Another Posr About Poop, What an Exciting Life I Lead

I think I'm oversensitive to Dot's bowel movements. But it's not my fault. We went through 18 very emotionally (and physically for Googie) exhausting months of severe chronic constipation before I finally diagnosed a milk allergy. Now with Dot . . . well it's just hard to know.

Today for the first time, Dot had semi-hard stools. They weren't nearly as big as I remember Googie's being, or hard, but I'm not sure I remember what Googie's were like right at the beginning. Dot's were definitely thicker than peanut butter, and they were "concentrated." That over-powering disgusting smell completely took me back two years, and I felt like I was watching Googie suffer all over again. My stomach was in knots immediately.

So now what? I don't want to call the doctor because I know exactly what the nurse will say. "Put her on a high fiber diet, no rice cereal, bananas, or apples. Give her lots of prunes, pear juice, and maybe add a little bran to her cereal. If your really anxious about it you can dissolve a little white sugar in some water and give her that." Then when I call back a week later and say it's not working they'll tell me I haven't been sticking to it strictly enough.

The thing that I don't understand is I thought breastfed babies weren't supposed to get constipated. Yes I started her on real food, but she is only eating one meal a day. She's been doing that for the last 2 months. Why the change all the sudden, why now? We haven't added any new foods lately. It's been the same three as always. This is the exact same age that Googie started having her problems. I assumed it was because we started her on formula. Dot hasn't had any formula. None. And I don't think she could be getting enough dairy through my breast milk to all the sudden start having problems. It just doesn't make sense. Why now? My diet hasn't changed, and neither has hers.

Maybe Googie doesn't really have a problem with milk. Maybe it's something else. Maybe at 27 weeks old my babies magically become hypersensitive to dairy. Or maybe they have some other problem that eliminating milk helps, but it doesn't solve the issue.

I just do not want to go through this again. I've done it once, so hopefully I'm smarter now. But who knows? Maybe we haven't solved Googie's problem yet. Maybe it's two completely different things they just happen to develop the problem at the exact same age.

The only good thing about the whole situation is I'm still breast-feeding Dot. So we're going back to an exclusive breast milk diet. That was an option I didn't have with Googie. But still. I'm dreading the next couple of weeks. She has an appointment in 10 days. If the pear juice and breast milk hasn't fixed the problem by then, I'll have to convince the doctor that this is serious.