Meltdown at the Allergist Appt

This was officially our first frustrating and sort of awful outing with Millie.  We went to visit the allergist today to discuss her milk protein allergy.  The appt was at 12:30...right after she ate lunch and not too close to naptime.  It should've been perfect timing, but I suspect those days of relying on perfect timing are over.  She wasn't happy no matter what we tried to do with her today and kept going all "no bones" and throwing mini-fits.  Argghhh...very frustrating.  It was so distracting and hard to hear the doctor, and frankly, embarrassing...even though we all know it happens.  It was a long appt though and we were in a very boring exam room, so you can't really blame her. 

The allergist went ahead and did an 8 prick test on her back, which wasn't as bad as I thought it would be since they have a little tool that does it all at once.  They tested for milk, soy, eggs, peanuts, and some of the other basics.  She did not test positive for milk; the only one she reacted to was soy...so no soy milk or tofu any time soon.  The doctor said just because she didn't have a reaction to the milk test doesn't mean she doesn't have a milk protein allergy...the prick test doesn't necessarily test for the protein allergy.  Thus, we have to take her for blood work sometime soon (which should be super fun).  The doctor said that based on her past reactions to milk, we need to take it very slow.  First we add in baked goods that have milk in them, such as muffins or pancakes.  If she can tolerate the "cooked" milk, then we wait several months and move on to adding in something more potent, like yogurt....and so on.  It's going to be a process.  We are also going to start mixing some of her formula with rice milk, and we'll need to talk to the doctor about a calcium supplement.  Hopefully by 2 or 3 years of age, she will have outgrown this intolerance. 

I'm thankful the doctor is having us take it slow.  I was worried she was going to tell us to just push through the diarrhea that lasts for weeks and always ends up with poor Millie having a raw bottom and screaming every time we go for a diaper change.