I'm very pleased to be writing this post. Over the moon, actually! When Bradyn was 14 months old, in July, a pediatric allergist was able to come up with a solution to all over her issues. We have now diagnosed her as severely lactose intolerance, as well as having disorder of carbohydrate metabolism. Condensed, she cannot tolerate fructose (sugar found in fruit). She can do real sugar in smaller amounts, but her diet now consists of oatmeal, unsweetened soy milk and yogurt, lean protein, some veggies, and a few other items. She cannot have anything with high fructose corn syrup, so that eliminates 95% of packaged foods. I've been shopping for her at our Co-op, to find crackers and stuff that are HFCS free. She eats plain Cherrios and Kix like they will only be around one more day. I've bought almond cheese (trust me, its dsgusting) that she LOVES. I make her own bread so that she can have sandwiches, which can be fresh meat like turkey (no lunch meat) or natural peanut butter made only from peanuts with no sugar additives. So, all the doctors appointments, everything we went through for her first year of life with her tummy aches and crying....it all vanished within a week of changing her diet. We are SO pleased beyond belief to finally have our sweet and happy baby! She is still very slow at weight gain, although she is growing normally in length. She weighs in at 19.9 lbs as of a couple days ago. Which is below anything that will register on the growth charts. Being small in size seems so insignificant compared to being in pain all day every day for over a year. I have a lot of guilt over Bradyn, and I have learned so much from her. I've learned that a parents instinct is SO important. I remember telling our doctor when Bradyn wasn't even 6 months that I believed the problem was somewhere between her stomach and intestines. I knew that she just wasn't a "fussy baby" as they had labeled her. At any rate, she seems to be developing normally since the diagnosis, and I think her weight will catch up someday!
