When Amy was a baby she screamed.
and screamed
and screamed
andscreamedandscreamedandscreamed.
She wanted to be UP! And DOING! and being HELD! while SCREAMING!
It was hard. It was so very very hard to get through her first 6 months. Because yes, she screamed to be UP and DOING until she was able to crawl and make mischief on her own.
It was colic, it was a tummy ache, it was general grumpiness, it was a high maintenance baby, needing to be held.
Until she started solids though, I didn’t notice that she was allergic to milk protein. Actually, I didn’t notice for a while after she started solids. For a new mother who had been told ‘introduce foods one at a time and wait for any reactions’ I was remarkably blind to the fact that SHE WAS ALLERGIC TO MILK. Her allergy wasn’t severe, just diarrhoea and eczema. She was breastfed though, so I didn’t expect her poo to be any different and eczema? Well that runs in the family. Hereditary. Nothing to worry about.
However, one day it clicked. ‘Wait! Her diarrhoea went away when I forgot to buy yogurt! Geez, has she had any dairy this week? Hmmm, didn’t a friend have a boy with a milk allergy? Well shit, maybe I am just the worst mother in the world.’
Once we cut out dairy, she was pretty okay. Her skin cleared up mostly and her diarrhoea went away. Because she was breastfed, it wasn’t hard to keep dairy out of her diet. She didn’t react badly when I had dairy, so I never bothered going dairy free myself. After her second birthday, we started letting her have a little bit of
milk with cereal, etc etc. We lightened up on the whole dairy-free thing and generally stopped thinking about it.
Enter Isaac.
Isaac doesn’t scream. He also doesn’t sleep, but he doesn’t scream.
However.
At nine weeks old, he is still pooey at every nappy change and I am needing to change his bum once an hour. Dude? That’s not completely normal.
Then, his bum breaks out in a rash. Sure we’ve got/had the whole thrush thing happening, but I’ve got that mostly under control, so blisters? bleeding? Not in my current repertoire.
Also, his gas smells BAD. His poo smells like normal breastfed poo, but this boy could out fart my brother. True.
So, I drew some conclusions (and some cats and dogs and a plane, because Amy had the paper) and decided that maybe, just maybe, he might be allergic to milk protein too.
Cue me going dairy free.
And whinging about it every step of the way.
I like dairy. I like dairy A LOT. A freaking lot, okay?
I supermarketed today and didn’t buy any yogurt. No cream. No bocconcini.
I figure Amy has been looking a little blotchy lately and Nathan tells me her nappies have been bad, a little dairy free won’t hurt her either.
Still.
I’m not looking forward to this.
[Isaac’s bum has cleared up now, thanks to a nearly nappy free day yesterday and a good dose of zinc cream. Thank goodness!]
Our sunset this evening.
9 weeks and 3 days.
