Warning: This post contains a lot of poop talk.
When Bear was around a month old he became incredibly gassy and fussy. His poop changed from yellow and seedy (normal breastfed baby poop) to dark green and mucousy. Newborns' digestive systems "wake up" around 3 weeks, so I just assumed that's what was happening.
At his 2-month appointment I asked the doctor about a rash that Bear had on his torso. His first guess was that it was just sensitive skin, but after hearing that we use free & clear soaps and detergents he asked me what his poop looked like and I told him it was green and mucousy. He told me to try cutting out dairy to see if it made a difference. Within a couple days Bear was so much better. He was no longer a huge cranky-pants 24/7 and his poop was back to yellowish. His rash cleared up quite a bit (as well as the never-ending diaper rash we had been battling) and he also stopped wheezing and snorting. He was diagnosed as having a milk protein intolerance. (This is different from lactose intolerance because it is the proteins in the milk that the baby is unable to digest, not just the lactose.) I began a completely dairy-free diet, which was definitely an adjustment, but I got used to it pretty quickly.
After another month had passed the rash on Bear's belly still wasn't gone completely. He would also have random fussy days where his poop would look greenish. I had read a lot about milk protein intolerance and found that 50% of babies who are sensitive to dairy are also sensitive to soy. I cut soy out of my diet as well and his rash cleared up. He was like a different baby. I felt horribly guilty. Here I was thinking that my baby was just difficult for almost 4 months when in actuality he was miserable because of foods that I was eating.
Since he is sensitive to both dairy and soy he has what's called Milk/Soy Protein Intolerance (MSPI). Not being able to eat soy has been even more challenging than cutting out dairy. It is in EVERYTHING. I can't eat any fast food and if we do go out to eat I order a salad with no cheese (I also have to ask if whatever is in the salad- like chicken- is cooked in anything because seasoning often contains soy) and I bring my own salad dressing from Whole Foods. When we go out of town I bring a cooler full of foods that I can eat or I go grocery shopping whenever we get to our destination. Fun fun. It's a shitty diet for sure and somewhat isolating at times. I miss food. I used to love cooking and lived for trying new restaurants. I'm getting better at cooking dairy and soy-free dishes but it's just not as fun as it used to be and I feel like it's more of a chore than anything. I'm sure I sound like a whiny brat, but even with all the restrictions it is SO worth it to see Bear feeling better and not in pain.
The good news about MSPI is that some babies outgrow it around 6 months and even more by a year, which brings me to the other topic of this post- food allergies. MSPI is not the same as food allergies but we decided to have Bear allergy tested after he broke out in a rash and his horrible diaper rash came back when we stayed at my parents' last month.
The allergy test itself took only 15 minutes and Bear didn't even notice. They did a scratch test on his back, which is when they apply a tiny amount of allergen to the skin with a little plastic applicator-type thing. He was tested for 16 things all together, including dog, cat, milk, soy, dust mite, shell fish, egg, and a few others I can't remember. Here is what his back looked like a few minutes after the test was administered:
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| I could eat those rolls for dinner:) |
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| The top left spot is the control. That is what a positive reaction looks like. |
The test showed that he is NOT allergic to dairy and soy, meaning that it is indeed just an intolerance that he should grow out of eventually. He did test positive for egg, so he is most likely allergic to it. I'm avoiding egg for now and will attempt reintroducing it into my diet in a few months. We won't be giving Bear any egg directly until he passes the muffin challenge in the allergist's office, where he eats a muffin that has 1/3 of an egg baked into it and they see how he reacts. If he passes that challenge he will move on to a scrambled egg challenge, where they do the same thing except with scrambled eggs.
As far as his MSPI goes, the allergist left it up to me what I wanted to do regarding reintroducing dairy and soy into my diet. Part of me is terrified to do this and part of me wants to run out and eat an entire pizza by myself followed by a large chocolate shake.
I decided that I should start small and had a little bit of butter on some toast the other morning. The entire day Bear was completely normal but his poop did have a tiny amount of green mucous in it. I'm trying not to blame it on the butter since he is also eating solids now, which could easily have an effect on it as well. Aside from the poop issue he seemed fine (yay!). The following morning I had a scone with dairy baked into it and he seemed okay until the afternoon. He got pretty fussy at one point and then pooped three times, so yeah, I'll be laying off the scones for a while. Instead I'm going to be trialing things with soy for the next couple days and seeing how he does with that.
This post ended up way longer than I intended, but I wanted to be as specific as possible in case other MSPI or allergy mamas are dealing with the same thing. Unfortunately there isn't a ton of info out there regarding MSPI so a lot of babies go undiagnosed (or misdiagnosed as colicky or having reflux) for a long time before the problem is realized. Those first couple months before we knew were not fun and I feel for any mommies and babies who are going through or have gone through the same thing.
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