Sweet little Mason has had trouble gaining weight and has always been a spitter upper, like a really bad one. Sometimes the poor kid spits up so hard it comes out his nose. We suspected that dairy in my diet was probably causing his irritability so I kind a sorta went off dairy. Meaning, I gave up ice cream and milk but still continued to have some in casseroles and such. He was still spitting up a ton and coupled with the inability to get out all his bubbles and burps, we also thought he might have acid reflux. So I gave him some Zantac and at first it seemed to work but he was still having some stomach issues and was still getting some mean diaper rash.
He was born 7lbs 7oz and at 5 weeks old he was only 8lbs so the doctor wanted to start supplementing him with my breastmilk mixed in with 1/2 tsp of formula twice a day. I wasn't extremely good at doing this but I did it every so often. The good news? A week later and he has gained 7 ounces! Hurray! The bad news?? What I thought was just a really bad case of baby ance is really a nasty rash all over his face and neck and he has eczema. The pediatrician is pretty certain that major spitting up + diaper rash +rash/eczema (that showed up when he was given milk-based formula) + irritableness = a milk allergy. Awesome. I would have to agree with her since I slipped a bite or two of ice cream last night and am paying for it today :)
So basically I have to cut out all dairy. Yep. All of it. You want the list of ingredients I have to avoid?? Well, the list is too long to post here. Check out this link: here
So what to eat?!?! I already feel like I am starving all day long and can't get enough food in me! Apparently even the smallest traces of milk in foods that I eat can make baby miserable. So I guess this means a vegan diet until I decide I'm done sacrificing and give him pure formula. I really want to nurse him though.. I'm too selfish to give up those free extra 500 calories and I know that my milk is the best for our little buddy :) Plus if we put him on formula we would have to buy special, aka expensive, formula.
Anyways, if you have any advice on how to not starve to death, please send it my way! :)
Well, he sure is super duper cute!!
and he gives big huge gummy smiles. He has also started cooing and "talking" if you will. Oh it melts my heart!
He was totally worth the wait :)
16 comments:
My son was allergic to both soy and dairy (there was no way to avoid both, so he went on the very expensive formula!) Good news is, he did outgrow the allergy at about 3 years. Good luck!
Oh that is so frustrating! At least they figured out the problem. My friend's son had bad eczema until he was 2 and they finally figured out he had a corn allergy. Just thought I'd let you know in case the dairy thing doesn't help. Good luck and hopefully he gets over it soon!
Oh my goodness no dairy seems HARD! But your right, very worth it to be able to breast feed your baby! I'm so glad you are trying so hard because most moms would give up in a heart beat! I hope you can find non dairy foods to help fill you back up. hahah
Oooh that's a tough one! I went vegan for a month in January, and I'll be honest...it was tough. I was ready for it to be over, but there are definitely some permanent changes that I've made (not eating meat/dairy nearly as often as I used to). And I also definitely learned a few things.
First of all, there is no good substitute for cheese. I would recommend not even trying. It's disheartening to come home with a cheese substitute, only to find that it is nasty. And they're all nasty. And the ones that aren't TOTALLY nasty still have casein in them, so not totally dairy-free, but still really gross-tasting (absolutely not worth it).
Second, PETA (www.peta.org) has some really good recipes. And since I don't reeeally like to see all the sad stuff about mistreated animals, I have the link to their recipes saved in my favorites where I can just skip all that other stuff. So here's that:
PETA recipes
Also, soy milk is probably my favorite milk substitute for recipes, but make sure you get the original unsweetened. Can't stress the unsweetened part enough. I've ruined a few recipes by using regular soy milk, which is deceptively sweet (but for cereal or sweet things, the regular is fine).
If you have some health food / whole foods stores near by, I would get friendly with the people who work there. They could probably suggest some good stuff.
And, because it's AMAZING, here is my favorite vegan recipe EVER:
Golden Bowl
It's from my very favorite restaurant back home in Georgia. Really really good vegan comfort food (and you can find nutritional yeast in any health food store, by the way...it's kind of yellowish, not the same stuff as yeast for bread. Makes the BEST gravy).
Sorry...this was kinda long. But good luck! You can do it!
If you need a good vegan book, Dr. Neal Barnard's 21 day kickstart is a good one. There are some recipes at the end that are good, and if you sign up for the 21 day kickstart online, they give you three weeks of daily menus and recipes, and then they send you a recipe each week after that. There's also Dr. Joel Fuhrman's Eat to Live. He's mainly an advocate of a vegan diet, and his recipes taste AMAZING in my opinion. He also has a site online. If you want some recipes, let me know! Although I'm not a true vegan, I've been becoming that way and these resources have been helpful and tasty. :)
I had to give up dairy for the first six months or so with both of my boys. I pretty much lived on gummy worms. Yeah, so maybe I'm not the right person to ask for advice! Good luck and you're right, he's adorable!
