Coffee With Coconut Milk

My dear son reacts to dairy that goes through my breast milk to him. This isn’t really surprising, as I was allergic to dairy until I was approximately 6-years-old. Besides, personally I do not think diary is particularly healthy. As one of my older friends says, ‘cows’ milk is fantastic... for baby cows.’

Dairy is, however, my weakness. I can go on all sorts of diets and be fairly happy with a relatively small adjustment to my life... but dairy is my ‘thing’ and giving it up isn’t easy.

Well, it has been a week now and surprisingly, I am doing well. Apparently, dairy can take up to 2 weeks to get totally out of my system and amazingly, can take up to 4 weeks to flush out of a baby’s system. But already we are seeing a marked difference in our son. He was getting very painful gas and stomach aches, and gripe water was only slightly helping him. 

Apparently, it is not a reaction to lactose, but rather to the proteins present in the milk, and the same protein is present in soy milk, which means that is not an alternative solution.

Therefore, I have been sipping at tea and coffee with either coconut milk or almond milk (which tastes quite like soy anyway but a lot more watery). 

Honestly, I hated the first 2 - 3 cups. I am not a huge coconut fan at the best of times... coconut flavour coffee was really not something I was/am into. 

So why is it that I was willing to give up something that I love?

Yes, it did make our son quieter. Which was nice. But not the reason.

But it is because I love him. I want the best for him. It hurts me to see him hurting. He is precious and more valuable than any nice meal or soothing cup of coffee could ever be.

All this is not to say, ‘I am a great mother, look at me!’ No, more to the point, I am amazed at the kind of love that has crept avalanched into my heart for this little, teeny, tiny but noisy person. I don’t think this love is ‘natural’ or just instinct. I believe that love like this can only come from God, the originator and creator of love.

Only God could design a mother’s heart to respond to this little wee person in such a way. It is a gift from him, that enables us to survive, and even thrive through the difficult task of being a new parent.