"I don't know if we were just ignorant back then, or if the problem has really increased in the past 5 or 10 years".
Those were the words of our pediatrician during our 6 month well visit. He also mentioned that he now can hardly count the number of babies coming in with this milk protein allergy.
Our son Zachary has been a pretty healthy baby. As a stay-at-home Mom, I've been able to nurse him all of this time, even up until now. He is having his 11 month birthday this coming Monday.
When he was about 4 months old we attempted to try him out on some rice cereal. A few weeks later, we noticed that his stool was unusually runny and persisted for a few weeks. His primary doctor was out, but I was able to bring him in to see one of the other pediatricians in the office. After observing his diapers, she told me she found some microscopic blood which could very likely indicate a milk allergy. Since I was nursing, I she suggested that I stay off of milk products which could be passed to Zachary through the breast milk. We were sent to LABcorp and were given stool tests to be sure he didn't have some type of infection. They all came back normal and we saw the same doctor again when the problem continued. She sent us to a gastroenterologist.
The gastroenterologist told me that he could do an endoscopy and a signoidoscopy to find out what exactly was causing him to have problems. After that was all over and done with and the results from the biopsy came back, we determined that he was allergic to the protein in cow's milk. We still had not seen a large improvement since I had been off of milk and therefore told me that the next step would be to try getting rid of the soy products.
Which brings you to the point that you realize that nothing they sell in stores or cook in restaurants in made without soy or milk. Well....I guess "nothing" is a little extreme. But it's pretty close. I had no idea that we humans ate so much soy. I determined that, if it's packaged, it has soy. Crackers, cookies, cereals, cream of wheat, oatmeal, graham crackers, fish sticks, granola bars, already cooked frozen hamburger patties, bread, tortillas, malt o meal, ....yeah, it keeps going. Ice cream is the worst. Plenty of milk AND soy. Everything in the bakery likely has milk in it. Very little, but still there. There may be a few select items there that do not have milk but do have soy. Even cooking spray has soy in it. I searched through every brand and flavor at HEB, but found none soy free.
After I grived giving up chocolate and ever other dessert to be found, I looked forward to being creative and learning to be more healthy. I will tell you, this diet was amazing for my weight. I'm now below the weight I started with at the beginning of my pregnancy.
So what can you eat? Well, fruit and vegetables for starters. You can be creative with these. Beef, chicken, sausage, fish, eggs, beans, pretzels, marshmellows, honey, grits (in the can or Quaker....HEB brand and Hilcountry Fair has soy), jam/jelly, mustard, nuts, pasta noodles, fritos, and jello. Also, Life Ceral, Oatmeal Squares, Rice Chex, Rasin Brand, and a few other cerals are milk and soy free.
Bread- Rudi's Organic Bread is soy and milk free. It was the only one I could find free of both.
Skippy Natural Peanut Butter- soy free and still tastes good. There are other brands but they are pretty dry.
Rice Milk- Found at HEB or Kroger- I used this to eat my ceral in the morning and before bed time. It's one of my favorites.
Spagetti- Use regular tomato sauce, tomato paste. Other already made brands have the soy.
We came up with a regular dinner schedule of things we could cook without soy and milk. It was nice having Scott do this with me for the main course of meals.
Mondays- Taco Salad-hold the cheese
Tuesdays- chicken stew- chicken, potatoes, carrots, chopped green peppers, corn starch
Wednesdays- Leftovers or tuna/ PBJ sandwiches
Thursdays- Red beans and Rice- Dark Red Kidney beans, sausage, bay leaf, rice
Fridays- baked catfish
Making things from Scratch also allows you some variety. I was able to make banana bread from scratch. I used rice milk instead of milk, and apple sauce instead of oil/butter.
Jello- make jello squares for desserts. Use one large pack of flavored gelatin, a box of non-flavored gelatin and boiling water.
Cookies do not turn out quite the same without the butter or margarine. I did it, but no one else really cared to eat them except for me. Smart balance margarine is at least milk free. It does have the soy in there.
This is actually a great diet to help us start eating the right foods. It eliminates all of the packaged food which is filled with more sodium than we need. All we have to do now is get exercising and we're on our way to looking a feeling great.
We got to see our primary pediatrician for his well visits and follow ups. Like I mentioned before, he sees more babies than he can count with this problem. It is so common now and seems to be more prevalent now than in the years past for whatever reason.
Zachary is now tollerating milk products much better. I still drink rice milk to give him more time to out grow it, but he should be over it by the time he turns a year old or a few months after.
