Gregory's First 6 Months

Gregory's first six months of life were easy for the most part. He was a good happy baby. Was sleeping through the night at 6 weeks. Ate good. Grew good. Ü His diet consisted of soy formula. Then he started on rice cereal mixed with his formula. Starting him on fruits and veggies was so exciting! We were told by our clinic that he can have all fruits and veggies except a few that were very "questionable". They were apples, peas, watermelon, and tomatoes.


I can't remember right now, but like any parent we started with one fruit and one vegetable. This was just so exciting introducing new foods to your little one. And then when enough time went by we'd do another one. I even got into making my own baby food. It was so fun! That was until we got his blood results back.


See, Gregory gets his blood drawn every 2 months. They test to see how much galactose is in his system. You and I would show up at a zero. Gregory's clinic likes him 2 be at a 2 or lower. He came in higher than this which, being new to all this was very scary. At our next appointment with his dietitian, we learn that they are not really sure if they can have ALL fruits and vegetables. That all fruits and vegetables contain galactose but some have it in a form where it is absorbed into the body and some are not. There is still a lot of "unknowns".


So you mean we could have been "poisoning" our baby and not even knowing it? It was just scary to us because up until now we hadn't seen his numbers jump. So, we decided to be more strict and slowly introduce a new fruit and veggie every 3 months. Ugh! That would give enough time for that food item to show its affect on his body and his numbers.


So, we started with the lowest fruit (in terms of the amount of galactose) and the lowest veggie . . . Gerber peaches and Gerber Green beans . . . which he still loves and asks for by the way. Ü


From there, I can't really recall . . . it was a slow process. I know for awhile he ate a lot of peaches, strawberries, green beans, avocado, canned chicken, and lenders bagels. Part of it was getting the hang of it, us being new to it all, being scared, and more strict. It was a slow process that took a big jump after going to the Parents of Children With Galactosemia conference last summer in MN. It was there that we decided to go ahead and just give him all fruits and veggies (except the main ones . . . apples, watermelon, tomatos, peas). At the conference the new news was that all fruits and veggies are okay. But this being some what new information, Tommy and I decided to hold off on the main ones but go a head and start giving him fruits and veggies!


This was so exciting! It opened up a whole new world for options! So fun. The day we flew home, from the airport we got him a banana . . . his first one. It brought us such joy as parents to see our little boy at 2 1/2 eat his first banana!