If I'd known my Wednesday morning bowl of Honey Bunches of Oats with almonds would be my swan song to milk for a while, I wouldn't have let it get soggy. No, Honey Bunches of Oats -- from a fresh box, mind you -- tastes best when it has been sitting for just a minute and the milk has just absorbed some of that honey yumminess. But, I was chasing kids and checking email and fixing an ad I did for someone and it got soggy.Like I said, if only I'd known.
Wednesday was Robbie's appointment with a pediatric gastrinologist, Dr. Koorosh Kooros (I can't say it right either...) Basically, since he was just over 3 months old, Robbie essentially hasn't pooped on his own. This has been stressful and may cause me to divorce my family doctor if not my husband. Dr. Hansen has said that Robbie would grow out of it, it would even out after he started solid foods, etc. None of this happened and I've pretty much taken to making Robbie poop (Q-tip, Vaseline, not fun...). Anyway, flash forward to me pitching a small fit over seeing a specialist and then flash again to Robbie and I storming the Galisano's Children's Hospital this week. With his skinny boy body naked but for a diaper and his dashing one-dimpled smile, young Robert was the hit of the pediatric gastrology clinic. We met with Drs. Gable and Kooros and I explained our issue, which apparently is an issue faced by LOTS of other people. Our best guessed diagnosis: Milk protein allergy. Robbie's body, at the moment, views those proteins as alien and fights them. The cure: either a prescription formula OR Mommy goes off the hard stuff until Robbie is done nursing, which in our world happens to coincide with when most children grow out of this allergy.
I am very grateful that, hopefully, this problem will be manageable with diet. I'm sad that I didn't demand something be done earlier. But, we go forward from here a little smarter. At this moment, I am about 41 hours without dairy and I'm HUNGRY. I realized today that I consume about 500 calories of dairy a day and my body appears to miss it. Soy milk is sort of, well, ugh. Not a fan. And my poor by STILL hasn't pooped and they told me I can't help him anymore. Well, they did say it could take up to three weeks for the milk proteins to leave my body. Until then, he gets a laxative and I'm opting to view this as a forced chance to eat healthier for myself.
And, as usual, some photos of our recent events:
At our house, Robbie is crawling and pulling up, the kids are bored of winter (thus the sticker faces...) and Bob is taking Ellie every week to a little dance class for her and her friends taught by her older sister, Sophie. More on that later, but see how cute she is in her dancing dress?
3 comments:
hmmm...a choice between divorcing your doctor or your livelihood...this HAS been stressful.
I hope dairy is the answer. I think doctors are mostly guessing (having a sibling in the biz does NOT increase your confidence in the medical establishment), so I hope you see an improvement soon. Can't be that hard--go vegan--all those recipes are dairy free. I guess I was pretty dairy free in Kenya. You are so lucky OJ comes with calcium these days.
Hi. I am Lindsay Keller's sister. This is my first visit to your blog. Hope you don't mind me reading. Lindsay ALWAYS has the nicest things to say about you guys...
My little girl had an issue similar to this except she couldn't stop pooping. It was terrible. I didn't have as much will power as you and opted to go with the formula. Since Avery has been on the formula we all MUCH happier. Good luck with your little guy!
I feel your dairy-less pain.
I was on an antibiotic one time where I couldn't have anything with calcium. I could go weeks with no milk or cheese or anything, but as soon as I got on that drug, I craved the stuff!
More seriously, I recently figured out that I have developed some lactose-intolerance. It sucks. I LOVE cheese. Cottage cheese, cheddar cheese, cream cheese, cheese burgers, cheese cake... and sour cream, ice cream, whipped cream, cream of chicken soup... butter... caramels... etcetera, etcetera. It's amazing what has milk in it. (Split pea soup!?) But they don't like me.
Poor Aaron. I haven't made him a lasagna in 6 months!
The revelation came in October, and I've been pretty good about staying away from the stuff. (Occasionally I'll risk the killer stomach ache to have a little nibble of something.) And maybe someday I'll train my body to like the stuff again.
But in the meantime, I feel your pain.
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