Our journey with Amanda Marks on her Food and Sleep Programme
I decided to contact Amanda in pure desperation after seeing several GP’s, private paediatrician’s and many A and E trips for our 9 month little boy.
After our last A and E trip in October where my little boy was suffering with sickness from being so badly constipated, we left the hospital again with no answers and not knowing what to do! The next day we decided we needed to get to the bottom of all of this once and for all and enjoy being a family again! I won’t lie, everyday I woke up with a little boy that just moaned and whinges all day long and was only happy when asleep. This was really getting to me as I knew this wasn’t the little boy he once was and there was a lot going on in his little tummy, but I felt helpless.
I had followed a lot of Amanda’s work on Instagram and I kept thinking will she be able to help me, surely not! My little boy had allergies, well, that’s what I was being told! So I kept putting Amanda’s programme off and continued down the private paediatrician route. I wish we hadn’t! We had an ultrasound, Jenson was prescribed hydro allergen milk, laxatives, suppositories and we were just about to have some blood tests done to test him for allergies!
The private paediatrician cancelled our follow up appointment and I was nearly in tears as at this point my little boy was waking up 3 times in the night screaming for hours on end, with the worst wind. He was in so much pain, the only way to settle him, was to offer more milk to get him back off to sleep.
In pure frustration I spent hours googling for the best allergen doctor for babies and children and I made an appointment with one for two days time, then I remembered seeing someone I knew had gone through a similar journey with her little boy and had recently used Amanda, so I thought I would reach out and ask her for her advise and whether Amanda be able to help our situation! I was told Amanda had changed their lives and again I was like REALLY is someone going to be able to sort my baby out and get him eating and more comfortable?
I got in touch with Amanda’s assistant and had a quick call with Amanda the next day, immediately I felt at ease. I first of all felt listened to, I felt Amanda was going to support me and put my little boy first and ensure we got to the bottom of this and most importantly getting my little boy eating food, sleeping and going to the toilet without laxatives. Now she did say on the phone to me, I don’t promise results BUT why would he be any different to 2000 other babies I have seen that are suffering exactly the same or have suffered.
We booked firstly an initial consultation via video firstly after providing Amanda our son’s case study from birth and current 24 hr schedule where she addressed the changes she would make if we chose to book one of her programmes.
We made the decision, which was probably the best decision we ever made after that to go ahead with her silver package!
Amanda asked me to you cancel his blood test appointments and the appointment to see the private paediatrician, let’s leave that and see how we get on! Of course, I cancelled them! If I could put the blood tests off then great, as seeing your baby have blood tests done is not very nice!
Sunday afternoon we had our initial consultation and we were all set up ready to start on Tuesday. I remember getting off of our phone call and my partner looked at me and said ‘I just don’t know how she’s going to get him to eat’ we both had very little confidence in anyone sorting him out as we felt so let down by many doctors we had seen.
Well after completely sorting out his milk association and increased new appetite for all food as our son literally didn’t eat ANY food, Amanda wasn’t phased at all by this she said confidently she’s seen it endless times and then boy did he eat…. we followed consistently her sleep stages 1-4 which teaches her babies or older children to sleep without controlled crying. It was hard at the beginning for the parents when up lengthy periods wondering how this can help when exhausted but our son took it like a duck to water and became soon confident to self settle and more importantly between sleep cycles so deeper and longer nights and naps in his cot!
Amanda was especially passionate about our little boys case as she is fed up of seeing countless babies diagnosed or misdiagnosed with reflux issues, CMPA or in our case serious tummy and constipation when attributed to cows milk protein ie infant formula so was determined no matter how busy she was to get the job done and that we did!
Well, we are now two weeks down the line and at the end of her 2 week programme and the difference is beyond amazing! He is now eating 3 meals a day, sleeping through the night 11.5-12 hours, self settling even before we have had time to finish quiet time, the constipation has gone, the wind has gone and I have a baby that is back to being his happy self!
We have dramatically reduced his bottle intake inline with his age and the constipation medicine is now no where to be seen!
When I first messaged Amanda, I text her asking for a miracle!
That’s honestly, how bad our situation was and she said to me you don’t need a miracle we will get this sorted and we have!
It hasn’t been an easy two weeks, but we have persevered and been consistent with our plan as she assured us and I know all her clients consistency and timings is key to her formula!
Amanda is sooo busy and even more so at this time of year so she really could only offer us a silver package even though we wanted the platinum and her full support but we were happy to just get on board and get going. I was kindly put in contact with some of her other former and present client parents that were in our situation recently to help offer support and advice along the way, this was really helpful and how her Silver Package operates but Amanda has also checked in with us when she could and offered support where and when needed.
I am so glad we cancelled all of our new medical appointments and even more happier that my little boy does not have any allergies and is finally comfortable, well fed, calm, rested and happy again!
Lastly to add I had no support when trying to breastfeed my son post c-section and have suffered because of this and so has my son but Amanda assured me she will be happy if we have another baby to be on board next time and offer us her Pre and Post birth breastfeeding programme and that we will not and should not have this sort of experience again, she’s desperate to get it out there to all her future clients that (although she’s private and not cheap at all, infact she’s the most costly out there) she does go above and beyond and won’t find a reason of why your baby or child can’t be helped with food, sleep or issues associated with the above.
Thank you, thank you, thank you!
