Dairy Free, Soy Free

If you had told me 6 months ago that I would be eating a dairy and soy free diet I probably would have laughed at you. I mean my parents are 100% vegan and my sister followed suit and is vegan as well. Me....shoot no! I love to eat meat, love cheese and all it's gooeyness and had no plans to ever forgo them. Fast forward to the birth of Landon. Landon was born, he was healthy and everything was going great. A week later we began to notice the signs of relux that progressively got worse. We had episodes where the reflux would choke him, he would stop breathing and would turn purple. These episodes were the scariest thing I have ever had to go through. We tried zantac but Landon couldn't take it without choking on it. We then switched to prevacid once a day; it worked okay for 3 days. We went back to the doctor but this time we had a different symptom to report besides just the reflux; he now was having blood in his stool. The blood wasn't always visible to the naked eye but every once in a while you would see it. When I asked the pediatrician about it he immediately asked me what my dairy intake was and I told him that I really didn't have a lot of dairy in my diet. I occasionally enjoy cheese, but I don't eat it everyday, I rarely eat yogurt or ice cream and I never drink milk. He said to put Landon on pedialyte for 24 hours to give him some "gut rest" and see if that made a difference, and that usually the only time stool shows up in an infant's stool is when there is an allergy to milk. With this we did the 24 hours of pedialyte, but I didn't really notice a big difference. So I called the doctor the next day and was told to switch Landon to prevacid twice a day and we were being referred to a pediatric GI doctor. After being told that he may have an allergy I began to do some research and found that a lot of the symptoms Landon had (i.e. frequent spitting up ,vomiting, signs of abdominal pain, or colic-like symptoms, such as excessive crying and irritability (especially after feedings) and blood in stool) were all signs of a milk protein allergy. So I began to take a look at my diet and see how many milk products I was actually consuming........it was a lot! Almost every meal I made had some sort of milk in it, so did a lot of the snacks I consumed. So I began to take milk out of my diet even though I knew that it could take up to 21 days for all the milk protein to get out of my system. We saw the pediatric GI when I had been milk free for almost 2 weeks. We talked to him about all the symptoms that Landon had and he did a stool check on him. The check showed that there was still blood in his stool even though it wasn't visible. His diagnosis....he believed Landon had a milk AND soy allergy. He suggested that we do formula for 48 hours and have his stool rechecked for blood, if the test came back negative than that was the only problem. He said that during the 48 hours if I wanted to continue breastfeeding that I would need to remove all soy products from my diet: no pre-made foods, no lunch meat, no bread and if I didn't make it than I shouldn't eat it (no eating out). So now I had to eliminate soy as well if I wanted to keep breastfeeding Landon. Breastfeeding my son is very important to me so without a doubt I knew that I would be eliminating soy from my diet, I had no clue though that soy is more prevalent in products than dairy. So many things in my diet had soy in them from the cooking spray I used, to Ritz crackers, to fish sticks. I made a run to the grocery store to stock up on fresh fruit, meat to cook and veggies. After the 48 hours on formula we had Landon's stool rechecked....the result.....it was blood free! We now had an answer to some of his problems and were now able to resume breastfeeding. Landon and I were both very happy to be reunited! The whole time he was on formula he would only go 1 1/2 - 2 hours between feedings and would wake up SCREAMING!! The first time he nursed again, he quickly fell asleep and slept for 3 hours. Since we have resumed breastfeeding and I am milk/soy free, Landon has been a different baby. He is much happier, he can pass gas and stool without screaming and the persistent diaper rash he has had for weeks is gone!

My original plan when Landon was born was to extend breastfeed with him as I did Kameron; my plan today remains the same. This means that unless I'm told different that the entire time I am breastfeeding him I will continue being milk and soy free. Does this change my life a lot? Yes! Is it worth it? Completely! Sure I could give him formula and have more freedom in my life, but I chose not to. I chose to do what I believe is the best for my baby and give him the best head start as possible. I plan to do whatever it takes to make sure he is as happy and healthy as he can be. Being a mother means that you have to make sacrifices and this is just another one that I am willing to make. So......goodbye chocolate, gooey cheese and ice cream; I'm sure we will meet again one day!