to see what was causing the problem! It only took two times of serving her bits of a whole wheat pancake before I noticed that those nights were so much worse than any other night. Just for kicks (what did I have to lose?) I cut wheat out of my diet and hers. Within 48 hours there was a drastic change in her stomach issues. She stopped waking up in pain during the night! Within a week of no wheat, she no longer sobbed in agony every time she had a bowel movement! Why, oh WHY hadn't I figured this out months ago?

No sense dwelling on the past, though. Especially since I had something far more surprising to dwell on:
I felt so much better off wheat.


I'd been living with chronic hip pain for years. I assumed I was stuck with it, knowing that my mother has degenerative arthritis and needed a hip replaced by the time she was in her mid-fifties. Eliminating wheat has eliminated the inflammation that was causing the pain. I'm able to enjoy a level of mobility that I haven't had in years. (That makes me sound old, doesn't it? I'm really not!!)

I started reading up on the "evils" of modern wheat, which naturally led me to reading more about Paleo and Primal eating. That reading led me to discover Whole30, and I knew right away this is was something I wanted - no, needed - to try. Of course with a husband and three (very) young children, I also knew this was something that would take a great deal of planning and preparation.

So here I am. Close to my start date, and getting more excited by the day! I can't wait to find out how good I can feel!