Oh my gosh. I totally hear ya on this one. I had to cut out dairy, soy, wheat, nuts, eggs... basically the eight major allergens. Thankfully it was just intolerances instead of actual allergies that Lucy grew out of around 5 months. I felt like I starved fort a while though. I had to read every label and even if it said "made in a factory that process milk products" or something, I couldn't eat it because it usually had traces. Anyway, we grilled a lot of chicken and pork chops that I just put a lot of salt and pepper on. Same with veggies although I had to be careful with that still because things like broccoli made her tummy troubles worse. I ate a LOT of oatmeal and instead of putting milk in it, I made it with water and topped with brown sugar, cinnamon, and a splash of vanilla, or you could put berries in it for a little more healthy option. I ate a lot of rice but since you can't really have many sauces, I would put salt and pepper on them. Most Brianna salad dressings are allergen-free and were good with salads. Oh, I also ate hummus and tortilla chips like it was my job. Trader Joe's has a lot of good food that was okay to eat- such as brown rice pasta, chile lime chicken burgers, allergen-free snickerdoodles (sooo good!), etc. My friend gave me a pineapple chicken recipe that was good: mix 3 T corn starch and 3/4 cup of sugar in a saucepan. Add 1 1/2 to 2 C pineapple juice. Bring to boil until it gets real thick and then serve over chicken and rice. OH! And I tried different milk alternatives like almond milk but the one that I thought was the best was rice milk. It's just on a shelf, not in the cool section, but when I had it with cereal, it tasted exactly the same as regular milk to me and was way better than almond or coconut milk. Hopefully that helps- if you want or need more suggestions, let me know!
One more thing. I never tried this, but my friend used sunflower seed butter in place of real butter and said it was good. You can find it at Whole Foods and places like that. Good luck!
Oh girl, I am SO sorry. Been there done that! Not with the spit up and rash, that's so sad, but I had to cut my dairy with Gaines because he would scream bloody murder, and yea with just one bite of anything dairy. His lasted until he started having baby food, so I only had to do it for about 6 months, then I was able to eat dairy and nurse and he was fine. This is when you learn to eat SUPER healthy, haha. I was like, "Is this a sign I don't eat healthy or what?!" For dinners I just had lots of different marinated meats, with rice and vegetables, or stir fry, or fajitas. We also started eating fish a lot. I tried every kind of non dairy milk, rice, almond, etc. I think rice was my favorite with cereal, but I never just drank a glass of that jazz. Nothing compares to milk. They also have non dairy ice cream and popsicles and it actually isn't bad. Because like you, I have my nightly bowl of ice cream and I thought I was going to die without it. You'll be surprised how much non-dairy stuff they have. After it was all done, I actually had a hard time getting back to drinking milk or having pastas. Whenever I made something with tons of cheese, I felt so unhealthy, when before I had no problem making enchiladas or pastas. We still don't have that near as much. After a year or so I was basically to old unfortunately and we go through milk, cheese and butter so fast again :) Good luck! Its hard but so worth it for those cute little babies!
I thought of some other things I used to make. I started making thai curries or indian curries because a lot of the time you use coconut milk. That is, if you like Thai and Indian food :)
stir-fry is so easy and healthy and yummy. I say pump up your asian dishes. do you like quinoa? I like to eat it and find it filling, with asian flavors or mexican flavors.
What a sacrifice!!! I have no advice but good luck! And look at that big smile! What a cutie!
Ammon was on the super sensitive formula - $33.00 a can! It kills your wallet. If you can do the Vegan diet, good for you! Poor guy, he is cute as can be!!!!
I feel your pain Ashleigh! Dairy was super hard to cut out for me too, and I wasn't even that thorough about it. But after a few weeks it got easier and I didn't crave dairy products as much, so hopefully it will get easier for you. But I agree with you, little Mason is a sweetheart and those coos make it all worth it!
Oh Ashleigh, I know that sucks. I had to give up dairy too, and the spitting up definitely got better, although I didn't have to be as strict, I still had yogurt.
Almond milk is a nice alternative for drinking/cereal/smoothies, etc - so give that a try. The boys are drinking almond milk instead of cow's milk now, too, cuz I don't want to deal with sick babies.
I switched to omelets for breakfast, minus the cheese, and toast and OJ, and it's still what I do and share it with the boys, so that's a nice breakfast alternative that's relatively quick and easy.
And really, it's not so bad if you make a lot of your own meals from scratch. I don't know if that's your habit already, but it's not so bad once you plan your menu and buy all the right ingredients. (the meal planning is the hard part for me...)And hey, salads with meat/chicken/fish /beans is always a good way to go too.
Feel free to email me if you want some of my favorite recipes. I commend you for wanting to give Mason your best milk, so don't be discouraged, it is possible. I'm still nursing the twins and I love it :)
Good luck on your adventure - changing a diet is changing a lifestyle, it'll take some time, but really once you get used to living dairy free, it's really easy to keep going, and it is a healthier option anyway.
Keep it up!
Shani
mileshani@gmail.com
My husband can't do dairy, so we've tried about everything. It is really hard! He likes coconut milk in soups--like an Asian chicken soup with rice--and smoothies--coconut milk, honey and frozen strawberries. We've tried rice and soy milk for cereal. It's not great to drink. They both work in smoothies, too. Can you eat meat? There are a few good blogs out there. Good luck! I can email you more recipes if you want.
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