JACOB DOESN'T...
as many of you know, jacob has had quite a run (no pun intended!) of poop issues. and yes, it's called poop by me. for those of you out there who are saying, "it's a b.m. or a bowel movement or a stool"...you're just gonna have to live with the word P.O.O.P. for this post!!! anyway....for a long while, when he was just a baby, jacob was very constipated. after several visits to the doc, they diagnosed him with "chronic constipation", which meant he would need to take miralax (a laxative powder) every day. we were told that he would probably need to continue with this until he was ready to potty train. the idea is that you don't want the child to be fearful of pooping (yes, there's that word again!) when they start to potty train. you want them to be able to go easily. more recently, along with jacob's trouble "going", we started hearing a lot of "i have a bellyache", accompanied by jacob running around the house holding his belly. we figured it was just painful for him, as it would be for anyone.
well...eventually, the constipation seemed to end...he had normal poops for a while....until he decided to switch it up a bit...and had diarrhea. concerned that it was from the miralax, i called the doc....they told us to stop the miralax until he became regular again, but not to wait until he was constipated. so...the runs came and went and back on miralax he went. while his poop may have been changing, one thing remained the same...the cries of pain and "bellyache" were heard loud and clear. then...he developed a nasty diaper rash. in the past we'd been told to just use vaseline for said rashes, rather than the thick creams, which can sometimes be more irritating to the skin. when we saw no visible changes to the rash and the cries of pain continued, i decided it was time to visit the doc again. unfortunately, i was only able to get an appointment with the ONE doc i don't really prefer. believe you me, after this appointment, i will NO LONGER be seeing her either! after explaining what had been going on and that i could no longer stand to see or hear my child in this kind of pain, she asked about his diet. now, i will admit, jacob doesn't have the BEST diet, but he has a pretty basic diet for a 2 year old...ya know, waffles, chicken nuggets, oatmeal, cereal, pasta, some fruit, and really no veggies. i know...not great, but c'mon, it's the same diet andrew had at the age of 2...and mostly that he still has today at the age of 6! i don't claim to be a "healthy mom"...just a mom! anyway...the doc proceeded to give me about a 10 minute lecture on how poor jacob's diet is and that if we wanted to see/hear the pain go away, that it was our job to provide him with better meals. when i asked what happens if he refuses the food (which we had experienced with andrew before), she went all old skool on me and said, "it is the parent's job to provide the food and the child's job to eat it. if he doesn't eat it, you simply say ok and he goes hungry. he'll eat eventually." sure lady....whatever!!! apparently you never tried that, and had a kid screaming and throwing a complete fit, while you sat there feeling completely useless as a parent....because that's about the way it happened when we tried it with andrew. meanwhile, the doc didn't even look at his tush....saying she's sure it'll clear up with the right foods! so...i left the office feeling not much better than when i had arrived.....actually i felt worse! a couple days went by and i was still trying to figure out what we could do to make this all better.
hmmmm.....we could try a dairy free diet.
and so it began.....jacob has been dairy free for about 3 weeks now. while the bellyaches haven't gone away completely, they have definitely subsided. about a week into it, we had a trip to the doc office for flu shots, this time with the doc we usually see, who i really like. i asked if she would take a look at jacob's tushy, explaining that the rash still had not gone away and that it was really getting worse. she took one look and said, "oh, that's strep!" huh??? strep....on his butt??? what was she talking about??? well, it turns out she does know what she's talking about....one culture and about 5 minutes later, it was confirmed...STREP! a 14 day course of amox was prescribed and she agreed that we should stick with the dairy free diet for at least 4-6 more weeks.
he still has issues going poop, but i think a lot of it is that he is still so fearful of the pain he endured when he had the rash....or STREP rather!
it is definitely tricky feeding a dairy free child! he loves the vanilla soy milk, which is great....but that's about it. he does not like the soy yogurt or cheese. we also have to be very careful about checking ingredients...you'd be surprised how many items have milk in them!!! so....i'd LOVE to know any kid-friendly dairy free food ideas you may have....and PLEASE keep in mind what i described his diet to be... please don't send a recipe for vegetable soup or a veggie casserole....unless of course, you are sending it for ME to eat :)
ok....i gotta run....we're outta soy milk again....
