I am not a bandwagon jumper. Especially when it comes to dietary issues. Ansen and I believe in an “everything in moderation” approach to pretty much everything food. I’m sure there are good things about those diets (you know which one’s I’m talking about), but let’s be real. We like food and all kinds. But sadly, I may be giving up my favorite food group for a few months.
Arwyn, like most babies, is having a tough time adjusting to life outside the womb. I mean, they’re learning to eat, sleep and poop on their own for the first time every. You may laugh, but just think, if you didn’t know how to do those, how much more difficult life would be.
The eating part has been a bit difficult, with a shallow latch and a possible “tight” frenum. She’s not obviously tongue tied, I’m not in pain, and she’s gaining weight… so we deal. However, this means swallowing lots of air, burping and spitting up… and tummy troubles.
But that’s not the only issue she’s dealing with. At first, I thought it was what they call a “foremilk-hindmilk imbalance.” Essentially, with over production of milk (common in the first months), she’s getting too much of the water, more acidic foremilk and not enough of the fat-rich hindmilk. Thus an upset tummy, gassiness and runny diapers. We worked through that, got my supply down to a reasonable amount… but we still had tummy troubles. And the runny diapers were causing a constant diaper rash. Like, it was BAD.
The next thing to look at is my diet. And while we believe in moderation, I do like my diary. A bowl of cereal for breakfast. Cheese on everything. Ice cream for dessert. According to the Le Leche League, lactose intolerance in infants is extremely rare (1 in 30,000), because, after all, lactose is what mom’s producing with or without the help of cow’s milk. BUT some babies have a sensitivity to one of the proteins in dairy that’s coming through mother’s milk.
While I’m hoping against hope that this is not the problem, part of me just wants my baby’s tummy to chill. So I’ll try anything. I’ve been *mostly* dairy free for 5 days (seriously guys, this is hard!!!) and her diaper rash is gone and her diapers have been only wet for 3 days. This may be TMI, but I’m hoping for a good poopy one that’s NOT runny pretty soon. Unfortunately, that means that it looks like dairy may be the culprit. But we’ll give it a few weeks and then try out some things. Luckily, most babies appear to outgrow this between 4-6 months, and luckily, there are some good alternatives to most things (like milk, creamer, ice cream even), but cheese… Mama needs her cheese!
I just commented on your birth story post, but I went through this with my daughter too. Both wheat and dairy ended up being an issue. She is now 9 months old and she is fine with the presence of it in my milk if I eat a little here or there, but she still can’t have any cow’s dairy herself and we have yet to try alternatives. We also haven’t tried giving her more than a tiny taste of wheat products here and there, so we aren’t sure if she can handle it now. On the bright side giving up all the tasty wheat and dairy laden foods helped me lose the baby weight faster.
It’s definitely been a challenge. I haven’t been updating much, but at 10, almost 11 months, she’s finally grown out of it and can even have yogurt. I never really had an issue with wheat, as far as I know, so we haven’t worried too much about that. I’m so thankful to be able to have diary again though! And I’m glad you can too!