Before Mila, I had never heard of either of these two things which is a little odd considering I am in the medical field. Over these past months, these two abbreviations have become a big part of our lives. Starting at two weeks of age, I noticed that Mila had a lot of issues with gas and gas pains. After doing some research, I decided to cut out all dairy and soy from my diet as I was exclusively breastfeeding her. With these changes I did notice some improvement, however, this was very short lived. At around 6 weeks of age, she started having these episodes where she would stop nursing and just scream in pain. This could last anywhere from 20 minutes to an hour plus. The only thing that seemed to calm her would be to put her in the Moby Wrap and walk with her. I also noticed that her stools never changed from the green color to the yellow mustard color like it should have. Her diapers also seemed to contain a lot of mucous. At first we thought her episodes may be related to reflux, so we tried giving her some Mylanta prior to feedings. Big mistake!!! That only escalated her symptoms. Finally I started doing some research online and discovered that all of her symptoms (abdominal pain, fussiness, not sleeping, stool changes, ezcema, etc) fit the picture of an infant with MSPI or Milk Soy Protein Intolerance. Sure enough when we met with her pediatrician later that week and she just so happen to have an episode of pain did he agree with me. Right away I took a look at my diet and eliminated all dairy, soy, and milk protein. Within a few weeks we noticed a significant difference in our baby girl!
Things seemed to go well over the next couple months so once she reached the five and a half month mark, we decided to try a round of cereal. Due to my diagnosis of Celiac Disease, we knew to avoid oats and instead went with rice cereal. After much research, I decided to try the Happy Bellies Brown Rice Cereal as it is gluten, dairy, and soy free. The first night she did great and really seemed to enjoy it. Second night same thing. The third night was a disaster! She ate the cereal without any problems, however, that night she was up all night, screaming in pain, very irritable. Sure enough the next day she started having green mucousy stools again......
After doing some research, I then decided to try some avocado. After a couple days she seemed to be tolerating it okay, so we advanced to sweet potatoes. Gradually I started making my way through different fruits and vegetables but soon we were having sleepless nights, an infant screaming in pain, really gassy, etc. Finally took her to see our pediatrician who diagnosed her with FPIES or Food Protein Induced Entercolitis Syndrome. Luckily her issues have not been too severe as others with this have infants who are vomiting to the point they get so dehydrated they need to go to the ER for IV fluids.
Once we had the new diagnosis, we started again from scratch trialing foods for at least a week to two weeks. So far she has tolerated squash, sweet potatoes, pears, sweet peas for pureed food. Solids she will eat chunks of avocado, bananas, white potato, and sweet potatoes. She also enjoys Kix cereal. Her fails so far are brown rice cereal, carrots, apples/applesauce, mangoes and any pureed baby food with ascorbic acid, citric acid, lemon juice, etc. She also just recently had an episode where she was up for 30 minutes, screaming in pain, thrashing around in our bed. Nothing could be done to calm her down :( We are not sure what exactly caused this, she did try some french fries that had some preservatives so for now those will be avoided.
Hopefully she will outgrow this issues by the time she is one or shortly thereafter. I have tried adding soy product back to my diet slowly. She seems to tolerate soy lethicin, soy sauce, etc. But the two times I have tried soy milk she doesn't sleep well, really gassy, and has issues with her stools. We will retry this maybe next month.....
These past 10 months have definitely not been the easiest, especially with the many sleepless nights. In comparison to others who have kids with the same issues, we are definitely one of the lucky ones. We have no issues with her nursing, taking her bottles, or eating her solids. Though she is on the small scale, she is still gaining weight and growing. Developmentally she seems to be on track hitting her milestones, lately she has been moving about the room by scooting on her bottom and she is working on pulling herself up to stand!
Love my little princess!
