Samantha is growing fabulously; perfectly following the
growth curve and remaining in the 60 percentile for weight. In the last week,
we found out that she has blood in her stool which is indicative of a cow’s
milk protein allergy. Because of this, I need to completely alter my diet to
avoid all things dairy so that the protein isn’t passing to her through my breast
milk.
At first I was pretty bummed about it because I LOVE cheese.
And ice cream. And sour cream. Heck, I love all dairy. I was even more upset
when I realized that there is hidden dairy in what seems like everything. Mr.A
asked me if I would prefer to transition her to formula, but I am committed to
making breastfeeding work. Plus, we couldn’t do the normal formula that I have
tons and tons of samples and coupons for, we would need a specialized formula
to meet her needs while also avoiding cow’s milk.
I’ve done a fair bit of research on MSPI (the formal name
for her allergy/intolerance) and am finding that many children have much more
severe symptoms than S is exhibiting. Therefore,
we are hopeful that she has only a mild intolerance. The doctor has said that I
can start to reintroduce some hard cheeses into my diet in a couple of months.
If she does well with that, I will be able to slowly incorporate dairy back
into my diet.
