The return of dairy

(from the jojos archive)

When Aiden was about 6 weeks old we started to suspect we had a colicky baby on our hands. He would scream in the wee hours of the morning and I could hear his tummy growling and rumbling from a few feet away, especially just after a feeding. I started to suspect he had a cow's milk allergy. I learned the difference between this and lactose intolerance.

Lactose intolerance is the inability to digest the type of sugar in milk. A cow's milk allergy means that the infant has an abnormal immune system reaction to proteins found in the cow's milk The baby's immune system "attacks" the proteins in the milk, resulting in symptoms of an allergic reaction. The cow's milk proteins were in my milk from my diet having dairy in it so I cut out all dairy.

That didn't mean just not eating ice cream, cheese and drinking milk. No yogurt, butter, or most baked goods. I had to read labels and make sure to avoid all the products containing casein, caseinate, lactalbumin, whey,and on and on. The list of no no's was long. I found it very hard to give up dairy when it wasn't by choice. But after a few weeks we could really tell a difference in Aiden so it seemed like a good sacrifice. He was less gassy and it didn't seem like his stomach was hurting all the time.

Every month or two I have had a little cheese, or a few bites of yogurt, or a little butter to see what his reaction would be. Each time he would get really fussy, have a hard time falling asleep and wake up often. But slowly it has been getting better. Most babies outgrow the allergy by their first birthday. Around 9 months I was sure it was going to take Aiden longer than a year but suddenly his reactions have gone away. I had a little bit of yogurt last week with no problems. Then I gave him a few bites of yogurt with no bad reaction. This week I've had cheese and ice cream too. He has also had a few other things with a tiny bit of dairy in them with no problem! I even had milk on my cereal yesterday and French toast for breakfast this morning. Its amazing to have so many food options suddenly. Hmmm, cheese!