Back in June, Ava had her One Year checkup.  Everything looked good – weight, height, development, etc.  Since she was now 12 months old, the doctor felt it was time to move her from her formula to whole milk.  “Yippee!” I thought.  No more expensive cans of formula, no more mixing up powder and hot water at 6 am, when I’m barely awake enough to find the kitchen, much less correctly guage the temperature of the water from the sink.

Off to the store I went, to purchase some organic whole milk for my baby girl.  The doctor said we were free to make the switch cold turkey, no gradual tapering off of formula needed.  The next morning, instead of a bottle of warm formula, Ava awoke to a sippy cup of cold milk.  She happily slurped it down, handed me the cup when she was done, and burped.  So far, a normal morning.  I was ecstatic.  Look at my big girl drinking milk from a cup!

All went well for a few days, then the diaper rash from hell arrived, and along with it (and here’s where it gets pretty TMI) diapers full of the liquidiest, foulest, muoucus covered poop I have ever in my 36 years encountered.  I have a pretty strong stomach, but this made even me gag.  It’s like the poop was covered in watery cottage cheese.  It’s ok, go throw up now, I’ll wait……….Ok, back?  Good.

We called the doctor’s office, who seemed very unconcerned about the whole situation.  Just watch her, they said, it’s probably nothing, but if she gets worse, bring her down. It happened to be a Friday, the day of the week that my husband works from home and keeps our daughter.  I left for work, advising him if anything got any worse, to take her in.  Don’t call them, just go.

About 2pm he called me to let me know her butt was now bleeding and painful to the touch and he was on his way to the clinic.  I sat and worried for an hour, waiting to hear back.   Finally he called to say they still didn’t think it was serious,  but did give us some cream for her bottom.  They did not think it was the milk, but to take her off of it and when she is put back on, if there is an issue at that point, bring her back in.

So for two weeks, we slathered up her little bum with creams, fed her formula and kept her on the BRAT diet (Bananas, Rice, Applesauce and Toast).  Gradually, the rash went away, along with Poopapalooza.

So I put her back on milk.  Only one bottle a day this time, instead of a 100% switch.  That was Monday of last week.  By Friday, the bleeding rash was back, along with the Hershey Squirts.  More cream,more doctors, appointment made for yesterday.

What it boils down to is this:  the doctors seem to think her tummy is unable to correctly process the change from formula, which is a highly refined, and processed product.  Formula is designed especially to NOT upset tiny tummies.  Milk, on the other hand, seems to be an instrument of Satan an unprocessed product, and her tummy is confused by it.

For now, we are back to formula, at least for a couple weeks, until her body decides to cooperate again.  Then we re-introduce milk into her formula, 1 oz at a time.  If that doesn’t do the trick, we are back to square one.  And I will be considering taking up drinking as a competitive sport.