Maddy has been battling constipation since around November of last year. At first we thought she was holding it in so the doctor suggested Miralax and time. We were told that it may take a few months for her to forget that it hurt to poop. That was in April. Miralax did help but after months, she still would only poop regularly when she was on the Miralax. For some reason, I started wondering if the milk she was drinking could be the problem. That was sometime this past summer. I switched her to a lower fat milk. Things got better but she still needed the Miralax at times. Also, most of the time that she went on her own, she had waited too long and it hurt her. Something just wasn't right
A few weeks ago I brought her to the chiropractor for the first time. They had talked to me about seeing children when I started going and what stuck in my mind was that constipation issues was one of the reason parents brought their kids in. Along with getting an adjustment, we talked about her constipation. The chiro said that she believes in mommy instinct and if I have a feeling that dairy might be a problem than it's something worth looking into. She gave me info on allergy testing (even though Maddy's on the young side for accurate results) and mentioned doing an elimination diet instead. I went home and did my research and talked to some mommy friends that have experience with dairy problems. After talking to Richard, we decided to give the elimination diet a shot.
It was in the middle of the week so I had to do our normal milk and bread grocery store run so I picked up almond milk. That night Maddy started on almond milk instead of cow's milk. The plan was after we did the week's grocery shopping, she was going to be completely dairy free. She was cow's milk free for 2 days before going completely dairy free. After just a few days cow's milk free, she was going regularly and without problems. Today is day 16 milk free and day 14 dairy free and she's continued to be regular and has not had any problems pooping! I do not think this is just a coincidence. I believe she has a problem with dairy.
Now we just need to figure out at what level. I'm hoping she does not have to be completely 100% dairy free. It hasn't been nearly as hard as I thought it would be but cheese is the hard part. Dairy free cheese is very hard to come by so we just completely cut it out. I miss it! I do think she will be able to handle some dairy since we saw a change before going completely dairy free. We're now going to add in the not obvious dairy and see if there's a change. If there is no change after a week, we'll add in a little obvious dairy...like maybe try pizza for dinner again! Hopefully we'll have this all figured out in a couple of weeks!
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