Miss Olive has been a happier girl today, which means I have been a happier girl. I need to keep a journal of her mood and other symptoms, as they may correlate and point back to the cow milk protein allergy. Once I stopped all dairy, the pain and the screaming and the way she kept her legs pulled up tight to her body all stopped, but the mucousy poop and the red raised bumps on her face, neck, scalp and shoulders continued. Yesterday, her face was worse, as was the mucous in her stool. She also had more sneezing, coughing and congestion yesterday. Today, she has shown improvement. I wasn't sure if the "rash" was connected to the dairy... I'm still not sure.. but it's possible. I don't know if it is just taking a while for it to get out of her system (it can take up to a month to see full results) or if it was from those three chocolate chip cookies I ate.
It's amazing to me how much parental guesswork is involved when an infant has an allergy. It's really just up to the parent to eliminate foods and track improvement. I would have liked to have a bit more science... but, it seems they don't test babies so young because the allergies change so quickly. So, I will continue to avoid milk, cheese, yogurt, butter, whey, casein, lactose and all other hidden forms of dairy. I'm becoming an ingredients list speed reader.
It's amazing to me how much parental guesswork is involved when an infant has an allergy. It's really just up to the parent to eliminate foods and track improvement. I would have liked to have a bit more science... but, it seems they don't test babies so young because the allergies change so quickly. So, I will continue to avoid milk, cheese, yogurt, butter, whey, casein, lactose and all other hidden forms of dairy. I'm becoming an ingredients list speed reader.
2 comments:
Love reading your blog. I'm so glad you write about what it really means to be a parent.
And the allergy thing sucks! We have 2 allergic to latex and one allergic to anything that contains red food coloring or dye. Not major allergies, but a pain none the less.
I admire your sacrifice of dairy in helping out Olive. What an awesome Mom! I know that has to be hard.
Lori
Well, you know I TOTALLY understand everything you are going through. I wish I had figured it out sooner than I did...Caleb lost all of his hair and I think it has to do with his milk allergy. I have heard there is a high percentage of kids with a dairy allergy that also have a soy allergy. If you see some improvements, but still have some eczema or gas problems, you might want to look in to it. Thankfully, Caleb can have soy. His milk allergy is off the charts though, so I have gotten very creative with baking. Check out this blog: http://www.foodallergymama.com/
The boys will not notice that these snacks are missing milk, nuts or eggs and they are all better than recipes that do contain them! SO GOOD! Let me know if you have any questions.
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