One of the classic symptoms of MSPI is colic.  Sometimes when the MSPI is resolved, either by Mom going on an elimination diet or by switching to hypo-allergenic formula, the colic disappears.  Sometimes not. Colicky infants need to be held and rocked or bounced constantly.  This means that your hands are always full and your back kills.  This is especially difficult if you have othher kids.  In addition, many colicky kids won’t even go in a stroller, so getting out and about is an even greater challenge than with a normal infant.

One indispensable piece of baby gear for dealing with an infant like that is a baby carrier.  There are two broad categories of carriers, the Baby Bjorn-type and the sling or traditional type.  Having tried both, I am strongly in favour of the sling/traditional type.  There are a number of reasons for this;

• Once you know what you are doing, the slings are incredibly easy to use.  They generally consist of a long piece of cloth, sometimes with a ring or pocket.  That’s it.
• They distribute the weight of the baby even over your shoulders and lower back.
• They are extremely portable, just  roll it up, and washable.
• You can use a sling immediately after birth, since the baby’s head can be supported, unlike modern carriers.
• The baby is held right against the wearers body, it can feel your warmth and hear your heartbeat – this is extremely comforting for a colicky child.(I have often worn my kids in the sling with them in only a diaper and me shirtless).
• The slings can be used up to 35 pounds.  I carried my two eldest children until they were more than 2 years old.
• You can easily breastfeed while wearing the baby.

We have two slings from Maman Kangourou (the stretchy wrap) and I don’t know what I would do without them.

Check out the video below to see how to use a baby sling.

)The discussion forum is now ready to use.  You don’t need to register for the site  (although you can if you want to).  Go crazy.  Talk, post, argue… just be nice.

RotaTeq is a relatively new vaccine administered to infants in order to prevent rotavirus infections.  In general, I am strong proponent of vaccinations for children, but this one made me pause, for an MSPI specific reason.  That’s because one of the ingredients in the vaccine is fetal bovine serum (see the product monograph, p. 7).  Fetal bovine serum is frequently used in cell cultures, and since Rotateq is a live vaccine, trace amounts remain.

When it came time to vaccinate our older daughter. we chose to hold off on RotaTeq  for an extra month, since she was having reactions to so many foods in her monther’s diet.  We didn’t see any blood in her stool following any of the doses.  Our third child had menegitis at 5 day old and we were terrified of ending up back at the hospital so we decided to give it to her on schedule (at 2 months old).  Six days later we saw a single speck of blood in her diaper, and then nothing after.

I’m curious to know if anyone has seen any adverse reactions to RotaTeq.  Rotavirus is a very serious gastro-intestinal infection and can seriously harm infants and young children.  Rotavirus is an extremely common virus, with 95% of children being infected by the time they are five.  Any parent who has lived through an infant or toddler with a gastro-intestinal infections knows how awful this can be.  When our daughter was hospitalized, the newborn girl in the bed next to had contracted rotavirus, which led to severe weight loss, prolonged hospitalization and eventually a naso-gastric feeding tube.

Have you given your MSPI child RotaTeq?  Did you even know that your child had MSPI when you gave it, or that it had fetal bovine serum?  Let us know.

As I mentioned in a recent forum post, a reader sent us a question about looking for blood in your child’s stool when reintroducing food.   She wanted to know if we used guaiac cards, which I had never heard of.  A quick search shows that guaiac cards are used for detecting occult fecal blood.  These cards can be used to detect blood in a stool sample that is not visible to the naked eye.

We’ve never used these cards, and they have never been mentioned to us by any health care professional.

They do bring up an interesting question though:

If your child is growing well, is happy and not vomiting up the new food, does it matter if there is a trace amount of blood in their stool?  The dietician who followed us at the Montreal Children’s Hospital told us not to worry about blood that we could not see.  Will using a sophisitcated diagnostic tool like a guaiac card create more worry than necessary?

If there are any physicians, nurses, dieticians or other health professionals who are familiar with MSPI-realted GI bleeding, your perspective on this topic would be greatly appreciated.

Milkintolerance reader Andrea sent me a message via our contact page, which for some terrible reason didn’t send along her email address. So, Andrea if you would like to discuss this further I would be happy to. You can email me (info [at] milkintolerance [dot] org) or post a message in the forum.

What better way to encourage children to be creative than with fun ideas for traditional crafts using natural, recycled, and found materials? “Green Crafts for Children” by Emma Hardy has four chapters, each focusing on a different organic craft. The Salt Dough chapter shows how simple it is to mix flour, water and salt to design beads, decorations, and homemade colored play dough. The Paper chapter has decoupage and papier-mache ideas to make bowls, a dollhouse, and masks that kids will love to paint. Natural Treasures makes use of everyday items such as shells, pine cones, and stones, and transforms them into boats, animals, and even a board game. Finally, in the Fabric and Wool chapter, use up fabric scraps or old clothes to design glove creatures and create your own felt and friendship bracelets. With 35 projects, each with clear step-by-step instructions, kids will forget about the computer and love to play in the same way grandma and grandpa did. *A book that taps into the trend for environmentally friendly ways for children to play. *Cute and cool ideas for boys and girls–boats, beads, masks, brooches, and much more.

ALLERGY ALERT – UNDECLARED MILK IN KRUMBLEEZ BRAND SPROUTED BUCKWHEAT, CHOC.-GINGER DAIRY-FREE COOKIES

OTTAWA, October 2, 2009 – The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) and Foods Alive are warning people with allergies to milk not to consume Krumbleez brand Sprouted Buckwheat, Choc.-Ginger dairy-free Cookies.  The affected product contains milk which is not declared on the label.

