no whey

As I noted yesterday, Elias had his two month shots. He had various immunizations delivered via one sugar solution by mouth and two shots, one in each chunky thigh. He did well with the sugar solution, not surprisingly, and screamed as expected with the shots. I nursed him before and after, so I think that helped a bit. He then fell asleep in his car seat and continued to sleep at home for about three hours. I actually had to kind of wake him up when he was just stirring a bit in order to feed him. It was either that or pump.

Of course, after that he was super cranky and definitely delivering the "I'm in pain" cry. We gave him some infant tylenol and spent the next hour or so getting him back to bed. Then he slept for about six hours, which was wonderful for all of us, especially considering he hasn't been sleeping too well the past few days (napping very little during the day and waking up more often at night). When he woke up at 3:30 this morning he seemed back to his old self, ready to eat and then, unfortunately, ready for the day. He's spoiled us by only waking up - typically - once per night lately but he's almost always incredibly difficult to get back to sleep. All the experts advise against interacting with your baby during those nighttime feedings but it's hard to ignore a smiling baby. Who needs sleep anyway?

And he continues to gain weight at a good rate - up to 12 pounds 3 ounces yesterday, which means he's more than doubled his weight from that first pedi appointment, when we found out his weight had dropped to just six pounds. Clearly, despite all the spit-up these past few weeks, something's getting through. Coincidentally, Elias had a few blood streaks in his poopy diaper right there at the doctor's office. Our pedi confirmed it was blood with some sort of test (she even sent us home with a half-dozen of these poo tests), which of course points to a food allergy. The only other typical explanation is rectal fissures (wow, so much fun stuff in this post) but he's not constipated, and given his other symptoms, it's probably a food allergy. It seems like there's no definitive way to figure out which food he's allergic to, other than these elimination diets for several weeks, followed by reintroducing one suspected food at a time. And as I've mentioned before, cow's milk protein is the most common, and up to half of babies with that food allergy are also sensitive to soy. So I'm sticking with the diet at least until we meet with the GI doc next week.

And I'm feeling better about the diet. If you do your homework, you'll find plenty of foods without dairy or soy - all whole foods, of course (fruits, veggies, grains, what have you), plus tasty snacks like Sun Chips, Pita Chips, most cereals are safe, etc. And I've found alternatives for ice cream, yogurt, and chocolate chips. The key ingredient in the first two is coconut milk - there's a whole line of dairy and soy free yogurt and ice cream made my Turtle Mountain. I've yet to try the yogurt but the vanilla bean and chocolate flavored ice creams are delicious, and I don't think that's just because I've been off of real ice cream for over three weeks now. The chocolate chips are courtesy of Enjoy Life, a line of allergy free foods. I also bought some granola, snack bars, and cookies. The boxes are tiny and expensive but the alternative to all this, for the time being at least, is a special formula that costs about $37 per can. I don't know how many bottles you get out of a can of formula, but I'm pretty sure $3 for the occasional cookie fix for Mom is less. And it dawned on me this morning that I've already been breastfeeding for over two months (obviously, I know, but sometimes I can hardly remember to brush my teeth). My initial goal was a year, at least, maybe more depending on what my life is like next summer when Elias will celebrate his first birthday. My revised goal, as long as this diet seems necessary, is at least until he's no longer exclusively breastfeeding, so another 2 to 4 months, give or take. I think I can handle that, if not longer. At that point, I'll reassess the situation. Honestly, the hardest part about this diet so far has been trying to find alternatives to various staples (I'm still looking for dairy and soy free mayo and butter/margarine) and eating out. At Chili's, for example, I can have a burger patty and a side salad, hold the cheese, croutons, and dressing. Mmm.

Anyway, should any of you have any dairy and soy free food tips, feel free to share!