Mystery is Unravelling

Today was the day we saw the dietitian. It was very eye opening for me. She listened to all my concerns, asked tonnes of questions and really wanted to know all the details of Matthew's life and how the introduction of solids had gone. I went over his ups and downs with food, his allergies and his sleep issues. She came to one conclusion right away: he has a milk protein allergy. His full body rash reaction to regular formula really should have tipped us off. So now we both have to go dairy free. It's going to be very hard because there are a lot of products with hidden dairy in them. We're also going soy free. That's not a big deal since I'm already allergic to soy and avoid it, it shouldn't be too hard to keep Matthew away from it. So that was problem A solved, then we went on to problem B.

I told her that I was concerned that it looked like he didn't gain a lot of weigh from 6-9 months, aka since starting solids. So she weighed him. Matthew has lost at least an ounce in the last two months (the scale kept fluctuating). Not good. You want babies to GAIN, not LOSE! :( My poor baby. He's probably been starving all this time and that's why he hasn't been sleeping well. So in addition to going on a strict feeding schedule, we have to supplement with formula.

I feel so bad for my poor baby. All those fussy afternoons, all those long nights, were probably because of an upset tummy and hunger. I am so glad I finally listened to my instincts. I KNEW something wasn't right. I should have pushed the issue earlier, but I'm glad I finally got someone to listen to me. We are going to push on with all our new information and at Matthew's one year appointment, I'm going to ask for some blood tests to see if Matthew has a soy allergy like me in addition to a milk protein allergy.

Yes there is a moral to this story, one I should have learned long ago. Listen to your instincts. If you know something isn't right, even if you can't identify it, push to find the answer. If you don't like the answer you're getting, look elsewhere for help. But do not give up. I wish I had learned this lesson for myself long ago, but at least I have finally learned it when it counted most, when it affected my beautiful, wonderful baby boy.