I'm Free! Dairy free!

Hello ladies, I have being wanting to share with you my journey having 3 girls with CMA for the 1st year of their lives.

I have a 2 month old baby girl who was very fussy and colicky during the first weeks of her life... and my fears where right, she has CMA. This isn't new for me, somehow my 3 girls manage to have the same condition for their first year. Lucky me!

CMA stands for Cow's Milk Allergy, I'm not going to talk too much about this common but complex condition because I'm not a doctor (you can find information about it here), but I want to tell you about how I go through this challenge diet as a mom with my little ones.

Just to be clear basically CMA is is a reaction to the protein inside the cow's milk that it's difficult for a baby to digest causing them different types of effects like diarrhea, gas, vomiting, skin rush or even bleeding in stool. It's NOT lactose intolerance like  many people think, this is an allergy to the protein of the cow's milk.

When I had Sophia, (my older daughter) she was perfectly well and one day at about 6 months old she woke up with back, chest and face covered in this rush, we took her to the hospital and they told us about cow's milk protein, I understood that she can not have cow's milk and that her allergy wasn't so bad, her pediatrician ask me to avoid milk and for complementing formula we switch to soy formula, after the year old she was perfectly fine drinking cow's milk again.

Then Stella at her 2 month check up, just in front of her doctor got a little bit of blood in her stool and that got us really worried; immediately we switch to Elecare formula and I totally stopped any type of dairy food on my diet, luckily she was fine, went to see a specialist and did some test and find out again the she had CMA, she was on Elecare for the 1st year and after slowly we stared giving her some "cooked milk" and other dairy products until she got to drink normal cow's milk, and she did perfectly fine.

This time around wasn't a rush or blood, but strong colic for my little one who couldn't even sleep in peace for this strong pain. Took her to the pediatrician and again he diagnose her with CMA like her older sisters. Now she is on Alimentum formula as complement.

I told you about the "complementing", the formula I gave them which was minimum (Sophia one or two bottles a day, Stella maybe one or two bottles a month, and Victoria currently one or none bottles a day. They are mostly breastfeed babies, the formula was only this extra options I had for them when I couldn't breastfeed for an emergency.

So, having to feed my baby here is where MY journey starts, because I have to eliminate Milk from my diet so I don't pass them through the breast milk they drink everyday.

Well. it's hard to eat without dairy! Why? Because cow milk is in almost EVERYTHING! And if it's not IN everything it could being CLOSE to the touch of the product and depending how strong is this allergy on you child it leaves you with few options to eat.

What I've learned now it's to read, read and read the labels, did you now there is even milk in breads, pastas even in tuna? Here is a list of names that "means milk" that you need to know so you avoid them, names like: ammonium caseinate, calcium caseinate, hydrolyzed casein, iron caseinate magnesium caseinate, potassium caseinate, sodium caseinate, zinc caseinate and many more (find a complete list here)

So eating and cooking begins to be a challenge, luckily, this non-dairy diet comes with soo many positives side effects like increasing the intake of fruits and vegetables (which I needed it) and also not feeling too bloated all the time. Of course always talk to your doctor or nutritionist to make sure you include calcium in your diet to balance the lack of it.

It's hard to say bye to ice cream and cheese, but trust me once you do it and know that your baby is safe you'll get used to it and find other ideas of how to calm your dairy cravings.

Here are some of my new best non-dairy friends:

I am enjoying coconut water, olive oil, almond flour and coconut oil for cooking and hummus and vegetables for snacks and corn tortillas instead of bread, also almond milk can be a good option if you need to have milk on your coffee. I even found Chocolate ice cream (made with coconut milk)

Every vegetable is allowed and also chicken, pork, fish, meat which I am preparing with potatoes or steam white rice.

I even found this recipe of Avocado pasta on Youtube on the "What's up moms channel", and it's pretty amazing ans easy to make. 

So, there is hope... there is even Ice cream! A non-dairy diet it's kind of hard at the beginning but when you search you'll find plenty of yummy and healthy options!

xoxo Natalia.