Little Dude Learns to Eat

I can't believe my baby boy turns 6 months old today.

He really is a happy little guy, but I would be lying if I said that the last six months have been a piece of cake. 

Along about his 3 month mark, we noticed that he still wasn't gaining weight, throwing up a lot, and not sleeping well.  I took him in to his pediatrician to get a weight check so we could adjust his Zantac (for reflux.)  He had dropped to the 15%.  This was so unusual to us--Bean has always been in the 90% and I didn't really feel like I was doing anything differently this time around.

Then a month later we took him in for his 4 month appointment.  He had dropped to the 5%.  He was only eating half of what he should be at this age.  We had switched him over to soy a week prior because we'd finally decided, when the Zantac + Prevacid didn't make a difference, that he had a milk allergy.  He did fine for about a week on it and then everything fell apart, fast.  He was miserable.  He threw up everything he ate.  He wouldn't even come close to trying his rice cereal.  I didn't know what to do.

I believe that it was by Divine Guidance that I remembered hearing about a similar situation from someone I knew on facebook several months ago.  I looked into protein allergies in infants and everything matched perfectly to what Boy had.  (I was a little surprised that his pediatrician hadn't thought of it first, but then when we'd seen her a week before, he was tolerating Soy.)  Protein allergies can be found against both milk- and soy-based formulas.  Luckily there is a formula manufactured in which the proteins are already broken down, eliminating the intolerance.  The only problem is that the formula, called hydrolysate, is very, very expensive.

But there are some things you can't put a price on.

After showing my findings to S, he immediately went to the store and bought some.  It claimed to relieve Colic symptoms due to protein allergies within 24 hours.  And it WORKED!

Since then Boy has put on over a pound.  He started eating cereal a week later.  He's sleeping better at night.  And he's back to his happy little self.  (Most of the time.)