Twenty-one Weeks or Why I'm Not Eating Ice Cream This Very Second

After months of suspicion and speculation, Vivi has been diagnosed with a dairy allergy.  Excuse me while I go cry into my bowl of not ice cream. 

We've suspected dairy to be the culprit for a while, and I've seriously cut back on the amount I eat.  Still, I have at least some dairy (milk in my coffee, for example...sometimes two, maybe three bowls of ice cream) every day.  Yet, Vivi's symptoms don't appear daily.  Most days she's fine.  Because of this, and because I'm stubborn, I was hesitant to blame Bossie the Cow too quickly.  

Last week, I introduced rice cereal for the first time.  I mixed it with formula, which we've given her before without incident.  But here's the rub.  Vivi won't take a bottle.  Even though we've given her formula, she hadn't actually  drank much of the stuff.  

She loved her rice cereal, however, and gobbled up quite a bit of formula along with it.  She liked it so much that she had some three days in a row.  Oops.  

On the third day, her facial rash appeared.  That's a sign that she's about to get fussy, so I stopped the solids.  

Then the pooping started.  Epic pooping.  Red-faced, grunting, screaming in pain pooping.  Pooping four or five times a day from a baby who usually only goes once a week.  Then there were chunks of dried blood in her stools.  Poor girl.  

We met with the GI doctor today, and he said these are text-book symptoms of a dairy allergy.  

(Photo by Maddie Bear)

She's pretty much back to her happy self now.  Her cheecks are still red, and she's still pooping more often, but the pain and blood are gone.  

I gained two main insights into Vivi's problem from this unfortunate incident.  One, her sensitivity clearly depends on the amount of dairy consumed.  Some dairy proteins pass through my breast milk without bothering her at all.  It seems it's when I eat ALL the cheese that we have a problem.  I plan on eliminating most dairy from my diet, but the doctor said I didn't need to go crazy worrying about it.  That's a relief on my end.  

Secondly, it takes a long time for the dairy to work its way into her system.  I stopped the formula over a week ago last Wednesday.  The pooping started on Saturday.  The blood appeared this Tuesday.  

Looking back over the past few months, it all makes sense now.  For example, I thought it might be eggs for a long time, but that's probably because I only eat eggs when we go out to breakfast.  And when we go out to breakfast, I usually end up drinking several cups of coffee (with cream) instead of just one.  

It's going to be a long summer of no ice cream and cheese-free pizza on the grill, but I'm happy we finally figured this thing out.  It was frustrating thinking maybe it's dairy, but maybe it's eggs, no, it's kale...I'll just eat cardboard...over the past few months.  

The doctor said 67 percent of babies outgrow this by the time they're one.  Ninety-seven percent by the time they're seven years old.  Let's hope for sooner.  

It would be sad for Vivi to grow up watching the rest of us eat ice cream.  "Here, Viv, you just eat this cup of blended carrots and beets!  It's just as good, we promise!"