Before I became a parent I knew a lot about parenting. After all, I work in child development and regularly instruct parents as to how to help their children reach their developmental milestones, learn social skills, and generally blossom to their full potentials. However, in the last few months I have learned that my knowledge and skills mean exactly....nothing.
Aaron is 11 weeks old now, and for those of you who are around locally you know that since he was about 4 weeks old we have been dealing with excessive fussiness and colicky behavior. I love my son more than I can say, but his crying can be intense and is often very frustrating. If you have ever seen the DVD "The Period of Purple Crying" you will understand the level of crying I am talking about. I have been frustrated, I have been depressed, and I have cried many tears. Jonathan is sometimes better than I am at soothing the crying, and I am thankful to have him with me as a part of this parenting team. After doing a lot of research and talking with our pediatrician, we have made the decision for me go dairy free to see if that dietary change will lessen what we think is intestinal discomfort and pain, as well as some silent reflux. Since many kids with dairy sensitivities also have soy allergies, I am also limiting my intake of soy. So far I've tried Almond Milk and rice cheese. Not too bad tasting alternatives I must say.
Hi Sarah! I'm thrilled that you started a blog - I follow quite a few. I'm sorry to hear that your introduction to parenthood has been challenging. A wailing baby can be so discomforting in so many ways. I'm glad the doc is trying dairy free. Seems more and more babies are experiencing this difficulty and I fear it's due to the "progress" we've made at the farm. Hope you'll all get some relief soon. Hugs!
ReplyDeleteLittle Man was a fussy baby, too. We think it was, in part, his metabolic disorder (the formula that he has for it is icky - even the metabolic doc told us he probably wouldn't like it) and the general reflux. Once we had him on the gentle formula (not the soy, just the gentle) mixed with his metabolic formula, he calmed down quite a bit. Now that he's older, he's gotten used to his metabolic formula (which is mixed into his milk) so he's not so crabby about it.
ReplyDeleteIf you're thinking it's a problem with dairy, going dairy-free is grand. And if it's not dairy, going dairy-free isn't going to hurt him as long as he gets everything he needs. Of course, in a couple of months he'll be gearing up for solids :)