At Shayla’s 6 month appointment; I again brought her symptoms up to the doctor and they said well maybe an allergist could give us some more answers.
Well that was progress anyway. I immediately made an appointment with the allergist but was not able to get in to the office until late October. That meant 2 more months of bib changes, creams, food journals, uncomfortable Shayla, and stressed out parents. Meanwhile, my breast milk supply was starting to diminish, and I had made the decision to stop breastfeeding. We had about a month’s supply of frozen breast milk so the transition would be slow and seamless. I don’t remember the exact date but I was putting Leighton to bed one night and I had Jerome give Shayla a mixed bottle of half breast milk and half formula. After about 5 minutes, Jerome came running upstairs with Shayla in his arms and showed me her face and neck. He said she only took about 30 seconds of drinking and started to sneeze and gag a little. He quickly turned on the light and notice her skin. Her whole neck was broken out in large hives, her cheeks were bright red, she was drooling, sneezing and had mucous pouring out of her nose. Instantly we knew she had to go to the Emergency room. I decided to drive her while Jerome stayed home with Leighton who just went down to sleep. I took her to the emergency room right away and there they administered Benedryl and Steroids. The ER Doctor said she clearly had an allergic reaction to the formula we gave her. I called the doctor the next morning and they said I should probably start breastfeeding again and buy Nutramigen formula and test that out. Start breastfeeding again??? How can I possibly do that now, my supply was almost completely gone. I began pumping like crazy hoping for the best. Luckily we had a nice frozen supply built up to supplement what I was able to produce; however we were also hesitant to give her that milk because we didn’t know what we ate during and through each of those extra packs. We could be reintroducing whatever she was allergic to etc. The doctor suggested that I call the allergist and see if I could move my appointment up a little and I was able to get in earlier in the month of October but that was still a month and a half away. For now it was Nutramigen and the best I could do. Our best had to be good enough.
