With five days of goat milk under our belts, I’m happy to report that we have good news, and we have great news!
For the good news, goat milk has so far proven to be very similar to eggs in terms of FPIES food trials for Zac. No symptoms whatsoever, an increase in development right away, and only a slight “particular-ness” about how he is served the new food to deal with.
Zac really is doing great! Two days after we started goat milk, he started babbling more and I’ve caught him trying to say new words. This is huge, especially considering that on Thursday we had him evaluated for Early Intervention Speech Therapy.
He’s tried to say “duck” and “water” that I know of, and is making more attempts at gestures and sounds than he was just a week ago.
I am thrilled!
His coordination has improved immensely, too. He’s throwing balls more now, and with more accuracy than he has ever shown before.
He’s sleeping more at night, too, which is always nice. Now we usually only have two middle of the night wake-ups instead of every 2-3 hours all night long.
Love me some sleep, y’all!
The only caveat is that he will only drink goat milk in a glass. He refuses it from our cups with lids and straws.
In fact, he’ll forcibly shove those cups full of goat milk across the table if we dare serve it to him that way!
The only problem with that is that he sucks at drinking from a glass!
Oh, he can drink from a glass perfectly fine; he just likes to shake the glass to see the liquid splash over the sides, tends to forget he’s holding one and simply lets go (dropping the glass and spilling all the liquid), or any other typically no-big-deal, age appropriate “learning to use a glass properly” things.
This is only a problem because as much trouble as procuring the goat milk is for us, I can’t afford to let him spill it all over the floor. Sure, it’s only $6 a gallon, but I have to drive almost two hours one way to buy it. The gas costs alone make the goat milk pretty pricey.
Not to mention we can only buy as much as she has available; if she’s sold all but two gallons that week, that’s all we can get. It’s not like we’re trying something you can just pick up from the grocery store, here!
Scarcity+costs=STOP SPILLING THE GOAT MILK, ZAC!
Fortunately, I discovered that he ADORES goat milk if I turn it into ice cream!
I just pour 8 ounces into my ice cream maker and five minutes later sit Zac down with a nice bowl of frozen goat milk – and he goes nuts. He’ll scream at me when the bowl is empty, begging for more!
So, as long as we give him ice cream, or pour just a couple tablespoons in a glass at a time, he’ll consume his goat milk just fine. He’s been taking a nice 8 ounces per day after the first day, and yesterday took a whopping 12 ounces of goat milk!
Just a couple more days of this and we can pull it for our three day break and reintroduce it. Fingers and toes crossed and prayers like crazy that the reintroduction goes well.
Goat milk might be what saves our family from financial ruin.
For the great news, Jed appears to have NO problems with the goat milk, either!
From the beginning, his MSPI symptoms showed up very quickly. Give that child some dairy or direct soy (not oil) and within a few days his diapers were bloody.
We’ve been five days now with no bloody poop, no stomach cramps, no NOTHING.
In fact, even Jed, who was already doing quite well developmentally, has shown some improvements since the start of the trial!
He’s using more vocabulary – big words, too! He’s telling more stories, attempting more conversations, listening a bit better, following instructions a tiny bit better, and showing much more creativity in his play.
This could be just a normal developmental growth moment, of course, but I find it interesting that it coincided directly with the beginning of his goat milk ingestions.
He also can’t seem to get enough goat milk! I’ll make him ice cream and he’ll eat huge bowls. He can easily drink three glasses of it per day. We had to actually start rationing it after he wiped out 1/4 gallon on the first day of the trial!
So goat milk is looking really good for us right now, and I’m happy to share that news with you. But I’m going to wrap it up now, because this weekend was exhausting! We had some awesome fun that was worth every minute but seriously wore us all out and set me behind on my housework and return to work preparations.
I hope I can share some more of our news and our fun weekend tomorrow.
In the meantime, how was your Easter weekend?
