On a calcium mission

After seeing the dietician at the hospital the other day, I feel reassured that Henry definitely gets enough calcium despite not being able to eat dairy. He still breastfeeds at least 3 times a day and eats a really varied diet, so I'm happy that he's easily getting his recommended allowance of 350mg of calcium a day and at least I don't have to worry about that from now on.

What I didn't realise (partly due to my own ignorance and partly down to the laid back nature of my GP about the matter) was that I need a LOT of calcium (1250mg to be precise). Obviously I can't have dairy either which makes getting that calcium extra difficult. So I'm on a calcium mission this weekend. I know all the foods that are calcium-rich, but there's only so many dried figs one girl can eat and curly kale isn't exactly the most versatile food in the world, so I've been looking at other things that I can incorporate into my daily diet. 

I picked up some cartons of Ribena Plus Calcium today and I'm going to have one of those every day (120mg). I also discovered Tropicana with added calcium (244mg) which I've never even noticed before so I'm going to have that for breakfast each morning and will probably start giving Henry some too. Cheerios are fortified with calcium (242mg) so they're going to be my breakfast of choice for now and I'm going to be adding coconut milk to them (240mg) as well. I'm going to make a hot chocolate each evening as a little treat and it means I'll be getting another whole mug of milk with means another 240mg. So with those few daily changes that I can rely on having every single day, I'll be getting almost all of my suggested intake of calcium, and obviously I'll still be trying to have as many dark leafy greens as I can, as well as eating my body weight in houmous and adding sesame seeds to everything on my plate. 

I feel much happier knowing that I should be getting a decent amount of calcium, and Henry will be too. The dietician was actually really helpful and I'm glad we saw her. We have to see her again in 3 months and hopefully we'll get Henry's allergy testing done with the consultant soon. If the waiting list is ridiculous, we've made the decision to just pay privately, as we've waited for 7 months already and it's getting a bit ridiculous to say the least! Anyway we should find out on Monday and we will go from there. Until then, I'm off to drink my Ribena! Oh the excitement of my Friday night.