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This was originally written on Thursday, May 14, 2009:

We have an appt. at Logan's doctor's office tomorrow morning because his lips, hands, and feet have been turning purple. It only lasts for a couple of minutes but it's been going on at least once a day for at least two weeks now. It happens at random times and I'm always like, is he purple? Am I seeing things? Last night when it happened Joe was staring at him and wasn't even sure. I was like, "Well I don't care what you say, he's purple." I searched online and couldn't find out what could be the cause, but when it happened again this afternoon, I called the pediatrician's office to see if this was normal, but our doc had already left for the week. The nurse called him at home and he said that no, this isn't normal, we need to bring him in immediately - his partner will be there tomorrow.

I don't really think it's anything serious because his color returns to normal within two minutes and he acts perfectly fine, except for tonight he was fussy and his nose started running. Babysitter said that a couple of the kids had runny noses this week - I think there were still virus' going around after the flu. :( (I wrote about how Logan dodged that in my post De Ja Vu.) Definitely the downside of going to daycare 8 hrs a week. He only had three virus' in his first year, but now this makes #4 in his 13 months and the last two were within a month, both after starting. :( So at least this way Logan can get all checked out tomorrow to make sure he doesn't have anything but a simple cold. But most of all, hopefully we will find out what is causing the purple business.

This was originally written on Friday, May 15, 2009:

24 hrs later

It is unknown.

The good news is that they did a few blood tests (he hadn't been checked for anemia yet) and all came back well. So now I'm supposed to keep a record of when the "purple" happens and what's been going on those hours, those days, what he's had to eat, etc. Also, I need to pay attention to if his tongue turns purple because that is the sign of something serious. But otherwise it could just be that he's cold. That is surprising because I try to stay on top of our thermostat - always changing it at the slightest shift in my temperature, and always checking to see if I can tell whether Logan is hot or cold. But when a baby is cold, their body's survival mechanism kicks in to warm their organs first and will leave their lips, hands, and feet for last. So I hope that is what it is and nothing else. Maybe he's just naturally colder than me and so I'll have to dress him warmer.

The bad news is that he had his first temperature in his life today, 99.9 which isn't bad, but it was the first time any of his four virus' affected his mood. (Yes, he does have a cold like what I figured yesterday.) I felt so sad for him today - he spent from 11:30 to 4:30 crying. It was a high pitched whine, you know like dogs do when they cry. He'd never in his life been fussy for five hours. . .yes, there were minutes of smiles as he would start to play & run around, but then soon after he'd stop and do the high pitched squeal again. I told Joe it was the hardest day of his life for me. It didn't matter if I held him or laid him down. He only took a half an hour nap but he slept from 7:30 pm last night to 7:30 am this morning. I had to wipe his nose every few minutes today so I think that was what was bothering him during his nap. I was preparing myself for a similar night, but then when Joe got home from work Logan completely changed! He was Mr. Happy the rest of the evening and only needed his nose wiped a couple of times an hour. Joe didn't know what I'd been talking about. :p Logan went down easily for bed, so hopefully his cold won't last a long time. There should be a rule that no kids under five get sick!!!!!

UPDATE:

After five days of recording Logan's turning purple after we went to the doctor's office, it was very obvious what was causing it: his milk. I hadn't realized that it happened every time he drank milk until we started looking for a pattern.

I couldn't believe it was that simple, especially because he's drank cold milk his whole life. Yep, did you know you don't have to warm a baby's bottle? There's no benefit whatsoever - it's just a habit people do because for babies who aren't good eaters that has been found to make them like it better. But babies who aren't picky (i.e. Logan), it's definitely the easier option! All I had to do was take my pumped breastmilk out of the fridge, or out of a cooler when we were on the road, and feed it to Logan. He loved it just the same as when he was breastfeeding. However, we started this right away; this is not something most babies will do if you try it three months down the road.

He began drinking cold milk when he was two weeks old when I started pumping. I had an incredibly low milk supply and didn't want to throw away breastmilk that Logan didn't drink in one sitting. If you warm it up, you are not supposed to refrigerate it and then warm it back up for health reasons. But if you don't warm it up, then you can put it right back in the fridge (or freezer) and save until a better time. I went to as many websites as I could and it was confirmed time & time again, so I decided to give it a try. Logan didn't bat an eye. We continued to feed him cold formula as well when he switched to that. So it never crossed my mind that cow's milk would be any different! (But, sure enough, I started noticing this purple business the same time Logan went on cow's milk!)

I was worried maybe this meant he had an allergy so I tried goats milk again (what he was on the week at my parents' place after his birthday as a transition from formula to cow's milk) but he still turned purple so I went back to cow's milk and he hasn't had any of the symptoms of a typical problem. (We didn't try toddler formula - more expensive than regular milk - because he is an excellent eater, getting all of his food groups before the day's even half over and more than enough nutrients, so the only benefit would be DHA but we give that to Logan in other ways, so organic 2% is optimal for him.) Obviously our refrigerator just makes cow's milk colder than it did my breastmilk.

Our pediatrician's partner said that she gets a lot of first-time moms who are worried about their kids in the summers turning purple until they realize it's from swimming lessons. She said that the younger the person, the more their body works to keep itself warm - so the turning purple should stop within the next month as his body will be used to the cold cow's milk by then. One day during our recording it occured for 20 minutes! Since then I've made sure he is warmly dressed while he's drinking, and I've noticed it happens less often. His lips have still been purple a few times since then despite me thinking it's incredibly hot (it is summer but he'll be in a long-sleeve shirt & pants), but the number HAS decreased dramatically (and there haven't been any purple hands or feet).

FINAL UPDATE: The doctor was right - by 14 months old (after two months of this happening) it stopped and Logan hasn't turned purple since! Crazy!