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. 

Spicy Fish Taco Bowl

Here is a recipe that my husband and I love! If you aren't a big fan of spicy foods you can change the seasonings on the fish so that it's not spicy. This recipe does suggest that you can use cheese and sour cream but that can easily be left out so that it can be a dairy free meal. And to be completely honest it doesn't need cheese or sour cream. It was delicious without them!

Spicy Fish Taco Bowl

Ingredients

1 T Chili Powder

1T Cumin

1/2 t Cayenne Pepper

3-4 Tilapia Filets (or fish filet of your choice)

1-2 cloves minced Garlic

1 cup Sweet Corn Kernels

1 Red Onion, diced

1 Red pepper, diced

1 can Black Beans

Cooked Brown or White Rice 

Fresh Cilantro, Avacado, Shredded Cheese, Sour Cream, or Pico De gallo (or salsa) for topping

Instructions

1. Mix the spiced together in a small bowl and sprinkle evenly over both sides of the fish filets. Add salt and pepper to taste.

2. In a large nonstick skillet over medium high heat, heat a drizzle of olive oil. Add the garlic and saute for 1-2 minutes. Add the fish filets to the pan. Grill the fish on each side for several minutes, checking the middle for doneness (fish should be completely white and flake apart easily). Remove fish filets and set aside.

3. Add corn, red peppers, and onions to the pan with no additional oil. Heat over high heat for several minutes WITHOUT stirring to get a brown/black roasted look on the outside. Repeat for several minutes (stir, wait, stir, wait) until the peppers and onions are tender-crips. Add the drained black beans and heat through. 

4. Layer rice, corn/pepper mixture, and fish in a bowl or plate (all our bowls were dirty) - or mix together in the skillet. Top with any of the toppings listed above! 

Dairy & Soy Free Pizza Recipe

Before I went dairy and soy free one of our families favorite meals was homemade pizza. I was sad when I realized that I couldn't have pizza anymore. I decided to look at the ingredients of all the items I use when making pizza and realized that cheese was the only ingredient that I wouldn't be able to use. All the other ingredients were dairy and soy free. At first I didn't even want to try making pizza without cheese, I thought there was no way it would be good. The best part about pizza is cheese, right?! Well my husband kept begging for pizza so I finally made it. Half with cheese for him and half without cheese for me. Well to my surprise it was DELICIOUS! To be completely honestly I didn't even really miss the cheese. The only thing that I really missed was being able to dip my pizza in ranch dressing. I know some people think its weird but both my husband and I love it! So I searched and searched and came across a dairy/soy free ranch dressing recipe. I was kind of skeptical while making it but it surprisingly tastes almost exactly like ranch. 

Dairy/Soy Free Pizza & Pizza Sauce Recipe 

(Not in picture: Garlic, Cornmeal, and Pepper)

Pizza Sauce Recipe

Ingredients

1 can of Tomato Sauce

1 small can of Tomato Paste

1 tsp. dried Oregano

1 tsp. dried Basil

1 tsp. chopped Garlic

1 1/2 Tbsp. Sugar

1/4 tsp. Salt

1/4 tsp. Pepper

1/4 tsp. Crushed Red Pepper (optional)

Directions

1. Place the Tomato Sauce and Tomato Paste in a medium sauce pan. Turn the heat to medium (lower the heat if it starts to bubble too much). 

2. Place the remaining ingredients in the pan. Stir and let simmer for 10 minutes.

3. Take pan off heat and let the sauce cool before using. 

Pizza Recipe

Ingredients

1 package of pre-made Pizza Dough (We buy ours from Winco, I know you can also buy it at Trader Joe's and other grocery stores.) 

 Homemade Pizza Sauce (See recipe above) or store bought Pizza Sauce (Check label to make sure it is dairy and soy free)

Toppings of your choice (Veggies, Meat, Pineapple, etc.)
Cornmeal

Directions
1. Place pizza stone in the oven (do not preheat the oven, set the temperature once the stone is in the oven) at 400 degrees.
2. Roll out the pizza dough, roll it out so that it is a little bit larger than the pizza stone.
3. Take pizza stone out of the oven after it has been in the oven for about 20 minutes.
4. Sprinkle cornmeal on the stone. Carefully put the dough on the pizza stone. To create the crust fold the outside of the dough towards the center and pinch down, do this all the way around the pizza.
5. Place the stone in the oven. (don't add the sauce or toppings yet!)
6.  Check on it after 5 minutes. If there are any bubbles pop them with a fork. Carefully press the middle of the pizza with your finger to see if it is firm and not doughy (the longer the dough is left in the crispier the crust will be).
7. After you have taken the pizza stone out put a few spoonfuls of pizza sauce on the dough and spread it around.
8. Next put on the toppings of your choice.
9. Place pizza back in oven for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes check to see if the crust is golden brown. once the crust is golden brown it is ready to eat!!

