needing support!

[MommaLura]

I have a 4 week old baby girl. We're having reflux issues, gas and discomfort. I've gone through this with ds, but it took me awhile and I think I did it all wrong. (heck, I probably still doing it wrong.) This time I took dd to the doc and she wants me to eliminate foods and referred us the allergist. I think the allergist will be most unhelpful. We don't have IgE allergies and we've seen him before for ds and he's *not* helpful. Everyone else says its just her age. I freaked and pulled everything but rice, goat, almond butter, rice milk, banana, pear and green beans. The reflux went away. The day before I ate oatmeal, honey, and grapes. Her reflux came back in full force. All her poops (which are all the time) take so much energy and are full of bubbles. I can't eat so little, I'm starving! I didn't want to do a TED, but it just happened because its what I know. DD also nurses all the time and can't be laid down.

I guess more than anything I want someone to take me seriously, even if she is a newborn. I know babies spit up, poops have a wide range of normal, babies cry, they have gas, and whatever, but still!!

[mamafish9]

Welcome to a forum full of mamas who have babies that react to foods. Sorry you're here, but it is NOT normal for babies to be refluxy, gassy, and unhappy!!

The good news is, you have a short list of safe foods already, which is great. And a short list of foods that contains at least one culprit. I'd suspect oats (they are usually cross contaminated with gluten).

If I were you, I'd go back to your safe list of foods, and then add one food at a time, starting with high fat foods (fat makes an elimination diet much more tolerable, so you don't starve and don't lose milk supply). Foods I'd try first - egg (it can definitely cause issues for some babes, but the nutritional impact is worth the trial), coconut - coconut milk, oil, etc are great high fat additions, avocado, olive oil.

I'd stay off the big 4 (gluten, dairy, corn, soy) until you have a reasonable diet of foods added back in. I actually added foods back in, in groups - I'd add about 4 foods, and if they passed, great. If they didn't, I knew something in that group was a problem, took them all out, waited until the reaction cleared and added in 4 different foods. I think I got foods back faster that way.

The other approach is to leave out the top 8 + corn (dairy, gluten, soy, corn, eggs, fish, shellfish, peanuts, tree nuts), and add in everything else. Her reactive foods are most likely in the top 8 + corn list, so you might get a bunch of foods back fast this way. If that doesn't work, go back to your shortlist of safe foods and add things more slowly.