Life & Times of 5 Busy Nortons

Saturday, April 7, 2012

Ben's Lactose Challenge

A few weeks ago I wrote about how Ben had an ear infection.  Well, a few days before we started the anti-biotic he had a little case of the runs.  Then the antibiotic turned his life into a revolving door of diaper changes. His poor bottom got so inflamed.  We switched types of antibiotic--and I finally just stopped giving it to him because his diarrhea was so bad that his bottom was bleeding even with the oral anti-fungal.  This should have been the end of the story.
But it wasn't.  After 3 days of continued issues I called the nurse at our clinic.  I was actually SUPER rude to the second nurse who called me back and told me I just had to wait for the diarrhea to stop.  After 5 days I took him back to the doctor.  She wanted me to get  a stool sample.  But I had to get it into the office within one hour.  Libby was throwing a fit while she was explaining how to collect the sample (this is because Libby got a little something in her panties so I just threw them away.  Turns out she was very attached to those panties and very hungry...) and so I didn't get to ask what to do if I got the sample outside of office hours.  Then I went to the temple that afternoon and had 2 days of training where I couldn't get a sample.  In the meantime Ben was still waking up 3 times a night to eat and poop.  It was such a mess (sometimes quite literally).
Finally I got them the sample.  2 days later they got back to me that it wasn't anything and we should try to stop feeding him fruit.  ARE YOU KIDDING?  HAVE I BEEN GIVING HIM FRUIT?  NO WAY!  So they suggested we switch to soy formula.
AND...problem solved.
So why does a healthy kid suddenly become lactose intolerant?  Turns out that probably the virus he had before the anti-biotics combined with the anti-biotics were just too much for his little system.  They cleaned him out and the right kind of bacteria for digesting milk just weren't there any more.
The smell of soy formula reminds me of all we went through with Libby.  Bleh.
At his check-up this week the doctor noted that his weight gain was a little behind, but that will catch up.  We also put him on an IRON supplement because he was a bit anemic.
He slept through the night last night.  Hooray!  We are finally on the mend.
He isn't so sure about grass.

But he is sure that he LOVES popcorn.  Especially playing in it.  

He also loves eating pea gravel.  Yuck!

1 comment:

the VA Hills said...

Ugh! Poor Ben! Avoiding milk stinks, but maybe he'll grow out of it. W and M both did. Probiotics are helpful. Soy yogurt worked for M, but I never saw it when W was having issues.

Eventually, maybe cheese and yogurt? I remember reading that their lactose is broken down more, so they are more easily tolerated.

We weren't dealing with lactose issues, more protein allergy stuff, so we also tried goat and sheep milk products first. (Dave has a cousin who can't have cow milk, but has no problem with goat milk.)

Anyway, good luck with everything!