Food, and other updates~

From the time that we wrapped Quinn up and took her to our hotel in Tiayuan after Gotcha Day, she has been having, shall I dare say, Blowout Diapers.  At first I attributed it to the stress of leaving her orphanage and being placed with these two funny-looking strangers, and then thought that maybe the change of diet and formula may be the culprits.

We are at the end of week 3, and still experiencing diapers of epic proportions.

So, tomorrow Quinn has her first American medical checkup, and ironically will have a Japanese doctor at our local clinic! (We had a Chinese doctor there as well, but he just recently transferred to a larger hospital- darn it!)   We are hoping that he can help determine what could be causing her tummy to turn out these mini explosions. 

Mommy detail tonight was to fill a specimen cup with "poo" and put it in the fridge (wrapped in a sealed baggie) and bring it to the clinic tomorrow for parasite testing.  Often, kids will pick up giardia or other internal parasites in orphanages, and these are known for causing diarrhea, so this may be what's affecting Quinn.

Another possibility and an interesting fact I've unearthed with my research is that there is a prevalence of lactose intolerance among Asian children.  We discovered this as well with Native American children that we have had in foster care, and it stems back to a culture's native diet generations ago and whether milk was part of that diet.  This could be the culprit as well for poor Quinn, so we have eliminated dairy as best that we can and substituting Soy milk and yogurt for cows milk.  (Apparently the bacteria in yogurt helps the digestion and yogurt seems to go down better- go figure!) 

Considering we have our own dairy cow and are avid cheese and ice cream lovers, this is a daunting task when I look at it as a permanent diet adjustment, but for now, I'm trying to just take it a week at a time and see how she does with these modifications.

The whole cultural diet influence is so amazing!! Is it something programmed in our DNA?  My friend, Sara, was adopted at birth and tells wonderful stories of the food cravings she had for fish/herring and other "Nordic" food when she was being raised in an English/German home.  She is Norwegian by nationality, and she craved food that is historically consumed by Norwegians and people of that geographic area, although she was not raised with these foods as a main part of the diet presented to her.  Where did these cravings come from?

  It begs the question of Nature vs Nurture when it comes to our menus and the food that we choose to consume. And the fact that if hundred of years ago, your ancestors didn't have access to fresh milk in their diet, then their digestive system didn't regularly process milk and years later, their descendents are lactose intolerant because of that lack of milk. 

FASCINATING STUFF, PEOPLE!!!

Anyway, back to Quinn :-)  This little girl is an eating machine, lactose issues aside, and my arms tell me that she has gained weight since I first held her 3 weeks ago.

And I think we are making wonderful headway in the area of Trust.

She is bonding with her new siblings fairly well....

Helping Bri with her homework

And I think SHE thinks that this is kind of a good place to be...

She is definitely a keeper!