dairy free it is

After a week of eliminating dairy from my diet for River's benefit, it is obvious that this boy just can't take the cow's milk.

From the research I've done, it's not that he is lactose intolerant. That would be too easy. It's most likely that he is allergic to casein, the protein found in cow's milk, and he may or may not outgrow it. He fits the symptoms: sudden abdominal pain, gas, occasional congestion, bloody stools, diarrhea. Poor guy.

But going all of last week without dairy, he was like a new person: happy and content all the time, fussing only when he was tired, hungry, or needed a diaper change. He laughed and played, sat back and observed the family's going-ons, and slept really really well.

And then, over the weekend, the abdominal pain and gas returned, along with the inconsolable fussing. We haven't been getting much sleep.

I'm trying to figure out what caused the setback:

Was it the single bite of a bagel with cream cheese on Saturday, and then a bite of green beans on Sunday that apparently had some butter in them?

Could he also be intolerant to beef? I had (cheeseless) supreme pizza on Saturday and roast beef on Sunday.

Or maybe it's *shudders* chocolate. The dark chocolate bar on Saturday and chocolate chip cupcakes on Sunday tasted great to me, but maybe he just can't take dairy-free chocolate either?

Those are the only foods I ate over the weekend that I didn't have during the week of bliss before. So, I'm being careful to avoid beef and chocolate along with dairy over the next few days, and then I'll test them one at a time to try and figure out what else I can't eat for the next year or so.

It's frustrating. But, after seeing how happy he can be when his intestines aren't complaining, all of these foods sacrificed are a small price to pay.