Deja Vu #2: Goodbye Dairy! Again.

One Sunday morning when Addisyn was 5 weeks old I changed a poopy diaper that had a lot of mucus, and a couple of spots of blood in it.  After a call to the pediatrician's after-hours nurse's line we were on our way to the kid's urgent care where I was told that Addisyn more than likely had a dairy sensitivity.  Long story short I gave up dairy and soy so that I could continue breastfeeding Addisyn.  I wrote about being dairy and soy-free here.

For some time now I have had a sneaking suspicion that Elizabeth was also having problems with dairy, but I wasn't completely sure of it until today. Sign #1: Vomiting.  For several weeks now she has thrown up entire feedings on a somewhat regular basis - sometimes a couple of times a day, sometimes daily, sometimes skipping days.  Initially I associated it with choking, because she always seemed to choke during a feeding before it happened.  Then I thought maybe she was just gorging herself and getting too full, because it almost always happened during her night time cluster feeding times when she would just nurse, and nurse, and nurse.  Sign #2: Stuffiness.  Elizabeth gets very stuffy at night, and until recently I figured it was just due to the dry winter air.  I get stuffy myself for that reason.  We use a humidifier, and I have her bassinet mattress at a slight incline, and that seems to help.  But paired with other symptoms, I now believe it's at least partially due to a dairy allergy.  Sign #3: Rash.  A couple of days ago I noticed a very, very slight rash covering most of her body.  So slight that I looked at it repeatedly, debating whether or not there really was a rash there.  This would make it a true allergy, as opposed to the intolerance that Addisyn had.  The difference?  An allergy causes an immune response (like a rash), an intolerance does not.  Sign #4: Mucus and blood in stool.  This was the definitive symptom for me.  I had decided to go off dairy when I discovered that little bit of a rash to see if it made a difference, but the mucus and tiny spots of blood in a poopy diaper today were what really convinced me that I correct in my suspicions.  

Dairy-free.  Soy-free.  I've done it before, and I can, and will, do it again.