Milking It

A couple of weeks after Orion was born, I gave myself a firm pat on the back for having safely sidestepped postpartum depression. Of course, I was dealing with my stress by living on nothing but peanut butter cups and spending 20 hours a day on the Internet with my BabyCenter birth club. So, although I didn't FEEL like a depressed person I sure was playing one on TV. At least I had a chance to channel the Crazy by putting using my medical degree from the University of Google to diagnose Orion's GI issues.

The first thing I figured out was absolutely correct. He had a raging case of reflux. It took a couple of weeks and a trip across town to a specialist (who was kind enough to walk a screaming Orion down the hall for a few minutes to give me a break) but we got the right medication rolling and that has been under control ever since. The second thing I Googled up was a home-diagnosis of Milk Protein Allergy.

Orion had this horrible orange-yellow runny poop all the time. My research told me that it was the milk proteins in my diet that he was reacting to. I guess there are a lot of milk proteins in peanut butter cups. Faced with the possibility of having to cut out all of the dairy in my diet (read: I was addicted to the peanut butter cups) I made the decision to switch him to formula. Luckily, I was able to dodge all of the expensive and smelly specialty formulas by using Good Start, which doesn't have the milk protein Casein in it. All was right with the world. OK, life was still crazy but at least Orion's poop issues were resolved.

I kind of forgot that someday it would become highly unfashionable for Orion to still be drinking formula and that he'd be getting his milk proteins the old fashioned way, as the beverage included in a Chicken McNugget Happy Meal. I guess that's why, when his recent switch from formula to whole milk was followed by a return of the nasty yellow poop, I didn't instantly recognize the problem. But lo and behold, here we are over a year after my initial diagnosis dealing again with the potential of Milk Protein Allergy. Either that, or he isn't tolerating the peanut butter cups I'm feeding him. (I kid! He much prefers Snickers bars.)

Our first shot at defeating the Yellow Poop of Doom was to change his bottle-beverage to Almond milk, which Orion loves because its sweet and expensive. At three days post-switch, it's not seeming to be good enough. We're now facing down the elimination of all dairy products from Orion's diet.

What a pain in the ass. Anybody got a peanut butter cup?