No more dairy for me

Last week, we found some blood in Chaya's poop. The first time we saw it, it was a bit alarming, her poop was bright red. We called our pediatrician, went in to have her checked out. Other than the blood, she seemed healthy and happy. The doctor wanted to test a stool sample to rule out various things, like infections, bacteria or viruses, we're still waiting on some of those results. She also suggested I go completely off dairy, in case it could be a dairy protein intolerance. This can be common in babies, they have trouble digesting the dairy that I'm eating, that's going through my breastmilk to them. I know many women who have had to give up dairy, and it made their babies feel a lot better. It could also have something to do with the reflux and gas. So I cut out all dairy, which is a little tough. I was finally used to drinking cow's milk (which I hadn't liked since I was a kid), and actually really liked. Cheese is the tough thing to give up, it makes everything so good, and is a really easy snack to eat with bread, crackers or tortillas. But oh well, anything to try to make my babies feel better. The complicated thing is, often the intolerance also applies to soy. So we'll see how things are in a few weeks with no dairy, if things have improved, we'll know it was a dairy problem. If things are the same, I may have to also eliminate soy from my diet... which will restrict things even more! Oh boy.

They are also on Zantac to try to help with the reflux. Both girls were spitting-up really bad at one point, during feedings, right after feedings, and in between. Sometimes it seemed like all the milk they had just drank was coming out. At first, it didn't seem to bother them, but after a week or so, they started crying sometimes when spitting up, and waking from a nap crying and sometimes screaming, and then spitting-up. So it might be causing them a little pain and irritation now. They also have had a lot of gas for a while now, and it seems to hurt them at times, they'll cry and scream, let out a fart, and then calm down. After a little over a week of being on the Zantac, we've noticed a bit less spitting-up, so we're going to keep giving it to them. Also giving gas drops.