Trying the vegan lifestyle

Well, the title says it all. I am attempting to try a vegan lifestyle for a period of time.  So, what sparked this?

Well, we've been battling a severe diaper rash on Avonlea for about 4-6 weeks now. It gets so bad sometimes, that her skin is raw and bleeds. It would get slightly better and then she would have a bowel movement and it would be raw again. Over time I started to realize that the redness was only where the poop touched her skin. Which then led me to believe that it was either 1.) her poop was acidic from teething or 2.) something she was eating was causing it.

I finally put the connection together and realized that this all started when we started to introduce cow's milk into her diet. And then the light bulb went off! I immediately called the doctor and told her my thoughts and that I wanted to try and take her off of cow's milk and see if it improves. She agreed with me. I told her I was thinking about doing regular soy milk and adding some soy formula to it to increase the fat content. (soy milk only has 4 grams of fat compared to 8 grams from whole milk) Doc agreed and said that was fine.

The results: after 24 hours of being completely dairy free, her butt was 90% better!!! She has now been dairy free for 4 days and her butt looks amazing. She has had bowel movements, but it hasn't irritated her skin at all.  She drinks the soy mik and soy formula just fine. I'm not even kidding when I say that I haven't found a food yet that this child will not scarf down! (well, except the cow's milk. She wasn't a huge fan of that)

I am trying to take out as much dairy from our house as we can so she doesn't accidentally get some. Which is going to be a challenge because the boys love cheese! I have an order of Daiya cheese from co-op, so I am hoping to replace regular cheese with that. I also bought her some Yo Baby Soy yogurt from the store. I'm also buying stock in soy milk because this little girl has drank a 1/2 gallon by herself in 3 days.

I did manage to make an all vegan dinner last night and so far today I have eaten all vegan. Maybe this will shed those unwanted pounds of mine in no time?! Ha!

So far this seems to be working for Avonlea. I'm not sure if she is absolutely allergic to dairy or if her body just isn't ready for it yet. It's something we'll need to discuss with the doctor. But for now, this is a major improvement!