MSPI

On Monday, September 24th, I took Hudson in for his doctor appointment to figure out what was giving him trouble. Here is the e-mail we sent our doctor's office (we accidentally left out that Hudson often sounds like he is choking while eating, he coughs often and sounds congested a lot. 

Hi, We have a couple of questions about our son, Hudson. The last couple of days he has become progressively fussier. He is presenting signs of an upset stomach, especially after feeding. He is crying and we are not able to settle him, tucking up his legs, and arching his back. His poop has also changed from yellow to a more green color. We are keeping track of his eating and overall he is eating for shorter periods of time. (probably beause he becomes so upset when he starts eating he doesn't want to continue). Once he is upset he starts eating frantically and makes really loud gulping noises and seems like he is taking in air. It also takes a really long time for him to burp and some feeds he won't at all. He does fart a lot. Two days ago he also forcefully spit up what looked like his entire feed. We had the issue with jaundince and waited a little bit too long to act on that so just wanted to make sure we didn't do that again. Some people have suggested some kind of drops to settle his tummy? Or maybe he is just colic? Or perhaps he has reflux? Sorry for all the jumbled info. Any feedback would be much appreciated! Thanks, - Crystal and Nic Campbell

Hudson fell asleep on the car ride over and slept the entire time we waited to be seen (which was over an hour because they had a problem with the insurance). We had the only doctor we hadn't met during that first week of marathon visits. She did all the normal checks (of course he was a perfect angel the entire time) and kept telling me how happy and healthy he seemed. I explained all his symptoms and told her that I had read it could be food allergies so I had cut back on dairy. She looked through a few of his diapers that I was told to bring in and told me that those were in normal range as well. She said I definitely didn't need to cut out diary (I immediately started thinking about the large glass of chocolate milk I was going to down when I got home). She acted as though allergies was very far fetched and it was the least likely explanation for his symptoms. She basically said that he might have a bit of reflux, but it was up to us if we wanted to give him medicine. She said every parent can tolerate different levels of fussiness so see what you can handle and if you can't handle it we can give him medicine. I'm not sure what exactly she meant, but the vibe I was getting was "your son is perfectly healthy and seems like a very happy baby. You obviously just can't handle a little bit of normal baby fussiness." I was pretty annoyed because I knew Hudson was probably less fussy than "normal babies" but I also knew his personality and I knew that he was acting fussier than what was normal for him. The doctor left to test Hudson's stool and Hudson finally got fussy. (I kept thinking she was going to think I did something while she was gone to upset him just to prove that he could in fact be inconsolably fussy. 

When she came back she had a completely apologetic look on her face and told me that Hudson had microscopic traces of blood in his stool. This apparently means that he does have some sort of food intolerances (i.e. allergies). Apparently only 2-3% of babies have this so I can sort of understand why she was skeptical when I suggested it. She told me the most common is dairy so I needed to cut out all dairy if I wanted to continue to breastfeed. She said soy protein is very similar to dairy so I should cut that out as well. She made it sound like I had just been given a death sentence. She told me she felt so sorry for me and said it was an extremely difficult diet for anyone to follow let alone someone who is extra hungry from breastfeeding. She basically said it would probably be too hard and that I would most likely need to give Hudson formula. Of course, if we went that route, our only option would be to give him special (i.e. very expensive) formula. 

I was initially a bit smug that I had been right and I thought to myself that no dairy would be easy. I could cut out milk, butter, yogurt, etc. I knew soy would be a bit trickier because soy is in so many things, but I had no idea how limited my food choices would be just by eliminating those two things.

I came home and looked through our pantry and quickly realized that we didn't have anything for me to eat. Soy and/or dairy is in everything! Plus all the substitutes for one includes the other. I did some research and found out how difficult this diet really is. I read somewhere that only 10% of breastfeeding women whose babies have MSPI (milk/soy protein intolerance) are able to follow the diet and continue breastfeeding. I found a few websites with some tips and recipes and started to make grocery lists. I was pretty bummed as I was discussing what I could and couldn't eat that night with Nic. If you know me at all, you know how much I LOVE food. I thought pregnancy was hard when I had only a handful of no-no food items, now I only had a 4 page list of foods I could eat! 

It was extra bad timing because Nic had gone back to work that week. We now had tons of frozen dinners prepared to make this time easier that we now couldn't eat. I spent most of what little free time I had that week (because Hudson often doesn't feel well, he doesn't sleep well and needs to be held constantly) researching what I could eat. Nic stopped at the grocery store every night that week. We ate pretty basic that week: chicken with mustard and panko crumbs, salads with dairy free, soy free dressing (there are only a few options), vegetables, spaghetti with dairy free, soy free tomato sauce, and I ate a lot of pretzels and fruit for snacks. 

I read that soy takes about 1 week to get out of the babies system and dairy can take up to 5 weeks, but the rash on Hudson's face that we assumed was normal baby acne began to clear up almost immediately. I know this diet is going to be extremely challenging for me (especially with our vacation and the holidays coming up), but Hudson's health is obviously good motivation and I am determined to succeed.