Ay yi yi!

Nine weeks later and we *think* (and hope) we finally have things figured out with Olivia's eating.  Sorry to any of you who are sick of hearing about this.  The majority of people who read this blog are family and good friends who do want to know.  This should be one of the last posts on the topic.

So right after I posted last Monday about her being lactose intolerant and finally having an answer--we hit a new set of obstacles and our answers were no longer so clear.  Here's a quick time line:

Monday-Dr. said she was most likely lactose intolerant.  I was to continue to stay away from dairy, get on a probiotic, and go from there.  I went to the store and bought the probiotic along with some soy based foods (to replace the dairy).  I ate soy based ice cream that night not thinking about it.

Tuesday-I took the (lactose free) probiotic.  Olivia started having excessive amounts of poop.  She would normally only go every third day, which is still considered normal for a breastfed baby.  The poops started changing in consistency (mucus/cottage cheese), smell (rancid), and color (green).  I ate the soy based ice cream again that night.

Wednesday- By Wednesday morning she had 10 green poops in 24 hours.  I knew that green poop was generally a sign of one of two thing.  Either a foremilk/hindmilk imbalance, or a soy protein allergy.  I called the Dr.  She basically said the same thing.  I felt like she was getting normal feeds, so I ruled out the imbalance.  She said to avoid soy.  Yeah, not going to happen.  Really?  Soy is in EVERYTHING!  She said to call back in a few days if it didn't get better.

Thursday-I quit eating the soy products and kept on my dairy free diet.  The crazy pooping continued.

Friday-During the two middle of the night breastfeeds she was pulling off the breast in pain (but still hungry), arching her back, crying, stiffening her body like a board when I tried to sit her up to burp, etc.  I knew those were all signs of an allergy and I was just done.  I made the decision right then to stop breastfeeding.  I know all the benefits to breastfeeding.  That's why I chose to do it in the first place.  However, at some point the pain and discomfort of your child starts to outweigh the benefits.  I also knew (from research) that the dairy/soy free diet was very hard to follow and that I wouldn't be able to do it.  Avoiding obvious dairy for the month was hard enough. Our first feed Friday morning was Similac Sensitive.  The poop continued all day.

Saturday-A record 13 poops!

I knew I had her two month check up on Thursday, so I was holding out for that.  She was having a normal amount of wet diapers, so I knew she wasn't dehydrated.  I also knew by this point that the Similac Sensitive wasn't helping either.  While she got a little better, she was still showing signs of an allergy (excessive gas/poop, straining to poop, abnormal poop, fussing during feeds, etc).

The doctor pretty much confirmed what I already knew.  She most likely has a "milk soy protein intolerance" (MSPI) and we would have to go on the hypoallergenic formula. 

"A milk allergy occurs when the immune system mistakenly sees the milk protein as something the body should fight off. This starts an allergic reaction, which can cause an infant to be fussy and irritable, and cause an upset stomach and other symptoms....A milk allergy is not the same thing as lactose intolerance, (which is) the inability to digest the sugar lactose." source

She should eventually grow out of this as well.  Unfortunately, for now we have to use the hypoallergenic formula which is a small fortune and smells like dog food. Yay!  There are only two kinds out there--no generics.  We are using Similac Alimentum.  We have to use the ready to feed stuff (at $9 a bottle and she goes through a bottle a day!) for two weeks.  If she is tolerating it well then we can switch to the powder stuff (which is still expensive, but not quite as bad).  For whatever reason some babies can tolerate the ready to feed kind but not the powder (something about the corn?).  Hopefully she'll do fine with the powder.  Time will tell.  

Every account I've read of said that as soon as they switched to the special formulas there baby was "a totally different child".  I am hoping this is the case! :)  The other good news is that acid reflux is just a symptom of MPSI, and she seems to be doing better so she is off the prevacid.


The crazy week of poop didn't seem to hurt her growth.  She now weighs 12 pounds 8.5 ounces, which is the 88th percentile.  Her head circumference is 16, which is the 89th percentile.  She is 24 inches, which is the 95th percentile!  She certainly didn't get her height from me!  The doctor said it's all good.

We didn't get any shots since she was having gut issues.  We will be going back in a month to get her DTap shot.