This website uses affiliate links at no cost to you. Thank you.
September 28, 2011

Henry's Issues Update: Poop

Haha. Anytime you can have the word "poop" in your blog title you know you're having a good day. Yes, I'm still laughing. ::mature adult mother alert::

All funniness aside, Henry has had a pooping issue since he was born. I don't think I've mentioned it too much in awhile, but you can find the back-story here, here, and here. Basically, Henry wasn't born knowing how to poop, and was so uncoordinated that he couldn't figure it out. It was a problem I never knew babies could have, but I've actually since met people who have had the same issue (which is nice to know!). Also, at the time Henry was also having blood in his poop which we attributed to straining. We were told that Henry should outgrow the problem by 3 months old.


Flash-forward to today. Henry is just over 6 months old and is FINALLY!!! pooping pretty normally! Over the last 3-4 weeks we noticed that it was just getting easier and easier for Henry to go. There was less screaming, less pushing, less crabbiness! It has been a very welcomed change. And it only took double the time the doctors told us. We still have some issues when we introduce a new food, but it is nothing like it was.

But that's not the full story. Part of the doctor's advice to me was to cut out all dairy, chocolate, and caffeine to make it easier for Henry to poop. So that's what I have done. But overtime it has become clear that anytime I would eat dairy (or eggs for that matter) Henry would have bloody mucusy poop, which really didn't have anything to do with straining. Then in early August, Henry accidentally was given a spoon with butter on it and ate the butter. After this he had more blood for two days.

After talking to our doctor and doing some of our own research, Henry has been diagnosed with a milk protein intolerance. Basically his body just can't process the protein that is in milk, cheese, butter, yogurt, and other dairy products. Its a fairly common medical issue. It can cause congestion (which Henry has had a ton of), skin issues (which Henry has avoided), bloody mucusy poop, and a variety of other issues.


The treatment is just to avoid milk protein. Which means I avoid eating all dairy. Its been a difficult adjustment, but after 5 months I'm getting pretty used to it. I do really miss cheese. The good news is that this won't last forever. Most babies outgrow their intolerance by 12-18 months. We will try to give Henry a little dairy at 9 months to see if he has outgrown it, but our doctor is not totally optimistic. I will likely have to avoid dairy until Henry weans. I have started to introduce chocolate back into my life but it tends to make Hen pretty fussy, so I only eat in moderation. Soon I'll try caffeine, but its often something that makes babies fussy, and we don't need anything else to make Henry fussy.


Support me

Comments