From the moment Simon was born, we were startled at the similarities he had to his brother, Nolan. The same round head, the same dark blue eyes, and the same little mouth. I've been playing a game with Eric while he's at work where I send him a picture of one of the boys and he has to guess which one it is. His record is far from perfect and understandably so. They just look so similar. Can you pick out who is who?
There are many things that I wouldn't mind re-living from Nolan's babyhood, but his food protein intolerances are definitely NOT on the list. But despite our wishes of never having to go through that again, here we were faced with a baby who screamed and writhed in pain each night and he struggled to pass bloody stool. The plus is that we guessed right away what we were dealing with. We knew the drill - a dairy-free diet for me and a few weeks to get it all out of my system. Eating dairy-free is not so easy. For a baby with cow's milk protein allergy, ALL of the milk proteins must be avoided, so intense label reading is a must. Eating out is next to impossible. But I was diligent and didn't have a drop of dairy for over 2 weeks. The problem was that Simon was still having pain and blood in his stools. We met with Dr. Slette who confirmed our diagnosis, but we were shocked to find out that Simon had fallen to the 22nd percentile in weight gain from the 98th that he was when he was born. She recommended a hypoallergenic formula trial, the same course of action we did with Nolan, to see if his stools would improve and he would start gaining weight. He cried much less on the formula, but was still having bloody stools, even a week later! Eric and I decided that we were done with this and pulled the trigger on starting him on EleCare formula. This formula is for SEVERE cases and all of the proteins are broken down to the amino acid level. It is what we ended up using for Nolan. After about 3 days, all the blood was gone and Simon's fussing basically stopped. At our follow-up appointment two weeks later, Simon had already gained a full pound and was up to the 33rd percentile. Since then he was continued to thrive and was up to 14 pounds the last time I weighed him!
It was really hard to give up breastfeeding, especially with Simon being my last baby. But, with such a severe case, and no idea what other proteins might cause a reaction, it would be nearly impossible to restrict my diet enough to make it meet his needs. "Breast is best" permeates mom culture, so it's hard to get away from that mindset and not feel judged for it, or at least feel like I need to justify it to those around me. But Dr. Slette assured me that it was not healthy for either of us to continue on that track. That restrictive of a diet would not meet my nutritional needs, nor his. We're just so thankful that science has created an option for babies like Simon and Nolan. Though EleCare is crazy expensive (About $45 for can that lasts 3 days...), at least we have an option for our baby that allows him to be happy and healthy.
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