A non-running post. (Or, Olivia and her bout of low-blood sugar)

There’s only so much I can say about running. You just keep putting one foot in front of the other until you’ve gotten where you want to go.

Instead I’ll post about my recent discovery about Olivia’s diet. Olivia has been having these monumental tantrums. These are the kind of tantrum that cause you to walk on eggshells for days afterwards because you can tell another one is just around the corner. I read Ames and Ilg Your Two Year Old and it was pretty much telling me that two-and-a-half year olds will throw fits a lot. I just thought that Olivia was much more intense naturally. She is fundamentally independent and highly will-full so I figured that’s what I get for being me, and marrying a guy who’s got people as intense as me for siblings. It must just be a genetic nightmare, but normal for us, even though it was a sudden change.

Then Rob’s mom saw one of the melt-downs-with-no-end and she asked me if they were coming around the same time everyday. They didn’t seem like normal Terrible Two behavior. So I brainstormed and discovered that they were always happening in between meals or before breakfast.

Mary sent me this article and it described Olivia and her sudden behavior change to a T, she must have been suffering from low-blood sugar. I was relieved to have some explanation for her outbursts, and some hope for resolution to the problem.

I began feeding her around the clock. I put food out that she can access herself when ever she felt like she needed a snack. In less than 24 hours there was a dramatic change for the better. My sweet little girl was home again and the Terror-Beast was no where to be seen.

I am so glad that we kept working on this until there was an answer. For a few days I really thought that Olivia was just trying to test my limit. I was trying so hard to put the boundaries down firmer and firmer and all I got was more and more tantrums. I’m ashamed that I had so little faith in Olivia’s relationship with me. Next time something like this happens I won’t be so slow to suspect a medical cause, and for the time being I’m going to be monitoring Olivia’s food intake and the resulting behavior. Hopefully this won’t be a continuous concern.

So instead of a post about persevering in the race, this is a post about persevering in my parenting. Being steadfast in my search for a resolution and refusing to let the bad days get the best of us, or worse, come between us. I love my kids too much to let them down like that.