The Diet that Finally Broke our Sleep Crisis!

By Monica Cravotta  |  Published: Sunday, July 11, 2010

Occasionally I think I’m pretty smart. Most of the time however, I battle a wicked inner voice that tells me I’m an idiot daily. Right now I’m in the latter camp wondering how the heck I went almost 2 years with the level of sleep-deprivation we’ve had and NOT experimented more with further altering our youngest daughter’s diet.

Our sweet baby, now almost 2, has never slept more than 2 hours before waking in upset. I expected some level of this for the first 6 months and then kept thinking we would go down to 2 wakings per night like I experienced with my first daughter. But no. It just went on and on and on. After 18 months (coming off of 2 years of broken sleep with our first), I began getting concerned about my health, decided something had to give and opted to night-wean and claim a bed for myself elsewhere.  Our Littlest began sleeping with her Daddy so this could take place and then he took over the crazy sleep-deprived role. No good for a man with serious Provide-for-the-Family pressure days!

Now, with respect to doing the same thing over and over again with our baby’s lack of deep sleep and expecting her to snap out of it, I haven’t been completely dense. I actually was wise enough to try all kinds of things — including some diet modification —  to influence her ability to sleep more deeply and for longer periods of time.  Massage, Lavender Baths, Aromatherapy, Cranio-Sacral Therapy, and most recently – energetic treatments.

But, you know what never occurred to me to monitor carefully?  Sugar of all kinds!!

Thanks to our new Naturopath’s recommendation to radically alter our youngest’s diet, together with the energetic treatments she is receiving from him, we now have a sleeping baby (who is almost 2 years old now)!!  She is now consistently sleeping 7-8 hours straight almost every night. This is totally changing our lives! It feels like a miracle to me — truly — that we have a fully rested household with very minimal wakings now. Talk about functioning better on all fronts. Wow.

THE DIET

Almost zero sugar.  No grains except occasional brown rice (no breads, crackers, noodles).  No fruit juices.  No fruit except apples and berries which are relatively low in sugar.  And definitely no obvious sweeteners like agave, maple syrup, etc.  To be clear, I don’t think it’s realistic for us to remain virtually grain and fruit-free long term.  Eventually we will need to add some back — while remaining very careful about processed grains (breads/tortillas) and desserts.

No Dairy Except Raw Goat Yogurt/Cheese. Local resource is White Egret’s Farm and they deliver!  They offer a lot of interesting information on their web site about cow versus goat milk.

Doing this AND maintaining the ongoing desire to eat vegan has proved to be a significant mental challenge for me since my job is all about advocating for a pure, plant-based diet. I know that it’s fully possible to get all the protein we need without adding animal products into our diet.  And slicing cheese or spooning up some yogurt when packing lunches is conveniently easy compared to soaking and cooking beans and or preparing leafy greens in a way that children will lap them up (see smoothie recipe below).  And yes, I know there’s soy substitutes for cheese and yogurt — I’m just not a fan of most soy-based food products for a whole host of other reasons.

So, keeping some dairy in our diet along with the radical sugar restriction is what we’re doing for now because everyone in our home is happy with it and most importantly — everyone is sleeping and is more agreeable during the day.  I simply have to continue to claim that we’re “mostly” Plant Strong.

Our Kid Happy Kale & Protein Smoothie

In a blender, add and mix the following (and modify measurements as you like):

• 1 cup Coconut Juice
• 1/3 can Lite Coconut Milk
• Bag of Frozen Organic Mixed Berries
• Handful  of Organic Raw Pumpkin Seeds
• Two big spoonfuls of Almond Butter
• Steamed/Chopped Kale (leaves only)
• Add filtered/bottled water for desired thickness

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