Allergy Update

While we were on vacation at Bethany Beach, Marty accidentally gave Ellie some English Muffin that had milk as one of the ingredients (I swear you would be shocked by all of the random things that have milk in them!) so since it was already done, we decided to go all out and give her a cup of milk. That way, if she did have a reaction, there would be no doubt what it was. It took a little more than a day, but Ellie was eventually covered in a head to toe rash (mild though it was) and had just a few nasty looking hives. The good news is that she didn't really seem to have any gastro-intestinal issues and actually thought the milk was pretty tasty. Maybe one day she will be able to enjoy it! And really, the rash wasn't that bad, it's just that it was everywhere. She had one afternoon of being completely and totally melt-down crazy, but we have no proof that it was the milk. It could have just been end of vacation craziness.

So after the rash and hives completely cleared up (nearly a week later), we got some soy milk and gave that to her. This was much less successful on many levels (though I don't really know that head to toe rash and hives is successful, but whatever). First of all she HATED it. This is my fault because I bought the unsweetened kind and upon tasting it myself realize that Elise is right - it's pretty gross. The rice milk is fairly sweet, so I am little worried that it has spoiled her to sweet things. But, sweet or not, the unsweetened soy milk is just plain disgusting. So, I mixed it with rice milk and she tolerated it enough to drink a cup.

The reaction to the soy was much, much worse than the milk. There actually was not rash or hives, but she had horrible gas pains and was completely miserable. She was gassy and crying and generally a wreck. It was like the old days and it was terrible. Rash and hives on a happy baby is much better than rash-less baby in pain.

So what does all of this mean? Well, it basically means that we are back to square one. She is still not getting enough fat in her diet and we need to find something to replace milk since rice milk does not have a sufficient amount of fat. The pediatrician gave us a list of foods we could try (avocado, beans, olive oil, etc) but she has not liked any of those things. So, I am going to make an appointment with a nutritionist to try to figure all of this out. Ah, the joys of parenthood!