This happy little boy has a side that is not so happy.
No one likes seeing their baby in pain, crying, arching backs, not sleeping, nothing helps kind of pain. Syler has always had sleep issues I always chalked it up to growth spurts or teething or him just being a bit gassy. Well in the last couple weeks there have been some MISERABLE nights. As in he fights going to sleep, then once asleep he wakes up screaming arching his back, pulling up his legs, tossing turning. Nothing soothes him. Pain meds, gas meds, teething meds, mama love, walking, rocking, snuggles, singing, laying down, sitting up. Nothing. It makes a mommy sad to see her baby struggling with something and not know what it is. I could tell something inside him was bothering him, something was making him uncomfortable and not my happy baby. Nap time hasnt been much better either. He has been needy to say the least, more then he should be even if he was a needy child. Definately more then a 1 year old should be, especially when he really wants to go play with his brothers. Dont get me wrong he plays and laughs he is happy, but then it hits, the screams the pain, the I'm tired but cant sleep.
Feeling lost with nothing to go off of I started asking around in my wonderful mommy groups online, everyone kept asking about dairy allergy. At first I thought, impossible that cannot be it, he has been eating dairy products since we first started introducing food, and he never had a problem then, or did he? With no family history of food allergies, I ignored this thought coming from my friends, just didnt think it was possible. Then I decided I would research milk allergies in children just to see what the symptoms were. This is what I found:
Signs and Symptoms
- Abdominal pain
- Vomiting
- Diarrhea
- Skin rash
- Recurrent stuffy or runny nose, sinusitis, cough or wheezing
- Failure to thrive (poor weight gain and growth)
- Fussiness or irritability
Syler has had/does have 5 of the 7 signs/symptoms, 1,3,4,5 and 7. I wanted to just scream at myself. Why had I not thought of this being a possibility sooner? Could I have prevented months of pain and uncomfortable nights for Syler? One of the worst feelings I have ever had as a mother, is finding out something could have been helped sooner if I would have just opened my eyes a little more.
Moving on, here we are, after talking with friends who have experience with children with milk allergy and talking to the nurse at the pediatricians office we are running a 2 week trial of Syler being 100% dairy free. By the 2 week mark we should notice a HUGE difference in all of the above symptoms. Within 48 hours we should notice at least a small change, things getting better.
So what did I do this evening, I went shopping, list in hand of all the ingredients in things that are milk related even if they dont say milk. Did you know that things are marked as "dairy-free" but still list a milk protein in the ingredients? I learned so much today trying to figure out what I needed to buy for him to be 100% dairy free. Dairy free bread, soy milk, crackers with no dairy ingredients, dairy free yogurt, dairy free cheese (almost impossible) the amount of food that has some sort of dairy/milk product in it is pretty crazy! Luckily we live in a day in age where people are demanding more options for healthier living so we can find almost everything right at our local Fred Meyer.
The other thing I learned while shopping for Syler tonight was how so many things families choose to eat on a regular daily basis have some terrible ingredients in them. I always thought we did pretty good, ate pretty healthy, but after tonight there are so many more ingredients I will be looking at and avoiding for the whole family.
So how did bed time go tonight after Syler was dairy free all day? Pretty good, he didnt fight it and he is currently still sleeping. Hoping for a smooth 2 weeks and that this is the answer to his problems. I will keep you all posted!
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