Dairy Free

I've started a couple of posts about Vivian being intolerant to dairy, but never finished or posted any of them.  Today it's on my mind though.  Her intolerance was something we figured out when she was about a month old and would sometimes projectile vomit when I breastfed her, or be generally uncomfortable and cry for up to five hours a day.  It kind of came to a head and at her one month appointment, after she had been crying multiple hours a day and I just thought she was colicky.  However her pediatrician suggested that I cut dairy out of my diet.
I kind of did, stopped eating cheese and having yogurt, etc and it reduced the crying, but her stool tested positive for blood, so I had to completely cut it out.  No baked goods with butter or milk, including many breads, no cheese, butter, milk, ice-cream, etc.  The harder ones were the ones you don't think about, deli meat, hot dogs, veggie burgers... I could go on and on.  It made me rethink my diet and many things that we take for granted (pizza nights!), but all in all it hasn't been too bad.  Eating out has been tricky or going to people's houses for dinner or parties, but for me, there's an end in sight, when I finish breastfeeding.  It also made me eat more fresh and less processed food, which is a good habit.
I was hopeful Vivian would outgrow this stage.  Sam had a similar intolerance though not as severe.  He never drank cow's milk, he would get ill if he did (and still doesn't drink it).  When he turned three he could tolerate yogurt and ice-cream.  I thought Vivian would be the same.
Today though,  at pick-up at Sam's school, we were sitting on the playground and she was crawling around on a beach towel when she picked up a bag of open Goldfish snacks and was mouthing them.  I took them away within seconds, but she immediately turned bright red and started gagging.  She threw up and kind of whimpered, but her face returned to it's normal color and she seemed okay.  She had a couple of small bumps around her mouth, but was breathing well and was kind of cuddly, but was back to herself within minutes.
I guess this was the first time she had ingested a product with milk or cheese directly.  After a call to the pediatrician they told us to take her to an allergist before introducing her to any other new foods, since it would be considered a trace amount, just the crumbs or residue as she hadn't actually ingested a cracker.  I'm still hoping it was a chance encounter, that there was something else that made her cough (she was trying to eat leaves a few minutes before).   Hoping for the best and thankful that it was a quick incident and I was there.  No more cheesy snacks around here for a while!