Allergies and food intolerances are an absolute minefield. Very very hard to diagnose, full of 2nd guesses, full of questions, and not remotely full of answers.
Since Tabby has been tiny we've thought something was up. She's been constantly uncomfortable, gassy, full of diarrhea, unable to rest or sleep, and prone to screaming fits when her tummy is clearly hurting her. The worst symptoms generally come at 3am when she wakes for a feed. She's in a lot of discomfort at this point, she's gassy, and she can't go back to sleep without help. We're all exhausted.
In the early days we thought Colic. Later we thought maybe something I'm eating, maybe teething, maybe certain vegetables after she started solids, then we got sidetracked by the RSV, jet lag, antibiotics, etc, you name it, things have come along to knock the diagnosis off track.
I half heartedly considered giving up dairy a few times but never did it properly.
Anyway - with her Pediatricians blessing and encouragement (I can't recall posting about her last Pediatrician on the 1st of this month, anyway she weighed in at 16lb and 6oz and 26 inches long) I focussed in on a potential dairy intolerance and completely cut it out of my diet 3 weeks ago.
I didn't see much of an improvement in the first week and then she went onto a 10 day course of antibiotics which completely upset her stomach and gave her terrible diarrhea and gas. Following this she had another week of it clearing her system (I do wonder if she's allergic to that given the rather extreme gastric reaction). We have since had a 'clear' week with me off the dairy but without too much improvement in her.
With giving up dairy I inadvertently increased my soy intake - namely by having a soy based non dairy butter spread and also a vegan treat which had soy in the icing. If anything I would say she got worse, so I finally decided to cut out Soy completely as well. Babies who are milk protein intolerant are often soy protein intolerant too.
I had no idea how hard it would be to give up Soy. Soy is in EVERYTHING. EVERYTHING. Unless it's a fresh fruit, vegetable or meat, you can basically kiss it goodbye. Soy is used as a filler, emulsifier, vegetable oil, in nearly everything on the shelves in the supermarket. To cut it out is extremely difficult, and very very depressing. I almost cried yesterday walking around the supermarket trying to find something to eat. Tuna for sandwiches? Forget it - there's soy in the vegetable broth that they put in the 'water' it's packed in. Bread mostly contains dairy, if not probably contains soy. Oven chips ? forget it. Dressings, mayonnaise, etc, Nope. NOTHING.
Anyway - 3 days into a dairy AND soy free diet, she has actually had 2 relatively peaceful nights, no gas, no discomfort.
I don't know how long I can keep it up. I might give in and start her on hypoallergenic formula. Or I might try pumping loads out and stash enough to take her through to 1 yr? I don't know. Argh.
Posted by katie at February 19, 2008 04:49 PMNow imagine if you were *allergic* to soy, and not just suspecting an intolerance. Dee's mom isn't quite at the "Eat soy and die" level, but she is allergic to soy. Must be tough.
Dairy is fairly hard to cut out entirely, too; there are tons of things that have modified milk solids or whey protein or various other dairy-sourced stuff in 'em.
Good luck with getting all this stuff sorted out! It's great that they have to list ingredients on everything (although every now and then something gets recalled because they forgot to list some ingredient or another) but if you're trying to avoid some particular type of thing, you can spend the rest of your life reading all the labels trying to find food that doesn't include what you don't want.
Posted by: Steve at February 19, 2008 07:38 PMI am with you. I have been off dairy since Graham was born (in July also) and avoiding soy as well. Something that has HUGELY helped my son's tummy has been feeding him 2 oz of Alimentum (hypoallergenic formula) with oatmeal along with his veggie at dinner time. Something about that formula/oatmeal in addition to all of the breastmilk he usually gets has really thickened up his stool and made his tummy issues so much better. Since I started it, he rarely has mucus and his gas issues are nearly gone. And, I can keep nursing.
My three year old was also intolerant so I knew early on what to do because we went through scopings and all kinds of diagnostics to find the cause of blood/mucus in her stool (she totally outgrew it and started on whole milk fine at one year old). The Alimentum trick really helped her too.
In addition to just meat or veggies, I eat a lot of Triscuits/carrots/cucumbers with hummus and Oreos. I also make oatmeal raisin cookies with Earth Balance spread and they are wonderful! :)
Hope this helps!
Jen
I was looking for info for a friend and saw your entry. Just FYI, babies with milk/soy protein intolerance can usually tolerate the FAT part of the soy (i.e. soy lecithin and soybean oil), just not the soy protein isolate, soy flour, etc. If it helps, my kids and I are dairy, soy, and gluten free and we manage to find good stuff to eat :-) You can get the Spectrum canola oil spray and spray it onto your bagel, then sprinkle it with cinnamon sugar. There are also tons of tuna packed in just water, but you may have to shop at a health food store. If you need any help with recommendations for other substitutes, I'd be glad to help.
Posted by: christine at February 22, 2008 01:18 AMThought you might like to know that with Milk Soy Protein Intolerance it is ok for a mother who is breastfeeding to have soybean oil because it is a fat and not a protein. You can also have soy lecithin because it is a fat.
The soy products you cannot have are soy flour, soy protein, soy protein isolate, textured vegetable protein, soy beans, and soy caseinate.
My son has MSPI and I am doing the diet in order to breast feed.
Check out the author Tamara Field. She has a book out called The Milk Soy Protein Intolerance (MSPI) Guidebook/Cookbook.
There is alot of great information and recipes in it!