We had an interesting day today...as you might know, Isla has been extra fussy for the past two weeks and has been spitting up and swallowing it as well as her old standard, spitting up and not swallowing it.
Yesterday we started her on Zantac, in addition to the Mylanta Supreme she's been taking for a few months. At our appointment on Wednesday our pedi told us that if there was no change in two weeks I would need to cut out dairy and soy to see if it is a milk protein allergy.
Apparently that wasn't soon enough for Isla...today she had a very mucusy poopy diaper streaked with blood (vomit and panic inducing for Mommy). I went into Mommy triage mode, called the Dr., took her temperature and had a little internal freak out. Other than being fussy and the diaper, she seemed fine.
The pedi had the diaper tested (what a fun job he has!) and confirmed that the pink and red was blood. After examining her he diagnosed Isla with a "working diagnosis" of milk protein allergy and allergic colitis. Apparently some babies have an allergy to the cow's milk proteins in breast milk causing bleeding in the intestines. In formula fed babies this shows up very quickly, but in breastfed babies it takes a few months to fully develop. In order to confirm the allergy, I am going on an exclusion diet and eliminating dairy and soy from for at least 6 weeks. If her symptoms improve then I get to be dairy and soy free until I am done nursing her. (This is funny because Gretchen and I were just joking about milk allergies yesterday! ...but not too funny because everything I love has dairy in it...)
If she does have a milk allergy is also explains the GERD, although she will need to continue to take the zantac and mylanta. I won't be surprised if she has the allergy because after leaving the Dr. I called Andrew and he said, "I had a milk allergy as an infant too." Oh!
If anyone wants a huge bag of shredded Mexican cheese from Costco purchased on Thursday, let me know...
7 comments:
I feel your pain I went through much the same thing with your husband. I had to stop nursing him and he was able to take the soy and I made a special soy formula for him. This seemed to help. If you want to get rid of that cheese I'll take some of it off your hands. Love Ma Ma A
That sucks!! I'm feeling bad for you. I'm good at making things that don't have dairy in them though.
Ali, sorry, that's no fun at all...both Stephen and Jack had milk and soy allergies, so altogether, I've done 2 yrs of the avoidance! The good news is that most little ones outgrow it...Jack is now able to eat yogurt and cheese at 13 months, and Stephen eats everything. There are lots of good tips and tricks out there to make it a little easier- let me know if you need some inspiration. Just so you don't go absolutely crazy, remember, you can have soy lecithin because it's not a protein! (Luckily, because it's in EVERYTHING...) And I'll send along some "safe" sweet treats for those first couple of weeks!
Nell
Ugh, no more ice cream!!? Actually, Mike and I just had a big conversation about reducing dairy for me during breast feeding and not introducing baby Michael to dairy for a couple of years! How funny how all these conversations come around! Best of luck with the menu!!
On the sunny side of this, at least you know all the fun recipes and places to shop for dairy-free. :P
My nephews had the same problem when they were younger. They did grow out of it though! Hmmm..sounds like I will have to dig up the recipe for KT's GFCF butterscotch squares.... I know i have it somewhere....
How is she doing now, Ali?
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