Just brainstorming, so feel free to toss in any crazy or not-so-crazy theories you may have.
DS is 10 months old. He has been on finger foods for several weeks, in increasing amounts, and recently ditched baby food altogether. He is still on breastmilk, though as his appetite has increased and my output has not kept up, I've been supplementing with standard Similac Advance--not soy, gentle, hypoallergenic, etc., just the regular stuff. When I supplement, he usually has formula mixed in with his milk, so he either gets 100% breastmilk, or approx. 2/3 breastmilk 1/3 formula. I just sent the last of my freezer stash to DC with him today, so he'll be getting more formula in the weeks ahead--probably closer to 50/50.
He is also teething. I know they're pretty much always teething for the first 12-18 months, but in the ebb and flow of teething pain, it seems to be ramping up over the past few days. He also tends to run ahead of average in the timing of getting various teeth--cut his first incisors at 4 mo., canines were in by 6 mo., etc. More drool than usual lately, which also makes me think he's cutting more teeth--I felt around in his mouth, but he's a lot less accepting of this than he used to be, plus he's touchy about his mouth, but I didn't feel anything that had recently broken through or felt like it was about to--just the usual lumps and bumps where they're in progress.
Last week, he had two random episodes of diarrhea, both shortly after eating rice. (One was brown rice and sushi rice at home--we had takeout and were feeding him some of it--and a second one a day or two later after eating rice at school. The sushi rice was off some California rolls, so he hasn't eaten any raw fish or anything that was in contact with raw fish.) He certainly didn't seem sick, he was in good spirits and playing happily. I wasn't ready to write off rice, because it could easily be a coincidence, plus rice is one of the least likely culprits for food intolerance--I mean, it's the R in the BRAT diet, and I've never heard of anyone being allergic to rice. So I filed it away as something to watch out for, and he hasn't had rice since. (Not by design, it just hasn't been on the menu lately.)
Things were quiet, intestinally. We went to the beach, he ate a ton of different things, no issues. Came back Sunday, got a call about an hour after his breakfast on Tuesday that he had an episode of diarrhea. Breakfast that day was "apple surprise rolls." As with the other incidents, he seemed fine, happy and playing, so they put him on a wait-and-see. Second episode at 4:30, about an hour after snack (puffs), at which point he was sent home for 24 hrs, as is their policy. Still perfectly happy, no other symptoms.
Had to keep him home on Wednesday. He ate a bunch of stuff, no issues. Returned yesterday, was fine all day until another episode at 4:30, same pattern as the others: an hour after snack (puffs again), otherwise perfectly normal. Aside from the first time with the rice, this doesn't happen at home, only at DC.
Holding my breath and crossing my fingers today. Here are possible theories--feel free to comment on or supply your own:
- Food intolerance is the obvious one. I started a food diary for him last night, and asked them to do one for him at school today--I have the weekly menu, but in the infant class the babies don't always get everything on the menu, and even when they do, not all of them eat everything.
- The co-lead thinks it's wheat, but mostly because there was wheat in the apple surprise and his puffs. I think it's a classic case of correlation =/= causation, because he eats wheat with practically every meal, yet this digestive upset is very sporadic.
- DD was allergic to dairy, but she developed it very early in her breastfeeding career and outgrew it around DS's age (I had the same thing). Aside from two cousins with celiac, this is the only instance of food allergies on either side of the family.
- Teething: I have always read that most pediatricians discount the whole loose stool thing as it relates to teething. However, they've definitely been concomitant in DS with previous new teeth. Much like the wheat thing, I certainly can't say one caused the other, but so far they've occurred together. I mentioned he's been drooling a lot, and in the past, that's appeared to precede mild episodes of diarrhea. That tended to be right before the teeth emerged and then vanished as quickly as it appeared, but if he's 10 months and ahead of tooth-schedule, big, bad molars are not out of the question.
- Adjustment to table foods: maybe not an actual food allergy/intolerance, but a general recalibration of his digestive system as he says goodbye to baby cereal and jarred food and goes to "real" food full-time.
- Others?