So in my last post I talked about the struggles I came across with breastfeeding. After figuring out how to solve my problem of oversupply and a fast let down I thought breastfeeding was going to be easy hear on out. Well little did I know I was going to be thrown one of the most challenging things I have had to do.
When Hailyn was 4 weeks old (she is currently 8 weeks, 9 weeks this sunday) I noticed her poop went from being mustard yellow to dark green. I had recently just started giving her vitamin D drops that also had iron in them and I had found some posts online where other moms had noticed their babies poop turn green from the drops. After reading this I felt a lot better and figured that it was just from the vitamin drops I had just started giving her. Well the next day I went to change her diaper and this time not only was her poop green but there was a little blood in it. This really worried me so I immediately made an appointment with her doctor, which I had been planning on doing anyways because she had been spitting up quiet a bit and I was concerned she may have acid reflux.
Her doctor was not overly concerned about the blood in her poop. He said it could be from many different things and that I should stop giving her the vitamin D drops because the iron in them can sometimes upset the babies stomach. I then mentioned to him that she had been spitting up a lot and would sometimes act like she was in pain after spitting up. She had also recently been throwing these "fits", she would scream, cry and tense up. Nothing could sooth her when she had one of these "fits". He said that he thought it could be acid reflux and that he wanted to put her on Zantac to see if that helped at all. He also briefly mention a dairy intolerance but said he didn't think that's what it was because he said she most likely would have been showing signs earlier. He wrote a prescription for the Zantac and told me to keep an eye out for blood in her poop and if it appeared again to call in.
A week goes by and the Zantac seemed to be helping. She was spitting up a lot less but she was still having her "fits". My husband and I started to think that maybe she was just colicky. But then I go to change her diaper and I see a little bit of blood in her poop. I immediately got online and start searching dairy intolerance, since the doctor had mentioned it at her last appointment. Even though he said he didn't think that's what it was I figured I would look it up to find out more about it. After looking at a few sites I was almost 100% sure that Hailyn had a dairy intolerance. The green mucousy poop, the blood, fussiness/colic, excessive spitting up, acid reflux, and congestion were all symptoms she had. I instantly decided I was going to cut dairy out of my diet, as easy as it would be to just switch her to formula I knew that I really wanted to breastfeed her and I wasn't going to let this stop me. Well the more research I continued to do I realized dairy was in EVERYTHING! It started overwhelming me thinking about how much I was going to have to change my diet. If you know me at all I LOVE food. I mean I look forward to dinner even before I have had lunch. And of course dairy is in almost all my favorite foods. I was literally almost in tears thinking about all the foods that I could no longer eat for the next year (my husband was so sweet and offered to go dairy free with me but I told him there was no point, but it was nice knowing he would do that) . But I knew that this was what was best for my daughter and I would do anything for her.
Long story short I decided to only cut out the main dairy items like milk, cheese, sour cream, etc. I was hoping that her intolerance wasn't very serious and that I could just cut the main dairy out. But after about 2 weeks I hadn't really noticed any differences so I decided to completely cut dairy out, I decided to also cut out soy because from what I had read online many babies with a dairy intolerance also have an allergy to soy. She now no longer has green poop (well on occasion she will have a bit of green poop but nothing like she use to), and I am hoping that she continues to show improvement. It takes dairy 2-3 weeks to get out of your system and then another 2-3 weeks to get out of the babies system, so I am hoping that she continues to start feeling better. Now that I am seeing improvements in her it makes the no dairy, no soy thing a whole lot easier!
I plan to use this blog to share our day to day stuff, and to also share our journey of being dairy and soy free. I want to share recipes that I find and give encouragement to other moms going through the same thing.
Her doctor was not overly concerned about the blood in her poop. He said it could be from many different things and that I should stop giving her the vitamin D drops because the iron in them can sometimes upset the babies stomach. I then mentioned to him that she had been spitting up a lot and would sometimes act like she was in pain after spitting up. She had also recently been throwing these "fits", she would scream, cry and tense up. Nothing could sooth her when she had one of these "fits". He said that he thought it could be acid reflux and that he wanted to put her on Zantac to see if that helped at all. He also briefly mention a dairy intolerance but said he didn't think that's what it was because he said she most likely would have been showing signs earlier. He wrote a prescription for the Zantac and told me to keep an eye out for blood in her poop and if it appeared again to call in.
A week goes by and the Zantac seemed to be helping. She was spitting up a lot less but she was still having her "fits". My husband and I started to think that maybe she was just colicky. But then I go to change her diaper and I see a little bit of blood in her poop. I immediately got online and start searching dairy intolerance, since the doctor had mentioned it at her last appointment. Even though he said he didn't think that's what it was I figured I would look it up to find out more about it. After looking at a few sites I was almost 100% sure that Hailyn had a dairy intolerance. The green mucousy poop, the blood, fussiness/colic, excessive spitting up, acid reflux, and congestion were all symptoms she had. I instantly decided I was going to cut dairy out of my diet, as easy as it would be to just switch her to formula I knew that I really wanted to breastfeed her and I wasn't going to let this stop me. Well the more research I continued to do I realized dairy was in EVERYTHING! It started overwhelming me thinking about how much I was going to have to change my diet. If you know me at all I LOVE food. I mean I look forward to dinner even before I have had lunch. And of course dairy is in almost all my favorite foods. I was literally almost in tears thinking about all the foods that I could no longer eat for the next year (my husband was so sweet and offered to go dairy free with me but I told him there was no point, but it was nice knowing he would do that) . But I knew that this was what was best for my daughter and I would do anything for her.
Long story short I decided to only cut out the main dairy items like milk, cheese, sour cream, etc. I was hoping that her intolerance wasn't very serious and that I could just cut the main dairy out. But after about 2 weeks I hadn't really noticed any differences so I decided to completely cut dairy out, I decided to also cut out soy because from what I had read online many babies with a dairy intolerance also have an allergy to soy. She now no longer has green poop (well on occasion she will have a bit of green poop but nothing like she use to), and I am hoping that she continues to show improvement. It takes dairy 2-3 weeks to get out of your system and then another 2-3 weeks to get out of the babies system, so I am hoping that she continues to start feeling better. Now that I am seeing improvements in her it makes the no dairy, no soy thing a whole lot easier!
I plan to use this blog to share our day to day stuff, and to also share our journey of being dairy and soy free. I want to share recipes that I find and give encouragement to other moms going through the same thing.
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