In the last two months (almost 3!), our little Josiah went from being a super content, happy, great sleeping baby to a fussy, screaming, uncomfortable, never sleeping baby. We tried reflux medicine, tums, tylenol, propping his bed up, sleeping on my chest in the recliner, lots of baby wearing, and everything else we could think of. Nothing helped for longer than a day or two. After hearing some women in my breastfeeding group talk about going dairy free for their baby and the symptoms that lead up to making that decision (lots of diaper talk, no need to go into that) I realized they were talking about my baby! He had almost all of the same symptoms. So, after talking to the lactation consultant and praying/thinking a lot about it, on Sunday November 27, I cut out all dairy (and soy) from my diet. We of course weren't sure it was going to help anything, but figured we may as well attempt it. I quickly learned how amazingly difficult it is and that almost everything has dairy and soy in it! Hopefully I'll be able to add soy in soon and it won't bother him and that'll help a little bit. Everything I've read and talked to people about says it takes anywhere from 1-3 weeks to notice a difference in your baby. Well, we've definitely noticed. I even left him to visit a friend in the hospital and he wasn't screaming in pain the whole time! He didn't even scream! ;) He's starting to be able to go longer than 1 1/2 hours in between feedings and is happy doing so. He's slowly starting to sleep a little better, even getting two naps (not on mommy!) a lot of days. Nights tend to still be a little difficult, but bad habits are hard to get rid of, we'll get there.
Cooking still is a little difficult, as is eating out, going to Christmas parties, having friends over/going places that include food. But, the difference is amazing and wonderful and I'll eat my avocado, turkey pita sandwiches for lunch every single day if it makes him feel better and I love Josiah's smiles, giggles, and happy noises SO MUCH more than ice cream and butter. Thankfully, I (and my husband) really like tomato based things. We've had chili, spaghetti, and chicken tortilla soup in the last week and a half. I've also found recipes for chocolate chip cookie pie made from white beans and brownies made with an avocado. The cookie was alright, the brownies were awesome! Hopefully I'll continue to find more recipes so we're not living on spaghetti and chili until Josiah is done nursing. ;) So, dairy free is here to stay. I know a lot of people have found they can start to add it back in after awhile, right now I have no desire to even just possibly hurt my baby again.
love you little guy.
