Calprotectin
Kimberly Rosenthal October 2015
My baby was a typical sleepy baby for the first 2 weeks of his life. I had a “colicky” baby previously (started at birth) so I was thrilled to see I made it two weeks and my son only cried when he was hungry or tired. At 3 weeks, everything changed. He cried constantly, was very gassy, kept pulling his legs up to his chest, arched his back and couldn’t sleep unless it was on me.
This went on for about a month, when my son’s pediatrician told me to try cutting dairy out of my diet. Well, I did that for weeks with no improvement so I also decided to cut soy (2 more weeks). So after a month without improvement, we saw the doctor again. His pediatrician told me I would need to go on formula. I refused and told him I wanted to see a GI doctor. He told me I didn’t need one but I pushed for it, and he wrote the referral. Well about a week later (cut out gluten in the meantime just in case) the GI had a cancellation and got us in. By this time, my baby had eczema really bad, cradle cap, and had just started getting green mucousy stools, but tested negative for blood in stool.
The GI doc told me to try eliminating all top 8 allergens. Well I did, and he was getting worse once again. So during the 2 weeks I also cut out corn, citrus, and legumes. When I went back to the GI doc 2 weeks later, my baby was way worse than ever before and this time he tested positive for blood in his stool (never visible). This is when the GI doctor told me I must go on formula, “how could you do this to your baby”, he said. That night I cried all night. He made me feel so horrible. I even tried giving my baby formula which he refused over and over again. So of course I gave in and breastfed him. The next morning I decided I am not going to listen to the doctors until I have tried everything possible. So I started the Dr. Sears TED (but switched rice to quinoa because I was eating rice previously and thought that could be a problem). Within 3 days he was getting worse once again (later found out it was the potato), so I decided to just pick 3 foods I thought I could live on for the next few weeks. I chose turkey, quinoa and pear. 10 days later I had a new baby! His eczema cleared, cradle cap was almost gone, he was happy (except when he was tired), and he hardly cried. He just didn’t seem to be in pain anymore. His stools were still mucousy but the color was returning to yellow.
At my next GI appointment, his stools tested negative for blood and the doctor said I could start reintroducing foods. Well the first several foods I tried were fails (visible blood this time). Finally after 2 months of just eating Turkey, Quinoa and Pear, with the occasional trials, I was able to add sweet potato back into my diet. Then Avocado came next. Now my baby is a few days short of 5 months old and I am still only able to eat 5 foods. During the time I was trialing food, I realized he was intolerant to some of the most common foods that everyone believes are safe, such as rice, oats and potato.
Since I am still not able to successfully add more food back again, we went to see an allergist. He finally decided to do a blood test because my son randomly breaks out in hives. The allergist told me to eat whatever I want, he doesn’t believe my son could be allergic or intolerant to this many things. Well he tested his blood and he did test positive for eggs, peanuts and milk. I also showed him the pictures of my baby’s stools and the rashes he gets after eating certain foods and the allergist said I needed to try formula if that’s the case. Once again I am refusing because I do know for sure as long as I eat my 5 safe foods, my baby is fine. I am just going to keep trialing new food until I finally find a few more that he could tolerate. I am hoping by 6 months old he may grow out of some of his intolerances so that keeps me positive while on this diet. I am surprised at the extent I was able to go for my baby. I have never been good at dieting. I love food! (especially cookies and pizza). I never thought I could live without those things, but I am doing it, and I plan to continue until my baby is able to eat enough solids that I won’t need to breastfeed anymore.
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