( The right side has cheese on it for my husband)

Dairy & Soy Free Ranch Dressing Recipe 

Ingredients

1 cup Mayo

1/4 cup Dairy-free "Buttermilk" (See recipe below) 

1/2 tsp. dried Parsley

1/2 tsp. dried Chives

1/2 tsp. dried Dill

1/4 tsp. Garlic Powder

1/4 tsp. Onion Powder

1/8 tsp. Sea Salt

1/8 tsp. Black Pepper

Directions

1. Combing all ingredients except for the dairy free"buttermilk" in a medium bowl.

2. Slowly whisk in the dairy free "buttermilk."

3. Store in an air tight container in the fridge for up to a week (Taste best if you let it sit in the fridge over night before using).

Dairy Free Buttermilk Recipe

1. Add 1 1/2 tsp. Fresh Lemon Juice to a 1/4 measuring cup.

2. Add enough Dairy Free Milk of your choice to bring the total amount of liquid to 1/4 cup ( I use Almond Milk but unsweetened coconut milk could also be used.)

3. Stir and allow to sit for 5-10 minutes, until milk curdles. Then it's ready to use!

Eating on vacation

About two weeks ago we were on vacation and it was the first time I had gone on vacation while being dairy and soy free. Going in to it I didn't think it would be that difficult, since I felt like I really had the hang of it and knew what I could and couldn't eat. I made sure to bring a few snacks that I could eat and figured that whatever we were having for dinner I could just pick and chose the items that I could eat and just not eat the stuff with dairy and soy. I can't believe that I even thought it would be that easy since EVERYTHING has dairy and or soy! I forgot to add that my mother-in-law did all the grocery shopping for the trip, she knows that I am dairy and soy free but unless you really know what you are looking for in the ingredients and have done it for awhile it can be really hard. I didn't expect her to do that. Which is my fault that I didn't bring more foods that I could eat. 

Luckily I was able to eat the bread that she bought so I pretty much had a ham sandwich with avocado every day for lunch. It definitely got old after awhile but it was really my only option. For dinner I could usually eat whatever meat they were eating but then usually couldn't eat any of the sides. For example we had ribs one night with baked potatoes. I can have baked potatoes, I just can't put all of the good stuff on it. So I had a baked potato with seasoning salt, yuck! If I would have been back at home I would have been able to put my dairy free/ soy free butter spread that I have but since we didn't have that I ate a very dry baked potato. It wasn't horrible but it definitely was a lot harder than when I am at my own house. 

Here's a website that I found that is pretty helpful when you are traveling and want to stop at a fast food restaurant to grab a quick bite to eat http://www.godairyfree.org/eating-out/fast-food-dairy-free-listings Its so helpful that more and more restaurants are offering allergen menus online. 

Its been roughly a month and a half since I went dairy/ soy free and even though it has gotten a lot easier, I still have my days that I just want to cave in and eat a big slice of cheese or a glass of milk. I think I really have a hard time because I am someone who LOVES food! Being dairy/soy free really eliminates a lot of the good foods, although I am starting to discover a lot of good meals that I can eat. I hope to find more and be able to share the recipes on my blog. I have been slacking with posting recipes so I plan to add a few within the next few weeks.  

Past few days

So I haven't blogged in a few days due to being super busy. Hailyn had her 2 month well visit on Monday and the doctor said she is a healthy little girl. She weighs 9 lbs. 4 oz. and 22 inches long. The poor little thing had to get 3 shots. It killed me seeing her in so much pain. She did really well with the shots though she cried for about 30 seconds and as soon as I was able to pick her up she stopped crying. She actually cried more when we took the Band-Aids off yesterday than she did when she got the shots. 

I talked to the doctor about her dairy intolerance and he said that he suggest I slowly try adding dairy back into my diet when Hailyn is 6 months. He said sometimes a babies digestive system just needs a little longer to develop and be able to digest the protein in dairy. I am crossing my fingers that she will have outgrown the dairy allergy by 6 months but if not I probably wont be having dairy until she is a year old. He also said that in a week or two I should try adding soy back into my diet to see if she reacts to it. I originally eliminated dairy and soy because I had read that the allergies usually go hand in hand. Her doctor said that usually only 30% of babies that have a dairy allergy also have a soy allergy. As much as I would love it if she didn't have a soy allergy, I am kind of scared to have soy because I would hate for her to react negatively to it. I hate seeing her in pain. So I haven't really decided when I will try eating soy. We have a family vacation coming up so I might wait till we get back from vacation to try soy. I would hate for her to not feel well on her 1st vacation. 

