Colic
I think I've pinpointed the cause of Baby E's colic. Or at least narrowed it down to two possibilities.
She has been abolutely miserable last night and today. I finally figured out why--there was only one thing out of the ordinary that I had eaten.
The girls and I made chocolate soy ice cream last night, and it turned out really delicious. We just used our favorite ice cream recipe, substituting soy milk and non-dairy creamer and adding a little extra sugar along with large quantities of cocoa. I ate quite a bit of it. (Well, it wouldn't all fit in the container, and . . . )
Since it took longer than we expected to freeze and the girls didn't get any last night, I let them have just a little bit after breakfast. I had some too.
It wasn't until I was most of the way through my own serving of ice cream and had tried to feed Baby E again that it dawned on me why she was crying. She screamed all morning, and didn't nurse very well.
Obviously she has a problem with either soy or chocolate, or both. Soy is harder to completely avoid, especially since I can't have dairy products because of my own intolerance. But the thought of cutting out chocolate for the next year or so is . . . oh, dear.
Hmmm, there is a small amount of soy sauce in the stir-fry I made for dinner last night, too . . . I had been planning to serve it again tonight.
Since my sister and M have both had problems with soy, I suspect that's the culprit. But I noticed that when I was pregnant I'd feel sick if I ate too much chocolate, and I'd been wondering if there was a correlation between my chocolate consumption and E's fussiness. So I have a sinking feeling that both chocolate and soy are problematic. That would explain why this bout of colic was probably the most intense yet.
Thankfully, I'd been pumping and storing some milk, so I was able to give her a bottle of non-chocolate/soy milk for her next feeding. She was immediately much happier.
I thought nursing was inconvenient, but this is infinitely worse. Bottle-feeding requires a lot of work in sterilizing and preparing the feeding, takes almost as much time as nursing and demands two hands (where nursing takes only one). Then I have to spend another 30-40 minutes pumping after each feeding. Today my Avent Isis seems to be malfunctioning in a very painful way.
I wonder how long I'll need to pump-and-dump before I can start nursing Baby E again without giving her problems? I guess I'll use up my small store of milk and then I'll have to start nursing her again whether the ice cream is out of my system or not. I should have enough milk for at least 4 feedings stored up.
At least this is giving Baby E practice drinking out of a bottle. She did much better this time than with our first attempt.
Maybe sometime soon DH and I can actually go out on a baby-less date.
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Posted by purple_kangaroo at 12:32 PM[Permanent link]
7 Comments:
Oh dear. I think four pumps would probably do it.
About sterilization, we never bothered with anything more than putting the bottles/nipples/rings through the dishwasher. We actually did microwave thawed milk. 10 seconds/oz and SHAKE WELL. Test on your wrist. SHAKE WELL again.
Non-thawed milk must be thawed in hot water.
Liz, thankfully we have an insta-hot tap, so I just fill a huge mug with hot water and set the bags of frozen milk in it. It heats up fairly quickly that way.
I'd worry about the microwave killing good organisms, as well as the problem of uneven heating.
I do use my dishwasher to sterilize things, but if I have to handwash them or they've been sitting for weeks on a shelf after washing, I use my microwave sterilizer. I really like it--it's called the Avent Express and it only takes 6 minutes to do its job.
Oh, gosh. That sounds like no fun at all.
It could be the caffeine in the chocolate, PK. I had that problem with both children -- they were very sensitive to caffeine for the first 6 months, and chocolate kept them up and miserable. When I first realized the problem and figured out that I'd have to give up chocolate for a long time, I cried. Hard.
But giving up soy would be even harder!
You've got my sincere sympathies, whichever it is. Especially because I *hate* pumping.
even screaming and crying, she's super cute.
Poor Baby E. Poor you! My friend had to give up a lot during nursing over her baby's severe reflux and allergies.
I feel for you all. I hope you find the culprit soon.
So sorry to hear about baby E's tummy troubles. 2 of my girls had colic. Thank goodness they both outgrew it at about 3 months.
Just read about your fabulous thrift shop finds. Where the heck do you live??? I'm a thriftyshopper from way back...but we don't have those sorts of goodies in our thrift stores.
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