Posterous theme by Cory Watilo

Filed under: allergy

Got Milk?

One of the biggest changes to our lives since Adelina was born was the dairy-free life style that I had to adopt after we found out at six weeks that Adelina has a milk protein allergy. I say "our" lives because by default my poor husband has had to adopt the dairy-free lifestyle as well. Luckily he's been a good sport about it, and eats as much cheese as possible when he is at work.

Finding out Adelina had a milk protein allergy came after our first trip to the ER... we suspected that Adelina had an allergy but weren't completely sure. I had started to limit my cheese and dairy intake but when we had Adelina's 8 week doctor visit the doctor we met with said it probably wasnt an allergy but an anal fissure... yes the things I have learned since becoming a mom. When she told me that I think I almost jumped for joy, I am pretty sure I went home that afternoon and made myself a grilled cheese sandwich. Not a day or so later Brent and I went out for ice cream, it was sooo good, I wish I had savored it a little more because its been at least 3 months since I had ice cream. Not 24 hours later, Adelina not only had blood in her stool but the poor baby was flat out unhappy. And then the blood in the stool got worse and worse until I was literally freaking out. We called the doctor on call and he sent us to the ER, at the young of an age its best to be safe than sorry. Thus at ten o'clock on a week night we were on our way to the ER. We ended up being there about two and a half to three hours and the doctor said that she definitely had a milk protein allergy and to consider other dairy items I had been eating... butter... cream... etc. I hadn't even thought about butter... DUH! Being lactose intolerant myself it probably wasn't a bad idea to give up dairy, but WOW do I miss cheese every so often!

From that day on, I really made a big effort to cut out almost all dairy with the exception of dairy in breads, etc. I suppose this is when the anal mom-zilla of me comes in handy because I am uber aware of anything and everything with dairy, probably to a fault, but if it ensures that Adelina is healthy and well that's all that really matters. I can definitely tell when something has more dairy in it than other things though... i.e. honey nut cheerios have more milk in them than you would think! It's been difficult because truthfully you never realize how many items have milk in them and its hard to find some items without it. I have learned to deal and I tend to fall back on a good 'ol peanut butter and jelly sandwhich when I can't figure out anything else to eat. Boring, yes, but it works! I tweeted to Whole Foods Market one day and asked them what non-dairy snack options they had and they were nice enough to respond with some options for me (Kind Snacks). I also found some non-dairy recipes that I will share in other posts from Whole Foods. And after walking up the aisles of Whole Foods enough times I've also found that there is such a thing as dairy free ice cream AND its not so bad!

It's funny to me now that I gave up dairy at all. One because I love cheese (I mean I worked at a cheese/ice cream shop in high school for crying out loud) and two because lets be honest, I am a bit self-ish. Because of this I wondered when I became pregnant how I would handle putting someone else's needs in front of mine. I kinda thought that I would struggle with it, but it's probably the exact opposite, I am pretty sure (and hubs will probably agree) that I put Adelina's needs in front of mine before anything else. Everyone always tells you how much you will love them when they arrive and how different your life will be but really nothing can prepare you for how little your needs mean and how important everything related to them becomes! Truthfully I love the change motherhood has brought me thus far and while I still need to learn to make more time for myself and for hubs and I to have time to ourselves, its work in progress and I am learning as I go!