Intrepid Murmurings

I don't think I've posted much, if any, about how the food stuff has gone lately.  Emma has come a long way since the food log days!  On the advice of a pediatric allergist, we have been delaying introduction to the major allergens to hopefully help prevent any food-related allergies like Lonnie has (his is dairy).  Around her birthday, we introduced wheat, and then soy, with no problems.  Oh, glorius carbs!  Emma is a HUGE fan of all things wheat, including bread, waffles, pancakes, crackers, cereal, etc.  Soy has been a welcome addition since a ton of packaged and processed foods have soy products in it, especially all the dairy-free stuff that we get for Lonnie.  Both of those have opened up her options a lot, and have allowed us to feed her a lot more of our table food. 

But then, in the past two months, we have encountered a road block.  On the heels of our wheat/soy success we rapidly (well, within two weeks of each other) introduced both dairy and egg.  She also had a bunch of other things thrown in, like raspberries.  And then, we realized she was having some problems.  Boo!

Mostly it was diaper related issues, really bad rashes and a consistency issue that is rather unpleasant with cloth diapers.  Icko!  The latter, which didn't seem to cause her any discomfort,  was easily cured by pulling back on all dairy -- not just milk and cheese but also small bits of butter and yogurt, as well.  Everything was totally back to normal.  I don't think this is an allergy, per say, more of an intolerance or sensitivity -- not to lactose (breastmilk is full of lactose) but to milk protein.  Which is a pain, but not too hard for us, since Lonnie is dairy-free already.  Lots of alternatives in the house!  I might experiment with goat milk to see if that affects her too (Lonnie can't have it) because I would really like a healthier milk alternative for her -- rice and soy milk not as nutritious and she seems not to like them anyway.  Good thing she is still nursing!

The other issue -- really bad, screaming and crying in pain blistery diaper rashes -- is not so great.  We thought it was egg, and then realized it could also be raspberries.  We took both out of rotation, then retried egg a few days ago.....and that night, super bad rash.  Damn.  Egg is really more difficult to avoid and we were hoping it wasn't that.  We tried just egg yolk, and that definitely caused problems as well, so its not just the more-allergenic white.  We are going to try one more test with just small amounts of egg in baked goods, to see if she reacts to that.  I have a hunch that she will, as we didn't give her much whole egg at first and I think thats when the rashes began.

Also still to retest -- raspberries.  She acquired quite a taste for them fresh of the bush in the backyard!  They are mostly gone now, but if we get a later crop we will have to do some more research, once we have the dairy/egg thing sorted out.  I think we may take her in to the allergist to get it all confirmed, too.  I'd like to see what they have to say about the allergy/intolerance line and if small amounts of the offenders are okay as long as we don't see any other signs of discomfort.  Luckily, many childhood food sensitivities tend to disappear around age 3-5, so we are really hoping this is just a passing phase for her (unlike Daddio's adult onset, here-to-stay food allergy).       

We have a lot of chatter around here these days.  She is learning words and signs like a madwoman, and I have already pretty much lost track, especially since things seem to come and go.  But, for the sake of posterity, I am going to remember what I can and record them below.  Here is a snapshot of Emma's current talk.  I know I am going to have to come back and update it later today as I remember more. 

Signs: more, milk, eat/food, all done, water, bird, airplane, thank you, bye bye, hi, swing (invented herself!), wind (another invention, and same as swing), mama,  cooking, book, toilet/potty (also pee/poop), sleep, dirty,  car/drive,  play, hurt, hear, shoes, fish, cat

Spoken: mama, daddy, dog, bath, duck, baby, bye bye, hi, down, bamboo, banana, bunny, blueberry, big bird, broccoli (these last six are pretty indistinguishable, but she does use them in the right context!), bumpity bump (meaning go fast in the wagon, daddy, or let me jump on your stomach, mama), bread, no (!), tea, meow (instead of cat), night night, ball, fish, all done, hat, ball, uh oh, hot, chicken (as in the food, not the bird -- I think it will be awhile before that connection is made...), bear,  bee, tickle

Two cool things happened yesterday in terms of communication, too.  First, she made the "potty" sign for the first time uninitiated, when she was obviously pooping in her diaper.  Potty training, here we come!   Later that morning, after she had just been woken after falling asleep nursing (we had to go out) Lonnie asked her what she was going to be doing today and she gave him the "sleep" sign.  Sadly, the nap she was thinking about did not happen for another 4 hours...

Anther funny thing is that she has this new wrinkle-up-the-nose-and-shrug-the-shoulders thing she does whenever she does a sign.  Kind of a "look at me, see how cute I am" thing.  I guess its not all the time, its more when we ask her to do a sign, not when she initiates it herself.  Ha.