Oh, and last night I made my husband the cod a la veracruz since he was working the night I went over to my parents and had it and he LOVED it! Which says a lot because he is a pretty picky eater.  I was suprised he liked it as much as he did because he doesn't like tomatoes or green olives. Which the recipe calls for both of those and he ate all of it! Its nice being able to find recipes that are dairy and soy free that both me and my husband enjoy. One of my favorite times of the day is sitting down to eat dinner with my husband. Which dinner times around here are a little different now that Hailyn is here (I swear she knows when its dinner time, she always wants to be held as soon as we are ready to eat). But it's nice to still be able to make dinner for my husband and I and not have to both eat separate things every night. I look forward to finding more recipes that I can share! 

Cod a la Veracruz

My parents called and asked if me and Hailyn wanted to come over for dinner tonight since my husband had to work till 7:00. I was a little hesitant because I don't want people to feel like they have to cook special meals in order to cater to my no dairy/soy diet but my mom said that they were cooking up  a new fish recipe that she was almost positive didn't have any dairy or soy in it. I decided to go over there and figured if there was in dairy or soy in the recipe I could just cook my fish separately. After I got over there I looked through all the ingredients that the recipe called for and sure enough there was no dairy or soy. I was pretty excited. 

Well the fish came out delicious so I thought I would share the recipe. It is a great recipe if you are looking for something that is dairy/soy free, but even if you're not on a dairy/soy free diet it is a great recipe! It is also pretty fast to prepare, which is also good if you have kids :-)

Cod a la Veracruz

Ingredients

1/4 cup pitted, chopped green olives

2 T capers

1 pint cherry tomatoes

1 handful fresh parsley or cilantro, roughly chopped

juice of 1 lime

1/4 cup olive oil

fresh or pickled jalapenos, chopped (optional) 

4 fillets (any firm white fish, like cod, halibut, or snapper), 4 to 6oz each

salt and pepper to taste

Directions 

1. Heat the grill to medium low

2. Prepare the salsa, in a mixing bowl combine the olives, capers, cherry tomatoes, parsley or cilantro, lime, olive oil, and jalapenos if using

3. Assemble the packets, fold four sheets of aluminum foil in half lengthwise, and then unfold and lay them on the counter. Season each fish filet with salt and pepper. Place it on one side of the foil, parallel to the crease. Top each fillet with one-quarter of the salsa. Fold the foil over so it covers the fish completely, and then roll the edges tightly to seal the package.
4. Cook the fish, place the packets on the grill grate and close the lid. Cook the filets until they are done all the way through, 8 to 10 minutes.
5. Enjoy!

We had bread, salad and artichoke with this but I think that it would be really good over rice too. 

Happy Birthday to Me!!

Today was my 25th birthday and my first birthday as a Mommy! While I was pregnant I had already decided that on my birthday we were going to go to this restaurant that I had been wanting to try and I really wanted some delicious crab. Well when my mom called me a week ago asking if she should make reservations for my birthday dinner I realized that there wasn't really any point in going there because the only way to eat crab is dipped in lots of butter, but that wasn't an option now that I cant have any dairy. I was pretty disappointed at first since I had been looking forward to it for so long. But then I realized it is just something I can look forward to once I am done breastfeeding. 

For my birthday dinner we ended up going to a Japanese restaurant. I got sushi and made sure to let them know I had a severe dairy and soy allergy (even though it is not me with the allergy it is just easier than explain it to them and it makes them take is seriously). They were very considerate and made sure to check with the chef that everything I order would be dairy and soy free. It felt good to know that there still are food options when I go out to eat. It was a little hard looking at the menu though and realizing all the things that sound so good but that I can't have. All I had to do though was look over at my daughter and remind myself that I was doing this for her :-)

Now typically people have cake on their birthday but since I am unable to have dairy and soy I had a lot less options. The funny part is before I started the dairy/soy free diet I was never really in to sweets, especially stuff like cake and ice cream. But of course now that I can't have it I want it. I had been told to try So Delicious ice cream. They have ice cream made from coconut that is both dairy and soy free. They also have ice cream made from almond milk that is also dairy and soy free (the store I went to did not cary the almond milk ice cream). Now not all of the coconut ice cream flavors are dairy and soy free so I only had a few options flavor wise. I ended up choosing mint chip. After taking my first bite of it I was a bit disappointed, it totally tasted like coconut and I am not a huge fan of coconut flavor. But it was weird after a few bites I no longer tasted the coconut and only tasted mint and chocolate. It obviously wasn't too bad because I ended up having seconds lol I would definitely buy it again. I am going to keep my eye out for the almond milk ice cream, I would like to see how that one tastes.

Oh and how can I forget my husband, my parents and my in-laws chipped in together and got me an amazing new camera for my birthday.

Its a Nikon D3100 Digital SLR camera and I absolutely love it. I have been wanting a camera like this for awhile, and ever since I had Hailyn I wanted one even more. I want to be able to capture all the little moments and the quality of the pictures with a camera like this are just amazing. I will share more about the camera once I get some more practice using it. 

Bye bye dairy, Bye bye soy

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.