I am used to reading food labels. Always have been. I'm 32 years old and have been a vegetarian my whole life. Okay, I was an ovo-lacto-pesco vegetarian until I was 21 and gave up the pesco part. Fish just looked gross to me. But I digress.
Along the way people asked me if I was vegan. No, I'd always say, I love cheese too much.
When I was pregnant an interesting thing happened. No longer were my boobs private things not to be discussed. Strangers would ask me if I planned to breastfeed and get excited for me when I told them I was. I would often add, however, that if my baby was dairy sensitive that I would probably have to switch to formula; I couldn't give up cheese.
Fast forward and Nelle is almost three months old. We spent 10 weeks soaking in baby spit-up before a gastroenterologist suggested I go dairy free. Oh and since my trial of dairy free a few weeks prior hadn't worked and most babies with dairy allergies can't handle soy either, I needed to give that up too.
Despite my initial brush-offs about not being able to give up cheese, the reality of it became that it would be harder for me to give up nursing. When it became a choice of feeding myself cheese or my daughter "boobie foods," it wasn't really a choice at all. Along with reflux medications, it seems to be helping so far, so I'll give it a try.
Okay, so here's where it gets really tricky. I'm not vegan, but I'm a vegetarian who has to give up dairy. That leaves eggs. Soy is a staple to the vegan diet. Heck, soy is a staple in most diets. On a list the GI gave me of foods to avoid it says "Asian foods." Really? I have to give up food from an entire continent! This was not good news.
My husband cooks. Some. I cook. Some. Okay, not really. Mostly we like to eat out or just prepare quick meals thrown together with things we have on hand. We're just a typical working family. We go grocery shopping once a week and keep a relatively stocked cupboard. Typically our food comes from Trader Joe's or Costco. Sometimes I pick stuff up at Target while there getting other stuff.
So, what do you eat?
It's a good thing I was already familiar with that question. When I was in elementary school classmates would ask me what I ate for Thanksgiving. "If turkey is the only thing on your table," I would, in that oh so 8 year-old way, snottily reply, "then I feel sorry for you."
Here's what's on my table.
Your story sounds so familiar. My daughter is 14 weeks old now. It is interesting what the GI said about the reflux and the allergy being linked because for my little girl it was treated as two separate issues. The reflux was really obvious and we got her on some meds for that. Finding out about the allergies was a little more difficult. She was super fussy and we had several nights of screaming and symptoms of colic. Finally one day she just decided to stop eating all together. It was a sad time for me because I thought I was starving my child. We went to the doctor and they checked her over and didn't see anything. Then right before we left she had a bowel movement. So the doctor decided to look at that too. She found blood in her stool. Apparently that means she has some sort of allergy. The doctor told me to take dairy out of my diet. I did that for 2-3 weeks and things got a little better but not much. After reading several articles on the internet I found out as you did that a soy allergy is common with a dairy allergy. So I decided to eliminate soy from my diet as well. She got so much better. I am not a vegetarian, so I am not as limited in my meal planning, but it has been an interesting journey trying to find certain replacement items. After a few more weeks of battling, we discovered that she actually does best when I don't eat beef or tomato based products either.
ReplyDeleteI look forward to reading your blog. Perhaps we can share recipe ideas in the future.
And I am looking forward to your comments. It's nice to have someone to "talk to" about this issue.
ReplyDeleteI actually saw blood in Nelle's stool one time and was able to bring that diaper in for testing. There has been no blood detected in her diapers since I've changed my diet. Our doctor said that it could be the allergy causing the reflux, but is treating both as separate issues.
Have you noticed a big change in the reflux?
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