I'm in a weird place these days. It's like all of a sudden I am doubting everything that has happened the last year. We are in such a good place with Cutie Pie's FPIES that it is making me think that maybe, just maybe, it has all been a coincidence. Is that possible? Maybe all that baby spit-up was actually just spit-up. Maybe those puking episodes were just a fluke. Maybe all that night waking/crying was just from teething. Maybe I'm just crazy and have been stressing myself out and dragging CutiePie around to doctor appointments and slapping food out of her hands and pulling pieces of crackers out of her mouth for nothing. Maybe she really is just a "normal" baby. Maybe. Or maybe we just are managing it well right now. Either way, I am happy to be in a good place. CutiePie is sleeping all night in her own bed as long as she has two paci's and her pink kitty blanket. She is gaining weight now that she is getting her breastmilk bottles fortified with formula (according to our scale at home she has gained 1/2 a pound in the last month!). She is even starting to eat some real foods. Not much, but definitely better than a couple months ago! Today for lunch she ate some shredded cheese, a couple bites of chicken lunch meat, and a couple bites of fresh peaches. For her, that's a feast!
This week we started a wheat trial - scary stuff, but like I said, I'm in a comfortable brave place right now! CutiePie doesn't have a good track record with grains, but I wanted to make sure I did a wheat trial before I wean her off my milk. Right now we are on day 3, and so far so good. We've been using Matzo crackers to trial it (only ingredients are organic wheat flour and water. Have I mentioned how much I love Jewish foods?!!?). I'm not sure she's really eaten enough to get a good enough feel to call it a pass yet - and it's only been three days, so there is still plenty of time to fail. But she's still sleeping, still having normal diapers, still not crying/screaming in pain, so I'm thinking we are headed in a good direction! I have visions of giving her pancakes topped with real butter. Cheese and crackers. Bread. I feel like if she does pass wheat she will be able to have a "normal" looking diet. Even more normal than big brother's diet was like at her age (he was allergic to eggs, milk, and peanuts).
Now if I could just get her to EAT those normal foods, we'd be in business!!
Thursday, August 16, 2012
Saturday, August 4, 2012
Dairy is a......
PASS!! WHOOHOO!!
It's been a week or so since I last posted because it has been a happily uneventful dairy trial. I was so certain dairy was going to be a fail and I had braced myself, but it never happened. Cutie Pie is getting a scoop of regular ol' Similac formula in her bottle twice a day and doing just fine. She drinks it, she enjoys it, and she does great with it!
I almost feel like I am a mom to a "regular" kid. Feeding Cutie Pie has all of a sudden become so much more fun. Earlier this week I made her noodles (Ge-Fen potato pasta, but they look, feel, and taste like the regular stuff) and then I thought "hey, I could add butter to these!" It was exciting. Of course, Cutie Pie didn't actually EAT the pasta with butter, but she could have if she wanted to! She is, however, enjoying shredded mozzarella cheese. Only mozzarella - apparently cheddar is evil and she expresses her distrust of it by immediately throwing it on the floor and giving me dirty looks if I attempt to put it on her plate. I even gave her a glass of chocolate milk one night for dinner. Again, she didn't actually drink it (well, she sipped some out of her cup and the spit it right back out) but she COULD have it if she wanted to. Now I just need her to WANT to eat.
The downside of adding formula in her bottles is that it seems to make her fuller than just breastmilk. From what I understand, this is a totally normal thing. However, she is now down to only four bottles a day, which is only 20oz of breastmilk (plus 2 scoops of formula, so the equivalent nutritional addition of 4oz). I can't decide if I think it is better for her to get 20oz of breastmilk + 4oz of formula, or 25oz of breastmilk. Part of me says screw the formula, breastmilk is waaaaaaaaaaay better, but the other problem we were running into is her iron levels were still on the low side at her last check-up and we decided to cut out her iron supplement. Since we cut out her iron drops her whole attitude has improved. She's sleeping 10-11 hours straight at night consistently plus taking a 3ish hour afternoon nap and she is generally just more agreeable during the day. Those iron drops were apparently really causing issues in her tiny body. So I think I will just keep up with the formula in the bottles to get some more iron into her little body. Plus, since I am able to freeze an extra 5oz of milk a day my freezer is filling up pretty fast. I've donated my freezer stash several times this past year (I think it totals around 1500oz) and it feels good to know my milk is helping to feed other hungry babies! I'm teaching Cutie Pie to share early. ;)
Up next on the food trial agenda is pineapple. I'm sure she isn't going to really eat them, but with some canned fruit being packaged in 100% pineapple juice, it would be nice to have something like a simple fruit cup that we can pack for on the go snacks. Again, not like she would actually EAT the snacks but at least she would have that option.
It's been a week or so since I last posted because it has been a happily uneventful dairy trial. I was so certain dairy was going to be a fail and I had braced myself, but it never happened. Cutie Pie is getting a scoop of regular ol' Similac formula in her bottle twice a day and doing just fine. She drinks it, she enjoys it, and she does great with it!
I almost feel like I am a mom to a "regular" kid. Feeding Cutie Pie has all of a sudden become so much more fun. Earlier this week I made her noodles (Ge-Fen potato pasta, but they look, feel, and taste like the regular stuff) and then I thought "hey, I could add butter to these!" It was exciting. Of course, Cutie Pie didn't actually EAT the pasta with butter, but she could have if she wanted to! She is, however, enjoying shredded mozzarella cheese. Only mozzarella - apparently cheddar is evil and she expresses her distrust of it by immediately throwing it on the floor and giving me dirty looks if I attempt to put it on her plate. I even gave her a glass of chocolate milk one night for dinner. Again, she didn't actually drink it (well, she sipped some out of her cup and the spit it right back out) but she COULD have it if she wanted to. Now I just need her to WANT to eat.
The downside of adding formula in her bottles is that it seems to make her fuller than just breastmilk. From what I understand, this is a totally normal thing. However, she is now down to only four bottles a day, which is only 20oz of breastmilk (plus 2 scoops of formula, so the equivalent nutritional addition of 4oz). I can't decide if I think it is better for her to get 20oz of breastmilk + 4oz of formula, or 25oz of breastmilk. Part of me says screw the formula, breastmilk is waaaaaaaaaaay better, but the other problem we were running into is her iron levels were still on the low side at her last check-up and we decided to cut out her iron supplement. Since we cut out her iron drops her whole attitude has improved. She's sleeping 10-11 hours straight at night consistently plus taking a 3ish hour afternoon nap and she is generally just more agreeable during the day. Those iron drops were apparently really causing issues in her tiny body. So I think I will just keep up with the formula in the bottles to get some more iron into her little body. Plus, since I am able to freeze an extra 5oz of milk a day my freezer is filling up pretty fast. I've donated my freezer stash several times this past year (I think it totals around 1500oz) and it feels good to know my milk is helping to feed other hungry babies! I'm teaching Cutie Pie to share early. ;)
Up next on the food trial agenda is pineapple. I'm sure she isn't going to really eat them, but with some canned fruit being packaged in 100% pineapple juice, it would be nice to have something like a simple fruit cup that we can pack for on the go snacks. Again, not like she would actually EAT the snacks but at least she would have that option.
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