Educate me please

[greenmamapagan]

DS is 5, nearly 6 months and really rather interested in solid food. We practised baby-led solids with DD and starting at 6 months consisted of us just not taking back the food she had stolen from us before she got it to her mouth anymore. She never showed any evidence of sensitivity to any foods other than a reaction to kiwi fruit at about 18 months. I don't feel nearly so confident about DS though. DD had some reflux but had outgrown it by 3 months whereas DS has only just been able to sleep flat rather than propped and still has a couple of vomits every second day or so. His poo is varying shades of green - yellow but not frothy. It is streaky but as far as I can tell not mucousy. He had truly the most impressive cradle cap I've ever seen, it's almost all gone now but I had many children and old men come up to me in the street saying "What happened to his head?!"
I tried eliminating a few things when his reflux first became a problem but didn't see a difference, just position seemed to make the most difference so I wore him upright all day and propped our bed. I also did a lot of reading and couldn't find anything conclusive. Hence the point of my post. Forgive me for cross-quoting from another thread here

Symptoms to look for: ring rash around anus, mucousy or bloody poop, face or body rashes, bad cradle cap, behind the ear crusties, puffiness, redness or dark circles under eyes, reflux worsening, unusually frequent night waking, etc.

Why are these symptoms to look for? What kinds of allergies or intolerances are they signs of? Can you give me some links to read?
Would you hold off solid food for longer given what I wrote above? Again can anyone share links with evidence/research for this?

[earthmama4]

How long did you do the elim diet for? It takes 2 weeks for dairy to clear your body/milk and two weeks for his.

I don't know about the cradle cap, but the reflux is related to cows milk allergy in many babies. Here is a study linking it to a little over 40%.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8613639

I think the basic idea behind all the symptoms is the immune system and how each child displays the imbalance and inflammation that come into their body when their immune system become sensitized to foods. Other symptoms are caused by the same problems that may be causing the allergic response - nutritional deficiencies, blocked liver detox pathways, improper balance of good flora and yeast, etc and therefore give you some clues on where to start looking for solutions.

[lil_miss_understood]

both cradle cap and reflux are dairy here

[greenmamapagan]

OK, thanks for responses. The pubmed study was one I hadn't come accross before and I found a few other interesting one from that. Unfortunately 41% isn't enough to convince DH that this might be what is going on with DS, especially since his reflux is markedly improved. That's only a problem because to give up dairy for more than the week I managed previously I'd need a lot of support from him. Oh, perhaps I should rephrase it to I'd need a lot of pressure from him!
I guess what I'd really like to know though is would you take his symptoms as reason to delay solids any further than six months despite his interest? Given that we wouldn't introduce dairy/gluten/any other than fruit & veg really until after 1 year anyway?

earthmama4 can you tell me more about this?

Other symptoms are caused by the same problems that may be causing the allergic response - nutritional deficiencies, blocked liver detox pathways, improper balance of good flora and yeast, etc and therefore give you some clues on where to start looking for solutions.

Do you mean his pathways etc or mine? It really bothers me that my home-water-born baby should have worse gut health than my hospy born one.

[WuWei]

If you had a 41% chance of winning the lottery (ie. baby doesn't develop autoimmune diseases (especially asthma) due to continued exposure of an allergen) would you take that bet by quitting dairy for 6 weeks?

Personally, I'd stop all dairy for 2 weeks minimum and include other nutrients. Have you read about the homemade infant formula? There is a dairy-free version.
Recipes for Whole Food Baby Formula http://www.westonaprice.org/children/recipes.html
FAQs on Homemade Baby Formula (part 1 and 2)
http://www.westonaprice.org/children/formula-faqs.html
http://www.westonaprice.org/children...-faqs-pt2.html


I don't know that he is allergic to dairy. Green stool is often associated with dairy intolerance. Raw milk less often than pasteurized, however. Eliminating all hidden dairy is challenging though. http://www.kellymom.com/store/handou...dden-dairy.pdf Avoiding dairy for 2+ weeks will allow you to see if it may be a culprit. Most often green poop ceases without dairy, ime.

