Baby Food Journal:
Keep a Food Journal for Your Baby
How a Food Journal Solved Our Baby's Diarrhea Problem
by Josh Day
When our 16-month old son came down with chronic loose stools in July 2008, we speculated the cause was environmental, either a food allergen or a bacterial issue.
We begin investigating our hypothesis by discussing James' eating habits and how often his stools were loose.
We came up with the following facts:
- Too much fruit (especially peaches) often led to wet or loose stools
- Too much fruit juice (we often employed water with a few ounces of orange juice to fix constipation)
- Too many beans, peas, or carrots
By process of elimination, we began to narrow down the list of suspects as we charted everything our son ate for the course of several days.
In addition to foods, I suspected bacteria in less-than-perfectly cleaned Nuk bottles could also very well be the problem.
We boiled his Nuks every morning and thoroughly washed them after every drink. We also vacuumed the floors and carpets where James plays.
I also gave him a different kind of bottle, more like a graduated bottle-sippy cup, for a day to see if that made any difference.
Regarding foods, we included yogurt in his diet along with baby rice cereal, something he hadn't had since he turned one. We also began giving him toasted sourdough bread which he heartily enjoyed.
(Note: Bananas had given him loose stools in the past so we didn't go the whole nine yards with the BRAT method -- banana, rice, applesauce, toast.)
For the first day we fed him yogurt and rice cereal, applesauce, toast, and -- his favorite food in the world -- sardines.
Yuck, sardines! Am I serious?
I am 100% serious. Sardines are an excellent protein sources for babies, containing more calcium than milk and chocked full of omega 3's. And the mercury hype doesn't come into play for sardines as they are tiny fish with a short lifespan and a limited exposure to mercury, unlike big game fish like sharks and swordfish.
Also, James drinks Meyenberg-brand goat milk, NOT formula or cow's milk. Goat milk is nutrient-rich but doesn't contain as much calcium as cow milk, at least according to most pediatric sources -- though not all (Dr. William Sears).
The loose stools were still present, so on the second day we bought James some pedialyte (note: do not give this to babies under one year of age).
For the second day he ingested only pedialyte, water, and a tiny amount of grape juice as a flavor enhancer in his water. We also removed the sardines from his diet.
He had a normal stool halfway through the second day. We were on the right track.
Now that we had a base of foods and liquids we knew did not cause diarrhea, we slowly began to add foods back into his diet, one at a time, to determine what was causing the problem.
We returned sardines. Stools continued to be normal.
We added bananas and fresh, homemade boiled and roasted chicken back to his diet. Normal.
We added goat milk. Blam! Diarrhea.
To be positive, we cut out the goat's milk for two more days, offering water sweetened with grape juice and the occasional pedialyte.
In the morning on the last day of our testing, I gave him a Nuk of goat's milk. A few hours later he had a loose, stinky, stool.
James had tolerated goat's milk since he was ten months old so this was one of the last things we suspected. However, the evidence was clear (yes, we also bought a fresh carton in the event the one we were using was spoiled).
His system appeared to have developed an intolerance to goat's milk. This is likely due to several reasons: one, he's toddling and much more active, using more energy than before, and two, he may have developed an intestinal irritation or a simple allergy to one or many of the components in the milk.
It's also important to note James never had full-blown diarrhea. However, it was obvious something was off as loose stools were not a norm for him.
Next time your baby suffers gastrointestinal discomfort (and it's not a big enough deal to call your doctor), put on your detective's hat and keep a food journal.
I bet you'll be as surprised as we were when you figure out what's causing it!
Click Here to share this page with your friends, website visitors, ezine readers, social followers and other online contacts.Disclaimer: Throughout this website, statements are made pertaining to the properties and/or functions of food and/or nutritional products. These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration and these materials and products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.
Health & Beyond Online
P.O. Box 755
Earl, NC 28038-0755Contact Us
License, Terms of Use, and Privacy PolicyClick here for Other Chet Day Websites
H&B Online and Content © 1993-2009 by Chet Day
