I'd been off all forms of dairy for four weeks, and Lily still showed symptoms of a food allergy, so her pediatrician suggested I try eliminating soy too. As I mentioned earlier, our pediatrician's office cites a statistic that about 50% of milk-allergic infants are also soy allergic.
If soy sounds like one of those obscure food that only, like, cruelty-free vegans eat, let me tell you: Soy is in EVERYTHING. I'd been drinking soymilk for a few years just because I don't really like cow's milk, but that was the tip of the soy iceberg. Soy is in just about every processed (e.g. readily available) food in the grocery store. Peanut butter, bread, bagels, bacon, chicken broth, soups, crackers, cake mixes and frosting, cookies and cookie dough, candy, granola bars, spaghetti sauce, salad dressing, flour tortillas, cooking spray and more. There's this funny little ingredient called "soy lecithin" that makes shelf-stable foods shelf-stable, and that is what makes it so ubiquitous.
And don't event think about dining out b/c most restaurants use a blend of vegetable oils for cooking, and vegetable oil means soybean oil.
For a few weeks, I really struggled to find anything good to eat, but I also began to see a much-improved baby. Her diaper contents started looking a lot more normal, and I noticed the patchy eczema-type stuff on her face was clearing up.
It was time to accept my soy- and dairy-free fate.
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