I know, I know, sounds awful doesn't it? Our little darling, the youngest, after having practically everything but breast milk and fruits/veggies removed from her diet, was still having some serious "digestive" (ahem!) issues. 8-10 diapers a day, and at times vomiting. I mean, I can change diapers all day long, but when you get in to the skin falling off the bum because of rubbing from wipes and acid eating away at it to boot, something has GOT to be done. After another round of fecal testing, and a full blood work up, we figured out our darling has fructose mal-absorption and lactose intolerance, on top of the other things we already knew about our first.
Now, I'm sure you're wondering at this point how on earth we didn't know that she was lactose intolerant. It's simple, our older daughter didn't have lactose intolerance, she just had milk protein (casein) intolerance, and she wasn't breast fed past 3 months. Our younger daughter was nursed from day one till she was 15 months old, and never was exclusively on
neocate like our oldest. Alright, so continuing on...
Avery needed to have lastase (the enzyme that breaks down lactose, that most bodies typically make on their own) drops put in to her breast milk, the let to sit overnight to break down the lactose. On top of it, we had to figure out what fruits and veggies she was going to be able to handle, and in what quantities. In the end, she can have about 1/2 banana, or 1/2 cup of blueberries. No apples, peaches, pears or any of the other yummy, nutritious, fruits she so dearly loved. We also are only able to give her avocado, cooked and pureed carrots, celery, and corn(of all things). In any event, after all of the testing, she had a reducing substance level that was frighteningly high, and yet no iron deficiency or protein deficiency either. Once was got all of the labs back, it was clear as crystal what her new problems were, and we were finally able to nip this in the bud.
Though our dear darling was even lower on the possible foods list, we had an answer, and were able to work towards getting things better under control. If you feel like this is something that is giving your child or yourself some grief, one of the easiest tests you can do is a methane/hydrogen breath test. There are several things they can test for in these breath test, fructose and lactose are just 2 of them.
We give our daughter vitamin drops containing iron, in a dose specified by her doctor as she needs more to meet the needs of her dietary restrictions.. She drinks coconut milk, almond milk, and flax milk, and we are going to start a supplement called
"Metagenics ultracare" under the advisement and care of nutritionists & doctors. Always run changes you are making and problems or concerns you are having by your doctor. They have more experience, and a much better education (they are doctors after all)... If you don't trust your doctor to help make these decisions with you, you need a new doctor. :)
This new treat recommendation goes out to all my Mommy friends, with little kiddos on limited diets, that need a yummy snack to help get their tummies from one meal to another. Now, I'll be honest here. I'm not typically a fan of Gerber. It seems like a lot of their snacks and foods have LOADS of unnecessary crap (ahem!) in them, and I am NOT a fan of processed food. With how sensitive my youngest is, this snack was a SERIOUS gold mine when she can only have very small amounts of fructose, in addition to the no soy-no dairy-no gluten/wheat- no egg issues. Well, gerber FINALLY managed to pull through for me this one time, and I am beyond grateful for it. My little one LOVES these new snacks, and they get her a wide variety of fruits and veggies in tiny bite size amounts, that are super easy to control.
