After many exams and experiments, Jacob's doctor is chalking up his persistent diarrhea and slow weight gain to a dairy and soy allergy. At first we thought it was just dairy, but after his mommy stopped eating dairy for two weeks and the diarrhea continued, we added soy to the elimination list and things started clearing up. Some of you may be wondering what, exactly, is the difference between normal newborn poos and diarrhea, and without going into too much detail, I'll just say color and frequency.
The doctor and lactation consultant are confident that he'll likely grow out of these allergies, probably even before he's done breastfeeding, so my new diet isn't forever. And his milk intake is totally on-track, so once we get this diet thing ironed out he should start catching up on his weight. Not that he is THAT far behind - he's up to over 7 and a half pounds, so he's close to 2 pounds over his birth weight. He's starting to fill out some of the clothes that he used to swim in, and has actually grown out of a couple things! Jacob's poor little tummy is still bothering him, though, and hopefully in a couple days that will have cleared up too!
In the meantime, there is some very good sleep-related progress, but I don't want to jinx it because it's only been a couple nights, so you'll have to wait to hear about that!
My sister was allergic to all dairy and soy as a baby....she never grew out of it completely and still has to watch her cheese and tofu intake but it is totally handle-able.
ReplyDeleteAs a baby - mom just used a lot of rice milk! Still does in fact.