When Lilah had decided about 4 weeks shy of her first birthday that she was finished nursing, I pumped every drop I could produce and mixed it with 1% cow milk. She tolerated that well. I gave her just 1%. She had diarrhea. I was unsure if that was milk-related or perhaps the GI bug many people at work had come down with. I gave her whole milk the next week. She tasted, loved, and consumed all of it in minutes. Then proceeded to projectile-vomit for 12 hours. Hoping against hope it was, indeed, the remnants of some foul virus, I waited a week and gave her 1% in a cup. Diarrhea again. She was
The nurse bobbed her head in understanding and scribbled notes in Lilah's chart. She told us Alice would be in shortly. Alice (what do you call a PA?) didn't keep us waiting long. She was a shorter, middle-aged woman with past-shoulder-length salt and pepper hair. She had a kind face and Lilah took to her right away. She spent many minutes just holding and talking to Lilah. I found myself sighing again that I would be leaving such a wonderful family practice in just a few short weeks. She asked about Lilah's recent growth and development, as well as our problem with milk. I voiced my hesitance to give her formula for so short a time, and that I had been willing to nurse longer had she any interest in participating, but was unable to pump much at all anymore. Breastmilk is, after all, a supply-and-demand-based product and my Demand was more interested in the cat than nursing. Alice said it was unnecessary to give her formula, but she needed to gain back her weight. She suggested whole-milk yogurt, high-fat and nutrient-dense foods like cheese, avocado, fish, and humus. Thankfully, Lilah loved all these things and was only intolerant to milk, not dairy. She suggested going across the street to the Food Co-op and talking to those fine, educated individuals. They frequently serve vegetarian and vegan families and would have no trouble finding a substitute suitable to our needs. Everything else about Lilah was more than satisfactory. She wrote me another prescription for birth control and also suggested a CBC with differential and ferrous level for me, since my hemoglobin and thyroid like to go on holiday from time to time. I chose not to get them drawn before moving. She ordered a lead test at my request for Lilah after finding her merrily chomping away at paint chips she had scraped off the window sill.
We made our way to the top floor of the building to the MGH lab. The same woman is always there. She's an overly chipper, short, thin woman with very curly brown hair and glasses. Her lab is always cluttered and is approximately the size of a walk-in closet. I have no problem with blood-draws, but that room makes even me a bit queasy. I warned the woman that Lilah is very headstrong and will mind being held down more than the pain of the finger-prick. She smiled back at me, then at Lilah. I could tell she underestimated the tiny person smiling up at her. Never underestimate her. It took both of us to hold her down while she screamed first in pain and surprise, but then in anger as she realized she wasn't being released after the poke like she was used to with her immunizations. When the vial was full, she released Lilah and I held her. She instantly stopped screaming and looked at us with disgust. The woman gazed at Lilah in disbelief, then at me. "She just...stopped." I nodded. "I told you. She was just mad you were holding her down. She reacts this way to getting her nails clipped." I was reminded of what her ophthalmologist had said when she was just 6 months old. "Some babies will let me cover one eye while I look at the other, and some absolutely refuse to do it. The ones who refuse turn out to be very stubborn later, every time. Miss Lilah wants nothing to do with it." Yeah, that's Lilah to a tee.
We drove to the Co-op since it was too cold and blustery to walk. I looked at all the alternative milks - soy, almond, hemp, oat, coconut, rice. So many! I compared the fat content for all of them and chose hemp and coconut. Together they out-fatted even whole cow milk! I also picked up some whole-milk yogurt made from fresh organic cream. This was unavailable at the regular grocery stores. While I was checking out, Lilah made eyes at the cashier, showing her the band-aid wrapped around her finger. "Oooh you have an owie! You poor thing!" I kept my eyeroll to myself. She sure knows how to play people. The cashier asked if my purchases were for the baby. I nodded and explained her issue with milk. She said her son had weight-gain issues and she did exactly what I was doing. She told me the properties in hemp milk that were second only to human milk in calcium, fat, omega 3s and 6s, and B vitamin content. I was thrilled. Had I known all that, I would have chosen hemp over cow milk even if Lilah could tolerate it! Since then, Lilah has been filling out again and doing wonderfully. Hemp milk even treats eczema from the inside out! She enjoys the coconut milk because of its natural sweetness and eats the cream yogurt by the bowlful. I have gotten several strange looks and comments. "Isn't hemp what marijuana is made from." Yes, clearly that's the same thing. Idiots. Anyway, all that took place not 10 days before I had to pack my house and move 7 hours downstate to start my new job without Dano. I leave in 3 days. Wish me luck. I'm going to need it.
