We interrupt the timeline by this very current post – our baby might be allergic to milk.
Gassy 4-month-old, (potentially) milk protein allergy baby
Ever since the 4 month sleep regression (which we started around 3mo1w), I've noticed some very distinct things about the day to day baby patterns that ... didn't make sense. She would arch her back as if in pain and cry – sometimes having a full fuss fest. Every day, around 4pm, she would be inconsolable. Nothing would calm her down. She would take a 10 minute nap and wake up screaming. Cuddles, playtime, walks, fresh air – even bath and TV didn't make any difference. It was just a straight hour + of screaming. She also had issues with sleep, which, regression & paci use played a role in. Not to mention her turning away from my boob* after a few minutes, trying to eat on and off but fussing while doing so, and having obvious gas, bloating, and general tummy issues. And diarrhea. And mucusy poops. And random rashes.
*In case it wasn't blaringly obvious, she's exclusively breasted.
A few weeks ago, I met with some of my Estonian friends, but I had to excuse myself after only staying for 30-40 minutes, as I had to take Freya home for a nap. That prompted a chat about her sleep issues (the girl didn't sleep longer than 45min at a time for a month..) and one of the girls told me her daughter didn't sleep for 2 years. TWO WHOLE FRIGGIN YEARS!! Comes out, she had an undiagnosed milk protein allergy, and once she was able to figure it out, her daughter magically started to sleep and not be fussy anymore.
Now, I'm a total fiend for dairy. I have a latte for breakfast, I could eat balls of burrata all day long, I drink tons of kefir, and can't eat pizza without loading up the cheese. I love dairy. It's about 80% of my diet, to be completely honest. Cheese and cracker trays are the easiest, most perfect little snack, and Kohuke – think Clio bar – is my favorite quick treat. After having this conversation with my friend, I started to really think about the times my daughter was the fussiest, and they seemingly coincided with days where I'd load up on cheddar rolls and cheese wedges. Interesting indeed.
Shortly after said day, we had our 4 month pediatrician visit, where we voiced concerns about our daughter's sleep issues (he recommended sleep training/losing paci) and the other weird colic symptoms. I brought up the milk protein allergy as a hypothetical, and he wanted to test her stools in case we saw no improvement in behavior after giving the sleep training a try for a few days. We didn't, so I started collecting her poopy diapers.
Fast forward a week, I dropped off the diapers, and DING DING DING, they came back positive for a milk protein allergy. Well, that's what the on-call nurse said, but the truth is, they just came back positive for blood in the stool. We met with one of the other pediatricians in the group the following day, and she explained how it all works. Basically, we know our daughter has some kind of an allergy to something I'm consuming. It's not an intense allergy where she could go into anaphylactic shock, but it does irritate her stomach, so it could be classified as a sensitivity or intolerance. We don't know WHAT she's allergic to, but the most common such allergy tends to be dairy, and as I mentioned above, there seemed to be a correlation between my dairy consumption and her upset tummy. The other possible culprits are fish/seafood, soy, eggs, and nuts. We actually know that coconut water and some nuts bother her stomach, so I've been pretty consistent in avoiding them. Except for the time I tried coconut milk in my coffee. That was not a good experience for either of us.
So how do you treat a milk protein allergy? You cut it out of mom's diet completely. And I mean reading labels to make sure you're consuming zero milk! Some places I didn't know it could hide: cans of tuna, english muffins, french toast, wheat bread (or any bread basically), cake, chocolate, cookies, breading, hot dogs, deli meats, fried chicken at Chick-fil-A... a lot of places basically. I'm currently on day three and I've craved nothing more than a ball of burrata with some fresh tomatoes and balsamic vinaigrette. Ugh.
The good news is, if this is what's causing the tummy issues, after the two weeks, we can find her "tolerance point" by slowly adding it back in. She could also grow out of it pretty quickly, most babies do around 6-18 months (haha I know it's a year difference). Or when I stop breastfeeding, I can have dairy again...
The bad news is, it might not be dairy. If the tummy issues continue after 2 weeks, then it probably isn't dairy, and I'll get my cheese wheels back in action and cut out something else that I'm consuming a lot of. If the tummy issues improve but there's still blood in the stool, I'll continue the no-dairy-life and also be no-egg-no-fish-no...whatever. Until we figure it out. I could just do a total elimination diet now, but it's pretty extreme and I need some variety. :)
The other good good news is, dairy is essentially packed with sugar. Lactose. Oh, and I should mention that I've had SO MANY people tell me to just take lactaid. Ha. That's not how it works. When you have a milk PROTEIN allergy, it's being allergic to casein and whey. Those are proteins. Lactose is sugar! And the reason it's good news that I'm dropping dairy? Well, I'm dropping a huge chunk of sugar from my diet, which should help my weight drop too. Pretty exciting!
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