Cow's Milk Allergy

*Lots of Baby Poo details, read at your own risk!*

So we had a bit of a scary night last night - when we got up to feed Dylan at around midnight, we noticed that she had some streaks of bright red, mucous-y blood in her stool. (Imagine raspberry jam.) I instantly consulted the all knowing internet, which of course gave recommendations ranging from: "It's common, don't worry about it" to "RUN TO THE E.R. IMMEDIATELY!" Common diagnoses ranged from things as severe as bowel intussusception, to the middle ground of cow's milk allergy, to things as mild as constipation. We knew she wasn't constipated, she really didn't act like any of the other descriptors for an intussusception, and the more I read about the cow's milk allergy the more it sounded like the way she's been behaving recently.

I decided to call our pediatrician, but once again his colleague, Dr. Kayali, was on call for their office, and his only advice ever is that you should go to the Children's Hospital ER immediately. Beyond worthless. So I called my back-up doctor (and best Mommy friend), Heather Dickerson. She has 3 kiddos - 4 years old, 2 years old, and 3 months old - so I figure she pretty much knows everything when it comes to babies. (She was my savior during the umbilical cord fiasco of 2 weeks ago - thank Heavens I listened to her and not Dr. Kayali's advice to go to the ER at once. *sigh*) When I described Dylan's poo to Heather, she said it wasn't something she'd experienced ever with her kids, so I got her pediatricians name & number and called their on-call line. I felt guilty since I wasn't a client, but decided it was okay because I think I will transfer to them. It's unfortunate because I love Dr. Scarmack, but it's too frustrating to not have anyone to get ahold of half of the time! But to get back on track, her pediatrician was very nice & helpful - she said that Dylan's symptoms were consistent with a food allergy, and that 99% of the time that allergy is to cow's milk in the mother's diet. So now I'm on a strict no-dairy diet, and have to call in Monday for an appointment to have Dylan checked out. No-dairy is going to be a real struggle for me, but if it makes Dylan happy & healthy then we can do it.

As the night progressed (and we got farther and farther away from that big glass of milk I had with dinner), Dylan stopped having the streaks of blood in her stool. Early on in the night her poo had turned from yellow to green (another symptom of food allergy), and it's still green but at least there's no more blood. She was also incredibly gassy again, and she seems to be over that for now. Now that I think back on her gassy, fussy times, they do seem very much linked to being a few hours after I drink milk - either on my cereal or with dinner. Also, yesterday I noticed some dry patches on her forehead, and last night she seemed to get a small patch of eczema on her forehead - another food allergy symptom. Here's hoping we've discovered the culprit and can get back to our content little girl!

Breastfeeding has seemed like a never ending challenge: first I have too much milk & I was drowning her, making her nurse wrong and bite me. So we had to start using nipple shields to control my flow & retrain her to nurse properly. Then I had the addition of let-down pain which was so intense that I would burst into tears every time she nursed. Once we finally healed and the let-down pain improved, I made the mistake of eating garlic which lead to an incredibly fussy baby, engorgement, and another lovely case of mastitis. Now that the mastitis is finally gone, we've added in a cow's milk allergy. Next week we have to start the weaning from the nipple shield process, otherwise I'm afraid my milk will go away when I switch to phase 2 of lactation like it did with Haley. It seems like such an uphill battle, and I feel very house bound and exhausted. But I just keep telling myself that at least the cow's milk allergy would be a problem, and even worse with formula. She would've been just as fussy, if not more so, and I'd be equally exhausted. So really it's not so much worse - and I know that my milk is a million times better for her. Plus, just think how skinny I'll be if I can't eat ANY dairy, or beans, or garlic - and I'm breastfeeding & walking the floors for hours a day! I'm clinging to that silver lining at the moment, and hoping that this all works out and gets a lot easier ASAP. I did tell Chad, if the no-dairy diet doesn't fix things, I think I will just have to throw in the towel on breastfeeding and go to the hypoallergenic formula. I'm just not up for the Total Elimination Diet or other extreme diet plans to try to breastfeed in the face of complex allergies. (And of course, I sincerely hope Dylan doesn't have complex or multiple allergies. At least they usually grow out of cow's milk allergy by 2-5 years of age.) Here's hoping for the best & that we can get back to our laid-back Dylan Roo soon! Poor little girl, it must be miserable to have such a grumbly tummy and not be able to tell us what's going on!