I mentioned when Emma was very small about how she had a dairy intolerance, but I never really went in depth on the scale in which I had to change my diet in order to continue to have a breastfeeding relationship with our baby girl.
Around 3 weeks new, we noticed that Emma had green mucous stools. While sometimes it's considered normal to have green stools, mucous is not. We already had her 1 month appointment scheduled so we just discussed it with the doctor at her appointment. The doctor tested her stool and it came back positive with trace amounts of blood. Not looking like a good thing already, she asked that I keep the next 3 days of stool diapers and bring them in for further testing. Same thing occurred. Sigh. She told me that Emma had a dairy intolerance and that in order for her to be a happy baby (meaning no colic and tummy issues) I would have to cut all dairy from my diet.....ALL DAIRY. Which meant label reading. You have NOT A CLUE how much we eat has dairy products in it until you have to cut it all out. She also put Emma on an antacid to help calm her tummy. She then proceeded to give me a full sample of a dairy free formula stating "you should start giving this to her now because you will get sick of this diet." Well that put this momma in bear mode as I felt like she was telling me that I couldn't do it! Not this girl.
Being able to breastfeed was something that I was GOING to do. I went home and read every label on every product in our house. Determined that I couldn't eat anything and went to the store to get fruits, veggies, dairy free bread and lunch meats to tide me over. My main snacks had consisted of fruits, cheese and yogurts so I had to completely revamp my entire diet. I also did a survey of our favorite eateries to determine where I could eat out.....very limited.
I went to our local whole food store and got coconut milks, yogurts, dairy free chips and popcorn and granola bars. I was pleasantly surprised that some of the dairy/gluten free options available were actually quite tasty. After about a month of this Emma's tummy seemed to continue to get worse....I noticed after I had peanut butter especially. Once particularly crabby/screamy day and three puking episodes that I just needed to take her in. While there was no blood in her stool the doctor determined that perhaps another round of antacid would help soothe her tummy and prescribed a different kind. So now mom was eating basically nothing and baby was on two medications to help her poor tummy.
You're probably thinking "why didn't you just switch to formula." Well I wasn't giving up. Breastmilk is the best thing for my little one and I was going to do what was best for her. At her next doctors appointment our pediatrician told me to cut out eggs, fish and nuts as well. SIGH! I did it, and with the mix of both the antacids and my very strict diet her little tummy was healed by the time she was 4 months old!
What am I trying to say here? I guess that you can breastfeed your little one so long as you have the patience and drive to read labels and know what you can eat. I did a ton of research and while I ate a lot of things at home I was able to go out and enjoy restaurants as well as a lot of them provided options for a variety of diet limitations and discovered some foods that I liked that I never would have tried before.
Use this helpful guide when reading labels to know that just because it doesn't say "contains dairy" on the label may still have dairy! Just a couple of tips.....french fries are a huge source of dairy but Oreo's are dairy free. Try health food stores like Whole Foods, Trader Joe's and Sprouts as they usually have more gluten/allergy friendly options. It's best to make your own meals, as packaged foods use preservatives that contain dairy, this way you know what your getting....and it's healthier for you and baby. Just remember that you are not alone in this and most (not all) infants will grow out of the intolerance.
Should you choose to switch to formula, consult with your doctor on which formula is best for you baby as a lot contain dairy and or soy. All we want are healthy and happy babies! :-)
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