Just before Noah turned two months old, I noticed a tiny speck of blood in his stool. It really scared me. There should be no reason that there would be blood in his stool. As far as we knew, he had no allergies, he had no complications after birth, and everything was going so well. Of course, being paranoid, I looked up a few things from my trusty friend, Mr. Google, and found so many different reasons why there could be blood in his stool. I decided I would call the doctor in the morning, and tried to get some sleep.
First thing the next morning, I called the doctor’s office and spoke with one of the nurses. She consulted with Noah’s doctor and she instructed us to monitor it and if we saw it again, to bring in the diaper. I felt a bit better since they didn’t want us to rush in. I thought maybe it was just a fluke and maybe that I ate something that may have upset his stomach. I figured it wouldn’t happen again. That day, I started a food journal just in case it did occur again; I could look back and see if there were any similarities between what I ate those days and his reaction. Shortly after Noah was born, the doctor had given us a book from the American Pediatrics. It covers just about anything that could go wrong with a baby. I looked in the book about blood in the stool, and the one thing that caught my attention was that many babies have a hard time handling the milk and dairy that comes through the mother’s milk. I thought about it for a while, considering how much dairy I take in throughout the day. I didn’t think it was that much, but I decided to take it easy on the dairy and see what happens.
A few days went by with no signs of blood in his stool and I noticed, each night, Noah was becoming less and less fussy. Before the appearance of blood and giving up milk, each night, around 6:30 or 7:00, Noah would start crying inconsolably and acted extremely hungry. When I laid him down to eat, it would make him cry more. Then, by 9:00 p.m. or so, he was fine. But, with each passing night of not eating dairy products, the crying became less, until he didn’t have those periods of crying at all. I couldn’t believe it, just from cutting out something as simple as dairy, my baby was feeling better and he had no blood in his stool.
Then, about a week later, one afternoon, I noticed blood in his stool again. My heart dropped. I thought I had surely fixed the problem. I quickly called the doctor, and they got us a same day appointment. We went in and they tested his stool. Sure enough, there was blood mixed in with his stool. They wanted to make sure it was mixed in rather then just sitting on top of the stool. If it was sitting on top of the stool it could have been a fissure, but it was mixed in. As a result, we spoke about my eliminating dairy from my diet and how it has helped with his fussiness at night. She was glad that it had helped. She then suggested I get rid of soy in my diet too. She mentioned that many of her patients who were sensitive to dairy were also sensitive to soy. I was a little weary because I know that soy is in everything, but I wanted to give it a try.
After two weeks of eliminating dairy and soy from my diet, and there had been less and less blood in his stool. It has now been six weeks of no dairy, and three weeks without soy and I haven’t seen any blood in his stool for a week! I am hoping that this sensitivity will only last for a few and that he may grow out of it. His doctor said I could try to add some dairy into my diet after he turns four months. Some babies go through a very sensitive period from two to four months, but often grow out of it. The dairy hasn’t been too hard to cut out, but the soy has been much more challenging. I knew soy was in everything, but I didn’t think it was really in EVERYTHING. Even our organic canola spray contained soy. Why?! It’s canola oil. It shouldn’t need soy!
I would do anything for this little boy, and if giving up dairy and soy means he’ll be happier and more comfortable, then I would give it up forever, if I had to!
Although, I’d really like a slice of pizza right now!
I’d do just about anything for this little guy! 🙂
And on a side note, Malakhai got the last of the peanut butter today. I’ve got one happy pup right now!
Discovering Natural Motherhood 