Warning: Rant Ahead

SERIOUSLY, what is the deal with everyone wanting to feed other people's babies?

Maybe this is just a problem we have, but it seems like every time we share food with anyone, they want to feed E things from their plates.  Sometimes without asking.  When she was six months old, my father-in-law tried to give her root beer.  ROOT BEER.  Another time, I had to fish oranges out of her mouth when another relative gave them to her, without my permission and while I was in the restaurant restroom, before E had been exposed to citrus.  Even last week at church, the lady who holds E while I sing in praise band (and who knows of her dairy allergy) tried to give her a butter-soaked biscuit before church.

And maybe I am just being an irrational bee-otch about the whole thing, but this irritates the HELL out of me.  It annoyed me before we knew E had food allergies, and now it really pisses me off... especially because the offenders are almost always people who KNOW she is allergic to dairy and to whom we have repeatedly explained that we have to be hyper-vigilant about what we feed her because dairy is in everything.  It also makes me super paranoid that if I look away for a second, someone will sneak her food that she shouldn't have and she will be sick for days, all because someone thought they knew better than S and me.  

This rant has been bubbling under the surface for awhile now, but was prompted by dinner last night with my in-laws.  Once again, we spent the entire first half of our meal fending off their attempts to feed E random things (chocolate chip cookies, bacon off of FIL's cheeseburger, breaded chicken strips...) and repeatedly explaining that no, she can't have that, it has dairy in it, while they continued to push the issue and with S's mom shooting increasingly less-subtle dirty looks to FIL from across the table.*  Good times!

I seriously don't know why my in-laws (and everyone else) have such an issue with this.  Does E look like she is starving and needs you to feed her?  She has ranked in at least the 90th percentile for weight pretty much her entire life, so I hardly think that is the reason.  Do they think we are just crazy over-protective parents?  (Probably.)  That we are abusing E by denying her chocolate/butter/etc.?  Or that we are doing this just for fun-sies?  I really don't get it.  Even before having E, I would never offer a child food without asking their parent's permission first.

And I'm sure everyone means well, but SERIOUSLY!  Lay off the baby, she is not starving.



* side note:  MIL hates me and frequently shoots FIL dirty looks any time she disapproves of things I do and say.  Oh, and she hasn't spoken to me since before E's birthday party in November.  But that is another story for another post...

Teething, Dairy, and Sleep Plan: Day 17

E has had quite an eventful 24 hours.

We've discovered a possible reason why her sleep had regressed these past few days... She's been growing FOUR molars!  We knew she had been teething, but last night discovered she has not one, but two, molars popping through!  And she has two more that are so swollen they will surely erupt any day now.  Poor girl!

Also... it seems she has been "dairy-ed" again.  Her little stomach is so upset.  I feel SO bad for her, and don't know how this could have happened again.  Since the great dairy-carrot incident, I have read every label of every food product to pass her lips.  I have a list of the names of "hidden dairy" ingredients in my phone to check against ingredient lists.  We haven't eaten in any restaurants, where she may have consumed questionable ingredients.  The only thing I can think is that she must have eaten something at the Superbowl party we went to, even though I was the only one to feed her and asked our friend (the host) about dairy in all of the food before giving her anything.  I just don't know what else I can do, short of not letting her eat anything that I haven't read the ingredients list of or personally prepared myself.  But I can't let this keep happening... Other food-allergy sufferers, how do you handle this?

On a positive note, E slept from 8:00 p.m. until 2:00 a.m., uninterrupted, last night!  SIX WHOLE HOURS! Then she only woke one more time before waking up for the day around 6:00 a.m.  WHOOHOO!!!!! 

Hidden dairy is the devil

Yesterday, I accidentally fed E dairy.

Today, I can report with certainty that she has not yet outgrown her dairy allergy.*

I feel SO badly for her.  She has had three terrible poopy diapers today already, and her little bum is bright red and covered in weeping blisters.  We are treating it but she just keeps pooping, and every time she does, the diaper rash gets worse.  :'-(

So, what was the culprit, you ask?

Carrots.  Yes, CARROTS.

E loves carrots, and I found some frozen "honey-glazed" carrots at the store that I thought would be perfect for her.  I was in a rush and just quickly threw them in the cart without examining the ingredients.  I mean, they were just frozen carrots, right?

Well, I cooked some for her yesterday, and as she was eating them, I noticed they had a bit of a sauce on them.  I tasted it and noticed it looked a little creamy... uh oh.  I immediately looked the product up on the manufacturer's website, and sure enough:  "CONTAINS MILK AND WHEAT INGREDIENTS."

WTF?!  Since when do vegetables have dairy in them?  (Or wheat, for that matter?)

Of course, I immediately took them away from E, but she had already eaten several of them and the damage had apparently already been done. 

I feel like such an idiot!  I am usually SO good at reading nutrition information and ingredient lists and keeping dairy out of her diet, but this one completely slipped through the cracks.  I didn't even think to read the ingredients on my bag of VEGETABLES.  I am apparently going to have to be even more vigilant in the future.


[*On a related note, S believes that E likely has a dairy allergy vs. lactose intolerance.  I thought people just used the two terms interchangeably to mean the same thing, however, S explained that people with a dairy allergy have an allergic reaction to one or more of the proteins in dairy, whereas an individual who is lactose-intolerant is unable to digest the sugar (lactose) in dairy.  Interesting distinction, no?  But since E can tolerate dairy in my diet, S suspects that she is able to digest lactose (and is thus not lactose-intolerant) and is instead allergic to one of the milk proteins.  Anyway, not a crucial point for this post, but I thought I should clarify and make sure I'm using the proper terminology!]

Lactose Intolerance

Last week at E's one-year appointment, her doctor confirmed what S and I have suspected for a few weeks now -- that our little lady is lactose-intolerant.  I'll spare you the disgusting mucousy poopy diapers details, but suffice it to say she has every textbook symptom each time she consumes dairy.
 
We first noticed when she had yogurt the week before her birthday.  She was really fussy and gassy and had a terrible diaper afterwards.  We already thought she might have issues with dairy, because she also could not tolerate lactose as a newborn (I had to cut all dairy from my diet until she "outgrew" it around 4-5 months old), but we wanted to test her a few more times to be sure it wasn't a fluke.  She then had homemade buttercream frosting (pure butter + sugar) twice the week of her birthday, and cottage cheese a few times after that, and was fussy and had all of the other symptoms every single time.  So far, it seems only straight dairy upsets her stomach; dairy ingredients baked into something else (i.e. in cake or bread) don't seem to bother her too much, thankfully.  Her doctor suggested starting her on soy milk instead of whole cow's milk (we hadn't tried cow's milk yet, for this reason), and then every few weeks offer her a small amount of dairy to see if she develops a tolerance for it.  If not, she will be officially tested at 18 months, and we can go from there. 

I am happy to report that so far, she seems to be doing great on the soy milk.  We started her on it last week, and so far she seems to really like it and has drank (drunk?) it without complaint.  However, I feel like I am kind of hitting a wall in choosing foods to give to her, especially for breakfast.  I try to make sure she gets multiple servings of fruit/vegetables, a protein, and a grain every day (and at least two of the three at each meal), but I am stumped as to what to feed her in the morning.  She can't eat oatmeal (it makes her vomit), and obviously can't have yogurt.  So far I've just been giving her dry cereal, fruit, or eggs, which I'm sure is going to get boring quick.

Any suggestions for lactose-free breakfast ideas?