My daughters have been dairy free since birth. All three of them reacted negatively to the introduction of dairy into their diet, and have had GI trouble when they have accidentally ingested some dairy. So we’ve been avoiding dairy for the girls for 11 years, and I’ve been off dairy (with a few accidents) for 6 years.

However, since my girls will be ack! starting school soon, it was important to see if they have outgrown their dairy intolerance. I know what’s happened in the past, but had no way of knowing what would happen this time. We leaped into the unknown last weekend with a week-long trial of organic lactose-free milk. I was incredibly nervous and anxious and worried, trying all three kids on cow’s milk after spending so much time making dairy-free recipes and researching how to live without milk, it just felt wrong. But I worked past that feeling, and after a week, we’ve had no reactions!

Tonight we started with organic milk. As with before, I have no idea what to expect from this leap into the unknown. Either way, we’ll know what to do for this school year – either they are lactose intolerant or not, but at least we can worry less about dairy.

I wish, when making leaps into the unknown, that I could be as fearless as the girls are when they leap into a pool!