Maternity leave has been nice in so many ways. I’ve lived in
my yoga pants. I’ve hardly fixed my hair. And, I get to watch my favorite
daytime shows – “Kelly and Michael,” “The Chew” and “Ellen” almost every day. I
also try to nap as much as possible. Yep, I’ll miss these days.
But it hasn’t been all peace and quiet. Parker cries and
screams. A lot. At first we thought it was reflux, so we made several trips to
the pediatrician and started him on zantac first, followed by previcid. He was
taking each medication twice a day, which seemed like a lot for a baby not even
a month old. We waited a couple of weeks for the right dosage of the reflux
medications to sink in and kept holding out hope that he would get better. He
still screamed at night (nope, wasn’t colic), seemed constantly gassy and his
stomach was always so tight like he was really struggling. There’s not a
feeling as helpless as when your baby is in pain and you have no idea how to
care for him. I have never felt so lost.
Then last Monday (Parker was 5 weeks old) I was taking
Connor to the doctor for a fever virus and I happened to show the pediatrician
this rash Parker was developing (see below). It was red and bumpy and started
on his face and then spread to his neck, abdomen and eventually to his legs.
Our doctor said to treat it with some cream and if it’s not better in four
days, bring him back. Sure enough it was not better, in fact it was worse, so I
brought him back in. The doctor said that he thinks it is a dairy and soy
allergy, so I need to eliminate all of those proteins from my diet for a week
and see if he is any better.
Tomorrow I will call and tell the doctor that Parker is
better. Actually, his rash is almost all cleared up. He is starting to do less
screaming (my ears are so thankful) and we have even seen a couple of little
smiles.
And now I’m faced with a big decision. Eliminate all dairy
and soy from my diet completely (not even a cheat day here and there) or switch
him to an allergy free formula.
This is a big decision.
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