Wahh! No Dairy?!

I have a five month old baby. At about 8 weeks, she started sleeping 6-8 hour stretches at night. She did this for about another 8 weeks, then suddenly started waking again. I chalked it up to a growth spurt and didn't think anything of it.

Now almost eight weeks later, I'm coming to the realization that something is wrong. She is now getting up every two hours, often even every 1-1.5 hours. She's very fussy all the time and when she is calm, it's only for me. I thought perhaps it was just a personality issue.

Then I realized something: she has had a stuffy and runny nose for at least the last 8 weeks. I thought that it was a lingering virus but it seems so persistent. She also has bouts of green diarrhea and her BMs seem different than my first three. Her voice is often raspy and she sounds congested.

It hit me like a ton of bricks yesterday so I called a good friend who has a daughter with food allergies. She confirmed my fear: yep, sounds like a classic case of dairy intolerance. She told me a wealth of information so that I could make another trip to Whole Foods.

I feel like such a schmuck. I had my suspicions pretty early on that she might have some problem. She was getting really nasty gas and crying and fussing often. Not like colic--not a constant screaming--but she would definitely be in distress, upset, fussy, crying and painfully gassy. Looking back, it didn't really go away, it either just got a little better or I was used to it. [imagine a look of shame on my face right now]

It's now been 24 hours dairy free. My friend warned me that it could take awhile, or it could be very fast. She said with her daughter, it was only a day before she saw the difference and it was like she had a new baby. We seem to fall in the latter category as she already slept longer periods last night and has been napping calmly today. She hasn't been fussing and crying after eating like before (another "duh" feeling about not catching it).

I also cut out soy. It's common to have a soy allergy when there's a milk protein allergy. If things go well, I'll try adding soy and see how she reacts, but I want to wait a couple weeks.

Speaking of, I really have respect for those of you that have to cut out soy and milk products. It is really difficult to find even vegan products without soy! Luckily, we have a few great natural food stores nearby so I have a decent selection.

It's not inexpensive though!! It is harder on the budget, but imagine the expense of formula without soy or milk proteins--I've heard it's by prescription and extremely expensive.

Dairy and soy free recipes to follow! I made two today that are great.