I can have dairy and soy again!!

I keep saying I am going to get better at posting blogs but I am still getting the hang of blogging, let alone blogging with a 4 month old. It seems like every time I sit down to write a blog Hailyn either wants to eat, wants to be held, needs a diaper change or just she looks up at me and smiles and I just have to go over and play with her. Right now she is napping so I am going to try and hurry and write this blog before she wakes up and distracts me. This blog is a pretty big deal! Well at least to me it is. 

A few posts back I wrote that I think we figured out what was causing all of Hailyn symptoms. We had originally thought it was a dairy/soy intolerance, which part of me still thinks that was part of it but I think there was something else causing some of the symptoms. It all started because after I cut out dairy and soy from my diet we started noticing Hailyn was doing a lot better. She wasn't as fussy, her poop was no longer green and slimy, and she was spitting up a lot less. The weird part was she would ocassionaly have her old symptoms again, but I was still not eating any dairy or soy. I went through all my food I was eating and double checked to make sure there wasn't any hidden ingredients I was missing. But none of the foods contained dairy or soy. I then noticed blood in her poop again. We originally figured out it was a dairy/soy intolerance after the first time I discovered blood in her poop. So it didn't make sense that there was blood again since I had cut out all dairy/soy. So I went online and started doing research. I found that a foremilk imbalance had almost the EXACT say symptoms as a dairy/soy intolerance. A foremilk imbalance is when the baby is getting too much foremilk and not enough hindmilk. Foremilk has a greater amount of lactose in it. When the baby gets too much foremilk that can then result in a oversupply of lactose. Babies stomachs are not yet developed enough to handle a large amount of lactose. Some common symptoms of a foremilk imbalance are...

*Green frothy explosive stools

*Baby spits up a lot

*Colic symptoms

*Gassiness

*Blood in stools

*Slow weight gain

*Diaper rash due to acidic stools

*Baby has bowl movement immediately after feeding

I then started to research what you can do to solve a foremilk imbalance. Thankfully it is pretty simple. To make sure your baby doesn't consume too much foremilk you can block feed. Block feeding is feeding on one breast for multiple feedings. For example feeding off of the right breast for two feedings in a row and then the next two feedings on the left side. I started doing this and noticed Hailyns symptoms were starting to go away. She still will have green poop here and there but I have not seen any more blood. 

After a few weeks of blocking feeding Hailyn and continuing the dairy/soy free diet, I decided to try a little bit of dairy to see how Hailyn reacted to it. I was really excited to finally be able to have a little bit of something dairy but at the same time I was terrified that she would not react well and the last thing I wanted was for her to be in pain again.

That evening I had a thin slice of cheese on my hamburger. It was SOOO good! But then it was the waiting game to see how Hailyn reacted. After it had been a full 24 hours and no reaction, my husband and I decided that I would slowly add dairy back into my diet. For the past two weeks I have been having a little dairy here and there but was really scared to have an actual glass of milk. Well two nights ago I had a glass of milk and all went well!! I still think that she had an issue with dairy and soy but I believe she outgrew it. I am so thankful that the foremilk imbalance was an easy fix because the dairy/soy free diet was not easy. But it was so worth it and I am so glad I continued to nurse her and not give up. Even though I only had to do it for two months or so it felt WAY longer than that! I know that if I would have switched her to formula I would really would have regretted it.