So excited for all of you that goat milk is going so well!!!! I will ask our drs about adding it to our list of things to trial at our upcoming appts. Our Easter weekend was spent dealing with a tummy bug on top of a fructose test fallout. We managed the important things of Living Station on Friday, Easter Vigil on Sat night, and then Easter mass on Sunday but the bunny is not coming until tonight when we can enjoy the goodies without puking all over them. 😉
Oh, no! I’m so sorry, Anissa. I knew B had dealt with a fructose issue recently but I’d hoped she was over it by the weekend. Sorry you had a tummy bug, too. It just sounds like a rough time all around. Hugs to you and yours and I hope you all feel better soon. Enjoy the goodies – and no puking is a good thing!
Hi Carrie, I am also excited to hear things are going quite well so far with the goat’s milk also. I have been hoping you would post some follow-ups on your goat milk trial. And, I do have a tip for you on the milk spilling glass issue. We went through something similar to this with my dd when she was a young toddler, and some of it had to do with her not being able to talk yet to be able to tell us what she wanted. Anyways, I had the school system’s early intervention program come out to assess my dd on several different issues. One tip that they gave me, and this may or may not help in your situation, is to show your child what the appropriate behavior is and to give a ton of praise when they don’t throw the cup, splash the milk out, or whatever the situation might be. My dd kept purposely dropping her plate and/or cup on the floor from her high chair, so the speech therapist told us to show her how to hand us the cup to us and we would say “done” since she couldn’t talk, and then lots of positive reinforcement and smiles, clapping and etc. Therapist had us put the cup in her hand, then guide her hand with one of my hands to my other empty hand, and have her hand the cup to me, or to softly place it on the kitchen table (which was next to her high chair) and we would all say “done”. Then, all the cheers and praise start. It took like maybe 5 times while the therapist was at our house and she was doing it. I was amazed, so I showed my husband how to do this with her also when he was feeding her as he was getting very frustrated with the mess on the floor and was punishing her for dropping the cup/plate. And, I didn’t like his old school punishments he had learned from his parents, but I didn’t know a method myself to change her behavior either. Low and behold, we never thought we should show her step by step what the appropriate behavior was. But, I can tell you it worked. Now, it sounds like your situation is different, but if there is somehow you can show him the appropriate behavior, it might help. I think your child’s reasons for spilling the milk is different though, but maybe you could come up with a similar strategy. Hope this helps. Keep us posted on the goats milk as my dd was MSPI also and now IBS/FM, and we are only doing lifeway kefir yogurt at this time and then lactose free cheeses, but still limiting the cheese due to her constipation issues, but I have been tempted to try the goats milk also for making yogurt at home.
Wow! What great suggestions! I’ll have to think about ways to use that kind of positive reinforcement with the kiddos. Good ideas!
Yay – so glad to hear the goat milk trial is going well for both boys! I’m not surprised you’re seeing big strides in development for Zac – the “good” fats in his two newest foods – eggs and whole milk – are absolutely essential for myelination of the nervous system and brain development. I can’t understand why the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends only feeding full-fat dairy up to age two, when it takes a lot longer than that for brain and nervous system development.
I can’t understand why most doctors and “experts” recommend half of what they do! LOL It’s amazing to me the improvement and growth in both boys every time they get a new food.
Thank you for sharing this! My son has fpies to cow milk (and soy, but he got over that:-), and our allergist recommended that we don’t try him on goat or sheep milk, but I am reconsidering trialing it. He can tolerate breastmilk when I avoid his triggers, so I wonder if some other mammal milk might work.
Catherine, that’s great that your son outgrown his soy trigger!
Few doctors will recommend trialing goat milk if there is a cow milk issue, because so many people have issues with both. However, there are always exceptions to the rule, and thankfully Zac and Jed are prime examples of that! Honestly, we probably wouldn’t have tried it if we hadn’t just run out of other options, but the gamble paid off for us. 🙂
If you try it, I sincerely hope and pray it pays off for you, too!
Oh, and a friend of mine has had beautiful results from camel milk, so that’s an option you might look into, as well. Good luck!