Worth a Thousand Words

Swine flu? To much to drink for NYE? Tired of hearing about health care reform? Why would this baby be napping over a bowl?

Well, the allergy fairies are biting us in the asses. With dairy....WTF? Dairy? That's not even funny.

Back in August Bud gave Ellie one of those wee bottles of formula that they give you at the hospital. A few hours later she started vomiting, a lot. She kept it up at 10 minute intervals for about 3 hours. We thought maybe the formula was bad, or just hard on her belly. Then a few days before Christmas I gave her some of that new baby yogurt. Then, because I am extra smart I put her down for a nap. She woke up an hour later covered in vomit. I freaked the hell out because my mom's baby brother died at 4 months from suffocating on spit up. (my mom was the one to find him, she was 8). So Bud held Ellie over the sink for 3 hours puking every 6 minutes. I sat in the corner freaking out about how I could have killed her with the damn yogurt.

Anywho, we put 2 and 2 together and figured she must have a dairy allergy. Then last week I gave her some baby cookies that she loved. Then I looked at the label and notice the 5th ingredient??? Milk. I hoped since it was a minor ingredient, and baked it would be ok. But no! No! There was more changing of the sheets, more time over the sink. So this sucks. I hate reading labels. And I get the feeling Ellie hates throwing up.

So much of my time this week has been spent googling. And I am kind of freaking out. I don't know how to cook without cheese. My people are from the midwest, everything has cheese or sour cream or butter, or best case all three. She doesn't seem sensitive to me having dairy, so I have no idea how this will play out. I am hoping she grows out of it. But do we experiment every six months, and then apologize for the vomitfest?

We will address this with her pediatrician next month, but I know he will say we have to wait and see. He so doesn't know me, I need stats about the number of kids who outgrow it, at what age? I majored in math for god sake, give me some numbers and percents. He can make em up. Just don't tell me to wait and see.

I know there are some great (bullshit) options out there like soy milk, and (gag) rice milk or whatever. I'm sure as a family we can all pull together and become more healthy by exploring some of these other options and reworking many of our recipes. But..... that won't happen. I know us, we will just buy her the separate gross milk, I will make her a different bowl of mashed potatoes, and she will have frozen fruit sorbet while we have ice cream. She will feel like an outcast in her own family, with her labeled food in the fridge. She will resent us, and probably start dressing all goth and shit. We will remind her what a happy baby she was, and she will scream about us choosing the creamy goodness of dairy over her.

Or, you know, maybe she will grow out of it.