You've probably read the post about when and why we decided to put Savannah on a gluten-free diet back in December. It was not the easiest diet to follow, especially for a one-year-old, but we were determined to stick with it in order to not have her cough so much.
Her cough never really went away completely, but it was for sure much better. In the event that she had gluten when we weren't around or if it was in food that we didn't know it was in, then we spend a solid 24-48 hours listening to her awful cough. It was enough to drive you completely crazy!
After our one night hotel stay in Austin and Savannah coughing all but about two hours of the night, I couldn't handle it any more and knew we needed to do more. On our way home Saturday evening, we searched the internet and found a chiropractor just 20 miles from us who did laser allergy treatments. We called and surprisingly enough, the doctor answered the phone and schedule an appointment for us first thing Monday morning.
Caleb had to work at the appointment time, so I took Savannah on my own. The doctor did several didn't things to determine what foods she was sensitive to before preforming the first laser treatment. I'll be the first to admit, the idea behind how the treatment works is a little hard to grasp and not the typical way of thinking, but if it worked, I didn't care how or why. I just wanted my little girl to not cough and for us to not worry about if she eats something with gluten in it.
The treatment itself only took about 10 minutes and Savannah just sat on my lap the whole time. It's completely painless and she had no idea anything was being done to her. As we finished, the doctor explained that she may still cough and another treatment or two may be required, but that children this young typically respond to treatment very well and very quickly.
I was anxious to see if this would really work.
Savannah did continue to cough in the following days so we went ahead and took her for another treatment on Thursday. After that appointment, the doctor said he didn't detect any more gluten allergy and that letting her eat gluten food as soon as we left would be fine.
Really? Just like that she can eat food with gluten again? We were skeptical and hesitant, in fear of the dreadful cough returning. So, we decided to give it 24 hours before allowing her to eat food with gluten in it.
Friday night we went out to dinner with my brother and sister-in-law to the Olive Garden. A place filled with all foods gluten! And as she usually does, Savannah wanted some of my pasta. Caleb and I just looked at each other as if to question "should we really give this a try?" and then nodded our heads and gave her the pasta.
We were so afraid that we wouldn't get any sleep that night due to her coughing or that the following day would be a nightmare, but she was just fine! She slept great and had virtually no cough on Saturday. So, on Sunday at lunch, we gave her regular macaroni and cheese... with our fingers still crossed that it wouldn't stir up a bad cough. And yet again, she was just fine.
Although she still had a bit of a cough, it was nothing major or consistent. In the past, we could notice an almost instant, huge change in how bad her cough became. On Monday, we were all smiles as it had been three full days since her first taste of gluten after the allergy treatment and her cough had not become any worse...
Yay for not having to follow a gluten-free diet any more!
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