Monday, September 13, 2010

The Good and Bad of the Business End

(click on any photo to access the entire album on flickr)

The Bad
I'm one of those people who will pretty much eat anything. Food allergies? Pickiness? Veganism? Hell no. All that changed when our poor monkey started getting (TMI...) dark green, almost sea-weedy stools streaked with blood. We went to the doctor who confirmed what the books say, which is a likely allergy to milk proteins from my diet. This means I have to cut out all dairy: no milk, cheese, yogurt, butter, ice cream etc. Except that the etcetera is what gets you. The less obvious foods like bread, chicken stock, sausages, and flavored chips to name a few. Halloween candy! (*sob*) I've been off dairy for about 3 weeks now and things do seem to be getting better, but they still aren't fixed. The last couple of days of diapers have actually been pretty bad again, coupled with Holly having fits of inconsolable screaming and gas. All of which lead me to believe that maybe milk isn't the only issues we've got going on. Sooooo...time for super fun food elimination week! I'm cutting out dairy, wheat, soy, and nuts for the rest of the week in the hopes that the diapers start looking more normal again and the fussiness abates. Providing that all goes well then I'll start reintroducing those foods back one by one to see if we can't pinpoint the problem. Anyone want to take bets on the allergen? Winner gets a banana!

Skunk face

The Good
Cloth diapers! I heart! I knew that I wanted to use cloth diapers even before the munchkin was born but I didn't want to go hog wild on a particular brand until I had a chance to field test a few different ones (I bought 6 to start). At about 5 weeks old I started putting Holly in the cloth and I haven't looked back since. They are SO easy and SO cute. There are enough rabid die-hard moms on the internet who will tell you every single last reason why cloth diapers are the cure to all the world's ills, so let me avoid that and just share some cute pictures:

Vogue
The cloth diaper is a perfect accessory to her cute dress
Daddy!!
Watching Federer at the US Open
(yes, in that last one she has discovered TV and his name is Roger Federer)

2 Comments:

At 8:10 AM, Blogger Ritchie said...

Ah, welcome to my hell...I'm so sorry that you are having to go through this. Here's my 2 cents...go for the food elimination but don't forget sugar. Taking sugar out will probably reduce the gas and help with the bleeding considerably. There is probably an underlying allergy in there somewhere, but the guts are compromised so it might take longer than you would think. Also keep in mind that this isn't perminent. I wish you luck on this venture.

 
At 9:39 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

As if all your favorites aren't already gone. I had the same problem with my Elijah. I eliminated milk (i hate soy milk now),chocolate, any caffeine, tomato(whole & juice & ketchup all of it)tuna,nuts, anything spicy(go bland). I think thats all. I agree with Ritchie, it may not be permenant in that my elijah can eat all the things i had to omit, and he has no food allergies now(none of my kids do). Breast is the best but they dont tell you that you might have to change your diet to keep baby's tummy happy. xo ickler-hays

 

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