Would you stop nursing to solve this?

[luckymamaoftwo]

I'm at a loss of what to do. All I know is that I have a miserable 3.5 month old who is constantly uncomfortable. I'm miserable, sleep deprived, frustrated and it's negatively affecting my 2 year old DD and DH. This has to change ASAP.

I'm EB and the last thing I want to do is stop, but nursing him seems to be contributing to his issues. My baby has been incredibly gassy and has seemed uncomfortable from birth. Our pedi put him on Zantac at three weeks (DD was also diagnosed with reflux at three weeks and took til 15 months to outgrow it), but we haven't seen much improvement. If anything, symptoms have gotten worse.

So here are the symptoms. In addition to what appears to be reflux, DS is very gassy, squirmy, writhes around, wakes from sleep with what appears to be pain and cries and stiffens and arches, has very restless sleep ALL the time day or night, and he has a bit of a bumpy rash on his face that comes and goes very occasionally. Nursing has NEVER seemed to settle him like it does most babies. In fact, most times after nursing, he's wiggly and spits up a lot---just generally uncomfortable. I can recall only ONE time in the past several weeks that he was mellow at the breast and actually FELL asleep while nursing. So it short, nursing him makes me feel like crap because it appears to upset his system and I'm not feeling the great bond and emotional "high" that I did with DD.

I nursed DD for 18 months and feel heartbroken about DS and his discomfort. I don't want to put him on formula, but I'm not sure I have an ED in me to try and uncover a hidden issue. I don't eat meat and rely on dairy very much in my diet. I did try to eliminate just dairy for 10 days but didn't see any improvement, so LC that I was seeing suggested that the problem didn't lie in my diet or my milk. Pedi wants to switch to Prilosec to see if it helps, but I'm not convinced that our issue is just reflux.

Sorry for the disorganized rambling. Things just seem to be escalating and we're all getting more upset. I don't feel like I'm getting to enjoy my sweet dear's early months, nor do I feel that he's enjoying his early months. Poor little babe.

Any help/suggestions/advice is very appreciated and welcomed!

[lil_miss_understood]

Dairy can take up to 2 weeks to get out of your system and if you missed any sources of hidden dairy (commonly found in margarine, "non-dairy" cheeses, coffee creamers), it's possible that you wouldn't see any change.
The top 4 intolerances are dairy, wheat/gluten, soy and corn, fwiw.
I understand how difficult it is to do an ED. However, I would be so heartbroken if you were to wean him to formula and that didn't work and then he had nipple preference and... I've been down that road. I don't recommend it.

In addition to food sensitivities, have you looked into and/or asked about either overactive letdown and/or foremilk/hindmilk imbalance and/or oversupply?
I very much hope that you are able to get to the bottom of this quickly! I can completely empathize with your situation.

[Therese's Mommy]

You would need to remove dairy longer than 10 days. I would say you should do it for at least a month. Also, if you replaced the dairy with something else your dc is sensitive too then you wouldn't be able to necessarily see the positive results of being dairy free (this happened with me when I thought soy was ok, dd got worse when I removed dairy because of the soy that I added in). I would recommend a food journal and at the very least cutting the top 8 out completely.

Also, you might need to rethink your vegetarianism. We have recently started eating meat because of my dd's allergies. I have been veg (ovo-lacto) for 13 years. I have recently had to rethink that because my dd could not get enough protein given her myriad of food allergies. Trust me, I tried everything. She is now eating salmon and chicken and we hope to introduce pork at some point. I only buy high quality meat/fish. This has been a real adjustment for me, but after a short while my dd already seems healthier (her big belly has gone down). I can't wait to get her blood work done in a couple of weeks to see if there has been any improvement. Anyway, all I am saying is, have an open mind. And my opinion is that weaning should be your absolute last option.

[DevaMajka]

ITA with Therese's Mommy. Most of my meals used to be strict veg (though I was never even vegetarian). I ended up including meat in my ED for a while. I recently discovered some vegetarian foods that are safe for us, but I'm not happy about all the dairy I'm consuming
To answer the original question, no, I personally wouldn't stop nursing. ED's can be hard, but are worth it for a variety of reasons. One is that your lo could be sensitive to something in the formula! Once you figure out the trigger(s), you'll find ways to work around it, kwim?

Would you consider cutting all the top allergens except dairy? I think those symptoms could go along with wheat/gluten sensitivity.

[Sharlla]

ds2 was that way. i cut out dairy until he was 12 months. i then nursed him another 12 months
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[neveryoumindthere]

I have a different approach, without an ED or stopping nursing.

Why not try Chinese Medicine? We had great success with it and it was FAST. If you search my older posts in the Allergy forum you can find out more info

sorry nak

take care!

[sosurreal09]

MY BEST ADVICE IS DO NOT STOP NURSING! if i had given up i would be screwed! my DD has a TON of intolerances and im on such a strict diet and its so hard but i manage b/c i love her. her Dr said its ghood i continued to BF b/c THEY DO NOT MAKE A FORMULA SHE CAN DRINK literally. i have heard of this before but never fathomed it would happen to my DD. i read an article about a woman who did not BF and when she found out her DD had all these intolerances and the Dr said there was no formula for her she had to pay a few lactaiding women out of pocket for them to be on special diets and for their milk so her baby could thrive.

do not stop nursing b/c you could seriously regret it and poss even go bankrupt feeding your LO literally