Nathan was born via C-section and so he was given a bottle right away while I was in recovery (no big deal). My milk took a bit to come in so we supplemented with formula while at the hospital. He dropped over 10% of his birth weight in the first few days, but gradually began to pack it back on. By time we were released from the hospital Nathan was in the 50th percentile for weight and was being exclusively breastfed!! I was so excited!
About 3 weeks after Nathan was born we started to notice blood in his stools. We took him to the pediatrician and the diagnosis was that he was allergic to cow's protein. I then went on a VERY strict diet...no dairy, whey, soy, etc. I was reading labels left and right and found that everything in my normal diet contained some form of cow's protein, so I pretty much went on a veggie and meat diet. After 2 weeks of breastfeeding Nathan while not eating cow's protein the bloody stools were still there...and getting worse! In fact one day I changed 6 bloody diapers in a span of 4 hours...I was a nervous mommy so off to the ER we went when James got home. At the ER they did many tests and x-rays on the little guy...he was such a trooper! The ped doctor on duty decided to put Nathan on Nutramigen (a formula that is for babies with a severe allergy to cow's protein, soy, etc.) I stopped breastfeeding and we tried the new formula out. Again after 2 weeks we hadn't seen much of a change so the pediatrician in Cheyenne sent us to Children's Hospital in Denver to see a gastroenterologist. Lucky for us, Nathan had a blow-out diaper during the appointment that contained blood so they were able to see what was happening. The GI doctor does not think any of this is hurting Nathan since he is a happy baby, doesn't cry when his stomach is pushed on and has wet/poppy diapers often. Since Nutramigen didn't seem to work there maybe a more severe allergy than originally suspected. The problem is there is no way to test for that. However there is a formula that is given to babies/kids when the allergy is unknown. So now Nathan is on Elecare...it smells terrible, makes him spit up constantly thus he is always hungry and cannot be found at any grocery store or pharmacy!
Since starting the process of seeing doctors Nathan's weight has gone from a healthy 50th percentile on the bell curve down to the 35th percentile. Since he is still young we don't know what "curve" he is going to stay on, so this is a bit of a concern and his weight has to be monitored. After 2 weeks of being on Elecare we will go in for a weight check, at 3 weeks we will check in with the GI pediatrician and at 4 weeks we will make a decision as to whether or not more testing needs to be done. I am happy to report that Nathan has only had 5 bloody stools in the past 6 days!!! Please pray that we have found the answer and that Nathan will grow out of this allergy (most babies do by the age of one).
I will spare you the bloody diaper pics (yes, I took pictures to show the doctors!) and share with you our little trooper during his ER and doctors visits:
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| ER visit |
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