Reintroducing foods for breastfed baby

[Ashley_R]

My DSpreviously reacted to dairy, soy and eggs (mucousy, bloody stool, all over pinprick body rash, fussy, spitting up?).  I really feel like its time to test those foods out in my diet (one at a time of course) and see if he still reacts to them.  In your experience, how many days eating the food did it take for baby to react or was it instant?  I know in the past when I accidently had dairy he reacted that same day, but I didn't know if now that he's older (more mature digestive tract) it would take a few days to react.

My second question is, if he no longer reacts to them, how long until you would introduce them into his diet?  ie yogurt, cheese, not straight cows milk.

TIA

[SweetSilver]

I am responding to your thought about introducing yogurt instead of straight cows milk, and when (recently it's been suggested to wait to twelve months to introduce, even more if you suspect an allergy.)  

Whole cows milk does indeed induce to most intense reaction.  If a child has an ALLERGIC reaction to whole milk, they should not have any dairy whatsoever, even if the response is less intense.  You can try a dab of whole cows milk on the inner wrist or forearm (our daughter has super-sensitive skin, like a little "Allergy Alert System".) Reddening, whelps and hives are allergic responses.  

If it's just a sensitivity or intolerance, then go ahead and offer whatever form is more tolerated.

According to our allergist, most kids will outgrow a dairy allergy by the age of five.  (Ours hasn't).

[Ashley_R]

Sorry I guess I didn't clarify that correctly.  I would only introduce the yogurt if he didn't react to the dairy in my diet.  And I wouldn't introduce it immediately, just wondered if there was  a certain amount of time I should wait to let his digestive tract/immune system mature.

[elanorh]

I'll share my thoughts, and hopefully some of the other moms will chime in.  I don't think there's a lot of 'research' on this, just a lot of hard-earned knowledge from hanging around boards like this. 

Your wee one is nearly six months.  I suppose it is possible he's outgrown his dairy allergy - when was his last exposure?  And what were his reactions? 

When I started doing elimination diets, oheightyearsago - the standard advice seemed to be to wait a minimum of six weeks between a successful elimination and challenging that food again.  Later, the advice started to be more "wait 3-6 months."  I'd err more in that direction, personally, if I were you. But then, I have a dd who still is allergic to eggs, and another who has outgrown her allergies (but they persisted 'til she was nearly 3).  So in my experience, they've been more of a long-haul experience.  With dd2, we waited six months between failed introductions/challenges.  So, personally, I chose to wait six months between failed intros before trialing again. 

When breastfeeding, what I would do to challenge, would be to eat a small amount of the food the first day (say, a piece of cheese).  If no reaction, then I'd go WHOLE HOG the next day.  Dairy everything!!  And see what happened.  Even when the girls were older, the proteins would hit my milk and their reactions would be pretty clear shortly thereafter.  Once they were old enough to direct-challenge, it was much easier as I could keep my milk clean and their reactions were even more clear (and quick). 

[Ashley_R]

I cut dairy out when he was 1month, so its been almost 5months dairy free. I did have an accident one day (I think he was 2.5 or 3 months) and had something that was cooked with milk in it and he had a spot of blood in his diaper later that day.  Previously he had bloody, mucousy diapers, was very fussy, and had a full body red pinprick rash. 

I did a trial very similar to what you suggested and we haven't had a problem yet, normal diapers, no rash, he fussy but he has teeth about to push through. Its been about a week so I'm cautiously optomistic. I think if he was still reacting to it we would have seen it by now, right?

[elanorh]

Maybe, maybe not.  It does sometimes take longer when they're older....  The fussiness could be teething, or it could be the beginning of a reaction. 

My dd1 seemed to have a successful egg challenge (via my milk) when she was about 10 months.  She didn't have any discernible change - no rash, no increase in fussiness/sleeplessness (well, what we had, we attributed to teething) .... but when we direct intro'd eggs at 1 year, she had a full-on, GI reaction (vomit, diarrhea, etc.).  That's when we realized that the reason her weight gain had plateaued at 10 months was because of the egg in my diet (I wasn't eating a lot of them, either, but apparently enough). 

Watch for eczema, congestion, sleep issues developing in the next while.  Sometimes the 'symptoms' you see will change as babe gets older. 
 

Here's hoping that he's outgrown it and everything is fine!

[SweetSilver]

I would like to add fussiness during nursing to that list of allergy symptoms.

[Ashley_R]

I'm pretty sure the fussiness is teething, he has two that will probably poke through in the next day or two. Hopefully it will subside after that and I can be sure whether its due to teething or not.

[SweetSilver]

I think crabbiness from teething stops at 21.

[Ashley_R]

LOL.  Update: Its been about 3 weeks (if my messed up sense of time is right) and no signs of problems. I did do an egg trial (accidentally ) and egg still bothers him, he got fussy and spit-up a lot and today I got the slimy diaper from it. So still cautiously optomistic, but its looking good about dairy.