Trialing Soy

Since Baby E tested negative to everything on the last couple of rounds of allergy testing, we've been gradually trialing all the foods she had tested allergic to. So far any adverse effects have seemed related to her sugar/fructose malabsorption issue rather than to an actual allergy, and have been limited to mild GI symptoms.

We tried a tiny amount of Soy Dream soy milk last night.

######################

That was a bit nerve-racking since soy was the first food we knew she had problems with. Next to corn, soy had given her the most severe symptoms in the past. We discovered the soy issue when Baby E was only a few weeks old. Thankfully, I didn't eat it very often and it was pretty obvious that her most extreme screaming spells were linked to my consumption of soy while breastfeeding.

I still remember clearly the time I made soy ice cream and ate it several times a day for a couple of days. Baby E screamed and screamed and flailed and was absolutely miserable and inconsolable for hours on end. She had diarrhea, too. Then she was abruptly fine when we switched to giving her milk I'd previously pumped and frozen.

The few times she's been directly exposed to soy, she got a rash and severe immediate diarrhea, but in all those cases there was also corn in the item she got crumbs of, so we never knew whether soy caused a rash, etc. or not.

Because soy is one of the Top 8 allergens and is usually clearly labeled (with the exception of things like Vitamin E, mixed tocopherols, and lecithin which we know to avoid), it's been pretty easy to completely avoid it.

Last night I rubbed a bit of soy milk on the inside of her elbow and waited about 15-20 minutes. She had no observable reaction, so I put one drop of it in her mouth. She smiled, smacked her lips, and said "Milk!" She liked it.

By 30 minutes or an hour later, she was still showing no sign of symptoms. So I offered her a spoonful of soy milk. This time she strongly repulsed it. Even though it hadn't touched her tongue yet, she made motions of raking at her tongue and facial expressions of extreme disgust. I asked what was wrong and if her tongue felt funny or her tummy hurt, and she said her tummy hurt. I didn't make her eat the soy. A while later she told me her tummy hurt without prompting.

Now, she says her tummy hurts fairly frequently, so that's not particularly all that unusual. It was hard to tell whether the soy was actually bothering her in some way or if she just didn't like the taste. So I mixed a small amount into her thickened orange juice. She didn't seem to notice, and drank it just fine.

She didn't have any obvious symptoms. There were no rashes, no itching, no more complaints of tummy ache. She woke up around 6am thirsty. She nursed a bit and then asked for juice instead, so DH gave her more of the soy-spiked juice. She went right back to sleep after that and seemed to sleep well.

This morning she's in a great mood and seems well-rested. No sign of diarrhea so far.

We're going to continue giving her soy over the next few days, watching for signs of eczema or other delayed reactions. It's remotely possible that, after avoiding soy for 2 years, it might take a few exposures to "prime" her immune system before she reacts. But it's more likely that she has grown out of the soy issue, just like M&M did around this age.

Now all we really have left to test (allergy-wise, anyway) is corn.

Very exciting developments around here.