Flat heads and food allergies

Baby E had her 2-month well-baby check today. The doctor could hear some mucous around her bronchial cords, but her lungs were clear and her breathing sounded good. She and I both still get occasional hoarseness or coughing at brief, seemingly random intervals.

Baby E smiled and cooed at the doctor and seemed to thoroughly enjoy the exam. She weighed in at 14 lbs. 3 oz. and 25 inches, 90th and 95th percentile. Her head circumference was only 50th percentile, and it looks (as I suspected) like her occipital bone (the bone at the back of the skull) is overlapping the other bones in her head. She should grow out of that with no problems, the doctor said.

The main concern is that she's developing a flat spot on the back right side of her head. The doctor said I needed to either start having her sleep on her belly, or prop her head to the left when she's sleeping.

Neither of those options sound great to me because of the risk of SIDS or smothering. Whenever we lay Baby E on her stomach during the day, when she gets tired of it she plants her face straight down into the blanket and cries, making her breathing labored. And I can't see how it would be safe to put something beside her head where if she did manage to turn her head to the right, it would be up against her face.

So I don't know what we'll do. I think we'll start by trying to increase the amount of awake time she spends on her belly as much as possible, and turning her head to the left after she falls asleep.

Since we're still getting over being sick, I wanted to wait a week or so to make sure E is well before having her vaccinated. Meanwhile, I requested the product inserts for the vaccines she's supposed to get. They'll make for some time-consuming but interesting reading.


So far, I've discovered that several of the vaccinations she's supposed to get are cultured on or otherwise contain soy. That may be a problem, since she will scream for hours at a time if I ingest even a trace amount of soy and it gets into the breastmilk, and it has given her diarrhea before also. If she reacts that badly to a tiny amount in breastmilk, what would having it injected do to her?

Speaking of E's food intolerances, we've added another to the list: dairy. I bought some goat milk and goat yogurt last week, since I used to be able to drink goat milk just fine even at the height of my dairy allergies as a child. Even a moderate amount made both me and Baby E miserable for the next several hours. So now we've got the following list of foods Baby E can't handle: Soy, chocolate, dairy, anything containing caffeine. I'm also avoiding all nuts since that's a very serious and common allergen, and soy and peanut allergies often go hand in hand. Plus, of course, I'm highly allergic to both avocados and blackberry leaves, so she's never had exposure to those.

There is something else I've been eating that bothers both me and the baby, too, but I haven't yet pinpointed whether it's wheat, oats, eggs or carrageenan, or more than one of those. Other members of my family have wheat and oat allergies, but egg is the most common allergen after dairy and soy, I'm told. I'm hoping it's just the carrageenan--many people get a stomachache from that just because it's not really digestible. I have noticed an improvement since switching to rice milk free of carrageenan and other waxes (Rice Dream Original).

Interestingly enough, it seems that my body is in synch with the baby's. Things that didn't bother me before (like chocolate) started giving me problems if I ate too much of them while pregnant and nursing with Baby E.

Baby E and I get to go to our church's women's retreat this weekend. This year there will be a cottage for the nursing moms and infants. I think it's a 4-bedroom house, and there are three of us going so far. So there will be plenty of room to spread out. I'm really looking forward to it--I just hope I'll be able to eat the food at the retreat center. :)