Sunday, November 1, 2009

A Cow Says Maaa...

I should have known. I always hope I can get away with things. But I have been caught once again, this time by genetics. Clare's dad is lactose intolerent. Yeah - no ice cream for him. And I remember quite vividly going with my mom to the goat farm to get milk for me. So why I thought I could skate by this one I don't know.

I think Clare is allergic to cow's milk protein. I started her on full-fat yogurt at eight months. And she immediately pooped; it ran right through her and came out a beige color. Which is absolutely gorgeous on my new purse I must say, but as a 8 month-old child's bowel movement - not so pretty. So I backed off on the yogurt. I was hoping it was the brand which was flavored but when I tried plain, the same result. So I waited until ten months and gave it to her again. She seemed to tolerate it much better and her poops didn't change. So after a couple weeks I gave her cheese and she seemed to handle that fine as well. Around her first birthday I started introduing whole milk to her, which she had no interest in. But I also started weaning her and with less breast milk, she started drinking more whole cow's milk. She is now weaned and I have noticed that if she consumes more than about 8 ounces of cow's milk she gets the beige poop.

I did some research (http://www.askdrsears.com/, http://www.wholesomebaby.com/), asked some friends, and talked to her pediatrician. Based on Clare's age and response to the cow's milk, I think she is allergic to the protein in cow's milk and not lactose intolerant. My choices were to keep the cow's milk at a minimum and increase her intake of cheese and yogurt as well as water; offer her lactose-free cow's milk instead; or switch her to a different milk. There are a lot of different milk products available - goat, soy, rice and almond to name the most common. Goat's milk is the most similar to cow's milk in nutrients, fats, and proteins. It is lower in folic acid and B-12, which I will need to supplement. I would prefer to just reduce her intake of milk; however, she is on the small side (55 percentile in height, 5 percentile in weight) so I try to get as much healthy fat in her as I can.

So we are on the fourth day of trying goat's milk; the first day exclusively goat's milk. I gradually increased the amount of goat's milk while decreasing the cow's milk in her cups. As soon as the goat's milk content reached 50%, her bowel movements became more normal in color and consistancy. Clare hasn't shown an indication that she has noticed a change from cow's to goat's milk. I will keep you updated on Clare's Great Goat Experiment. Maaaa....

3 comments:

rachel said...

is this going to affect her ice cream consumption when she comes to visit?

Apples to Zucchini said...

Nah...a little cow's milk doesn't seem to bother her. And we can't visit your house without ice cream - the girls would scream!

grace said...

Well, at least you know that she was allergic now. That does not sound like an attractive diaper to change!