elimination diet or just gassy?

[canoemom]

My 11-week old son is plagued with constant gas. Wiggles throughout the night with discomfort from what feel like adult sized farts.

I tried an elimation diet of dairy, wheat, soy, chocolate, onion/garlic, and citrus for a week with no change.

Questions:

*I've recently read that dairy elimination needs to be for at least 2 weeks. Could it be a dairy intolerance if only symptom is bad gas??? No green or mucousy poop, no skin problems? Is it worth it to try dairy elimination, or is that not the likely culprit?

*Tried Colic Calm and that seemed to help slightly, but I'd rather address the root problem. Anyone tried probiotics? Recommend?

*I drink 1-2 cups of coffee each day, can that cause gas in babes?

I want desparately to fix this and provide him with relief. Should I do a full blown elimination diet, or is time the only cure?

Thanks for whatvever mama wisdom you can provide.

[kismetbaby]

Here are my thoughts for what they are worth:

--Its possible the gassiness might be due to too much air. . .does your son take in a lot of air while feeding? Do you always burp him after feeding? With my son sometimes it takes awhile to get the burps out, but I can hear him take in air if he eats too fast, so I know to keep trying with the burping. You might try "bicycling" his legs before bed to try and work some of the air out also.

--YES, it takes two weeks for dairy proteins to leave mama's system, so a dairy elimination needs to last about 3 weeks. . .the first two to flush your system and then a week without the dairy to see if babe improves. I am currently on a non-dairy diet myself for my son. It has been a week and a half, and I haven't seen any big improvement yet, but I am hopeful. Elimination diets are hard, I know, so "they" usually recommend to start with dairy and then if you haven't seen any improvement after 3 weeks then eliminate wheat and/or soy--they next two likely offenders. Also keep in mind, that dairy can be hidden in lots of foods! and you have to eliminate all of it to really know for sure. http://www.godairyfree.org/Food-to-E...ient-List.html

--However, (and I'm not an expert here) if your son's only trouble is only gas with no signs of green poo, dry skin, poor sleep, reflux, etc. I would probably assume that it isn't an intolerance. Doesn't hurt to try the non-dairy diet, but I'd think its more likely he just eats too much air! Does he eat fast? Do you have a big let-down? (And of course if your babe gets any formula as well as BM that could be the cause.)

--Not sure about the caffeine, I'd think if anything it would cause babe to be restless, cranky, not gassy. . .but you could always try going without (eek!) for a few days.

--I am a big fan of probiotics! The best one for babes that I know of is Jarro brand. . .they have one specifically for babies. http://www.vitacost.com/Jarrow-Formu...Jarro-Dophilus

Hope that helps! Keep up the good work mama!

[canoemom]

bump

[changingseasons]

Originally Posted by kismetbaby

--I am a big fan of probiotics! The best one for babes that I know of is Jarro brand. . .they have one specifically for babies. http://www.vitacost.com/Jarrow-Formu...Jarro-Dophilus

Jarrow's has both dairy AND soy in it... so you definitely don't want to use this one while on an elimination diet. Kirkman Labs makes an infant strain (Bifido Complex) that is allergen free. I think Klaire has one too, but it contains inulin (I think... I might be mixing this up with another brand), which bothers some people.

It does take about 10 days to get dairy out of your system (and then a little more for babe), but you should see at least some improvements within a few days if that was the culprit. Of course, that doesn't necessarily mean that dairy is ok- there could be more than one culprit. For example, many people take out milk but replace it with soymilk. If babe is allergic to dairy and soy (which is usually the case- the 2 seem to go hand in hand) then you might not get any improvements- because you've just switched out one allergen for another.

The other thing that trips people up is hidden ingredients. If you're taking a multivitamin, you are ingesting both corn and soy (unless the vitamin uses synthetic versions of certain vits, but most don't.) Or if you're eating deli meat- you're probably eating dairy. And maybe corn too. Even fresh produce that has been waxed can contain dairy and/or corn (even some organic!)

The most important part of any elimination diet is keeping a detailed food journal- write down everything you eat/drink/take(vitamins, etc.) and every symptom- from sleep and behavior changes to digestive or skin issues. Check out my blog for more info.

[gbutterflykissesm]

My (now 8 m.o.) DS was just like your LO! He would fart ALL the time. Big, vibrating, rumbling, explosive farts! If I had him sitting on my lap it would scare the bejesus out of me every time I felt him fart. And when he couldn't fart he was super fussy. Constantly drawing up his legs and grunting like he was trying to fart. He pooped many many times a day at that age, and his poop was always paired with these giant farts. He was a HORRIBLE sleeper and I always thought it was because he had gas.

About an elimination diet, my thoughts are: it is probably not a food allergy or intolerance, but you will never know if you don't try an ED (if you are BFing). I went for 3 weeks without eating dairy, soy, nuts, gluten, or citrus. (read labels. A lot of stuff has gluten, soy, or dairy). And I didn't see ONE STITCH of difference. But I was glad I had tried eliminating practically everything, because then I really felt comfortable knowing it wasn't food.

But the bad news was that I wasn't sure what it was. I did have a super active letdown and extra active milk supply, but he didn't have green or frothy poops. I did try block feeding on one breast at a time or pumping off through my first let down and then latching him, but none of that seemed to make a difference. This was a really hard time for me. I was desperate... I even looked into buying a DVD called Baby Fart Aerobics!! (But I held back... haha). I DID massage his belly every night before sleeping and did a lot of bicycling his legs, and folding them up into his chest and back and forth.

I ended up putting him on probiotics and giving him Boiron's Coccyntal when he would wake up trying to push out gas and seemingly writhing in pain at night. That helped a lot.

I just think he had an immature digestive system that took longer to regulate. Now he doesn't seem to have any gas trouble at all.