I ended up having to bring Margaret in to her pediatricians' office Tuesday. She got really inconsolable Monday night and Tuesday, so they wanted to see her. Just a stomach bug was the diagnosis, and fortunately, no other symptoms to worry about. But I was advised to switch her to soy formula for a few days to give her digestive system a chance to recover. I guess when babies get stomach bugs like this, it tends to kill off the parts of their digestive system that break down lactose. Making sure she's not taking in any lactose gives it a chance to rebuild. The soy did the trick but when I tried to switch her back to her old formula (Enfamil Gentlease) this afternoon, she almost immediately ended up with diarrhea again. Back to soy...
I'm wondering if we might have to stick with soy. She's had problems with gas and fussiness since birth, so I'm wondering if she has an undiagnosed milk protein or lactose intolerance because she continues to gain weight in spite of these feeding issues. She did really well on Gentlease (1/4 the lactose of normal cow's milk formula) but is doing even better on soy, so maybe that's the problem. I was hesitant to use it at first because of the controversy out there about everything with soy, including the long-term effects of the phytoestrogens in soy and the link I read about between soy and peanut allergies (they are in the same family, after all). But soy has been on the market since the early 60s. It can't be that bad, can it? And if she does even better on that, shouldn't I give her what she's best able to digest?
We had Margaret's 4 month appointment today. She now weighs 19 lbs 3.5 oz and she is 26 inches long. She continues to be off the charts, although she's getting further off for weight now. Her doctor wants us to cut back on how much formula she's taking in. She's been taking in 36 oz/day in 6 feedings of 6 oz per day for the last couple months. In the last few weeks, she's started acting hungry even after finishing. But I was afraid of giving her too much formula, so I did not increase her intake. Now I'm supposed to cut back, 1-2 ounces per feeding! The last few nights we've started having a hard time getting her up for her 9:30/10PM feeding, so I'm going to try to drop one feeding a day (so she'll have 5 6-oz bottles for a total of 30 oz/day). But I have my doubts it will work.
On top of that, her doctor wants me to start rice cereal. I did not even ask him about this, as I wanted to wait until 6 months to introduce solids because of the potential risk of food allergies from early introduction, as well as the AAP recommendation to wait that long. I'm a bit surprised her doctor would recommend starting now - especially since he's a young doctor, so he's been through med school fairly recently and I'm sure they discussed these newer guidelines of waiting longer. Margaret also had a mild case of eczema when I saw him last month, so I asked him if that meant she was more likely to develop food allergies. He felt that her case was so mild that it was probably more irritant-related than indicative of future problems with foods. I hope he's right. Regardless, I'm waiting until we figure out the formula thing before I add solids. I also plan on skipping cereals, since they basically are sugar in the body and therefore of no nutritional value. If I can hold out until she's 5 months old, I'll probably be okay with it. That's a compromise I can live with. But I also think she won't be happy with the decreased formula unless she's eating solids, too, so I may have no choice in the matter.
Tonight's the first night of cutting 1 feeding. We got her down for the night by about 9PM, when she normally isn't down until 10/10:30PM. I have a feeling I'll be up by 4AM, but I'm hoping for the best.
Homemade Oatmeal Cream Pies
5 years ago
3 comments:
Start the solids when you and Margaret feel ready.
We started at 4 months because Liam is at the table with us when we eat and he watches intently every bite we take. He was literally chomping at the bit to have food. We mostly skipped the cereal and did veggies. He still doesn't eat too much fruit and only a few meats. We do mix applesauce with cereal now as a treat now and again.
We were worried about cutting out the evening bottle, but I don't think he ever noticed. Hope Margaret does the same.
If you don't already have it, I highly recommend the book Super Baby Food. I babysat for a parent who had this book and while the baby was napping I looked through it. It has really great information about the pros and cons of starting solids early as well as some really great easy recipes for all natural baby foods. Here's their website: http://www.superbabyfood.com/
Glad Maggie is doing a bit better, poor baby. We've used soy formula for a while now, since Bella seemed to have gas issues with the regular cow's milk variety, and she loves it. I've only heard good things about soy in general, so I've always felt good about it. Hadn't heard about the link to peanut alergies, though. At any rate, we also had to cut back on Bella's intake after her 4 month appointment, in a similar situation with her seeming to want more but not easily waking for that last bottle, and with similar concerns, but had no problem cutting out that last bottle. It seemed really to be what she was headed toward anyway. Hope it's the same with Maggie!
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