Mama, the issue is that baby is reacting to YOUR leaky gut. Basically, baby doesn't get optimized nutrition, if your gut is leaking undigested proteins. The child's reactions are a cue about YOUR leaky gut. To heal your food intolerances, you have to remove the foods.

Check out Formula for mom not baby!

Gut health Where to start? Help 101.

Colic? Leaky gut? Where to begin...





Pat

[greenmamapagan]

Thanks for your reply. While I do consider myself a "traditional foodie" I'm not going to be giving my baby formula home-made or otherwise any time in the next millenium.
Interestingly (to me at least ) his poo was smooth mustardy completely ebf normal today I drank raw milk during his gestation but we moved so I stopped. After my elimination attempt when he was teeny we switched back. I can't really see myself having the motivation to try elimination again while his poo is normal and his reflux is pretty lightweight...

[mamafish9]

I think the problem is that the answer on delaying solids (and which ones to start with) depend on whether you're really dealing with food intolerances or something else causing the cradle cap and reflux. And the only way to figure that out reliably at this point is to do an elimination. A system under stress from foods is likely going to get worse, not better, by moving off only breastmilk. Fruits and veggies contain plenty of foods high on reaction lists, if your LO is dealing with intolerances.

That said, it also sounds like you're not dealing with anything too crazy. You could always try foods and see what happens. If you start seeing reactions, then you can add that to the list of symptoms and circle around more seriously to dairy, etc.

[greenmamapagan]

Originally Posted by mamafish9

A system under stress from foods is likely going to get worse, not better, by moving off only breastmilk.

Yeah, that's what I'm thinking and why I'm asking here.
WuWei, I apologise if my last post sounded terse. I needed to put baby to bed and get dinner for my 3 year old. I appreciated your response.

[WuWei]

The information about home-made infant formula is educational, not advice. It discusses which are the most important nutrients and ingredients to include when adding anything other than breastmilk to an infant's diet. There are non-dairy alternatives which help both of you to heal.

We nursed until age 2, nearly exclusively until about 15 months. We introduced a nutrient dense diet, but with many food culprits eliminated from our diets. It is much easier to identify the culprit foods before baby has had them, ime.


Cradle cap + green poo + reflux = dietary intolerance (and nutrient deficiencies is associated with cradle cap, specifically biotin), seen it 1000x here on the allergy forum. Unfortunately, often it is the development of *increasing* allergies and asthma which brings mamas to this forum. JMMV

Best wishes,

Pat

[greenmamapagan]

Hmmm, biotin? Interesting. I've also had noticeable hair loss in the last few months (much more than just post-partum I think, well more than after DD anyway) but I can't see that our diet is deficient in biotin in anyway.

What foods provide biotin?

Excellent sources of biotin include chard, tomatoes, romaine lettuce, and carrots. Very good sources include almonds, chicken eggs, onions, cabbage, cucumber, and cauliflower. Good sources includes goat's milk, cow's milk, raspberries, strawberries, halibut, oats, and walnuts.

The bolded items we consume everyday, except for eggs which would be every second or so.

[lil_miss_understood]

The important thing to remember with intolerances is that they cause leaky gut, which causes a malabsorption of nutrients. Just because you eat nutrient dense foods doesn't mean you're getting everything you need from them *especially* if you continue to eat foods which are causing gut damage.

[greenmamapagan]

OK so in the last few months I've been thinking more about this while I poke around heal thyself and detox pathways etc. DS's reflux has settled and his cradle cap has pretty much subsided. What occurs to me though is that at the worst point I was eating about a tablespoon of coconut oil a day. I started eating more of it (as opposed to just occasionally using it for baking) after DS was born in an effort to get more good fats. If biotin is used to digest fat it makes sense that if I was eating morem fat than usual I would need more biotin than usual. FWIW, I've dropped back to around 1 tspn of coconut oil a day since I'm wary of detoxing while DS is so little (8 months now)