De Ja Vu

Well, it looks like we're traveling down the same road with Mini as we did with Monkey. As I posted last time, I cut dairy and soy back on January 23, 2010. She was doing better but all of a sudden she started thrashing around and crying out again about a week ago. She had mucousy poops for a few days and then, on Monday, I found a tiny speck of blood in her diaper. All I could do is groan. I feel like the nightmare has begun again.

That night DH and I discussed our next course of action and decided to give her regular, plain old cow's milk based formula. Our rationale is that, theoretically, since I've already cut dairy and soy, dairy shouldn't be the problem. Perhaps it was something else that I was eating...although I had no idea what it could possibly be. So we gave her formula. She did some crying that evening but nothing too terrible. The next day, the rash that was on her face spread to her entire body so I called the pediatrician. The nurse told me to stop giving her milk based formula and switch her to soy. So I gave her a soy bottle around 5:30 Tuesday evening. At 7:00 PM she was screaming her head off and it took me over an hour to calm her down by trying to nurse her. She would nurse for about 30 seconds and then unlatch and scream. It was the exact same behavior that Monkey displayed at the height of his discomfort.

So Wednesday morning I took her to the doctor to discuss all of this with him. He determined that the rash on her face was an oil gland infection and had nothing to do with the milk based formula. By the time I got her to his office it had 99% cleared up from the rest of her body. He, and I, decided it was best for me to keep breastfeeding. He said it could take six weeks to see results after cutting diary from my diet and to keep with it (it has only been 5 weeks as of tomorrow). He also said the only other things he could think of to cut from my diet were fish, eggs and nuts. I told him that DH's sister has a wheat intolerance and he said that he didn't know of wheat being something that would cause blood in the stool. So, for now, my diet is limited a little further. In addition to staying away from dairy and soy I've also cut fish, eggs and nuts.

She hasn't had any more screaming fits since the one after the soy bottle but she also hasn't pooped in 3 days. So now it's just a lot of wiggling and gas. I'm anxious for her to make another dirty diaper so I can inspect it. It's sad that I've spent a good portion of the past two years inspecting poopy diapers but we do what we have to for our kids, right?

Fish!

PHOTO TAKEN FROM WWW.STARKISTSEASATIONS.COM

I grew up on the coast and still live there so frozen fish isn't something that's ever really appealed to me. Actually, I've only started buying fish at the grocery store recently but I've always bought fresh fish. The problem with that is that I like to eat it the day I buy it so that means we rarely had fish!

In an effort to incorporate more fish into our diet I thought I would try frozen fish fillets. Now, most of them are breaded which, on a dairy and soy free diet, is a no-no. But, I did find these by StarKist. They're called Seasations and come in several varieties but the only one that was dairy and soy free was the Mediterranean Tomato & Basil so I picked it up.

A few nights later I was pleasantly surprised! Not only was it delicious but super easy too. Just a few minutes in the microwave and it was done! Even my DH and toddler liked it. Well, Monkey wouldn't eat much of the actual fish but loved the sauce and dipped everything else on his plate in it!

Long time no post!

So I've kind of let this little project fall by the wayside. What can I say? Life just gets in the way sometimes. Let me catch you up.

First, our son (we were calling him Monkey, remember?) is doing very well. He is now 20 months old and I'm happy to say he is eating a normal, non-restricted diet. Yep, you read that right... he no longer has a sensitivity to dairy or soy! I can't tell you what a relief it is. Not only does he not have to deal with these issues for the rest of his life, we were spending over $300 a month for his Neocate formula! So how did this come about? Our gastroenterologist told us to try reintroducing dairy and soy around 18 months. So when he was 17 months old we gave him a sippy cup of whole milk. And he loved it. The first few days he had some loose stools, and we were a little worried, but he didn't seem to be hurting so we pushed through and his system adjusted to the change. Once we were in the clear and confident that he was doing okay on all things dairy we moved on to soy. This was a little rougher. He had some screaming fits but not as often as he used to. I'd say once a week he would act like his tummy was bothering him. This went on for a few weeks but eventually worked itself out.

Second, we have now welcomed another family member! Our daughter, we'll call her Mini (because she's a miniature version of me!), was born on January 8, 2010. Maybe we're more paranoid than the average parent because of what we went through with our son but she has displayed some of the same behaviors that Monkey displayed when he was a tiny thing. So, we decided that I would go ahead and cut dairy and soy from my diet as a precaution. Hopefully, if she does have these same issues, cutting dairy and soy from my diet early enough will prevent the blood in the stool and also allow me to breastfeed longer than six months. I've been off of dairy and soy almost 4 weeks now and she's doing better. Her bowel movements and gas don't seem to cause her any more discomfort. She still grunts and squirms and turns red but at least she's not crying out sharply. This past weekend, though, her sharp cries returned and we were all scratching our heads. That's when I remembered the only thing I hadn't read the label on was a can of roasted cashews that I had been snacking on.... a lot. Sure enough, they contained soybean oil. I didn't read the label because I'd eaten cashews, and made sure they didn't contain soy or dairy, in the past. But this was a different brand... so that makes all the difference!

So there you are, you're all caught up! When I discover new and exciting things to ingest I'll be sure to post about it. I've found that going dairy and soy free has been much easier this time around because I've already done all the research and label reading... but I'm always on the lookout for new things to eat!