The affected product, Krumbleez brand Sprouted Buckwheat, Choc.-Ginger Cookies are sold in 190 g bags.  This product has been distributed in British Columbia and Alberta.

There have been no reported illnesses associated with the consumption of this product.

Consumption of this product may cause a serious or life-threatening reaction in persons with allergies to milk.

The manufacturer, Foods Alive, of Grindrod, B.C., is voluntarily recalling the affected product from the marketplace.  The CFIA is monitoring the effectiveness of the recall.

For more information, consumers and industry can call one of the following numbers:
Foods Alive at (250) 838-2005;

CFIA at 1-800-442-2342 / TTY 1-800-465-7735 (8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. Eastern time, Monday to Friday).

For information on milk, one of the nine most common food allergens, visit the Food Allergens web page at: http://www.inspection.gc.ca/english/fssa/labeti/allerg/milklaite.shtml

For information on receiving recalls by e-mail, or for other food safety facts, visit our web site at www.inspection.gc.ca.

While following an elimination diet is encredibly tough for a new mom, it does represent a big challenge for those around her as well.  Over the years, we have developped a few tricks and routines that help us make it just a bit easier:

1. Cook for the whole family

There is nothing worse for an MSPI mom than sitting at the table salivating and starving while everyone else eats something she can’t.  Cooking two separate meals each time you sit down is also an incredible time drain – especially with a new baby around.  Make it a priority to prepare food that everyone in the family can eat.  This helps normalize the situation and simplifies life enormously.  If you’re not sure where to start, check out our delicious recipes.

2.  Find someone you trust to cook for you

A big part of having a new baby in the house is eating take out.  On an elimination diet this is not really possible so if you can find a parent, sibling, friend or caterer who will follow the strict rules required by an elimination diet, it will make your life a lot easier.  It is very important that this person understands about cooking for someone with allergies.  Ask them to prepare a full meal (at least a main course and vegetable) once a week.

3.  Cook in bulk

Buy a chest freezer and a really big pot and start cooking in bulk.  Prep time is not usually that much longer, and when you have those crazy days when you can’-put-down-your-baby-and-the-other-kids-are-sick or you’re just too damn tired to cook,  you can just pull something out of the freezer and pop it in the oven or microwave and your good to go.

4.  Buy a slow cooker (Crockpot)

While I usually despise most kitchen gadgets, our slow cooker has become an indispensable part of dealing with our elimination diet.  The most useful way to use one is make an all-in meal that has your protein, carb and vegetable in it already, like our slow cooker apricot pork tenderloin.  You could also check out a slow cooker cook book and to see if there are any recipes you can use or modify to suit your needs.

5. Keep Reading This Site

This site is full of useful stuff, and we are adding more all the time.  Don’t forget to check out the forum as well.

Has Milkintolerance.org helped you out?  If so, please consider sending a little love our way in return.  Milkintolerance.org is a small operation – we’re like an old style corner dairy and soy free candy store.  When I say we, I really mean me and Cynthia.

Here are some ways you can help us out:

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1. Submit your stories, recipes or other ideas.

The real value of a site like this is the community it creates for the readers.  Your stories and experiences will add real value to milkintolerance.org.  You can send stuff to us by using our contact form.

2. Participate in the forum.

Like I mentioned above, by helping us create a vibrant community, you will help us attract more users, which in turn helps pay the bills.  Participating in our forum is one of the most valuable things you can do for this site.

3. Link to our site.

The best way for people and search engines to find us is for sites they trust to link to us.  Feel free to link to us in a post, your blogroll or link page.  If you are a user of delicious.com, digg, stumbleupon or any other social bookmarking site please consider linking to us there as well.

4. Start your Amazon.com shopping here.

By clicking through milkintolerance.org before starting your shopping at Amazon, you send us a small referral fee on each and every purchase made.  So start your Amazon shopping at Milkintolerance.org If you need some help finding the just the right thing, check out our store; we’re adding new products all the time.

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As the name states, MSPI (milk-soy protein intolerance) is an intolerance to proteins found in certain foods – namely dairy and soy.

When embarking on an elimination diets, Moms are generally advised that it is safe to eat foods that contain soy oil and soy lecithin – two fats derived from soya beans. This makes going on the elimination diet easier, since many prepared foods contain these products. In principle, these fats are highly refined and do not contain any of the offending proteins that would irritate a MSPI child’s GI tract. In practice however, this is not always the case. Many MSPI Moms find that they need to eliminate soy lecithin and oil from their diet in order to resolve their child’s issues. The dietician following us at the Montreal Children’s Hospital, made it clear that this was far from a rare occurance. Our pediatrician even told us of a Mom who resolved her child’s intestinal bleeding only after eliminating her chewing gum, which contained soy lecithin.

My feeling on the subject is that it likely has to do with the quality of the ingredients used in prepared foods. If the lecithin or oil is not sufficiently refined, traces of offending protein will remain. Even a fragment of undigested protein in Mom’s breastmilk can be enough to irrate a sensitive child.

What does this mean for a new Mom going on an elimination diet? The general recommendation seems to be that soy oil and soy lecithin can remain in her diet initially. If the child’s MSPI symptoms are not resolved after two weeks or so (the time it takes for offending proteins to be completely removed from breastmilk), then eliminate soy oil and soy lecithin.

Soy lecithin has also proved problematic for parents who are formula feeding their MSPI child. It appears as though both Nutramigen and Alimentum contain soy lecithin, which means that some sensitive children will have to be fed Neocate.

See also :   Soy Allergy (Wikipedia)