Ah Ha!

This week Adam made a connection and we both had an "ah ha" moment. 

History:  From the week Austin came home from the hospital he was an amazing sleeper - woke once to feed and then straight back to sleep until morning.  Around 4 months old a switch flipped and his sleep habits were a literal nightmare.  Austin would wake screaming every hour from 9pm to 6am.  Each hour Adam and I would spend 30 minutes soothing him back to sleep.  Many times utilizing high decibels (vacuum cleaner) to silence his screams.  Oh the memories...  (I have honestly forgotten exactly how miserable this time of my life was - lack of sleep does things to your mind).

Recent history:  Earlier this summer Austin had an allergic reaction to watermelon.  This prompted another blood allergy panel testing for fruits.  The results revealed a banana allergy.  Initially I thought it was interesting he was allergic to bananas because he has always expressed a dislike of bananas.  I had previously thought it was a texture issue for him.  But now with these results, I realized that the bananas must make him feel badly - a good reason to refuse to eat them.  Pretty smart that boy of mine!

Now for the real "ah ha" moment.  And, I must give full credit to my wonderful husband for making this connection.  We began mixing bananas into Austin's cereal around 4 months of age.  He was underweight and his doctor recommended adding bananas to his cereal to help him pack on some extra calories.  Now remember it was 4 months old when Austin began having sleep issues.  Could his sleep problems possibly have been caused because his parents were feeding him a food he is allergic to???  I cannot imagine the digestive cramping and other internal reactions his body experienced during that time.  There is no way to prove this but I do believe the bananas could have been the culprit to our sleepless nights.