Hmmmm

I would love to post some yummy new recipe for you today but I have to say, I've kept it pretty simple lately. Mostly stuff like plain turkey burgers and chicken breasts with fresh veggies and potatoes. I do have some pork chops in the freezer though so maybe I'll come up with some sort of sauce for those soon....I'm ready for some flavor!

An update on Mini, now: She was doing great. We even had a normal poop the other day. That night DH and I went to dinner at Outback Steak House. I had a grilled chicken breast with just salt and pepper, a baked sweet potato with brown sugar and cinnamon and a salad with my "safe" salad dressing that I brought from home. And a glass of Chardonnay as a treat. The next morning Allie had a screaming fit. Something she doesn't normally do. She screamed and nursed for about a half hour before she finally conked out and slept for a while. When she woke up a couple of hours later she was better and nursed happily. She finally pooped about an hour after nursing. She didn't scream or even seem to struggle when she pooped but I wasn't surprised to find blood in her diaper, just based on her behavior earlier. Sure enough, after having a normal diaper the previous day, there was more blood in her stool than I've ever seen. Probably TIM but normally I have to really look and I find tiny little specks. This diaper had threads of blood. And not just one, there were quite a few!

This may be a long shot but perhaps there was some sort of cross-contamination? Like maybe they threw my chicken on the grill right after they took a big, juicy steak off?  I don't know.... I'm really reaching these days! But I plan to discuss it with the doctor next week when we go in for her weight check. I also plan to ask about seeing a pediatric allergist. I've read that they can pinpoint the problem a lot of the times with some simple, non-invasive tests. It's worth checking out....

Bye-bye wheat!

So I've now added wheat to the list of things that I can't eat (dairy, soy, nuts, eggs, fish, beef, wheat). I took Mini to the doctor yesterday for her 2 month shots and the doctor wasn't real pleased with her weight gain. It was on the very low end of acceptable so she has to go back in two weeks for a weight check.

Last time we saw the doctor I asked him about wheat. My husband's sister has a wheat allergy so I thought it might be a possibility. His response at that time was that he didn't know of wheat being a cause for blood in the stool of a breastfed baby. I brought it up again as that is the only one of the top 8 allergens that I was still eating.... and eating a lot of wheat I was! I didn't realize how many bagels with apple butter or jelly that I ate! I just cut wheat yesterday and I already miss my bagels and my Raisin Bran! I will have to go to the store this afternoon and stock up on Rice Chex or some other rice cereal. 

My pediatrician asked what that would leave me eating, to which I responded "turkey, chicken, pork, fresh fruits and veggies, rice and potatoes." I think he realized that I had thought this out and he told me to give it a try. I sure hope the blood in her stool goes away soon so I can start to add a few of these items back into my diet!

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?

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!

Our story

In June of 2008 our son was born. For the first 3 weeks of his life my breastfed boy was a perfect little guy. Slept much of the day and didn't really fuss or cry when he was awake! Then things started to change. He started having screaming fits and I noticed that he often passed gas while screaming. We tried several different gripe waters as well as Mylicon drops. In July of 2008, after talking with several friends and doing some research, I decided to cut all sources of dairy out of my diet.

I started with the obvious: milk, cheese, yogurt, etc., but decided to take it a step further and stay away from anything that contained dairy products of derivatives (whey, casein, ingredients that contained the word "lact"). For a while his gas got better and he wasn't screaming as much. Then it got worse.... much worse.

In late August my husband noticed a small drop of blood in our son's diaper. We called the doctor, of course, and took him in a couple of days later when the blood didn't subside. We were sent away with instructions to redouble my efforts to avoid dairy. After a week of him screaming and screaming and more blood in the diaper I called the pediatrician back and insisted that they perform a stool culture. I just had a feeling it was something more than a milk protein allergy, as I had already been off dairy for over 6 weeks. The tests came back showing a Shigella infection. A bacterial infection in the colon that was causing ulcers on the intestinal lining.... thus causing belly cramps and blood in the stool.

Well, we dealt with that for a while and, when we insisted on retesting his stool it came back negative..... but he was still screaming and having bloody stools! Finally, after about 4 stool tests, we were referred to a pediatric gastroenterologist. At the age of 5.5 months, after over 4 months of bloody stools and screaming fits, he was also diagnosed with a soy intolerance. We put him on Neocate formula and it all cleared up. In the meantime, I pumped around the clocked and cut soy from my diet, determined to keep breastfeeding! During all of this my supply was greatly decreased but we still nurse in the mornings... and I still eat no dairy or soy. The gastroenterologist tells us that he will have to stay on the dairy-free, soy-free diet until he is 18 months old.

I wanted to start this blog to help other mothers out there in my situation. The task of cutting dairy was daunting enough but it seems that soy products are used in EVERYTHING (including cooking spray!). This blog will be mostly recipes and food ideas for both mom and baby.

Our son is now 7.5 months old and happy as can be. It's like he's a completely different child. He's great at eating purees and starting to eat some finger foods. I will include in this blog not only what I feed myself but what I feed my son.

Please feel free to leave comments if you have questions or if you have recipes or other ideas!