I've known for a while now that Kenzie was a Milk Soy Protein Intolerance (MSPI) baby. I've adapted my diet to eliminate all sources of milk and soy. It is quite possibly one of the more challenging things I've had to do. I thought I was being so careful, but I do admit that I have been a little less OCD about checking ingredient labels recently. That's when my first major panic moment as a mom happened. The Tuesday before Thanksgiving I change Kenz's diaper and find two large drops of blood in there. I panicked! As a nurse I know that blood does not come from intestines and into stool unless something is wrong. I instantly looked closely for hemorrhoids (I knew the chance of that at her age was minimal, but still) and fissures. I didn't think she had either really because she's not ever had a problem with constipation. I called her doctor and we met with him the following afternoon. He said that the two most common causes of blood in stools in babies is a fissure or allergy. We both looked and didn't see any fissures so that left us with the allergy. He gave me samples of a special milk-free, soy-free formula and told me to try that exclusively if the blood continued or worsened. The blood seemed to have gone away Wednesday aside from little specs which she has had for a while. However, Thursday mid-morning the blood returned and we made the decision to switch her to the Nutramigen. We had her on only formula for 40 hours and she had even more blood in her stool so back to the doctor we went. Unfortunately, it was a Saturday and her regular pediatrician wasn't working so we were stuck seeing a nurse pracitioner in the same department. She was nice enough but talked to me like I didn't know what I was doing. She decided that Kenz had several fissures that was where the blood was coming from. She suggested that we go back to breastfeeding since Kenz liked it better and ultimately that's what we wanted for her. I didn't feel great about this option, but she hated the formula and had been so cranky since we switched. As soon as I started nursing her she just melted into me. She had a couple bouts of blood in her stool since, but as of last Wednesday there was no blood! I'm so relieved. It was so frustrating seeing blood in her poo and everyone telling me not to worry about it while everything in my gut told me something was right.
That being said I have also wondered if she has a sensitivity to almonds. When I first got the idea of the milk intolerance I switched to using almond milk, but found that she still had lots of watery, mucousy stool. I then switched to rice milk for everything. Since I finally got her poo back to looking normal this weekend, I decided to try almond milk again and see if she still had problems. I got a carton of vanilla almond milk (my favorite) and had some Saturday morning, and by Saturday evening the blood had returned. I then stopped the almond milk and the blood and mucous went away. I talked to her doctor about it when we came in the first time for the blood and he told me he didn't think it was a problem because it was so rare. However, based on the appearance of blood I think she does have an intolerance. I'm hoping that it is something that will outgrow like they think she will with the milk intolerance.
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